The Gladstone Hotel Renovations: What new changes mean for Gladstone Karaoke

Folks, I’ve gotten to see the renovations at the Gladstone Hotel and learn about the changes going on there. The renovations themselves actually give the Melody Bar a nice face lift. Like many restaurants today they are going for the night lounge motif. This makes party events easier to host and facilitates more mingling. The booths on the east side are gone in favor of a longer bench with separation tables making it easier to seat more people. The couch in the back is replaced with a small lounge seat and longer tables. The front has low table made of 3 large stumps slices giving a more formal look. The center now has a stand up table to expand the bar and some fashionable muffling material has been mounted on the ceiling to improve sound/noise levels.

The Melody Bar alterations I found positive but what will be disturbing for karaoke fans are the karaoke schedule changes:

Old Schedule: 10 AM to 2 AM
New Schedule: 12 AM to 2:30 AM

This cuts the karaoke show in half! Live Acts are being moved from 8 PM to 10 PM. This is a grievous turn for karaoke loves. Almost feels like they intend to eventually cut the karaoke all together. And with it could happen. This is the second change to the karaoke schedule in as many years. Earlier they cut the Thursday night karaoke although Thursdays don't draw really a large crowds on average. I spoke to one of the Gladstone managers about the changes and what motivated them. The response was the Gladstone is looking to generate more revenue from the dining crowd and requests had been made for more dining. The schedule change were the response.

We karaoke fans know most shows start at between 10 to 11 PM for the reason that they draw better crowds. Midnight shows tend to get people drifting in from nightclubs and few of those dine and often had had plenty to drink elsewhere. In my experience late start times like this draw a lessor crowd. A lower attendance may give the Gladstone a reason to cut the karaoke completely and thus reduce thus budget. Many places are under pressure to cut costs due to people dining out less on average owing to concerns about the economy. My fear is this could backfire on the Gladstone in terms of attendance and revenue. It will certainly hurt karaoke lovers. The best case scenario is the same audience attendence, inability to sing due to reduced show times and same long queue. The most likely case is karaoke lovers are turned off because of the later start time and reduced duration and go elsewhere. (Most Karaoke Restaurants start at 10 PM and there are numerous examples on this blog)

The food is still amazing (sampled quite of bit of the new food, I especially recommend the nachos) and I’m told an expanded menu has been done to draw more diners to the Gladstone.

If, like me, you feel that this schedule shift at the Melody Bar is not ideal for karaoke lovers or their business in general, please write to the Gladstone Management and owner and let them know what you think. Best people to e-mail to are Alec Badley, the Hotel Manager at alec at gladstonehotel.com, and Christina Ziedler, Hotel President at Christina at gladstonehotel.com. Hopefully we can convince the Gladstone management to find another way to allow people to enjoy the dining without endangering one of the great karaoke traditions in Toronto.

Karaoke Review Update: Gladstone Hotel w/ Peter Styles

** BEST KARAOKE BAR MC 2010 **
** BEST QUALITY FOOD AT A KARAOKE VENUE 2010 **

January 29th, 2011

The Gladstone Hotel has a Karaoke Champion in Peter Styles who is probably as much of an enthusiast as I am. Don't get the idea that this automatically makes for a good review. While it may be voted best karaoke place by Now Magazine, well as much as I like Now Magazine, I don't always agree with their reviewers, so I'm writing my own. That said, I'm updating the review as there are a number of details that have changed, some good some not so good.

The Good: The Gladstone Hotel has Peter hosting on Friday-Saturday nights. This as cut back from the original Wednesday-Saturday which pains me and many I suspect. Mr. Styles is STILL as good as rumoured: He's EXCELLENT at working the crowd, and being a professional singer himself when he does his vocal intro, people perk their ears. And the energy feels genuine. He's probably the greatest asset of this venue. Song selection is now second ONLY to Jason Rolland!! There are over 30k Songs in his collection. A few duplicates being sorted out, but make no mistake. Peter has upped the ante! Drink prices are quite reasonable and there is no cover charge. The location is fairly convenient: You can get there by Streetcar quite easily and there is street side parking available.

