The Brook, 466 Portswood Road, Portswood, Southampton SO17 3SD
Box Office Hours - 1.00pm - 7.00pm Mon - Sat (023) 8055 5366
Or Buy 24 Hours On-line ::

The Brook is a 600 Capacity live music venue. Because of the calibre of bands that we have, people travel from all over Hampshire, Dorset, Sussex and the Isle of Wight. People often come from Portsmouth, Winchester, Bournemouth & Poole, to see our shows. We host national and international Blues, Rock, R'n'B, Tribute, Funk, DJs, Indie and many other styles of music.

"This is the best gig in the South!"

One of the classiest acts to emerge from the Britpop era, as songs 'Slight Return' and 'Marblehead Johnson' will attest. Cultured indie pop.

Doors £

Article taken from Wikipedia

The Bluetones are an English indie rock band, formed in Hounslow, Greater London, in 1994. The band are comprised of Mark Morriss on vocals, Adam Devlin on guitar, Scott Morriss on bass guitar, and Eds Chesters on drums. A fifth member, Richard Payne, came on board between 1998 and 2001.

The band's biggest hit, "Slight Return", was released in 1995 and re-released the following year. They achieved eight Top 20 UK chart placings in total and retain a loyal fanbase.
The band's commercial success waned after the fall of the Britpop movement, yet they have continued to tour and release new records and are therefore often labelled as "Britpop survivors".

After the release of two singles on Fierce Panda Records, they released Expecting to Fly on the Superior Quality Recordings label. The album (one of only a few debut albums to enter the charts at number one) featured the singles "Bluetonic" and "Slight Return", with the latter being beaten to number one by one-hit-wonders Babylon Zoo's "Spaceman". Following the touring and promotional duties for Expecting to Fly, the band released a standalone single, "Marblehead Johnson", as a bridge gap between albums.

The second album, Return To The Last Chance Saloon, was released in 1998 and possessed a decidedly Mexican flavour. While failing to generate the commercial success of their debut, it did spawn hits in the form of "Solomon Bites The Worm" and "If..." and remains a favourite amongst fans.

Whilst many of their mid-'90s peers had disbanded by 2000, The Bluetones released their third album, Science & Nature, which again reached the Top 10 and featured the hit singles "Keep The Home Fires Burning" and "Autophilia". Due to a change in musical climate and lack of press (most notably from the NME) the album failed to generate the commercial success of the previous efforts.

After releasing a best-of album in 2002, the band followed up with Luxembourg, somewhat stylistically spikier and less jangly than previous efforts and highly influenced by the bands of the day, such as The Strokes. The album received little attention in the music press and failed to produce any hit singles. After signing a three-album deal with the Cooking Vinyl record label in late 2005, a comprehensive boxset of all singles and B-sides, A Rough Outline, was issued in early 2006 by Universal.

A new single, entitled "My Neighbour's House", was released in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2006. The single is taken from their self-titled album, which was released on October 9, 2006. Despite largely positive reviews for the album, it failed to chart in the Top 75 UK Albums Chart after its first week on sale. The album was also released in the United States, the first such occurrence since their debut. On October 1, 2006, it was announced that a planned nine-date tour of North America and

Australia had been scrapped.[1] No reason has yet been given.
On November 1, 2006, the band began a month-long tour of Europe in support of their new release, including two sold-out nights at Glasgow's King Tuts.

The band have built a strong live following over the years, and remain upbeat about their music and their career. In a December 2006 interview with stv music, Mark said of the Cooking Vinyl deal that it felt like "the start of a new era" for the band, which was partly the reason behind self-titling the album.

The South's finest tribute to the timeless sound of Pink Floyd.

Doors £

Perfect Alibi play perfect Pink Floyd! With a psychedelic light show. Perfect Alibi aim to give the audience not only authentic reproductions of the music they love, but also a show with sophisticated lighting and pyrotechnics, filling theatres and clubs wherever. With an ongoing desire to better each and every show they have become the definitive tribute to the music of Pink Floyd. There is no dark side... Read Review of Perfect Alibi @ The Brook ::

Wonderful Folk Singer

Doors £

In the late 1970's Julie moved to Norway where the title track of her 1976 album Hot Chocolata went to number 1 in the singles chart.

