After the bad news of the Astoria closing the new management of The Fridge in Brixton have announced that it is currently being dusted down and spruced up as a major live music venue once again. The Fridge has been rewired, cleaned up and a massive new PA and lighting system has been installed, adding to the wonderful full size stage facilities, with direct loading from rear of venue, parking space, and three changing rooms with toilet and shower facility.
Over £150,000 has been spent on re-establishing the Fridge as a mainstream live music venue, capable of staging both intimate, 500 capacity club gigs (with the balcony closed) as well as 1400 capacity concerts and indoor festivals. Originally opened in 1913 as a cine-variety theatre, it retains all the original Edwardian Baroque /Art Deco friezes (highlighted in gold on black) and boasts fantastic acoustics and sightlines for gig goers – as old cinemas always do.
The Fridge in Brixton is one of only a handful of decent mid-size venues left in the capital; with demise of the Astoria, the only comparable venues (on a Tube line) remaining in operation are Koko in Camden and The Forum in Kentish Town. Co-incidentally, only the Fridge and Koko are fully independent and NOT part of any major chain of venues.
A wide range of live gigs and club nights are in the process of being organised for January 31st onwards, with various outside promoters already getting back on board and keen to put The Fridge back on to the national gig circuit map.
www.fridge.co.uk