They've added food and the food is first rate! All produce home grown in Ontario. The selection is not as large as many other restaurants but there is enough for most people and specials that change enough keep you coming back. Food quality is second to none, save perhaps on the Sweet Potato fries which are a touch dry for me taste.

The monitors (there are now 3) are in a good a position as I could think of given the layout. The LCD monitor for the singer is mounted above your head (it had been knocked down a number of times), and the LCD Project er makes it easy to see your lyrics while appearing to look into the crowd. Which is actually quite cool.

The Bad: Service unfortunately needs a little work. Its been from fair to poor. Larger tables will get preferences and sometime smaller tables go entirely unnoticed.

The mixed: The facilities are fairly large but the configuration makes it difficult to balance sound. If you sit in the front, be prepared for LOUD volume. At times it was actually hurting my ears (the volume gets louder the later the evening goes) so I suggest the mid section. At the back its much harder to hear because speakers can't be positioned there. On the plus side, if you tell Peter its too loud he'll take the volume down a notch.

Peter has a sound engineer at the back who for some reasons isn't paying attention to balance levels much of the time. Peter has commented several times on this. Too frequently the sound engineer let balances go entirely to the point you couldn't hear the singer. Sometimes he's got the balance, but sometimes its as if he lets sounds levels go on automatic pilot.

In all fairness Peter tries his best to give everyone in a very large crowd a chance, but sometimes a new person coming at the last hour would come in front someone who waited for 1.5 hours.

While the selection is the best or 2nd best in Toronto, its not reflected in his books! The only books available have 7k songs out of the 30k and the old song codes which he doesn't really use much anymore (not he queries the songs based on author and title). I'm assured a book is being compiled with the new selections, but its a weak spot. There is a website you can view on your computer or mobile phone (done by yours truly) at http://www.evolveit.ca/gladstone_karaoke/karaoke_song_query.php, but its not well advertised. (I'm getting a new URL to make it easier).

The verdict: The Gladstone Hotel with Peter Styles is overall still a excellent venue (mostly) with significant improvements. While I'd say its in the top 3, a few things still need to be done to make the undisputed champ of the karaoke pub world.

1. A sound engineer that pays more attention to volume levels (I've had complaints about it at the Toronto Karaoke Meetup Group, that is how bad he is sometimes)

2. Printed books or at least a kiosk where people can have FULL viewing access to the songs he has instead of asking if he has a song (80% change he has it)

3. Wait staff need a bit of polishing up and not neglecting patrons at small tables.

What is good is VERY VERY good. Peter is still the only guy with an applause sign I've seen so far. (and its a powerful tool). You WILL have fun at the Gladstone in spite of a few rough edges.

Final Grade: B+
Excellent Host, fantastic song selection, amazing quality food. Sound balance between the front and back could be improved. Sound engineer that pays more attention to balance is badly needed. Wait times are tricky, popularity has its price.

Score Summary:
Facilities: 7.5 (Lots of Space, sound however is unbalanced in different sections)
Equipment: 8.0 (New speakers installed, but sound engineer needs to be more alert)
Location: 7.5 (Easy to spot, moderately easy to get to using the Queen St. Streetcar)
Song Selection: 9.0 (The spot for best selection is within the Gladstone's reach)
Wait Times: 7 (scaled:public venue,Peter will try to shuffle within reasons if asked)
Host: 9.5 (VERY entertaining, Pays attention to the crowd, you'll love this guy)
Food Prices: 7.5 (Prices are slightly higher than average but the food quality is well above)
Food Quality: 9
Food Selection: 7 (slightly limited in selection)

Venue Information:
Friday-Saturday
10 PM - 1 AM
The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON
Phone: 416 531 4635
http://www.peterstyles.info
Info on the Host: http://www.peterstyles.info

Karaoke Review Update: Bar + Karaoke

January 22nd, 2011

Seeing the need to update reviews and venues change I'll start with the one Closest to where I live (because its easy :D) When I checked Bar + Karaoke There were positives and negatives. I had chatted with the owner about them both so let's see how its come along since then.

