Astoria II: This is London!!

165 Charing Cross Road, london WC2H 0EL

One of the very few things I may have missing since I arrived to London has been a place I could say: uau! I´ve been in great pubs, great clubs, and great venues, but... not that one you can be absolutely sure it will be a cracker that night you need to pary hard.

Last Saturday I did :D. It´s name is Astoria (II).

Astoria, in Soho, is one of the most famous clubs/venues in London. Great for it´s concerts and for it´s G-A-Y Nights, my brother told me once the place was quite too gay for my taste. And I do trust my bro in these kind of pieces of advice, you know... so it have been loads and loads of times I´ve gone through the door, thinking it was such a pity that such a great place had to bee so overwhelmingly gay too. Astoria II came as the perfect solution.

The venue, next to the original Astoria, has a main room where concerts take place. It is a fairly big one, with a sound quality quite good, at least for my not-expert-at-all taste. The first floor, surrounding the main one, has open spaces where you can watch the concert from. And around that, a pretty big bar with bloody good music, at least the last weekend (Prodigy, Daft Punk and that kind of stuff).

The place was formerly known as Mean Fiddler, and both Astoria and Astoria II can be joined for special events. Both were supposed to be converted in flats, offices, shops, etc. in order to cash in on the Olympic Games in 2012. As there is a housing bubble burst here as in Spain, it is not quite clear what the future for both venues is... as a new train station is also planned in the area. But stop talking about the future, let´s talk present tense...

It is very true that the reason I was so positively surprised with the venue had very likely quite a lot to do with the gig I had the chance to enjoy. From a boring night, and a 'I´ve got a friend who´s going to a gig in Astoria II, anybody wanna join?' (by Victor), to one of the best bands I've ever seen performing live: Holy Fuck (that's not how I felt, it's the name of the band indeed :)). Just a live performance:



Those guys are really good. They are something between Radiohead and Massive Attack (more of the latter than of the former), and for just 10 pounds gave a great show. I´ll go to watch them again as soon as I´ll have the opportunity. By the mean time, buy or download their two cds if you have the chance. You will not regret it.

Astoria II is not just the live bands, though. There is a great mood, scotch is just 2 quid per single (yeah, it is quite an unknown brand the one they hit you with, but, mate... 2 quid in London!), you can go out and inside again without queuing (quite useful if you friends go for a fag), and, as I said, DJ music is great too.

Problems? Well, a can of beer is 3.60, quite expensive. And single scotch in a preposterously small glass makes easy to spend loads and loads of cash in here. No credit/debit card accepted, and the cash machine inside broken (that was a pain in the ass, indeed). Not perfect, then. But close... quite close... and Millencolin are playing there in a couple of weeks. Difficult to say no!

Work Hard, Party Hard: Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes

Bedford Way, Russell Square, London, WC1

Work hard, party hard... that's one of my former bosses back in Spain motto. And I am starting to find out that it is a real thing here in London. At least in the company I am currently working for...

There in the company I work for they have a pretty weird habit: every single Friday, at 5pm, everybody stops working and starts drinking. As easy as that. They buy loads and loads of beers, vodka bottles, scotch, wine and watever the people prefers (the company pays for it), and from 5 to 6-6.30 everybody goes in a crazy office-binge. Some guys drink in the pool room, some others in front of their computer... it is a bloody friendly thing, and eventually the best way to meet people and improve your networking.

Yesterday was indeed one of those crazy days. After having some booze in the office, we went Leicester Square, were the company had a promotional stand. Some guys played Texas Hold'em poker (it was the Poker in The Park event, one of the most important poker promotional events in Europe), some others, more cautious, we just enjoyed the music and the well-looking hostesses.

And after that, it was Jason's birthday party. Jason is one of the bosses, and indeed a great guy. He booked a karaoke room for us in a great party place: the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, in Russel Square, very close to the British Museum (and very close to my favourite Oxfam bookshop as well). The place is a nice mixture between one of those bowling places you can find in commercial malls in Spain and an american deco Hard Rock Cafe. It had all the extras you might imagine: several karaoke rooms (I've checked today the booking prices and they are quite expensive, over 40 quid per hour, though), a pool table, a nice terrace for smokers. I met quite a lot of people, some of them Spaniards, and had a great time.

Top spots of the place?

1.The karaoke room, whith an awesome sound quality,

2.the ten bowling lanes (which unfortunately you have to book in advance)

3. the space invaders free arcade machine :D,

4. and the partying mood all over the place, stuffed with students and fresh people.

The worse things, however, are related with the actual stuff this blog is devoted to: the beer. They didn't have a wide range of them, and the only lager was Pitburger, a German one I don't quite appreciate. Even worse, they run out of it in one hour, so I had to go for the bottled types. I enjoyed Asahi, but a pint glass in your hands is one of those things that make the difference...

Eventually, I finished quite drunk, of course. This is one of the consequences you get when you go out on the UK way: drink much, hardly dance and eat nothing at all since lunch (yeah, I remember you lunch here is at 12.30...). So far, it worth it!