TJ Chambers
Whilst temporarily immersed in the remembrance of things past (Sentimentality and fondness for things in the past: Nostalgia Part #1 – https://tjchambers.blog/2025/06/06/sentimentality-and-a-fondness-for-things-in-the-past-nostalgia-part-1/), I was reminded via Telegram of another personally notable anniversary, namely the 3rd June 1995, which marked the first UK performance by the Foo Fighters.
Macadam Building, KCLSU – Tutu’s was the top floor
Following an extended period in Manchester (1979-92) I had run out of local bands (principally The Fall, Stone Roses, and Happy Mondays), promoters, record / video labels, and venues to work with, and my personal life left a lot to be desired.
So, I ended up in London and looked to get a job, maybe even proper employment, you know with tax, national insurance and a regular salary.
My sister offered a spare bed in her flat off the Old Kent Road and I quickly found a temporary job with the European Social Fund administering employment and skills training grants to local authorities. Office-based, regular hours, a ‘dress-code’ and behavioural expectations weren’t too difficult to assimilate, but until then I never knew how much civil servants drank.
Nine months later I had to temporarily stop the clerical work to resolve some family issues in Manchester, but then found myself back in the capital at the beginning of 1993.
My friend Richard Thomas then introduced me to Billy Gaff, previously the manager of Rod Stewart and founder of Riva Records (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riva_Records), who at that time owned The Marquee (then located at 105 Charing Cross Road – see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquee_Club) as he was having some management issues with the venue.
Over a dinner I agreed to become the GM and set about restricting the open-every-night policy to introduce the concept of a show P+L, disciplined the Bar Manager’s flexible approach to stock control, arranged for the PA and lights to be refurbished, launched post-concert rock and student / indie discos, and trialled a couple of stand-up comedy nights.
Within six month this activity had brought me to the attention of Bryan Mason who at that time operated The Astoria (157 Charing Cross Road) with its basement club Busby’s – which had a bit of a licensing issue with various unauthorised chemists attempting to retail on the premises. (Busby’s had once been the venue for the Mud Club, hosted by Philip Sallon, a legendary clubland figure who had been part of the original Bromley contingent that followed the Sex Pistols, but it had somewhat fallen into decline.)
After quickly reaching a deal to move up the Charing Cross Road, over the summer I set about repurposing the basement space (extending the stage, adding a lighting rig – despite the extreme low ceiling – upgrading the front-of-house desk and PA stacks etc.), whilst maintaining the existing weekend clubs. Having previously worked with some strong personalities in Manchester I knew how to persuade the various local undesirables that they, and their trade, was no longer welcome inside the venue.
In September to mark the opening of LA2 (London Astoria 2) together with Paul Smith from Blast First and the Melody Maker we sold 1,000 tickets a night to ‘The Lost Weekend’ (10-11.09.93) whilst giving away a free album featuring the Afghan Whigs and other artists, and the venue was truly open for business.
LA2: The Lost Weekend 10-11.09.93
The venue then had concerts by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Verve, Moby, Tindersticks, Tool, Bjὃrn Again, Transglobal Underground, The Pretenders (John Curd was their legendary maverick promoter and he couldn’t help himself but over-sell capacity with two different-coloured ticket stock), The Cranberries (who filmed their live set: https://vimeo.com/258460248), Green Day, L7, Mazzy Star and many others.
Alongside the live music there was also the full integration of Jeremy Joseph and the G-A-Y constellation of events in both LA2 and upstairs in the Astoria, and there was also the late-night cruise bar SubStation, which operated around the back of the venue and did a considerable trade in condoms, lube and poppers.
(I could also tell you about the concept of ‘rubber-walls’ and flexible bookkeeping i.e. variable venue capacities, Spanish duty-free cigarettes sold over the bars, two separate but simultaneous 75% brewery pouring rights deals for the venues + the fortnightly canned goods deliveries, colour-coded night club ticketing with no stated face-value, irregular crashing of the bar tills, and the Cypriot accountant who always carried his passport, a ‘set of the books’, and the flight timetable for London-Ercan Northern Cyprus. But that is definitely for another time.)
A year later LA2 + The Astoria was by then the premier live music + club destination in London, and after taking a well-deserved week’s holiday, I was met at the venue doors by ‘security’ and relived of my keys and job.