This is the first karaoke box I'd seen with either LCD or plasma screens. I'm happy to say this so far is the cleanest Karaoke box I've seen to day as well as the most convenient for me. I had made some comments on the equipment last time I was here. There have been a few improvement in the years since I write my first review of this venue.


The Good: Well the plasma screens were all in excellent order and the computer selection by song number makes it easy to add, remove or switch order of songs. The look of the place felt like karaoke box meets night club feel to it. The looks of the interior was actually very nicely thought out. The selection was identical to XO which is to say it was decent and there have been a number of songs added. A few hundred in the English category which isn't bad. The microphones/receiver are working significantly better and more consist ant then when I first arrived so someone had been looking over the equipment.

The service level is now fairly good level. For rooms, equipment, and food a red button will bring an attendant for any help required including food service (I should perhaps say "snack")

The Mixed: While the microphone and receivers have improved significantly there are still a few things missing which the original had in its favor before it fell into disrepair (and now has a new owner). There are key changes in SOME of the rooms but not all of them. Primarily the more expensive medium room have a key changes. I actually spoke with the owner on this. He says he's working on it. Not sure what the difficulty could be but I'll just say if the owner can get key changers into the small rooms as well, this will be the best Karaoke Box in Toronto. The other mixed issue is the remotes. The remote control key functions are not always consistant. Some rooms seem to have slightly different key mappings to the remove then others which can cahas risen to use confusion for regulars.

The food quality is actually fairly good but the limited food selection means you can't actually get a meal here. This place (as most of the Toronto Karaoke Scene these days), is primarily geared for alcohol. It would be really cool if one could order a real meal. For now, I suggest either eat before you come, or bring food for a party if your group is really hungry. Outside drinks are not allowed, so bear that in mind.

One qualm I have with the computer karaoke system is if you want to use the computer catalog, the song order seems to be questionable. In fact, I'd almost suggest only use the books for song selection. It may be a glitch in the software that makes the order of songs in English rather irregular, but still, it can be confusing. Again, I suggest sticking to the song books to find your selection.


The Bad: There is nothing that stands out as bad. (Hooray!)

Summary: The owner of this place perhaps should consider a career in interior decorating (or refer the person he hired) because he seems to think “westerns” have no knowledge of what karaoke is all about or what quality equipment is. Let's start with basics: People have different song ranges, so key changers are ESSENTIAL. Yes, ESSENTIAL so that everyone can participate comfortably. Not having simple key changers that will work on any analog audio system is, frankly, very discouraging considering the great work on initially done with XO. Not only that but cheap Korean equipment and radio signal feedback on the audio (when there was no radio component on these receivers or perhaps I should say preamp) also suggests that the owner was doing everything to get this operation up on the cheap using excellent decorating to hide the fact. After six weeks of telling them they should have key changers and even telling them where to get them with no results show lack of attention the customers. Every time I went to the place (generally Fridays) I didn't see much of a crowd. Perhaps its just as well given the lack of respect for Karaoke lovers. Perhaps this is why he has let XO become so run down it is now dangerous to go to in the summer due to lack of proper ventilation and working air conditioners which had not been repaired properly for at least 2 years. I had to stop bringing the Toronto Karaoke Meetup Group as a result. There may be a general trend of business and Karaoke Box owners trying to avoid initial business costs with the invent of computer based Karaoke song changers, but just because a computer can do the rotations doesn't mean you don't provide the basics if you are going to be in the karaoke business at all. Anyone looking to start a karaoke box be aware there are those of us who have been to Asia, know what standard karaoke is supposed to provide and we will let people know who respects their customers, and just as importantly, who does not.


Summary Scores:

Facilities: 9.0 (Nice rooms, really clean, furniture in amazing shape)

Equipment: 7.5 (Improved mikes, key changes in some medium rooms). Significant improvements here but can't give full marks without key changers in the majority of the rooms. The remote control system should be uniform throughout all the rooms as well.

