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The Fridge reopening as Electric Brixton

wemakeyousoundb said:
I sure hope the security is not the old crew. Very unpleasant is a bit of an understatement. then again there was the once when I met a nice guy there.
Good venue for gigs. I remember squatting the stage at the end of a RDf gig there and we actually had people dancing before the stage manager cuts the sound off.
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That's a bit unfair,in a industry noted for it's violence Ralph and Richard ran/run a very tight crew,nice guys if you weren't trying to sell crack to teenagers.There was of course the run in with the team at the Academy which left several of them in hospital,but that was business and in no way just gratuitous violence.
 
peterkro said:
That's a bit unfair,in a industry noted for it's violence Ralph and Richard ran/run a very tight crew,nice guys if you weren't trying to sell crack to teenagers.There was of course the run in with the team at the Academy which left several of them in hospital,but that was business and in no way just gratuitous violence.
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well, no idea what the run in with the team at the academy was. I just know that I got treated not very nicely by the security there quite a few times (late 80s) as in "nope you can't get your coat out the coat check you've just been kicked out the place" and nope I wasn't selling any crack, more of a "we can't find the guy we want this one will do" type of story, and as I said, one of the security guy there was really nice to me once when I somehow ended up in a k hole on one of their fire escape staircase (only accessible to staff though, so this might have helped). I must also ad no violence was actually involved, so my ramblings might just be pissed complaints, and I had no trouble the couple of times I went there in the early 90s.
I just use to get this bad vibe of them generally, to be fair I was a lot younger and probably a lot more trouble making than I am now without the shadow of a doubt.
 
It's looking good in the photos... so many supposed renaissances of that place over the past few years; hopefully this time it'll actually come to something. The fact they are putting the effort in to tidy up the interior suggests they are serious about it.

The tube station's going to be fun on nights where gigs here and at the academy finish at the same time!
 
wemakeyousoundb said:
well, no idea what the run in with the team at the academy was. I just know that I got treated not very nicely by the security there quite a few times (late 80s) as in "nope you can't get your coat out the coat check you've just been kicked out the place" and nope I wasn't selling any crack, more of a "we can't find the guy we want this one will do" type of story, and as I said, one of the security guy there was really nice to me once when I somehow ended up in a k hole on one of their fire escape staircase (only accessible to staff though, so this might have helped). I must also ad no violence was actually involved, so my ramblings might just be pissed complaints, and I had no trouble the couple of times I went there in the early 90s.
I just use to get this bad vibe of them generally, to be fair I was a lot younger and probably a lot more trouble making than I am now without the shadow of a doubt.
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I worked with them and generally speaking they were fine,a tendency to homophobia but regular guys if you could get past that.I've seen them go out armed only with chains (from the fire doors) to confront someone who had just fired a sawn off shotgun at the main doors.The bust up with the Academy guys was a big deal at the time and sorted who controlled Brixton for some time.As a indication of who worked the Academy doors at the time this was one of them:
http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/life-for-hitman-who-shot-pc/DRfl-wyS1kJabpcy

(by the way the ceiling in the Fridge is a big deal I happen to know it has to be inspected each year and a brown paper bag containing readies was necessary to get a surveyor to sign off on it.About half a ton of plaster dropped off in the early nineties,fortunately it was 5am and only staff were around.I don't know if the new leaseholders have done any work on it but the "a velvet curtain draped over the ceiling" suggests not.By the way when I worked there I got a hazmat team to remove the asbestos from the big extraction ducts either side of the stage,they did not remove the asbestos that lines the ducts which go to the big extraction fan on the roof.
 
They've announced the first 3 live gigs: Sham 69, Stiff Little Fingers and New Model Army.

Not my kind of thing personally but at least it's better than the last relaunch and if they produce those shows well then others will come.

They also have a few housey nights on with Felix da Housecat doing the opening night on 24/9

http://www.electricbrixton.com/

New story here (with unfortunate "Brixton is the new Camden" quote)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14578225
 
the website is chuffing terrible

glad to see the old place open again

you can +1 to people who went to Love Muscle by mistake. We went to try and blag our way in to The Orb at The Academy in the early 90s. Failed and just thought we'll go to The Fridge, didn't really notice the gay porn on the TV wall on paying nor register the smell of poppers for a bit (we were pretty pissed). Had a great night though! was certainly a bit of an eye opener at the time.
 
twistedAM said:
They've announced the first 3 live gigs: Sham 69, Stiff Little Fingers and New Model Army.

Not my kind of thing personally but at least it's better than the last relaunch and if they produce those shows well then others will come.
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does that mean lots of flying clogs? NMA seem a safe, sell out choice, but sham 69? Is that one gig or several?
 
snowy_again said:
does that mean lots of flying clogs? NMA seem a safe, sell out choice, but sham 69? Is that one gig or several?
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Sham 69 is a one-off show from the 1977 line-up. From what i hear there'll be plenty of old punks paying £20 + bf + tf for that one.
 
twistedAM said:
Sham 69 is a one-off show from the 1977 line-up. From what i hear there'll be plenty of old punks paying £20 + bf + tf for that one.
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Ah, I see. There was a time in teh 90s when you could play drunken football with them every Friday night behind the Astoria. You might not have wanted to, but it always seemed inevitable.
 
Good to see ed's photo. Nice write up from the beeb there apart from the spelling mistakes "We compliment the Academy" and "thumping base" :facepalm:
 
I had some awesome nights there at Love Muscle :D The snow inside at a Xmas one was ace :D Glad to see it reopening and hope it works x
 
peterkro said:
I worked with them and generally speaking they were fine
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I beg to differ. A friend used to put on regular club nights there and I sometimes worked as a First-Aider. One time they wouldn't let us in to set up and were really aggressive and I know the club promoter thought they were a nightmare. Also there was an incident where one of the admin officers concerned with local community policing groups was in the Satay Bar and the Fridge security guys came in, got heavy with customers and told them to leave and got really heavy with the Satay Bar staff. All the customers had fled except for this particularly feisty admin officer who refused to leave and she was the one who called the police. At the time she suspected it was some sort of protection racket although it turned out to be a dispute involving one of the Fridge security's girlfriend. I know the the Borough Commander got involved with that one.
 
Friends went to Brava the opening club night on saturday and apart from a spot of wet paint (signs were up) they all had good night. It was busy with good music to dance, friendly staff and drinks at reasonable prices. They said it was nice to see the old place spruced up. I'm sorry I missed it but I sort of over achieved earlier that evening :facepalm:
 
19sixtysix said:
Friends went to Brava the opening club night on saturday and apart from a spot of wet paint (signs were up) they all had good night. It was busy with good music to dance, friendly staff and drinks at reasonable prices. They said it was nice to see the old place spruced up. I'm sorry I missed it but I sort of over achieved earlier that evening :facepalm:
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Was that Electric Social rather than Electric Brixton (so confusing :confused:). I didn't think Electric Brixton was opening till 24th September?
 
aqua said:
I had some awesome nights there at Love Muscle :D The snow inside at a Xmas one was ace :D Glad to see it reopening and hope it works x
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My only night at love muscle was ruined by someone who had never had pills before. They had been told to double drop as it was "awesome". About an hour later they were freaking out big time and I had to take them home :facepalm:
 
i think it's quite useful for a newspaper to call brixton the new camden, considering the article's about a new music venue. why the facepalms?
 
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