This sort of thing had happened before to others at The Astoria, so I wasn’t surprised. Upset, but not entirely unexpected.
Chris Alexander continued to manage the venue diary and Bryan then brought in Neil O’Brien to part-replace me. (I like to tease him about the fact that the first time we ever met it was because he had ‘stole’ my job. Nevertheless, we subsequently worked together at the Brixton Academy and have remained friends ever since.)
Anyway, despite having no job at LA2 / The Astoria, I had by then established good relationships with the major music promoters – MCP, Metropolis Music, Riverman and SJM Concerts – and so spent the next few weeks being a UK tour rep for them, with one notable time being with Ice-T and Bodycount at the Town & Country Club, Leeds and trying to source ($US) dollars on a cold Sunday night in order to ‘please’ their tour manager.
(Debbie at Stargreen used to be the London ATM whenever you needed a few thousand pounds to settle accounts with bands, PA or crew.)
Anyway, Chris York (https://www.iqmagazine.com/2024/07/sjm-concerts-director-chris-york-passes-at-55/) then suggested that as I had expressed an interest in living-at-home rather than being permanently on-the-road I might consider the post of Sales + Marketing Manager at Kings College London Student Union (KCLSU).
He further explained that it had an interesting circa. 600-capacity venue Tutu’s in the Macadam Building on the Strand campus with a Public Entertainment Licence i.e. non-students could attend events.
I visited the site, applied, and was told I was ‘over-qualified’. but was asked if I got the job how long would I stay. ‘Eighteen months’ I answered, thinking that gave them, and me enough time. They gave me the job, and I eventually stayed nineteen months.
KCLSU 03.06.95 Foo Fighters + Bivouac
The first thing to do was to announce the launch of the space as a live venue, and Tony Dobson from Riverman soon identified the right band. In agreement with their live agent Russel Warby, it was agreed that the Foo Fighters would appear at KCLSU with their first ever UK performance.
Tony worked at Riverman alongside Dave Maclean, Alex Weston and Angus Blue, and they were the lead UK promoters over many years for The Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Cypress Hill, Rage Against The Machine, Beck and many others.
Tony loyally supported the careers of many artists, often retaining close personal relationships, when at Riverman, SJM Concerts and then Metropolis Music until it was acquired by Live Nation. He subsequently became a freelance promoter and is still actively involved in the sector.
One requirement of the KCLSU job was to use, wherever possible, student staff. So, I utilised TopGuard (who I had first met in Manchester at the Haçienda when they bussed up a team from Essex) to train up a student event security team, all led by the legendary ‘Bunny’.
The student cohort at Kings also appeared to have many trainee doctors and lawyers (the latter typically all ‘knew their rights’ when drunk, tired and/or emotional), but one young man was forever telling all of us that this new thing call ‘the internet’ was going to revolutionise our lives. Whatever happened to Ben Drury?
Others were schooled in the use of lighting rigs or sound engineering or supplemented the stage crew of the visiting event production teams. For the Foo Fighters we needed everyone as the front-of-house 48-channel mixing desk didn’t fit in either of the two lifts that went from the ground floor to the sixth where Tutu’s was located and so was (very) carefully carried up the narrow stairwell.
We’d had a dry-run concert the night before when Teenage Fanclub had played the venue, so there was some confidence that we would cope but there was a level of nervousness until the event finished and load-out was finished.
So, for just £7.00 for a ticket, it was a chance to see the Foo Fighters a month before their debut album was released.
The ticket also included free admission to ‘Collide-a-Scope’ the indie DJ team I had first met at the Marquee, then taken to LA2 and finally to KCLSU.
In 2020 the NME revisited the concert with a 25th anniversary article (https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/foo-fighters-first-uk-gig-kings-college-london-1995-nme-review-setlist-listen-2680985) and there are also various lo-fi recordings that appear sporadically on YouTube if you are so inclined.
By the time Beck, again promoted by Riverman, appeared (31.03.96) the venue was a success, and it was time to start thinking about what next.
Eventually I ended up at Brixton Academy (another story) where the KCLSU assistant bar’s manager Nigel Downs joined me before becoming the longest serving GM of the venue and then took on a regional venue management role for the Academy Music Group.
So, 03.06.95 and the Foo Fighters. But enough with the nostalgia.
Until next time.
TJ_Chambers 