Julie recorded two successful albums in Sweden on the Scranta Gramafon label. In the 1980's she moved back to California and took a break from the music world. She studied Yoga, meditation and healing. In the late 1980's she participated in a peace march through Central America. It was a dangerous march, and witnessing the suffering of the indigenous peoples of Latin America inspired Julie to start singing again.

She returned to her house in Hertfordshire, England, and began singing for Latin American refugees, for women's and gay rights and for peace projects including protests against the war in the Gulf. She established the first New Age Folk Club, The Magic Messenger, providing a platform for budding musicians and poets. Julie created the Remarkable Records label and released Bright Shadows, her first album for 10 years. In the 90's she set up Goddess Tours, arranging trips and pilgrimages to sacred sites throughout Britain, Turkey France and the American Southwest.

In June 1998, Geminian Julie celebrated 35 years as a professional singer and 60 years of life; a life blessed with music, magic and adventure.

RAGGA PUNK METAL! Skindred is quite simply unlike anything you've heard. Elements of Metal, Dancehall, Punk, and Drum & Bass.

Doors £

RAGGA PUNK METAL! Skindred is quite simply unlike anything you've heard. Elements of Metal, Dancehall, Punk, and Drum & Bass, all swirling into a concoction of lethal addictiveness. Their debut CD Babylon spawned three singles including the smash hit "Nobody" and proved to be one most important and impressive releases in heavy music in years. In an era of fakes, frauds and imitators, Skindred delivers.

"For Skindred, its all about the Music, Education, Entertainment and 100% vibes. We deliver our live set more like a reggae sound system than a metal band but the punches power and hard heavy weight guitars hit just as nasty. All we try to do is bounce up the building, set the pit off making the place buzz with X-sightment, Dread heads rock metal heads skank and when we finish with the stage, YOU DONE KNOW that SKINDRED RULE the Original Ragga-Metal style." - Benji Webbe

Doors £

The return of this great band - come up and see them - make them smile!

Doors £

Make me smile (come up and see me), reached number one in 1975 in the UK and many European countries and is regularly voted among the top singles in the history of the charts, which covers six decades of releases.

The Performing Rights Society has confirmed it one of the most played records in British broadcasting.  The song has been covered more than 100 times in seven languages and has been featured in several movies including The Full Monty (whose soundtrack album went triple platinum in the UK, and platinum in the USA and Australia), Velvet Goldmine, Best and Saving Grace. The song has also been used on more than twenty TV and radio advertising campaigns around the world.

'I laughed my head off!'– A Boleyn.  'Thenthational'– C Eubank.  You can't argue with reviews like that.        

Doors £

Sean Collins

Sean Collins began comedy in 1990 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Trained and working as a child counsellor on the Psychiatric Unit at Sick Kids Hospital in Vancouver Sean is able to grab material and stories from his own personally bizarre life. Sean developed into a "storyteller" and loves to bring people into his own life through his honesty on stage

Festivals:
2002- Glastonbury Festival
2002 - Just for Laughs Festival, Montreal
1999 - Peoples Comedy Festival, Toronto
1999 - Toyota Comedy Festival, New York
1998 - Just for Laughs, Montreal
Television: 2002 - "Comedy Now"- 60-minute special on prime time C.T.V.
1998 - "Comics" - 30 minute special on prime time C.B.C.

Film:
Sean recently filmed a documentary film with fellow Canadian Comics Craig Campbell and Tom Staid which is presently in postproduction until The end of 2003. The film was shot at the Glastonbury festival.

