The Future of Brixton Academy
We need some wise heads to prevail
The Who concert disaster occurred on December 3, 1979 at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. A rush of concert-goers outside the Coliseum's entry doors resulted in the deaths of 11 people. The specific causes of this terrible event resulted in significant changes to the way that rock concerts are staged - specifically unassigned seating for arena events would not return to Cincinnati for 25 years. The city still mandates there must be nine square feet per person at a venue, with the number of tickets sold for each event adjusted accordingly.
This is far from alone in being a tragic event at a rock concert that resulted in changes to the way that large crowds are managed. Nine people died, and twenty-six people were injured, three of them seriously, at Roskilde Festival in June 2000. The crowd surge did not result in any criminal charges, although the response time from when the people fell over until they were rescued was criticised. In response, several new measures were implemented, such as a larger safety area with extra emergency exits in front of the stage, more "hard" and "soft" systems to control the number of people allowed into each concert, more spacing and clear separation between audience sections with separate entrances/exits, an expanded video surveillance system making it easier to detect potential problems early, more guards among the audience, an emergency system where the safety staff can shut down the entire concert at the push of a single button, and the chain-of-command was strengthened. These new measures gradually became standard across larger events, and you can see them in operation across the world at this year’s festivals. It was a terrible tragedy. Lessons were learned.
Live music is far from being alone in needing to deal with, and learn from, tragedy. Heysel and Hillsborough in Football. The Seoul Halloween crush. The Meron stampede. Large crowds of people require rigorous and robust management policies and sadly those processes can fail.
The terrible incident at Brixton Academy 15 December 202 was tragic and there needs to be a thorough investigation. Not only do lessons need to be learned to avoid this ever happening again, people also need to be held accountable. In this case, almost exclusively in the terrible list of tragedies above, a terrible incident at a venue has resulted not just in an investigation, people being held accountable, and changes being demanded and delivered. It has resulted in the Metropolitan Police demanding the revocation of the licence to operate live music at the venue.
The management of venues is difficult. So much goes on, and needs to go on, unseen by the public to successful run busy events and the buildings in which they take place. In 2013 the ceiling of the Apollo Theatre collapsed injuring 80 people. In 2019 an exactly similar incident happened at the Piccadilly Theatre. In both cases the theatres quickly reopened under the same management and the same licence. No new licence conditions were applied, no additional inspections or standards demanded. Two incidences of theatre ceilings collapsing is two too many, but there was never a suggestion that those theatres could not host events safely.
Whether people like me saying it or not, Academy Music Group are one of the best venue operators in the world. They do some things I don’t personally like and would change if I could. But the general standard to which they operate their premises is a best practice industry standard. It’s entirely possible that those procedures failed at Brixton Academy on this night and if they did we all need to know why and we need to make sure that those failures aren’t ever repeated.
AMG have already put forward a whole range of measures that directly address the specific issues on the night of this tragedy. If the Met want a standard of venue operation that exceeds that being offered by AMG they should have to explain what that is, how it can possibly be delivered, and who by.
The separate issue of whether terrible and tragic mistakes might or might not have been made, and who by, at this specific event is something for an inquiry. That shouldn’t result in a unachievable licensing standard being imposed on Brixton Academy by the Met that must have the inevitable impact of permanent closure. Some people have suggested that an alternative operator could step in and take over the licence. But that ignores the point that the proposals put forward in response to this incident by AMG aren’t going to be exceeded or bettered by any other operator. The Met, whether this is their intention or not, are effectively saying this building can’t be run safely under any conditions of licensing.
Safety failures are serious issues which need thorough investigation and appropriate remedial action to avoid them happening again. People should be held accountable for mistakes that were made. People lost their lives at this event and we shouldn’t ever forget that or simply go on as if it had never happened.
But the proposed permanent closure of Brixton Academy as a live music venue, the almost unavoidable consequence of this demand by The Met, is an unacceptable outcome from a tragic incident.