Location: 8.0 (Block north of Dundas Subway. Parking will cost you a pretty penny at Yonge/Dundas however)

Food Prices: NA (Prices on drinks are average, but only snack food)

Service: 8.0 (Staff improved quite a bit since the last time I review this venue)

Selection: 7.0 (~7500 English songs, lots of Korean, Chinese, some Japanese, same as XO).

Wait Times: 9.0 (Its a computer AVI/MPG server. So this is expected)

Room Prices: 7.0

1-5 people: $25/Hour

6-10 people: $40/Hour

50 Large Room: $50/Hour


Final Grade: C+/B- (Its getting better, owner seems to be making an effort)


Venue Information:
Bar + Karaoke Lounge
360 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M5B 1S5
(416) 340-7154

Valentine's Day Karaoke Event

Folks for those of you who believe karaoke can be romantic (and of your that includes yours truly), this may be the event for you:

Event Name: Heartbreak Karaoke

Date: Valentine’s Day: Monday, February 14, 2011

Where: Supermarket, 268 Augusta Avenue
Toronto

Time: 9:00 pm to 2:00 am

Charge:$5 if you wear red, $7 if you don’t


Map here: http://maps.google.ca/m?q=268+Augusta+Ave

For those of you who don't know,this is near Kensington Market.

Enjoy. I may be there to check it out. Hope to see a few of you there.

New Karaoke Act October 21st, Western Toronto

Folks, there have been changes and new acts coming out to replace old, or just new acts. One Karaoke premere is happening on October 21st! I'll be there to see the kick-off. Should be good. here are the details:

Jack Astor's Bar and Grill
Sherway Gardens
1900 The Queensway
Toronto, ON
M9C 5H5
416.626.2700

Thursday, October 21st, 2010
8 PM to 1 AM (5 hour!!)

I'll let you know later about the equipment, food song selection, all the good stuff.

I do apologize. Been busy making a living. (The reviews I write need to be funded somehow :D)

Anyway, review on this new venue will be here.

Karaoke Review: Fox & Fiddle 27 Wellesley Street East W/ Peter Rockwell

2010-05-01 (Note: attended twice to check for consistency)

I've kept up with Peter over the years he's been doing karaoke in his original comic radio style. Some have imitated but none have duplicated...yet. More recently the mainstay karaoke hosts have actually improved, the venue setups were lacking of late. I'm hoping the venues take a few hints.


The Good: This venue actually has a room that is dedicated to Karaoke on Friday and Saturday nights. This is a VERY good thing (especially for Fight Nights, the show can still go on unlike the Fox & Fiddle at Eglington and Laird). The song selection is still good although a few have better. The comedy, so long as you are not offended by rated "X" humor (NOT for children), is classic and to coin a phrase, "We're not just laughing at you we're laughing behind you". Sometimes Peter makes fun of the songs (and the song selection doesn't matter, its all entertainment), makes jokes about you, or your audience. That's the point. The equipment performs well and while you won't sound bad, you may not be heard at all if you cover the mike with your hand. (A number of people didn't seem to get the message no matter times Peter joked about it or the audience yelled "Don't cover the mike")

The food is fairly good and the decor is much improved over the "Fiddler's Green" that used to be at the same location. It feels like a comfortable pub, or perhaps the scene from "Cheers".

The setup is nearly perfect. You are right in front of the audience, top larger screens help the audience sing right along and you have a monitor right in front to help you out. Only improvement I can recommend is an LCD screen at eye level for the singer instead of the CRT TV Peter still uses. Peter Styles now apparently has a LCD monitor at eye level at the Gladstone Hotel and Jason Rolland has apparently done the same things at Toby's and other venue with his custom built adjustable LCD stand. It's really worth looking into.