Quotes :
" A lethal North American technician" - Time Out Magazine
" A unique Story-telling style, seducing " - Now Magazine
" Able to draw any audience, young and old" - Mark Breslin Yuk Yuks Canada

---

Dan Atkinson

2007
Dan performs on the Edinburgh and Beyond 2007 live tour.
Taking his debut show ‘Dan Atkinson Knows that he Knows Nothing’, to the
2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Performs warm up gigs for shows including Deal or No Deal (Channel 4).
2006
Filmed talking head interview for Law Of The Playground (Channel 4).
Performed stand up as part of The Comedy Zone at this year’s Edinburgh
Festival.
Headlined at the Sheffield Comedy Festival.
Headlined at the Glasgow Comedy Festival.
Completed his fifth year of residency at The Other Side in York.
Currently performing stand up on The Comedy Network.
2005
Headlined at the Manchester Comedy Festival.
Appeared on Tony & June (T4 on Channel 4).
2004


Appeared in the series Bodyhits (BBC 3).
Hosted a live Q & A with Hollywood director M. Night. Shyalaman (Sixth Sense).2001

---

Mark Olver

2006
Out To Lunch

Happy Accidentally at the Edinburgh Festival, where he is also a popular host at Late and Live.

Deal Or No Deal, and has also provided warm-up for The IT Crowd, The Match, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Kings of Comedy, Nigella, FAQ YOU, 1 vs 100, The Grid, and warmed up an audience of 15,000 for the 2005 live Children In Need broadcast from RAF Brize Norton.

Demand for his hosting and MC'ing work for public sector and voluntary sector organisations. In the past 2 years he has been the regular compere for several local authorities, hosting awards ceremonies for young people and national Foster Carers’ organisations in addition to other hard-to-help young people, combining his comedy and compering skills with his “previous life" working in schools and young offenders’ institutes.

2005
Comedy Zone at the Pleasance

2004
The Big Value Comedy Show.

Doors £

Larry Miller

As the youngest son of a highly artistic and musical family from Guildford, Larry picked up his first guitar at the age of 7. After studying violin at The County School of Music, Surrey for 7 years, he chose to concentrate solely on his guitar. Larry then spent some time with some seasoned pro's where he gained invaluable experience playing regularly all around the South of England, concentrating on Freddie King and Peter Green numbers. Before long he formed his own band, playing his own songs, his way. A plethora of nation-wide live work followed to great acclaim, including a 'barn storming' set at the Reading Festival. Playing alongside the likes of Thunder, Ian Gillan, Climax Blues Band, Peter Green and Walter Trout and meeting up with Eric Clapton, Gary Moore , Rory Gallagher and Alvin Lee along the way, Larry Miller is fast becoming the U.K.`s top new Blues Guitarist. Larry's hard working band features ace drummer Andy `machine gun` Aust and Mel Waters on bass guitar.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
`FANTASTIC, WORLD CLASS GUITARIST` Bluesrockers USA `HIGHLY IMPRESSIVE - A TOTAL VICTORY` Kerrang UK `NATURAL SUCCESSOR TO RORY GALLAGHER AND ALVIN LEE` International Encyclopaedia of Rock `HIS GUITAR PLAYING IS SIMPLY MESMERISING` Bluesmatters UK `THE BEST IN-YER-FACE ROCK BAND AROUND` The Guardian UK `A BLUES ROCK POWER HOUSE` The Guardian UK `THIS IS ENTERTAINMENT WITH A CAPITAL `E`` Blues in Britain UK

Guitarist and singer Barry Barnes is one of Europe's most active enthusiasts working to keep alive the music and memory of Rory Gallagher.

Since 1996 Barry has organized the annual Rory Gallagher tribute gig at Dukinfield Town Hall, near Ashton-Under-Lyne, Lancashire, making this the first, and the longest running Rory Tribute in the world. Currently established as one of the main events on the Rory calendar, and forced to re-locate to Sheffield, it continues to grow and now 'The Rory Gig' attracts audiences in excess of four hundred people from throughout the UK and abroad.

The same impetus to celebrate Rory's genius led Barry to form a tribute band with two like-minded musicians - bassist Dave Burns and drummer Steve Richardson. Both Dave and Steve are lifelong Rory fans, not just some rhythm section that Barry has cobbled together, and it shows! Together as Sinnerboy and driven by belief, enthusiasm and passion, it's the bands stated aim to be amongst the best Rory Gallagher tribute acts in the world. Sinnerboy are ever-presents at all the major Rory festivals throughout the world and were Donal Gallagher's choice of band for the first London festival at Hammersmith (Donal calls them his favourite 'boy' band!)

