The End of The Astoria
It looks like The Astoria is doomed
“The construction of Crossrail means that the Astoria can’t be saved”, the mayor said. He added that a new, plusher concert venue would be included in the new development in Tottenham Court Road. Mr Livingstone said: “It wasn’t at the cutting edge of modern comfort”.
Ken Livingstone really doesn’t get rock and roll, does he?. The ‘plush new venue’ will be inevitably be as corporate and soulless as the political party he belongs to, with ticket prices to match. Rock venues are supposed to be hot and sweaty with beer-stained walls and floors. The best ones have character and history, with some of the essence of all the bands that played there imprinted in the building.
While The Astoria isn’t my favourite London venue, I’ve been to some great gigs there over the years, most recently Mostly Autumn’s Christmas show last year. It will be missed.
March 15th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
That sucks — I hate to see venues die. We lost the Town Pump here in Vancouver years ago — that was one of my favourites. The Fabulous Commodore was practically legendary and was closed for years but has since reopened. I like some things about it (like now more than one person can fit in the bathroom at a time) and dislike others (the old sprung dance floor was the best ever, new one is a poor imitation). If I ever went to England, I’d love to see some of the old classic venues (but that might be a hard sell for the kids, who have no sense of history (e.g. on seeing the classic Alastair Sims _A Christmas Carol_, they grimaced and one said “When is this from? The eighties?”
March 18th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Whilst its not nice to see venues disappearing, it’s not like London is short of decent venues and having seen many gigs there, the Astoria was not one of the decent ones. Let’s be completely honest here: the place is/was a dump (as is the LA2/Mean Fiddler downstairs) that never felt particular safe. So for that reason, I’m not sad to see it go. We need more venues like the Brixton Academy (who’s only fault is being in Brixton) and The Scala and less like The Astoria.
March 18th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
It will be missed by all those that enjoy the stampede through the narrowest of corridors at the end of gigs, and those that enjoy over-priced cans of lager … it will be missed, but for all the wrong reasons.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
I’m only sorry to see another venue die!
The Astoria was quite a dump really, lets hope the new venue will be more like The Junction in Cambridge, modern but still managing to portray an element of dinginess. Oh and agree with you Tim, lets hope prices dont rocket as a result!!!
Mick