Memories Stay Forever (The London Astoria)

Member Name: GeordieNick

Product:	The London Astoria
Date:	04/08/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intimate, A special atmosphere and aura

Disadvantages: It is gone

The London Astoria does not exist anymore. So I can understand if you think that me writing this review is pointless. But, even though I only went to the Astoria once, I want to share that experience because it was truly a great night at a venue which has been graced by so much musical talent since it first opened. I won't be doing what I usually do for stadiums and arenas and tell you about travel and crowds. What is the point in that if the Astoria does not exist anymore? I am going to share with you what made the Astoria special.

First a bit of background. The Astoria was a venue in Charing Cross London and opened in 1927 solely as a cinema. It became a venue exclusively used for music in 1976 and had a compact but atmospheric capacity of 2000. Historically, The Astoria is famed for hosting up and coming bands at the time such Nirvana and Radiohead in 1989. However, bigger bands also played the venue such as The Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi. At the beginning of the millenium, Festival Republic ran the venue and it became popular for hosting compact gigs in London for well known artists. Since 2000, a whole host of popular bands have played the Astoria including the emerging band I went to see in late 2008, Airbourne. The final gig was hosted on January 14th 2009 and involved Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Paul Draper and The Automatic. The Astoria is currently covered in scaffolding and will be making way for Crossrail. There is a new venue in the pipeline but no details have been released as of yet.

The Astoria was a different sort of venue to any other venue. It was a small venue, an intimate venue but it held a fantastic atmosphere and still attracted big name bands. Airbourne are an Australian band and they really brought the house down on my visit. When you enter the arena and go through the dark, narrow corridors inside and finally get to the middle it strikes you as a classic venue for a rock and roll band. The venue was shaped as a semi circle with bars for drinks around the circular sides and the stage lifted behind the straight side. In the middle was a area at a lower level where people stood and enjoyed at the back or if you were really into it, rocked out down at the front. Around the standing area at a much higher level were seats and a balcony for those who wanted to watch from further away. The truly special thing about this intimate arena was how close you were to the action. I felt at the end when everyone was really going for it that I was in touching distance of the front man hovering above me. A truly different yet brilliant experience.

For the fussy people out there, there might be a complaint that the venue was too dark or too compact but the intimacy of it was what the Astoria was all about. As the Airbourne front man said, 'They can take away the venue, but they can't take away our memories.'

Summary: A truly fantastic small arena. What a shame it had to be taken away.