70s California influenced Welsh rock band. Formed in 2003 and have already supported both Tom Jones and Elton John. Now there’s a story or two that would be worth hearing!

Doors £

Brand new album – ‘Town Beyond The Trees’
Hall Recordings, 17 March 2008

South Wales band The Storys release their much anticipated second album, ‘Town Beyond The Trees’, in March 2008. This follows the acclaimed 2006 eponymous debut and some high profile live performances, including with Elton John and Katie Melua.

“Their blending of complex chord structures with simple melodies adorned with effortless, multi layered harmonies is almost the perfect distillation of everything appealing about West Coast Americana”.
The Telegraph

The Storys mix the country rock harmonies of The Eagles and Crosby Stills Nash & Young with the acoustic side of Led Zeppelin and the West Coast pop of The Byrds and The Burrito Brothers, a sound that has already won many fans;

“There is much to revel in within the intricate vocal harmonies of this Swansea sextet’s sound”.
Classic Rock

The Storys are Steve Balsamo – vocals/guitar; Andy Collins – vocal/bass; Dai Smith – vocals/guitar, Rob Thompson – vocals/guitar; Brian Thomas – drums/percussion and Alan Thomas – keys/mandolin/banjo; a big band with melodies and vocal harmonies to match. Having 4 singers and songwriters gives the band versatility, but there is certainly no conflict, if anything the band have progressed as a unit in the song writing, as Dai says: “If one or two bring a song idea in, we all work on it and it becomes a six way cooperative. This second album is more of a group experience.”

“The Storys possess an ability to pen instantly classic songs which ooze class”.
Music Week

The album ‘Town Beyond The Trees’, is issued on the band’s own Hall label, named after the converted cinema where their self produced debut was recorded. This new album was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio complex earlier in 2007, with renowned producer Jon Kelly. Kelly’s impressive CV includes Kate Bush, The Beautiful South, Paul McCartney, Chris Rea and The Damned.

The collapse of the record label Korova/Warners, who picked up that debut, turned out to be a blessing, with the band able to retain control of the recording and producer Jon Kelly agreeing to stay on and finish the album. It was then that the strings were added, giving the album its final polish.

The band have come a long way in a short time, both finding a cohesion in the studio (Dai: “The album only took 5 weeks to record, and it sounds fresher for it.”) and having to pull together when playing stadiums with Elton John.

The Storys, a whole new experience, on CD and on stage!

Two floors - two bars - great sound - great stage - disabled facilities. Limited seating around the balcony bar. Extended floor space and larger stage downstairs. New larger balcony bar is now on several levels. Creating an intimate atmosphere to experience the music.

Opening times and showtimes vary, depending on the day, the artist, and whether there is a support or not. The times shown below are given as a rough guide and may be subject to change. Please check the times when you book your tickets. To avoid disappointment buy your tickets in advance and get here early.

Box Office Hours are 1pm-7pm Monday to Saturday 023 8055 5366

Monday - Wednesday Shows - Doors @ 8pm - Main Act on @ 9pm Close @ 11pm

Thursday Shows- Doors @ 8pm - Main Act on @ 9pm Close between 11pm & 1am

Friday - Saturday Shows - Doors @ 8pm - Main Act on @ 9:30 We may be open to 1am

Sunday Shows - Doors @ 7:30pm - Main Act on @ 8:30 Close @ 10:30pm

The Brook is an eighteen plus venue, (apart from Joiners Live Promotions) although children of fourteen and upwards can come to shows if accompanied by an adult over the age of twenty one. Anyone under sixteen MUST be out of the building by midnight. This is the law.

No more than two fourteen plus per adult.

Please note that on the advice of Southampton Police - we only accept Passports or Photo Driving Licences as acceptable proof of age to buy alcohol. We do NOT accept any other form of age identification. We do NOT accept any national proof of age scheme cards. If you are lucky enough to look young - you will need I.D. If you are bringing under 18's with you, we accept any form of I.D.