Leamington Spa - HONEST opinion

[Steve W]

Let's be honest, what does this town we live in actually have going for itself? It's expensive to live in, it's full of chavs, vagrants and drunken idiots, it tries desperately to cling on to it's past importance. There's nothing much for the youngsters to do without having to fork out cash for the privilege.

The place needs livening up. It needs the music scene to improve. When I first moved here the music scene was excellent. But now there are less and less places for bands to play and more and more shoddy wine bars clogging up the town.

What does anybody else think?

[Reggie]

I definitely agree that there's nothing for youngsters to do in Leam. If that was sorted out, there'd be less idiots around causing trouble. I live in Stratford, but I must say that I do enjoy Leamington. It seems to be going places, where as Stratford seems to be stuck in a rut.

I'm not really in on the music scene, and it's a huge shame there are less places for people to play now. I can certainly can relate to the shoddy wine bar syndrome though, over hear we're plagued with every bar wanting to be exactly the same as every other bar. No one's really trying to diversify, except for a few places like Cox's Yard and Shakespearience. A lot of this playing it safe wine bar attitude, is probably because rent on these places is so high, that most places can't afford to be different.

[Steve W]

Definitely agree with that one. I'm not a massive fan of Stratford to be honest

[Crunchie]

I like Leamington although not sure about young'uns facilities as I'm not really a yoof anymore!!!

There's some good bars and I feel pretty safe walking around at night - it's no more dangerous thanmany towns of it's size. Granted there's a few less desirable bars - Yates's etc but a lot of them have cleaned their acts up.

I nearly fainted when I walked into the White Horse this week - no kids and a classy bar!!!! Great refurb...

Music-wise every town centre is struggling and bands are playing further out of town now...

[Steve W]

LOL I've not been in the White Horse for a fair few years. I'll check it out. Mumbai Blue (Coach & Horses) is awful and far too overpriced as is the Slug & Lettuce. I'm an old fashioned pub man and am slowly losing places to go. I usually stick to places like The Avenue, Willoughby, Star & Garter, Hogs Head (or whatever it's called these days), and sometimes Jug & Jester.

[JimmyLapworth]

Hi everyone I'm new to this website and must admit I'm pretty surprised no one has done it before. It's a great idea.

As regards the Leamington music scene issue, I'm with Steve on that one really. It was pretty strong five or six years ago. Anyone that's been hanging around it as long as I have will know that it has fits an spurts. It's on a level grounding at the moment from what I can see but we'll see what happens with it over the next couple of months.

Leamington really does miss a proper purpose built/adapted venue such as Cox's Yard. It's all very well playing pubs all the time but it's not the same as playing a proper venue such as Cox's Yard or the Garage in London.

Steve is right, Leamington does cling onto it's former importance and such a venue would put it properly back on the music scene (and all the financial knock on effects ).....), nationally, for good, rather than having these fits and spurts.

Yeah there's the Spa Centre, but that's too big for most bands that are looking for a good gig in the area.

[Will]

Hi Jimmy, welcome to the boards.

You know it's occurred to me, that there are a lot of musicians out there, and they probably all feel the same way. This is probably highly optimistic, but have you considered banding together and going to the council to see what they can do to help? I don't know exactly what they might be able to do, but you never know.

[Steve W]

I've been Jimmy's friend for over 6 years now and he makes really good points here. In my honest opinion, the council will not be very helpful. Good idea, but I think the grey suits at the council will have other ideas on how to spend our well earned cash. Leamington and Warwick is teaming full of very talented musicians. Jimmy and I used to run an acoustic night at Kelly's that was pretty popular for a while, then just died all of a sudden. Previously to that I run an acoustic night at the Green Man on Eagle Street at the bottom of town and that place was packed to the rafters every week. Leamington is in desperate need of decent venue. Somewhere in between Kelly's a few years ago and the Spa Centre. A 7 days a week live music venue

[JimmyLapworth]

The council are more helpful than you'd think actually. After all, they gave the Great Western in Warwick an environmental health clearance to run GWFest, an outdoor 8 hour festival!

But as for an actual indoor venue.....would need a very rich private investor and a very good management team.

[Will]

You guys should contact your local paper, I imagine this would make a good story.