The Ned

The Ned is truly a great find because it has the perfect balance of live music and general ambience from the chatter of trendy locals. The main stage on the ground floor is a great place to showcase yourself as a singer or musician and connect with the crowd around you. If you can get a gig at the roof garden or down at the Vault, once again it’s a great experience as a musician. Some of my favourite gigs have been on all three of those stages.

Piano Works — Farringdon

This is a truly magical night for the spectator and for the singing pianist and musicians it’s a bit of a roast. You’re thrown into the deep end with requests on the night from the punters. So if you get a gig at piano works do make sure to brush up on completely random songs you haven’t played in a while.

Sky Garden

The Sky Garden is a great showcase for you as a musician because you’ve got a great stage to perform on and beautiful views as your backdrop. Currently ALR are the main music supplier for Sky Garden so it may be worth dropping them an email if you want to perform at this great venue.

Brasserie Zedel

This classic looking French style restaurant based in the heart of the West End is a cool little gig to get. Usually a trio or quartet perform on a small stage creating cool ambience for the diners. The vibe is a bit more jazzy so if you’ve got some jazz chops, this may be the place to showcase them.

Grow

I like Grow as a performer because it’s somewhere a bit like Narnia. To get to Grow you’ve got to venture to the furthest corners of Hackney Wick, down an alleyway and then you end up on the canal. It has a magical ambience you only get from finding a gem and it’s a great experience performing literally on the canal. There’s not that many people seated at Grow but definitely worth doing.

Upstairs at Ronnie’s

I mean Upstairs at Ronnie’s is almost as iconic as the main stage. It’s got a great vibe, right in the bustle of Soho. It’s usually packed with punters and if you can get yourself a gig here, it’s got a good sound system and agreat energy. A must as a London gigging musician.

White City House

I’ve only played at White City House once but it was pretty busy. It’s tucked away in the corner of the old Television centre but you can’t miss that row of cool bars. It’s a great gig to get if you’re playing there regularly. You’re fed, it’s 3 x 45 minute sets and if you get a good engineer on the night you’ll have a lot of fun.

100 Wardour St

100 Wardour street is a really versatile venue for the live musician. You can perform as just a duo or go up to a full 10 piece band. The space really caters for a wide range of music and it’s always packed in the restaurant. Floor monitors, a great sound system and sound engineers who know what they’re doing. Definitely a good place to perform at.

The Troy Bar

Troy bar is the musicians venue for live music. On a Tuesday night it has some of the heavy hitters in the session music scene as the house band including Oscar Stieler and Paul Murray. You never know what’s going to happen at Troy bar but you know it’s gonna be something good. If you can get yourself a guest spot or into the house band you’re going to really test yourself. A bit like if you land a gig at Piano Works.

I hope you found this blog useful as a performer in London.