London music venue Brixton Academy to reopen with Nirvana and Smiths tribute acts | Music

Brixton Academy is to reopen for the first time since it closed in December 2022 after a fatal crowd crush resulted in two deaths.

Tribute acts for Nirvana and the Smiths will perform at the O2 venue on 19 April, followed by tribute acts for Oasis and the Foo Fighters on 26 April.

More conventional acts will appear the following month, with the indie band Editors on 2 May and a two-night residency by the Black Keys on 7 and 8 May.

The reopening comes after a ruling in September that the venue could retain its licence if it met “robust” safety rules and a list of 77 requirements pertaining to issues such as policing, risk assessment, security, ticketing and evacuation.

The venue lost its licence after Gabrielle Hutchinson and Rebecca Ikumelo were killed in a crowd crush after a concert by the Nigerian singer Asake was cancelled. Lambeth council suspended the licence and the Met police sought unsuccessfully to revoke it permanently. A security guard alleged that other guards regularly took bribes to let in people without tickets.

In December, the family of Hutchinson urged Asake to make an appeal to fans for information about the crush. While the Afrobeats star has paid tribute to the victims, he has not issued any appeal for information.

Hutchinson’s sister, Kelsey, said that Asake had “never made a formal acknowledgment of our family” and added: “The singer has such a big influence over his crowd and his followers, and I think the biggest way anyone could help the police is if the singer asked them to come forward with what they heard that night, what they recorded, anything will help and the singer’s got the most power in this situation.”

The Music Venue Trust “welcomed the decision” to reopen the venue, which originally opened as a cinema in 1929 and became a theatre and a disco. In 1981 it was reopened as a live music venue and became Brixton Academy in 1983.

The grassroots venue charity said the venue had “enormous cultural significance to its local community, to music fans, and to the wider live music ecosystem”, and said it looked forward to “supporting all those involved in the safe, successful relaunch of this iconic venue”.

Brixton Academy is to reopen for the first time since it closed in December 2022 after a fatal crowd crush resulted in two deaths.

Tribute acts for Nirvana and the Smiths will perform at the O2 venue on 19 April, followed by tribute acts for Oasis and the Foo Fighters on 26 April.

More conventional acts will appear the following month, with the indie band Editors on 2 May and a two-night residency by the Black Keys on 7 and 8 May.

The reopening comes after a ruling in September that the venue could retain its licence if it met “robust” safety rules and a list of 77 requirements pertaining to issues such as policing, risk assessment, security, ticketing and evacuation.

The venue lost its licence after Gabrielle Hutchinson and Rebecca Ikumelo were killed in a crowd crush after a concert by the Nigerian singer Asake was cancelled. Lambeth council suspended the licence and the Met police sought unsuccessfully to revoke it permanently. A security guard alleged that other guards regularly took bribes to let in people without tickets.

In December, the family of Hutchinson urged Asake to make an appeal to fans for information about the crush. While the Afrobeats star has paid tribute to the victims, he has not issued any appeal for information.

Hutchinson’s sister, Kelsey, said that Asake had “never made a formal acknowledgment of our family” and added: “The singer has such a big influence over his crowd and his followers, and I think the biggest way anyone could help the police is if the singer asked them to come forward with what they heard that night, what they recorded, anything will help and the singer’s got the most power in this situation.”

The Music Venue Trust “welcomed the decision” to reopen the venue, which originally opened as a cinema in 1929 and became a theatre and a disco. In 1981 it was reopened as a live music venue and became Brixton Academy in 1983.

The grassroots venue charity said the venue had “enormous cultural significance to its local community, to music fans, and to the wider live music ecosystem”, and said it looked forward to “supporting all those involved in the safe, successful relaunch of this iconic venue”.