 | |
| Location | Loampit Vale, Lewisham, London, SE13 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Gaumont-British (1932 - 1941) Rank Organisation (1941 - 1981) |
| Capacity | 3050 |
| Opened | 1962 |
| Closed | 1981 |
The Lewisham Odeon was a cinema and music venue located in Lewisham, London, England. During its nearly half a century open the changes in British popular music can be seen reflected in the acts to perform there, particularly in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.
It opened in 1932 as the Gaumont Palace with the films Westward Passage and The Midshipmaid . With 3,050 seats it was among the UK's largest cinemas. [1]
An article originally published in the Observer on 16 September 1956 quotes a soldier visiting the cinema to see Rock Around The Clock saying "You should have seen this place last night. Jiving on the stage they were, till the cops came." It goes on to mention a boy escorted out by police, also for jiving, and ending up in a "meat-wagon" [2]
In October 1959 a pre-fame Georgie Fame, then known as Clive Powell, auditioned for pop manager Larry Parnes at the theater during The Marty Wilde Show. He performed a cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' High School Confidential and was hired as a backing pianist for Parnes “stable” of singers. [3]
On Sunday, 1 May 1960, Gene Vincent re-started his U.K. tour at the Gaumont after the car crash on the 16th April following his Bristol concert, as reported by the New Musical Express, the following week. He sang, so that newspaper reported, Over the Rainbow . [4]
The building reopened in 1962 as the Lewisham Odeon after being closed for several months due to a fire. It nostalgically re-screened The Midshipmaid, and its first new showing was That Touch of Mink .
Over the years it hosted performances from artists such as David Bowie, [5] Queen, [6] Status Quo, [7] Nat King Cole, Johnny Cash, The Hollies, The Beatles, [8] Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, The Everly Brothers, [9] The Supremes, Deep Purple, [10] Dire Straits, [11] Rod Stewart and The Faces, [12] The Clash, [13] Carl Perkins, [14] Wings, [15] Ian Dury, [16] The Specials, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, [17] Emerson, Lake & Palmer, [18] Adam and The Ants, [19] Stevie Wonder, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, [20] Thin Lizzy, [21] Tom Robinson Band, [22] Hawkwind, [23] T. Rex, [24] Gladys Knight and the Pips, Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Ruffin, Carol Woods, [25] Gerry and the Pacemakers [26] and The Who. [27]
On 27 May 1978 Black Sabbath headlined there on their Never Say Die tour, with support from Van Halen. [28] [29]
In 1977, 1979, and 1980 Lewisham Council rejected applications from then owners of Odeon, Rank Leisure, to convert it into a bingo hall. [30] Rank closed the cinema and venue on 14 February 1981. The Stage reported at the time that the council had hoped to retain the cinema and its planning and development committee would be meeting to consider a plan submitted by Rank to convert it into "two smaller studio cinemas and a department store". [30] Its final concerts were two dates by The Who on 8 and 9 February. [31]
The building was demolished in 1991 for a road widening scheme. [4] [32]
Lewisham is an area of southeast London, England, six miles south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London, with a large shopping centre and street market. Lewisham had a population of 60,573 in 2011.
New Cross is an area in south-east London, England, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich, and home to Goldsmiths, University of London, Haberdashers' Hatcham College and Addey and Stanhope School.
The Odeon Luxe West End is a two-screen cinema on the south side of Leicester Square, London. It has historically been used for smaller film premieres and hosting the annual BFI London Film Festival. The site is on an adjacent side of the square to the much larger flagship Odeon Luxe Leicester Square.
Oscar Deutsch was a British entrepreneur who was the founder of Odeon Cinemas, the largest cinema chain in the United Kingdom. He opened his first cinema in Brierley Hill, Staffordshire in 1928, with the chain's flagship cinema, the Odeon, Leicester Square in London, opening in 1937.
Gaumont may refer to:
The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Hammersmith, London, it is an art deco Grade II* listed building.
