“Following a recent visit to the Mama Stones venue, I was so impressed and happy to finally find a decent music venue in Exeter. The atmosphere was electric with everyone having a great time and some fantastic music as well. Well done Joseph family a real pleasure to come to your music kingdom and savour a fantastic night, I will return very soon and who knows may even do a turn on the drumss”

“Any venue that presents live music and helps provide a stage for local and name acts can only be a bonus - good luck to Mama Stones and anyone else who provides and supports live music!”

“THIS JUST WHAT EXETER NEEDS! TO BE MUSICALLY PUT ON THE WORLDS MAP! EXETER IS FULL OF TALENTED PEOPLE WHO DESERVE TO BE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE IT BIG TIME!”

“Get Rat Attack to play, they are awesome and I think really going places. Local lads playing hardcore punk, watch out for them.”

“does anyone no where you can buy tickets for the grand opening night for joss stone!!”

“I used to work at hub and i think i should put a few things straight. hub didn't go out of business, the only reason the venue closed for was because the owners of the building Heavitree Brewery are selling off premises. The HUB only closed the other week! The people who ran the place are still doing shows in various places around Exeter. The hub put on lots of different nights including the only successful weekly acoustic night (not an open mic) and the only multi-media night in the area called the umbrella factory. The venue used to also put on bands from all over the world of different genre's, there was no genre snobbery. Some of the acts that were there include Son Of Dave, an amazing one man blues beatboxer and former member of Crash Test Dummies, that turned out to be one of the best shows at this years Vibraphonic Festival. Yeasayer, an amazing band from New York. My Vitriol on there come back tour. The King Blues, Operator Please, Vagabond, Beardyman who's Britain's number 1 beatboxer, dubstep dj Skream played at the South West's first dubstep night which was at hub. Big D and the Kids Table, Hot Club De Paris and loads more. If you've never heard of any of these check them out.
A number of acts that used to play there actually say that hub is there favorite venue in the uk, others have said that it's there favorite venue in the South West!

What Mister E has said about the Cavern is right, any venue thats around that long would of had bands play before they get big, almost every band does the small venue circuit to get known. And muse used to play everywhere including Vines (John Gandys) and Volts (Riva). If the HUB was allowed to be around as long as the Cavern has been I'm pretty sure they could say the same thing.

For Someone to say HUB never had any bigger bands play how about Elliot Minor, Robots In Disguise and Glasvegas. They even had play a band called Them Is Me which has vocalist and bass player of Reef in. Again if you've never heard of these check them out

At the end of the day the loss of hub is a great shame, they used to do all different genre's, you could say something for almost everyone. And part of what hub was that they'd let bands play there first gig's there and help them to develop and grow. I hope Mama Stones can fill that gap because with it up and running, the cavern doing there thing, the Phoenix doing there's and the guys from hub still putting on shows Exeter should have a good music scene”

“I cant see this of being any benefit to Exeter at all. Since it changed from the Exchange about 10 years ago it's been a poor venue.

The people talk about it being an exciting prospect for Exeter and hope it's supported are clearly people who dont go to shows and support local music very often.
As well as the 2 uni venues (great hall & lemon grove) which mainly host touring bands with big agencies, Exeter already has the Cavern and the Phoenix (which has multiple rooms of varying sizes), along with a few pubs providing a platform for original and alternative music - and as anyone who regularly attends these type of shows will know, it's hard enough getting people through the door as it is!
The majority of people who call themselves music fans are happy to go and watch Kaiser Chiefs at Westpoint, and even turn out in their droves for plodding pub covers bands but wont ever go and try something they havent heard of, assuming that bands which arent famous must be of a lower calibre.

The Cavern in particular has been supporting new bands for nigh on 20 years - huge bands like Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs, Fallout Boy, Kate Nash, Bright Eyes, Mr Scruff, Afrikaa Bambaata, Super Furry Animals, Damon Albarn, and Elbow have all played there, mainly before they graced the charts... Muse used to do shows there every few weeks... The Gossip played to about 30 people... just a couple of months ago La Roux played and it was free entry, now she's massive...

Venues like this have a reputation and loyalty for putting on interesting original music, not just what will sell the most tickets - if people don' t actually turn up to most of these shows in reality (despite talk of 'supporting' local business/ music on here) - what are the advantages of having another venue do the same thing but not as well? Albeit with a much bigger pot of funding provided by their daughter!”

“Something the Hub was always good for was having music on a wide range varites, I dont believe joss stones mother will want to have a Metal bands performing there. Or for that matter the FMP Exeter College has there.”

“how, where and when can you purchase tickets or is it a first come first served entry?”

“thats great its being kept as a live venue- garth from the hub booked some amazing alternative acts and gave local talent a fair go at being heard- as for the layout of the premisis , while being a little strange i always thought it allowed for a more intimate gig experience and solved the problem of the bar hovering heckler. i wish them all the luck in the world and would recommend 2 things - re-hire beardy garth - hes a legend - and get NDP playing a set.”