Farewell the Astoria, rock’n'roll legend

I reported the closure of the Cafe Royal last month, but this month’s closure feels much more personal – the Astoria, perhaps London’s grubbiest music venue, has closed its doors for the last time.

Opposite Centre Point, the Astoria will be making way for the Crossrail project’s new station. Two other clubs will also go, leaving the area bereft of its rock and indie links.

Apparently, the Astoria will be replaced once the station has been completed. But no new building will replace the faded, grungy old Astoria.

I seem to remember seeing a fantastic gig here withBoris Grebenshikov and his band Aquarium – Russian rockers who seemed to meld punk attitude, glam clothes and a sensitivity to melody that wouldn’t have disgraced Mussorgsky at his best. More recently east coast (Lowestoft, that is, not Massachussetts) band The Darkness sold out the venue, and Oasis played a cracking gig here.

London’s got other great venues – the Empire out at Shepherds Bush, Camden’s Underworld (though that’s smaller), the Forum in Kentish Town, but they’re all out of the centre. This closure has really pulled the heart out of the London music scene.

And I wonder what will happen to all the music shops down Charing Cross Road and Denmark Street? This used to be ‘Tin Pan Alley’, and there are still some great music shops around here, but somehow it seems to have lost its rationale now the recording studios and venues have moved out of the centre. It would be sad to see the area become just another generic neighbourhood of office-block-and-Starbucks London.

Photo credit – Mark Hillary on flickr, showing the Manic Street Preachers