Monday 24th August 2009; After nine glorious years in Dale End, Academy Music Group’s new £5.5m venue, O2 Academy Birmingham will open on Thursday 10th September at 16-18 Horsefair, B1 1DB with a sell-out performance by Editors.

Katy Perry headlined the last ever sold out main room gig at Dale End last night, with New Found Glory vs International Superheroes of Hardcore on Thursday 27th August and Surface Unsigned Festival 09 will bring no less than 10 bands to perform on Sunday 30th August. Jacks Mannequin appear on Friday 4th September and Okkervil River on Saturday 5th September as the very final live event at the venue, before rock night Subculture, close proceedings and tear up the Dale End dance floor.

Over 5,000 gigs and club nights have taken place at the venue, attracting more than 3.5 million customers, so we thought we’d pull out some of our favourite memories before heading across the City to start all over again!

Dale End Of An Era “Did You Know……?”

- The Sex Pistols sold all 3000 gig tickets in less than 10 minutes, beating Nine Inch Nails, which sold out in 40 minutes back in 2005.

- The Flaming Lips had dancing Santas and aliens and Wayne Coyne walked across the crowd in an inflatable hamster ball.

- The Polyphonic Spree definitely clinch the award for the highest number of band members to fit in one dressing room.

- Dale End opened with Ocean Colour Scene on November 16th 2000 and have since played the venue almost every year! Look out for them playing an exclusive acoustic set at Selfridges on Wednesday 9th September before headlining O2 Academy Birmingham on Sunday 13th.

- Foo Fighters were the first band to play a sell out gig on December 7th 2000.

- Richard Ashcroft was the first artist to perform two consecutive nights on December 11th and 12th 2000.

- The strangest event was courtesy of Jackass’ Steve O, on his ‘Don’t Try This At Home’ tour where he stapled his scrotum to his inner thigh amongst many other reckless and stomach churning acts. Suffice to say, a medic was present on stage throughout the entire show!

- Stars who now sell out arenas and stadiums worldwide all started out at Bar Academy. We fondly remember Amy Winehouse’s first performance there on 22nd October 2003, closely followed by Keane on February 11th 2004 and Kasabian on June 6th 2004.

- The Automatic requested a shrine to David Hasselhoff on their rider! Talking of which, honey and lemon are without a doubt the most requested rider items!

- Members of Take That and Spice Girls played within the same month! April 2nd 2005 saw Mark Owen take to the stage, just before Melanie C on April 16th.

- Famous Midlanders to have played Dale End include Ocean Colour Scene, The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Streets, King Adora, Robert Plant, The Twang, Editors, The Enemy and Black Sabbath.

And coming up….

The brand new O2 Academy Birmingham is at the site of the former Dome Nightclub, AMG has invested £5.5m into the new venue, featuring three rooms and has a total capacity of 3,859. However, only three steps of the actual Dome now exist.

Look out for the Art Deco clocks showing the time in Birmingham, USA, Birmingham, Australia and Birmingham, UK!

The main auditorium holds over 3,000 people, that’s 2,410 in stalls, 491 seats on the balcony with room for 108 standing for an unrestricted view!

There are a staggering 21 plasma screens throughout the venue, so you won’t miss any of the action wherever you go, plus 6 projectors for visual overload!

With full in-house production, O2 Academy Birmingham has more than 50 moving heads in the lighting department, almost 100 microphones and motors that can lift 16 tonnes between them!

Look out for three very different design features in each room from Art Deco inspiration, to warehouse vibes and a little glitz and glamour!

And finally… gentlemen…. do try and find the colour changing urinals in O2 Academy3!



O2 Academy Birmingham

16-18 Horsefair, Bristol Street, Birmingham, B1 1DB



o2academybirmingham.co.uk Box Office: 0844 477 2000 (24hr)