Concorde2 is situated at the end of Madeira Drive, towards the end of the covered over walk way. If walking from the pier you need to walk dowm Madeira Drive past Jim Thompson's and Burgerking, with them on your left, and the sea to your right. Keep walking for 10/20 minutes, way past Volks, until you see the Concorde2 on the opposite side of the road. Wait until now to cross the road, as the path is better lit on the right. And it is a pleasant walk as it is along the edge of the beach.
The front of the club has central double doors, with blacked out windows either side. There is usually always a queue, before the doors open, but it does not take the staff long to get everybody in, and served! The door staff are the nicest I've met, and are extremly helpful. To the left is a counter for one of the cloakrooms (the one used for band nights) and on the right is the ticket counter. The cloakroom charges 2.00 a bag, and 1.00 per hanging item. Some nights tickets are still available on the door, but others sell out within days. (Recent Reef/Miss Dynamite gig's sold out straight away!) They like you to go in on the ticket side
before you try and put your coat in, which is fair enough. There is a sign warning of the use of smoke machines & strobes, and a Free Taxi phone for when you leave, both next to the cloakroom counter.
Yes! This is where Norman plays!! (Fat Boy Slim!!) (some Boutique nights)
...and they hold 'Torture Garden' nights... (Fetish/Fantasy/well, just dam kinky really!!)
The prices range from anywhere between 2 pounds and twenty!! (an average gig night is 7/9 pounds) For prices and listings go to; www.concorde2.co.uk
Once in through the double doors, you enter the main bar. It is a reasonable sized long purple room, with windows all along the right hand side of the building, looking out to sea. For band/gig nights there are tables and chairs along this side as well. The bar runs virtually the whole length of the room, down the left hand wall. (On the wall above it is the word 'CONCORDE' in large letters!!) It is a large bar, with friendly polite staff, and a reasonably priced selection of drinks. Stella and Heineken on draught, as well as Strongbow, Guiness Extra Cold and Boddingtons. With a range of bottle'd beers and alcopops that are always changing. About three gigs every month are sponsored/supported by Jagermeister, and on these nights it's only a pound a shot!! (see flyers for details, normally 2 pounds) And if you happen to run out of money at the bar, don't worry as there is a cah machine to the right of the next set of double doors.
Once through the next double doors, you are in the main room. To the left is a small side bar, but don't rely on this serving alcohol, as at some gig nights, accompanied under 16 year olds are allowed in the main room. (not the bar) The side bar is then a soft drink bar only. However most night it is over 18, and will be serving some alcoholic drinks, but not all of the main bar stock!! To the end of the side bar are male and female toilettes. All along the right handside are windows, as in the bar, but these will be covered with curtains. In the middle of which is a side door (fire door) which will always have a member of securty staff by it. At the far end of this room is the stage. Obviously where the bands perform, and the DJ's mix from!!
The music ranges from anything like STORM(techno/nu energy) and Cream(house), to Saint Etienne and Reef!!
(Due to the fact that the sound engineers in this club (do all clubs even have one?) have to be able to work with some of the world's greatest musicians, I feel this is probably why the club nights sound so awesome as well.)
To the left of the stage, are more double doors leading to a short corridor containing three brand new ladies toilets to releave the pressure on the other two in the main room. (these are only open on gig nights) On a gig night, this is as far in the building as you can go, as beyond that is the backstage area.
However on club nights you can go beyond, this last set of double doors, straight to the main cloakroom (only open on busy club nigts) Next to the counter for this is a flight of stairs, but I wouldn't bother going up it, as it leads to the VIP area and there will be security up there. To the right of the stairs is a food bar/counter, which is open till 2, on friday & saturday club nights. They serve things like beefburgers, chickenburgers, veggieburgers, pitta&humus, chips etc, and it's all under 3 pounds. There are stools along the counter, and chairs and tables over to the right by the windows (also with drawn curtains, handy for Torture Garden!!)
Then if you follow the corridor along it takes you to the back toiletes, which are male, female and disabled. (only accessible on club nights) There is also a back door that is solely a fire escape, which also has a member of security staff sat by it.
The building itself is a listed building, and if you are there in the day light, you will be able to see the beautiful stained glass windows all along the top of the ground floor. The club is at the bottom of the sea wall, but it has a lift in the middle of it (goes through middle of main room) that goes up level with the top of the wall. And "in season" the lift is run and maintained by Concorde2 staff, so the public can still use it, instead of the steps!! The back end toilets of the club are also left open in the day time as public toilets, as there are no others near by. I think that's pretty good of them, but I don't think many people in Brighton even know the lift's there!!
SORRY, HAD TO ADD THIS!!!
I went to the recent (9th Nov) Progression Sessions (Spiritual Element) with LTJ Bukem playing 'exclusive old school set' which was absolutely amazing!! Even if you don't like 'Drum and Bass', you may well of liked this! He played loads of chilled out 'D&B', some of his own older stuff. (Journey Inwards) There was a brillant atmosphere!! The best night I've had down there yet!! (I saw him at the 'Enigma' (Brighton) when I first moved down here, and left after about 45mins!!) There was even a MC at the Concorde 2, which normally I hate; But again, they had the best of the best!! MC Conrad is not like any other MC really!! For a start, I don't end up wanting to twat him after 5 mins!! He's got a great voice, and just 'adds' to the music, rather than just TALK OVER IT! (yes, I hate MC's)
I think the actual capacity is 540/560. (Big differnce between 500-1000)
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