The Student Room Group
Meliae
I was just looking in the OUSU Fresher's guide from last year, and all the clubs mentioned seem to be dance/RnB/techno type things which I hate. Are there any clubs/club nights (not gigs) in Oxford which play rock/metal or anything vaguely similar?


I can't answer your question, but I hope they have a good Metal scene at Cambridge. I'll be looking to start a band and whatnot. :yes:

I like your taste in music by the way.:biggrin:
Reply 2
SeventhSonOfASeventhSon
I can't answer your question, but I hope they have a good Metal scene at Cambridge. I'll be looking to start a band and whatnot. :yes:

I like your taste in music by the way.:biggrin:

Thanks, even though "rock/metal" isn't much of a description. :p: Seriously though, there are some awesome places up here. I really hope there's something similar in Oxford...
Where are you living? I'm living in Northern Ireland, outside a small town in Fermanagh. We don't really have that good a rock/metal scene going on, probably because there aren't that many followers. We do have gigs on some friday nights, but its always the same local bands...
Reply 4
Near Leeds, so yea, it has everything. =P
I think there's something at the Academy on Cowley that is fairly regular, I beleive its called transformation.
Reply 6
Thanks for that. Looked it up, sounds pretty good. The description is vague so it's hard to tell, but it certainly looks better than anything I saw in the Fresher's guide.
Reply 7
rock/metal soc gives a decent heads up of whats going on. Does room 101 still run at the zodiac/o2? That used to be a good night out on Sat. Other than that the gloucester arms caters for a more metal/rock type audience
Reply 8
go to the Purple Turtle
Reply 9
Most of the clubs in the city centre are relatively mainstream, i.e. chart hits/R&B/dance, but I think as you go more towards Cowley there are a couple dotted about! This website might be a little out-dated now, but it mentions a couple- so could be worth checking out :smile:
Reply 10
Meliae
I was just looking in the OUSU Fresher's guide from last year, and all the clubs mentioned seem to be dance/RnB/techno type things which I hate. Are there any clubs/club nights (not gigs) in Oxford which play rock/metal or anything vaguely similar?


you can check Oxford's Rock Soc calendar for such clubs and pub :
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~rocksoc/
I used to be RockSoc President (2008-2009)! Ask me anything you want. One at a time please :p:
allapologies
I think there's something at the Academy on Cowley that is fairly regular, I beleive its called transformation.


OMG TRANSFORMATION IS SOOOOOO SH*T. Sorry but there are far superior nights.
Reply 13
Dream Eater
I used to be RockSoc President (2008-2009)! Ask me anything you want. One at a time please :p:

Oo. Hi. :smile: So how regularly are rock/metal club nights on (especially classic rock, but that may be asking a bit much)? (Not indie please, unless it's that, dance/hiphop ***** or nothing, then I might be forced to consider it). Also, is it easy to organise events like that if there aren't any on?
Meliae
Oo. Hi. :smile: So how regularly are rock/metal club nights on (especially classic rock, but that may be asking a bit much)? (Not indie please, unless it's that, dance/hiphop ***** or nothing, then I might be forced to consider it). Also, is it easy to organise events like that if there aren't any on?


Well, the rock/metal scene in Oxford is like a desert sand, constantly changing and shifting. but always hiding a lot underneath it's surface. I can tell you of at least 5 nights I used to go to which have dissolved in the last three and a half years!

Regardless of that, whenever a night dies a new reincarnation almost always pops up in its place. So when our (my committee) transferred over in 2009 the night we had started was called Alchemy, which did pretty well considering we were independent and didn't accept any outside help (we wanted to keep it very underground -- and it was held in a cellar so it was, quite literally, underground :cool:). In fact there's still a link to the Alchemy page on the RockSoc website. But in late 2009 the new committee changed the name to Discord because of a burgeoning night in Bristol/Bath (can't remember) which offered to help us with finances; plus they had a fairly well-known name and sleeker design. So at the moment RockSoc offers Discord as it's members night, which is once a month. They do play a fair amount of classic rock -- Dan who was Pres before me was obsessed with his classics, and used to DJ pretty well nothing else!

Other nights off the top of my head: Intrusion is an AWESOME goth/industrial night and for me probably the best night out in Oxford, though I haven't been in a long time. That happens every second Tuesday of the month. Room 101 happens every Saturday night at the Academy and is a pretty standard night out; they play punk ska, metal and some classic rock thrown in.

Hmm, I've been out of the loop recently so those are the only regular nights I can think of, though there are always gigs happening at the Wheatsheaf (a rock pub). The Gloucester Arms is another rock pub which actually shut down temporarily sparking riots, looting and gang rape among the rock community (okay not really, but people were very sad about it :frown:). The Gloc (as it's called) is usually where RockSoc will go for committee stuff or pre-drinks before going out. They have a pretty awesome jukebox selection. Someone mentioned the Purple Turtle on this thread; there is Mutiny which happens every Wednesday there, and I know people go to that. Again, a standard night out, but I don't really go just because the PT is kind of grimey..

If you want to find out more I suggest you join the RockSoc maillist, they have weekly updates about what's going on, though recently the committee have been lagging, so it's more like bi-monthly... But you'll never get more than one email per week! :biggrin: I'm not so involved anymore because of final exams, but I usually try go to nights when I can.

