So long, Astoria

The Astoria in London is one of the capital’s most loved music venues, and unfortunately it’s being pulled down next week in order to build a new Crossrail train system. Whilst being a bit of a dump (it’s the kind of place you can’t stand still in for too long without becoming stuck to the floor) it’s a really great, dirty rock ‘n’ roll venue, and there aren’t enough venues like it left these days – mainly thanks to the increasing corporate sponsorship/stranglehold of venues.

I’ve been to several stand-out gigs at the Astoria, gigs that have really stuck in mind as being some of my favourites ever. These gigs were usually to see bands that can fill much bigger venues play small, low-key shows. I remember seeing the Foo Fighters (supported by Ash) playing 24 hours after seeing them headlining the Leeds Festival – I travelled over half the length of the country to see them at the Astoria – one night they were playing to 60,000 people, the next 2,000! I was lucky enough to see the Foos play there again a couple of years later and will never forget them playing  ‘Aurora’ – it was awe-inspiring.

I also saw Audioslave’s first UK gig which was at the Astoria – they were never the band they could have been on record, but live they were something else – the energy of Rage Against The Machine, with the vocal power of Chris Cornell was outstanding! Then again a few years later I saw Chris Cornell perform solo – another great gig with many highlights from his career, including several Soundgarden numbers.

And in 2006 I attended what was (and still is) the best gig I’ve ever been to. After not touring the UK for 6 years (and me never having seen them) I saw Pearl Jam perform the first show of their ’self-titled’ album world tour at the Astoria, and by a bizarre twist of fate met all of the band afterwards. That gig has to be one of the loudest I’ve been to – maybe it was just my emotions running away with me, but you could feel the balcony swaying up and down that night as they played ‘Alive’ in the encore. This one stands out as my most vivid Astoria memory and I’d like to think that dark, dank, old building brought me a little bit of luck that night. So long, Astoria! Gone, but never forgotten!