June 14, 2011 17:47

Regional winners announced in NME's search for Britain's Best Small Venue

You have been voting for your favourite small venue in each region

Photo: Andy Willsher/NME

NME's quest to find Britain’s Best Small Venue is narrowing down, with the announcement of the regional winners.

Over 70,000 of you voted via NME.COM to decide on your favourite spit and sawdust sweatbox and, based on your votes, we have a list of the most beloved venues in each region of the UK.

That list will now be pored over by a panel of music industry experts including former Undertones frontman and head of the UK Music organisation, Feargal Sharkey, Festival Republic boss Melvin Benn, Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens and Friendly Fires, who launched the campaign last month with an intimate hometown show.

The winning venue will get a complete set of stage microphones worth over £2,500 courtesy of AKG and their UK distributor Sound Technology Ltd, who are also on the judging panel. NME will speak to the winning venue about organizing a special celebration for later in the year. The winner will be announced on June 21.

The regional winners are:

South East: Tunbridge Wells Forum
South West: Bristol Thekla
Wales: Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
Midlands: Stoke Sugarmill
London: Camden Barfly
East Anglia: Norwich Arts Centre
North East: Leeds Brudenell Social Club
North West: Manchester Band On The Wall
Scotland: Glasgow King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Northern Ireland: Belfast Limelight