Review: O2 Academy Launch and Editors

11th Sep 2009

LAST Thurs­day saw the launch of the new O2 Acad­emy — a £5 mil­lion refur­bish­ment project to bring a new venue to Birmingham’s music scene. The Edi­tors, sup­ported by Bom­bay Bicy­cle Club and The North­west­ern opened the venue in style, treat­ing all the lucky atten­dees of the first gig to ener­getic and enter­tain­ing performance.

Although it took the Edi­tors a while to get the crowd going, when they even­tu­ally launched into clas­sics from the first album such as ‘Blood’ every­one was fully com­mit­ted and the hard­core Editor’s fans were clearly enjoy­ing them­selves. Front man Tom Smith didn’t have much to say, rather he con­cen­trated on deliv­er­ing to the fans and pro­vid­ing an open­ing night to mark the O2’s arrival.

Despite being a hitch free night with a wel­com­ing atmos­phere you can’t help but feel it was slightly muted, but this may have been the per­cep­tion from my posi­tion on the bal­cony rather than in the pit with the hard­core fans.

The new venue is an inter­est­ing space — far more inti­mate than some­where like the NEC or NIA, but con­sid­er­ably larger than the Glee Club. It is also the new host of Pro­pa­ganda, a club night pre­vi­ously held at Gate­crasher on a Fri­day — it starts again on the 18th of Sep­tem­ber. It may strug­gle to forge a strong iden­tity either as a gig venue or club night, attempt­ing to be the best of both and pos­si­bly being nei­ther. It is early days yet though and it would be unfair to draw a firm con­clu­sion until at least the first offi­cial pro­pa­ganda night. The new O2 is a venue stu­dents will want to be aware of.