Shepherds Bush Empire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Shepherds Bush Empire (the first word is sometimes spelled Shepherd's) is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, run by the Academy Music Group.
It was built in 1903, designed by Frank Matcham, who designed several theatres. The first performers at the new theatre were The Fred Karno Troupe. The Empire staged music-hall entertainments, such as variety performances and revues, until the early 1950s, by which time the popularity of these forms of entertainment was declining.
In 1953, the Empire was sold to the BBC, which put it to use as a television studio–theatre, renaming it the BBC Television Theatre. Among the programmes produced there were Crackerjack, Hancock's Half Hour, The Old Grey Whistle Test, That's Life!, The Generation Game, The Basil Brush Show, Juke Box Jury, This is Your Life, Jim'll Fix It and Wogan.
The BBC vacated the building in 1992. It was taken over and, in 1994, again became the Shepherds Bush Empire.
Since then, it has become best known as a music venue and has hosted such acts as Tool, Opeth, The Bangles, The Levellers, Blur, Sheryl Crow, Howard Jones, Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, the Dixie Chicks, Indigo Girls, Goldfrapp, Radiohead, Steve Hackett, Scouting for Girls and The Goo Goo Dolls. The Empire has a capacity of only 2,000, but it has been chosen as a venue for small gigs by such leading performers as Neil Finn, Thunder, David Bowie, Elton John, and The Rolling Stones.
[edit] Trivia
In 2003, the venue was the site of Dixie Chick Natalie Maines's famously controversial remark against United States President George W. Bush.
In 2006, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band played their final two gigs of their reunion tour at the Empire.
