The Astoria just south of the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road is my favourite London venue. It is small so everyone is quite close to the band. There is a feature I think is unique - your admission is to anywhere in the venue, upstairs or downstairs standing. So no worries about not buying the ticket in time to get standing. And if you can't see over the crowd, you can just decide to try upstairs. If you prefer upstairs anyway, there are little tables at the front of the balcony so you can sit and sip your drink while waiting for the music to start. The drinks are reasonably priced. The cloakroom is £1.50 per item but they don't mind if you stuff several coats into one bag. The ladies loo is a bit weird - a lady in there has rows of bottles of handcream, perfume, etc and she rushes up to you with soap and paper towels. The idea is that you give her a tip. Some do, some don't. At least it's clean! And they get great bands. I've been there lots of times, forgotten quite a lot but off the top of my head remember seeing Nightwish, Apocalyptica, the Rasmus, and most recently, Dragonforce, who were absolutely brilliant. Keep hearing rumours that they are going to knock it down and turn it into offices - how awful. Maybe the credit crunch might mitigate against that. Go there while you can!

The Astoria is now closed because from what I've read and heard the intelligent city planners the city has decided to build a new underground rail network right through the middle of the city which means they need a new station revamp at Tottenham Court Road tube station, so there must be no room for a historical theater and music venue.

It's a shame really, it was a great venue up until a year or so ago.