Oh, about that indie sh*t! :p: There's another society which RockSoc was originally attached to called IMSoc (Indie Music Society). I don't know the first thing about them but they do have regular nights just like us and probably slightly higher turnout if I'm honest (damn them..). I think that's changing though, since we're a fairly new society (the first year of this particular incarnation was 2007-2008, and even then it only kicked off in early 2008).

Is it easy to organise events? I'd say so; if you join RockSoc or IMSoc and put the idea forth then yeah it's really easy. Is it easy to get good turnout? Hmm, well that's where the luck and research and offering a genuinely different night come in. It depends on what you're after.. If you just want to book out a free room and have a few drinks on hand, then you can probably get away with charging nothing for entry, and have a smaller more intimate party thing. Unfortunately it usually cost us £150 to get the Cellar for one night (the bar where we held our nights), about £125 for the bands, and that meant about £3-5 entry and a projected turnout of 55-90 people just to break even!

What an essay! Hope it helps :smile:
Reply 15
Dream Eater
Well, the rock/metal scene in Oxford is like a desert sand, constantly changing and shifting. but always hiding a lot underneath it's surface. I can tell you of at least 5 nights I used to go to which have dissolved in the last three and a half years!

Regardless of that, whenever a night dies a new reincarnation almost always pops up in its place. So when our (my committee) transferred over in 2009 the night we had started was called Alchemy, which did pretty well considering we were independent and didn't accept any outside help (we wanted to keep it very underground -- and it was held in a cellar so it was, quite literally, underground :cool:). In fact there's still a link to the Alchemy page on the RockSoc website. But in late 2009 the new committee changed the name to Discord because of a burgeoning night in Bristol/Bath (can't remember) which offered to help us with finances; plus they had a fairly well-known name and sleeker design. So at the moment RockSoc offers Discord as it's members night, which is once a month. They do play a fair amount of classic rock -- Dan who was Pres before me was obsessed with his classics, and used to DJ pretty well nothing else!

Other nights off the top of my head: Intrusion is an AWESOME goth/industrial night and for me probably the best night out in Oxford, though I haven't been in a long time. That happens every second Tuesday of the month. Room 101 happens every Saturday night at the Academy and is a pretty standard night out; they play punk ska, metal and some classic rock thrown in.

Hmm, I've been out of the loop recently so those are the only regular nights I can think of, though there are always gigs happening at the Wheatsheaf (a rock pub). The Gloucester Arms is another rock pub which actually shut down temporarily sparking riots, looting and gang rape among the rock community (okay not really, but people were very sad about it :frown:). The Gloc (as it's called) is usually where RockSoc will go for committee stuff or pre-drinks before going out. They have a pretty awesome jukebox selection. Someone mentioned the Purple Turtle on this thread; there is Mutiny which happens every Wednesday there, and I know people go to that. Again, a standard night out, but I don't really go just because the PT is kind of grimey..

If you want to find out more I suggest you join the RockSoc maillist, they have weekly updates about what's going on, though recently the committee have been lagging, so it's more like bi-monthly... But you'll never get more than one email per week! :biggrin: I'm not so involved anymore because of final exams, but I usually try go to nights when I can.

Oh, about that indie sh*t! :p: There's another society which RockSoc was originally attached to called IMSoc (Indie Music Society). I don't know the first thing about them but they do have regular nights just like us and probably slightly higher turnout if I'm honest (damn them..). I think that's changing though, since we're a fairly new society (the first year of this particular incarnation was 2007-2008, and even then it only kicked off in early 2008).

Is it easy to organise events? I'd say so; if you join RockSoc or IMSoc and put the idea forth then yeah it's really easy. Is it easy to get good turnout? Hmm, well that's where the luck and research and offering a genuinely different night come in. It depends on what you're after.. If you just want to book out a free room and have a few drinks on hand, then you can probably get away with charging nothing for entry, and have a smaller more intimate party thing. Unfortunately it usually cost us £150 to get the Cellar for one night (the bar where we held our nights), about £125 for the bands, and that meant about £3-5 entry and a projected turnout of 55-90 people just to break even!

What an essay! Hope it helps :smile:

Sounds great. I was worried there wouldn't be anything (or maybe like, once/twice a term or something) and I wouldn't cope well with that. Did you normally get a good turn out when you booked the Cellar?
Meliae
Sounds great. I was worried there wouldn't be anything (or maybe like, once/twice a term or something) and I wouldn't cope well with that. Did you normally get a good turn out when you booked the Cellar?


Yeah totally. We went over budget almost every single time (we progressively spent more on advertising, bands, promos, etc) but always pulled it out of the bag and made more money than we thought we would. Turnout was usually something like 80-85 people depending on which term it was (difficult to get a good turnout in Trinity term, because of exams). Which is pretty good considering the Cellar can only take about 100 people max!
the gloc now has heavy metal karaoke.

(amazing.)
probably not
the gloc now has heavy metal karaoke.

(amazing.)


Oh my days, are you serious? That sounds amaaaazing!

I've found the Oxford metal scene a bit bare to be honest (coming from Cardiff, where the metal scene is pretty enormous), though I have been to some good nights at the Cellar.

Good news is that it's not so hard to travel to London for a night out (Oxford Tube is about a £10 return from Gloucester Green to Victoria, and runs all night). Am going to see Converge there in July.. huzzah! :biggrin: