O2 Academy Brixton ‘best-run venue’ in the UK, say industry bosses

Music industry bosses have branded the O2 Academy Brixton “the best-run venue” in the UK as it was ordered to close for another three months while police investigate a crowd crush that left two dead.

Lambeth council said the 4,900-capacity venue must remain shut until April 16 at a licensing meeting today.

Councillors had previously told the venue to remain closed until January, at an emergency hearing in December last year, following the incident.

Several people were trampled after falling over when a large group of people forced their way into the O2 Academy Brixton on December 15, 2022, during a gig by Afrobeats singer Asake.

But Mark Ward, production director for electronic rock band Pendulum, who were due to perform two sell-out shows at the venue on March 5 and 6, said the O2 Academy was the best-run venue in the UK.

He told a Lambeth council licensing meeting: “In my opinion… Brixton is the best-run venue in the country.

“I would far rather be bringing my two sold-out Pendulum shows to Brixton Academy than anywhere else and I can’t. […] We’re now taking 10,000 people into a venue that is less well-run than the one that has now been closed.”

He added: “I’m not belittling for a second that there needs to be an awful lot of attention paid to what went wrong and how to change that and approach it in the best way possible moving forward.”

Production manager Jamal Chalabi echoed Mr Ward’s comments, saying that the O2 Academy Brixton was “one of the best-run venues” in the UK, if not the world.

He told the licensing meeting: “I can’t (highly enough) recommend the venue and their staff and the way they look after not only the artists in there but also the audience outside their control is beyond reproach in my opinion.”

Gaby Hutchinson, 23, who was working as security at the Asake gig, and mother-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, died in hospital after being injured in the crush in December. One person remains in hospital in a critical condition.

Academy Music Group (AMG), which runs the O2 Academy Brixton, had already agreed to voluntarily shut the venue for another three months in 2023 to allow the Met to continue its investigation into the incident.

AMG said it expressed its “sincere condolences to the families of those who died during the tragic incident and its genuine concerns for anyone affected by it.”

An AMG spokesman said: “AMG has reflected deeply and has come to its own decision to close the premises for three months whilst the investigations take place and, at the same time, to work in partnership with the responsible authorities, which will include a review of the licence conditions and proposed amendments.”

Pictured top: O2 Academy in Brixton in the aftermath of the crowd crush on December 15 (Picture: PA)