Back from the brink: How London nearly lost the Brixton Academy

16-months on from the crowd crush, the south London venue has finally re-opened. What's changed?

Morning,

On December 11, 2022, Asake’s X/Twitter account issued a warning: “Please do not come to Brixton Academy tonight if you do not have a valid ticket.” It was probably just written as a formality, but there’s a sense of tragic irony looking back at that post knowing what would happen four days later.

Those are the words of Emma Wilkes, a music journalist who we’re delighted to say has put together the Spy’s first reader-funded story. The much-loved Brixton Academy re-opened at the end of April, having been shut down for 16 months when two people died in a crowd crush in the venue’s foyer at the end of 2022. We asked Emma, an Academy regular, to not only attend the opening night to see what’s changed, but to investigate how the venue managed to come back from the seemingly impossible. It’s thanks to those who’ve supported the Spy with a paid subscription that we’ve been able to fund Emma’s in-depth reporting — piecing together the events of that night, examining how police and officials responded, and speaking to others in London’s music scene to find out the wider impacts on the capital.

So only our paid subscribers have access to Emma’s 2,500-word report in full, while our free readers have a preview. But we do hope you consider going paid, and helping to fund more in-depth reporting from around London, for the price of a pint a month. You can use the button below — or, if you’re not ready to commit quite yet, you can sign up for a 7-day free trial using the link at the end of your preview. We’re just an email away if you’re having trouble signing up.

But before that, three quick things for you:

• Voting is now underway in the London mayoral election — you can find your nearest polling station here. We’ll be sending out an election special email shortly after the winner is announced on Saturday.

• The chief of the Met Police has insisted most of London is safe, following the deadly sword attack in Hainault, east London on Tuesday. Sir Mark Rowley said two-thirds of London is free of knife crime and that the capital is safer than Birmingham, Manchester and West Yorkshire when it comes to serious violence, in an interview with LBC yesterday. Meanwhile, the 14-year-old boy who died in the attack has been named as Daniel Anjorin, and a 36-year-old man has now been charged with his murder.

• London is seeing more days with temperatures above 30C, new analysis shows. The study by the International Institute for Environment and Development found that the capital experienced 116 days higher than 30C in the past three decades — more than half of which occurred in the last 10 years.

---

The long road to re-opening: Inside Brixton Academy’s crush recovery

By Emma Wilkes

It’s a little emotional, walking down the road from the Tube station to see the roof of Brixton Academy lit up in green again. Tonight marks the first event here for 16 months — to put that into perspective, that’s about as long as its pandemic-enforced closure. Since the end of 2022, London’s music scene has been missing a jewel in its crown. And at one stage, it looked like we’d never get it back.

There are good reasons why the Brixton Academy has been missed by London’s gig-goers. Whether a young live music junkie or a seasoned pro, you’ll have at least one story from a show at Brixton. Outside, the actual building – a former cinema almost 100 years old – is beautiful. Inside the performance space feels both intimate and expansive at the same time. Unlike some other venues, the sightlines to the stage are decent, thanks to its downward-sloping floor (which is extremely handy if you’re five foot four, like this writer). At its size, it unites regular gig-goers and those who experience live music maybe once or twice a year, while artists aspire to play it both for its prestige and its significance. As the largest of the O2 Academy chain of venues, planting a flag here is a statement of intent, a sign that an artist has left a proper dent in music and is on their way to even greater things, what with it being a major rung on the ladder to arenas.

Obviously, after being closed for so long following the tragic crowd crush that took place at an Asake show on December 15, 2022, things were going to look different. What’s less expected is just how much the atmosphere has shifted. There are two members of security personnel in high-vis jackets at the approach to Brixton Academy from Stockwell Road, standing next to signs pointing in the direction of the queue. Around the venue itself are at least twice, if not three times, more security than the last time I was here to see the Canadian rock band Alexisonfire, who played here less than two months before the crush. Ominously, an ambulance is also parked a little way down the road.