IT'S a concert venue that has played host to the likes of Oasis, Coldplay, Radiohead and Calvin Harris, and today in Edinburgh that venue will feature in a remarkable changeover when the famous Corn Exchange venue becomes the O2 Academy Edinburgh.
Music fans need not worry about its future, however, as the new operators have already lined up the likes of CHIC featuring Nile Rodgers, Chvrches, and Rag’n’Bone Man in the coming months.
As of today, the O2 Academy Edinburgh will be housed in the historic B-listed building in the city’s Chesser area. It really was a Corn Exchange, purpose-built for trading grains by the city’s council in 1909.
More recently however it was used for conferences, weddings and as a concert venue. Bought in 1992, Marco’s Leisure Ltd transformed the Corn Exchange to become one of the city’s largest standing, multi-purpose, award-winning venues.
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Its reputation for live music began with a sell-out show with Blur in 1999, leading to outstanding performances in recent years with major international headline acts including Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Faithless, Arctic Monkeys, Tom Walker, Garbage, Grace Jones, Paulo Nutini, Pulp, Calvin Harris as well as those mentioned above and many more.
Graham Walters, the chief operating officer for Academy Music Group, said: “We’ve been keen to expand our O2 Academy brand in Scotland for some time and we’re delighted to now be in Edinburgh, it’s an inspiring city with a thriving appetite for music and culture.
“We see huge potential with this venue, it fits with our ethos of investing in heritage buildings, with the right capacity of 3000 to bring world-class entertainment to the city. It also has a number of diverse secondary spaces, flexible formats and configurations that we’ll be looking at over the coming months to complement programming and events in the main auditorium.”
Gareth Griffiths, head of sponsorship for O2, commented: “The new O2 Academy Edinburgh is a brilliant addition to our O2 Academy estate. It’s a beautiful venue and as entertainment begins to return this further demonstrates O2 and Academy Music Group’s commitment to enhancing the live industry in Scotland, one of the best places to watch music in the UK.”
Paul DeMarco, managing director for Marco’s Leisure Ltd said: “When Marco’s Leisure bought the Corn Exchange in Chesser 22 years ago, we started with a plan to be Edinburgh's go-to concert venue and ran over 300 live shows, as well as welcoming three million visitors to gigs, conferences, banquets, weddings, exhibitions and parties, creating one of the busiest and most successful venues in Scotland. We are happy to pass on the baton to the top professionals in the live music industry who will ensure it continues to play a major role in Scotland's events industry for many more years to come. Marco’s will continue to operate and expand its leisure business.”
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O2 Academy Edinburgh from today will add to the existing UK portfolio of now 20 award-winning venues that are owned and operated by Academy Music Group, including O2 Academy Glasgow and London’s iconic O2 Academy Brixton and O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
Academy Music Group has already invested in brand new, in-house, state-of-the-art sound and lighting production facilities at O2 Academy Edinburgh ahead of its forthcoming shows including; Declan McKenna (Fri 03 Sep), Tom Grennan (Thu 09 Sep), CHIC feat. Nile Rogers (Tue 21 Sep), Yungblud (Mon 11 Oct), DMA’S (Mon 18 and Tue 19 Oct), Rag’n’Bone Man (Tue 26 Oct), The Snuts (Thu 28 Oct), Bullet For My Valentine (Mon 01 Nov), Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes (Tue 23 Nov), Bicep (Tue 07 Dec), The Charlatans (Tue 21 Dec), CHVRCHES (Mon 13 Mar), Jake Bugg (Mon 21 Mar), The War On Drugs (Mon 18 Apr), Gary Numan (Mon 09 May), Marina (Tue 17 May), Beck (Tue 14 Jun).
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