Brixton Music Memories - BBC

[ZoJ]

Hi all, Zoe (formerly of the brixton blog ) here. I am working on bbc project to collect music memories from UK music scenes. It's called the People's History of Pop - www.phop.co.uk - and we are crowdsourcing people's stuff/stories saved from music cultures.

Being from Brixton myself, I would love to get some Brixton memories of music scenes on the website. I know editor has done some great features on this in the past.

Specifically, I wondered if anyone had any memories/memorabilia of reggae or soundsystem scenes? Or were you a Brixton punk? Were you there in the early days of The Fridge and do you still have photos/tickets? And what about dancing at Clouds - as depicted in this wonderful YouTube clip from the film British Hustle? Anyone remember being there or going to the Ram Jam, which took its place?

People are uploading their 'stuff' - ticket stubs, posters, flyers, membership cards, photos, personal footage, audio - to historypin.org/en/explore/phop/ >> you can join and upload here, as well as seeing what people have already put up. Already some Lambeth and Brixton Academy memories up on there.

Thanks for taking the time to read,
Zoe

 

[Pickman's model]

i saw garbage at the academy and iirc elastica and skunk anansie too (not on the same bill tho)

 

[ZoJ]

Do you have any ticket stubs or memorabilia of any of the gigs? If so would love to have your story of seeing them on the site. The first gig I went to was at the Academy - Placebo (in 1998?)

 

[editor]

Incidentally: Nineteen years of Brixton gigs – a used ticket history of Brixton Academy

 

[ZoJ]

Incidentally: Nineteen years of Brixton gigs – a used ticket history of Brixton Academy

ah hadn't seen that one! of course - must get Rich involved!

 

[Casaubon]

A thread on the Ram Jam Club/original Fridge here:
Where was the Ramjam Club (390 Brixton Rd)?

 

[story]

King Kurt gigs a-plenty at The Fridge when it was a small room upstairs from the Kentucky Fried Chicken place further down Brixton Road. And all the cake-caked psychobilly boys in frocks on the tube station out of Brixton at the end of the night.

There's a big house in the middle of Brixton where Hawkwind used to stay at when they came to London. There were Motörhead connections too, of course. Philthy Phil's drum kit was stashed in the basement for decades. Killing Joke stayed there too. Roy Harper stayed there for several months. And there's a Jimi Hendrix story or two too. There were autographs all over the ceiling of the sitting room. The upstairs looked like a mixture between Performance and Hobbitsville.


Ooh! My iPad has added the umlaut to Motörhead... And doesn't question the spelling of Philthy....

 

[Paul.]

The original Ram Jam Club was not renamed the Fridge. The Fridge was the old ABC cinema opposite St Mathews church. To find the site of the club you go down to the cross road opposite the nick. Go straight over about five/six doors on the left, opposite the registry offices on the right [that was where they used to be any way] was where the Ram Jam Club was. I think the council may have started to use them at one time. Anyway that is where the club was. I spent many a weekend there in the 60s. Very happy nights and days indeed.

 

[editor]

The original Ram Jam Club was not renamed the Fridge. The Fridge was the old ABC cinema opposite St Mathews church. To find the site of the club you go down to the cross road opposite the nick. Go straight over about five/six doors on the left, opposite the registry offices on the right [that was where they used to be any way] was where the Ram Jam Club was. I think the council may have started to use them at one time. Anyway that is where the club was. I spent many a weekend there in the 60s. Very happy nights and days indeed.

And the Palladium before that!

Palladium Picture House, Palladium Cinema, Fridge, Brixton Hill, Brixton. Historical Brixton - old and new photos of Brixton, Lambeth, London, SW9 and SW2

 

[Casaubon]

The original Ram Jam Club was not renamed the Fridge. The Fridge was the old ABC cinema opposite St Mathews church. To find the site of the club you go down to the cross road opposite the nick. Go straight over about five/six doors on the left, opposite the registry offices on the right [that was where they used to be any way] was where the Ram Jam Club was. I think the council may have started to use them at one time. Anyway that is where the club was. I spent many a weekend there in the 60s. Very happy nights and days indeed.

The original Fridge definitely was in what had been the Ram Jam Club at 390 Brixton Rd.
See page 2 of this thread for confirmation - Where was the Ramjam Club (390 Brixton Rd)?

It moved to what had been the ABC in '83 or '84 I think (but my memory is fuzzy at best, it may have been later).

When the ABC closed as a cinema it was, briefly, a roller-disco among other things. If I remember right, it was damaged by fire and stood empty for a couple of years before Andy Czezowski took it on as the Fridge.