It has a late license, which means the place is still open after a lot of other pubs shut and so only really gets going after 1am. Before that, it's filled with apathetic older people and apathetic tourists. It seems to be a popular pub for students, but since the Universities are on holiday, I'm not sure how many will be there.
You will not get a soundcheck. They don't do soundchecks there. The first band to go on at around 10 - 10.30pm and are the only ones who get a soundcheck of note, and it's just essentially checking the levels - it's nothing more than a line check in honesty. As soon as the soundcheck is finished, the first band play. When they're done, there's a brief change around and the next band are given a quick line check before they play.
The sound is variable. It sounds poor from the stage (I could not hear my guitarist, despite asking to have more guitar in my monitor - by the fourth time of asking, I gave up) but apparently sounds reasonable from the front, so I guess that's more important.
I think shite's the wrong word to use, there's plenty of places worse than that to play, it's just the whole operation was a bit slapdash and a little unsatisfying. Especially when you're on late and you're up the next day for work and such.