One of London's best-known music venues finally reopens its doors in April, following its closure in 2022, resulting from the death of two people in a crush.
Brixton Academy hasn't put on a gig since 15 December 2022, when a security guard and music fan died in the build up to an Asake gig, in which people tried to force their way into the venue.
The Met Police had urged Lambeth Council to revoke the venue's licence for good, but instead, the Brixton Academy — which first opened as a gig venue in 1983 — will carry on, working under "extensive and robust new conditions", and having spent some £1.2 million on improvements.
The first artists to play at the reopened concert hall on Friday 19 April 2024 will be the Nirvana tribute band Nirvana UK and The Smyths (a Smiths cover band). Infamously, the real Nirvana were billed to play Brixton Academy in 1994, before frontman Kurt Cobain committed suicide. (Tickets for the show that never happened now sell for hundreds of pounds.)
Bands on the docket for May 2024 include Editors and The Black Keys,