The Mixed: Pricing of food has generally been going up, but I felt the prices on food and drink had some room for improvement. Slightly above average. The room is of good size but it could get crowded. The advantage of a dedicated karaoke pub room can be overcome by larger audiences.

The Bad: I had hoped this section would have nothing in it but on Saturdays there is a serious issue. While all marketing material and signs say karaoke starts at 10 PM, Peter will wait until as late as 11 PM. I've mentioned in previous reviews this is not cool and Peter Rockwell knows how to work an audience of any size. It was implied that one reason was gets people to drink more. I consider that to be disrespectful to the audience. This also puts the rotation in the lower category in part because the host is waiting for the queue to be longer. Karaoke hosts in general, if you post a time and start later on a regular basis because you don't feel the queue is large enough, I'll take off marks and emphasis it. It's bad business. To pub owners who may be pushing their hosts to this sort of behavior be warned, your patrons will not appreciate it. Making people who come on time wait, and my group tends to have a full dinner before karaoke begins, wastes our dollars as well as our time. You want people to drink more, keep them HAPPY. Not irritated.


Conclusion: The Fox & Fiddle at Wellsley has GREAT potential. An excellent host for the younger and open-minded crowded, fairly good food, great location, good song selection and equipment. Unfortunately the karaoke business practices in regards to starting times, whether it's because of the venue owner, the karaoke host, or both, leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. Depriving audiences of up one hour of joyful, humors singing to push people to buy more drinks is bad practice either way. There were actually open complaints by my group published on the Meetup site comments because it happened twice in 2 months. I may need to move the venue as I don't wish to lose my most dedicated members. Karaoke MC's and venue owners reading I hope understand we karaoke lovers don't appreciate inaccurate starting times or being made to wait in an effort to push more drinks. I would have loved to give this place an unreserved endorsement. But if audiences coming at the appointed time are forced to wait for longer rotations to build its time BADLY wasted. You can sing just as many songs at the Gladstone Hotel with its huge crowds. The difference its, the crowds are why you wait, not the host.

Final Grade: B-

Summary Scores:

Facilities: 9.0 (Excellent setup, very imtimate, yet exposed to your "loving" public)
Food Selection: 8.5 (Basic pub fare with a few Indian dishes, nice selection on cakes)
Food Quality: 8.2 (food was overall quite good you won't be disappointed)
Prices: 7.0 (Prices are basically average)
Location: 9.5 (Right on top of Wellsley subway station, paid parking right next door, doesn't get better than that)
Song Selection: 8.2 (Strong selection, but others like Jason Rolland and Jeremy Sikloski are pushing the envelope)
Equipment: 8.5 (Excellent equipment, would love to see an LCD monitor mounted higher though)
Host: 8.0 (I would have given a 9.0 but as I said earlier, making the audiences wait an hour because the queues aren't large enough is bad practice. Especially by an MC of this high caliber. The bad taste it leaves makes one more likely to complain rather than buy more food or drink)
Service: 7.5 (The service was actually quite good some times, but other times it felt like we were forgotten. May have to do with staff getting busy with the opposite room where the bar is)
Rotation Times: 6.0 (Making people wait past the published starting time to push alcohol is NOT cool)

Venue Information:

Peter Rockwell, Pete Rock Radio Karaoke
27 Wellsley Street East,
Toronto, ON M4Y 1G7
Phone: (416) 944-9369

Pete Rock Radio Karaoke
Site: http://www.peterockradio.com and
http://www.karaokeisstupid.com

Bar 244 with Jason Rolland

Reviewed: 2010-03-10

Event Time: Wednesdays, 10 PM to 2 AM

Been a bit of a lag time for me. And while I've been getting out venues to write about them, been a dog of a time getting them written. Finally getting this one out. Jason Rolland, guy who for quite some time has maintained title for "Best Karaoke Equipment" for sometime now, has a new venue at University and Adelaide. Bar 244. Simple, name, close to Tequila Sunrise, one of Jason's oldest Toronto venues. Its actually impressive to keep 2 karaoke venues within the same block with the same MC. Identical equipment makes the scoring so much simpler, especially when its as good as Jason's.