Little Angels were an English hard rock band predominantly active between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. The band reformed on 8 June 2012 to play the Download Festival.
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone Roman theatre structure located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis of Athens, Greece. The building was completed in AD 161 and then renovated in 1950.
Odeon Cinemas Limited, trading as Odeon, is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Greece, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsidiary of AMC Theatres. It uses the famous name of the Odeon cinema circuit first introduced in Great Britain in 1930. As of 2016, Odeon is the largest cinema chain in the United Kingdom by market share.
ABC Cinemas was a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. Originally a wholly owned subsidiary of Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC), it operated between the 1920s and the 1980s. The brand name was reused in the 1990s until 2000.
"Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" is a song by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, first released as a single on Stiff Records in the UK on 1 December 1978 and credited to "Ian & the Blockheads". Written by Dury and the Blockheads' multi-instrumentalist Chaz Jankel, it is the group's most successful single, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart in January 1979 as well as reaching the top three in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and it was also a top 20 hit in several European countries.
The Regent Theatre is a theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Constructed in 1929 as a cinema, it is one of several theatres in the city centre and one of two operated by the Ambassador Theatre Group on behalf of Stoke-on-Trent City Council. The building was converted for full-time use as a theatre in 1999, and since then has hosted a number of shows and musicals. The theatre is also the northern base for the Glyndebourne Touring Opera.
Ipswich Regent Theatre is a theatre and concert venue located at St Helen's Street in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The auditorium was refurbished in 2007 and now holds 1,551 people, having reduced the capacity by 150 to accommodate larger and more comfortable seating. It is East Anglia's largest theatre. It has also been known as the Gaumont Theatre. It was designated as a Grade II listed building in 2000.
The Saville Theatre building is a former West End theatre and cinema at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue in the London Borough of Camden. The theatre opened in 1931, and became a music venue during the 1960s. In 1970, it became a cinema, most recently as the Odeon Covent Garden.
The Rainbow Theatre, originally known as the Finsbury Park Astoria, then the Finsbury Park Paramount Astoria, and then the Finsbury Park Odeon, is a Grade II*-listed building in Finsbury Park, London. The theatre was built in 1930 as an "atmospheric cinema", to house entertainment extravaganzas which included a film show. It later became an ordinary cinema, then a music venue, as which it is best known, and then an occasional unlicensed boxing venue. Today, the building is used by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, an Evangelical church.
The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais, was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith, London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first palais de danse to be built in Britain. In 2009, it was named by the Brecon Jazz Festival as one of twelve venues which had made the most important contributions to jazz music in the United Kingdom.
John Stanley Coombe Beard FRIBA, known professionally as J. Stanley Beard, was an English architect known for designing many cinemas in and around London.
Bradford Odeon is the name applied to two different cinemas in central Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. One, in Godwin Street, was built in 1930 and survives; the other, in Manchester Road, was built in 1938 and demolished in 1969.
The Embassy Cinema is a former cinema in the town of Chadwell Heath, Greater London. It was once known, among locals, as The Gaumont. It was designed in an art deco style, with a streamline moderne interior, by Harry Weston in 1934. The building is situated on the border of Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham, in the Chadwell Heath District Centre. The cinema closed in 1966 and became a Bingo Hall. In 2015, following the closure of the Bingo Hall, it was then used as a wedding hall/banqueting suite. The building was listed as an Asset of Community Value by the 'Chadwell Heath South Residents' Association' in August 2017 and is currently the focus of a major cinema restoration project.
John Robert Bee was a British theatre organist who held solo positions at the Haymarket Theatre, Norwich, and The New Gaumont, Worcester. He broadcast regularly for the BBC in the 1930s and 1940s and toured extensively playing organ recitals in later life, being known as one of the 'Old Timers' of British theatre organists. His theme tune was ‘The Honeysuckle And The Bee’.
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