Shepherds Bush Empire

Shepherds Bush Empire

The Shepherds Bush Empire (the first word is sometimes spelled Shepherd's) is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, run by the Academy Music Group. It was built in 1903, as a music hall, and in 1953 became the BBC Television Theatre. Since 1991, it has operated as a music venue.

History

It was built in 1903 for impresario Oswald Stoll, designed by theatre architect Frank Matcham. The first performers at the new theatre were The Fred Karno Troupe. The Empire staged music-hall entertainments, such as variety performances and revues, until the early 1950s, by which time the popularity of these forms of entertainment was declining. [http://www.shepherds-bush-empire.co.uk/history.php "Venue History"] (Official site) accessed 19 August 2008]

In 1953, the Empire was sold to the BBC, which put it to use as a television studio–theatre, renaming it the BBC Television Theatre. Among the programmes produced there were "Crackerjack", "Hancock's Half Hour", "The Old Grey Whistle Test", "That's Life!", "The Generation Game", "The Basil Brush Show", "Juke Box Jury", "This is Your Life", "Jim'll Fix It", almost all the BBC's light entertainment music shows, such as those starring Cliff Richard, Lulu, Cilla Black, Shirley Bassey, Vera Lynn, Harry Secombe, Petula Clark, as well as the UK's Eurovision Song Contest preliminary heat, "A Song For Europe". In 1985, the theatre was turned over for exclusive use by "Wogan", which was broadcast 3 nights a week from the theatre. [http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/old%20bbc%20studios.htm#tv%20theatre "Unofficial History of Shepherds Bush Empire as BBC Television Theatre"] accessed 19 August 2008]

The BBC vacated the building in 1991. It was taken over and, in 1994, again became the Shepherds Bush Empire.

Since then, it has become best known as a music venue and has hosted such acts as Iron Maiden, Tool, Blur, Kylie Minogue, Immortal Technique, Stroke Machine, Son Of Dork, The Wildhearts and Radiohead. The Empire has a capacity of only 2,000, but it has been chosen as a venue for small gigs by such leading performers as Neil Finn,Thunder, David Bowie, Phish, Elton John, Smashing Pumpkins and The Rolling Stones. In retrospect the most talked about show to take place there happened on March 10, 2003, when Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines made her famously controversial remark against United States President George W. Bush.

In 2007, Amy Winehouse recorded a show from her Back To Black tour, which was later released as on DVD.

References

External links

* [http://www.shepherds-bush-empire.co.uk/ Official site]
* [http://www.carling.com/music/venue/shepherds_bush.html Shepherds Bush Empire venue page]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • O2 Shepherds Bush Empire — Queue for Pearl Jam at the Empire in August 2009 Location Shepherds Bush, London, England Type Live music, theatre …   Wikipedia

  • Live at the Shepherds Bush Empire — Infobox Album Name = Live at the Shepherds Bush Empire Type = live Artist = Ezio Caption = Live at the Shepherds Bush Empire Released = 1999 Recorded = 5th March 1999 Genre = Folk Length = 60.1 minutes Language = English Label = Salami Records… …   Wikipedia

  • Live Shepherds Bush Empire December 7th 2007 — Infobox Album Name = Shepherds Bush Empire December 7th 2007 Type = live Artist = Josh Rouse Background = Released = April 28, 2008 Recorded = Shepherds Bush Empire, London UK Genre = Folk music Indie rock Length = 38:00 Label = Bedroom Classics… …   Wikipedia

  • Live at Shepherds Bush Empire (Gary Numan album) — Infobox Album Name = Live at Shepherds Bush Empire Type = Live Artist = Gary Numan Released = March 2004 Recorded = 9 November 1997 at Shepherds Bush Empire, London Genre = New Wave, synthpop Length = Label = Eagle Producer = Reviews = Last album …   Wikipedia

  • Live at Shepherds Bush Empire — Infobox music DVD Name = Live at Shepherds Bush Empire Type = DVD Artist = Björk Released = November 19, 2001 Directed = 27 February, 1997 Genre = Alternative, Electronica Length = Label = One Little Indian Director = David Barnard Reviews = *… …   Wikipedia

  • Live at Shepherds Bush Empire — Live At Shepherd s Bush Empire es un DVD lanzado al mercado en noviembre de 2001 por la cantante y compositora islandesa Björk. Este DVD está formado por 17 canciones que fueron interpretadas en un show libre del fan club que tuvo lugar en… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire — Concierto de Björk Publicación 19 de febrero de 2002 Grabación 27 de febrero 1997 Comentario …   Wikipedia Español

  • Shepherd's Bush — infobox UK place country = England map type = Greater London region= London population= official name= Shepherd s Bush latitude= 51.5042 longitude= 0.2207 london borough= Hammersmith and Fulham constituency westminster= Ealing, Acton and… …   Wikipedia

  • Live! At Shepherd’s Bush, London — Live! At Shepherds Bush, London Livealbum von Europe Veröffentlichung August 2011 Aufnahme 19. Februar 2011 Label …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Cooltura — This article is about the British magazines. For other uses, see Cooltura (disambiguation). Cooltura Front Page The 12 Frebruary 2011 front page of Cooltura …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”