The Good: Great to know the good things about Jason Rolland's shows haven't changed. Sound levels still dead on, wireless mikes, LCD screen, excellent balance and still the best official song selection in Toronto. (He's up to 37k+ now..). Being a Wednesday night, I found rotation times were fantastic, got in 3 songs in one hour. (I'm told the week before it was packed so I cannot guarantee the short wait times every week). Jason's actually improve as an MC: His jokes were surprisingly funny. We've been short of truly comic Karaoke hosts since Jeff Zedic left the country. One day I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison between Jason Rolland and Peter Rockwell. The stage feels like a stage, and all the people at the bar can look at you, their drinks, or each other. Nice to have a captive audience. :D Given that the prices of beers are better than average, you can be pretty sure people will cheer out of appreciation, or drunkenness. It works well either way. Location is also fairly convenient as well. Just go to Osgoode Subway Station and 5 minute walk. Drink service is excellent.

The Mixed: Nothing mixed.

The Bad: The decor reminded me of a typical American Bar: No real decor or theme. Its okay, but it LOOKS like a bar. So long as you keep the booze rolling you probably won't notice. Maybe that's the point. Another consequence of being a bar is no food. Eat before you arrive. (although I'm told alcohol goes to your head faster on an empty stomach).

Summary:

Bar 244 with Jason Roland is (and I told him as much) a quality Karaoke venue. Best for a karaoke version of the "after-dinner mint" because of lack of food. On the other hand, the price for the booze is right, the selection is the biggest in the city, the equipment still the best, and Jason Rolland actually gets plenty of laughs, no alcohol required. You may still want that liquid courage to sing songs you wouldn't dare try otherwise. Whatever those songs may be, Jason is likely to have them, this is the best you are likely to sound, and one of the better karaoke stages as well (bonus). So go for it! If you love Karaoke and drinks, you'll enjoy this Bar 244.

Final Grade: B/B+

Facilities: 7.5 (Great Stage, Good layout. A bar is a Bar I guess, but as Karaoke Bars go, this one's well above par, nothing run down looking, just no real decor)
Equipment: 9.5 (Jason Rolland's Equipment...nuff said)
Song Selection: 9.5 (Again, Jason Rolland...nuff said)
Food Selection: NA (What food?)
Food Quality: NA
Food Service: 8.0 (drinks only)
Prices: 8.4 (Quite good actually)
Location: 8.2 (Just a trip to Osgoode, walk south, then west)
Wait Times: 9.0 (Not many people in queue when I was there, be warned though some nights are busier than others)
Host: 8.2 (Jason actually seems to get better with time. He keeps the long songs shorter, and the rotation going as always AND his crowd interaction has come some ways. This may be the best I've seen him)

Venue Information:
Karaoke Wednesdays, 2 PM to 2 AM
Bar 244
244 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, ON
Phone: (416) 599-2442
www.bar244.ca

Karaoke Host Info:
Host Information:
Jason Rolland
http://www.jasonrolland.com/
jason@jasonrolland.com
(416) 809-4311

New Toronto Karaoke T-Shirt

After an amazing session at my Meetup's Karaoke Box meeting, I was inspired to design a t-shirt after my self proclaimed title, "Toronto's BIGGEST Karaoke Fan" so...here it is: I'm getting a few done for some Meeutp members who I feel have shown as much passion for karaoke as I do (maybe...:-)). Then I figured, why not share with others I haven't met who may THINK they can compete for the title. :D I have a GIMP draft but this site seemed convenient. Not quite perfect but it will do until I have time to tweak my design/images. If you'd like one of these shirts e-mail me at karaokeoffer at evolveit dot ca. This is of course only in Toronto only. (Who want's to wear a shirt like this outside of Toronto anyway...?) Need a general t-shirt size of course. If I get at least 10 requests I can get them in at ~$20 each and you can pick one up at a Toronto Karaoke Meetup or I can ship it to you for ~$5. Cheers All!