O2 Apollo Manchester (formerly Manchester Apollo) is a concert venue in Manchester, England. Locally known as The Apollo, it is a listed building, with a capacity of 3,500 (2,514 standing, 986 seats).
O2 Apollo Manchester was originally built as a cinema in 1938, which later became ABC Cinema Ardwick. It was designed by architects Peter Cummings, Alex Irvine and R. Gillespie Williams. Its original purpose was as a cinema and variety hall. It was opened by 1930's actress Margaret Lockwood.
Right up until the 1970s, the venue continued to provide the same service to the public, until the cinema industry declined and the variety side of the venue took over. It focused its resources on becoming a leading concert venue competing at that time with the likes of Maine Road.
Many famous names in music and comedy have appeared at the venue.
It also hosts seated events to a capacity of 2,693. Split into two levels, the upstairs contains permanently fitted seating, whereas the larger downstairs can be altered to suit the event; both levels view a single concert stage. The venue has no air-conditioning except in the "Whiteroom" hospitality area, accessible only to holders of a Whiteroom credit card.
The venue hosts a large number of popular music-based concerts and other events throughout the year and is one of Manchester's leading concert venues. Recent years have seen successful bands perform at both the Apollo and the MEN Arena on differing dates to create different atmospheres and reach different audiences.
It has a distinctive red ceiling and raked floor giving an excellent view of the stage from anywhere in the auditorium. Merchandise is sold in the lobby. There are three bars, two on the ground floor and another on the second.
Concert management and advertisement is handled by Live Nation, merchandise is sold by the permanent resident concession company Pantheon Franchise, and first aid cover for all events is provided by St. John Ambulance.
On 1st January 2009, the venue was rebranded as the O2 Apollo Manchester.
In September 2012, the O2 Apollo Manchester will venture back into the cinema business but will keep its music venue and open a digitally-equipped cinema screen next door to the O2 Priority Room.
Famous quotes containing the words apollo and/or manchester:
“In the west, Apollo and Dionysus strive for victory. Apollo makes the boundary lines that are civilization but that lead to convention, constraint, oppression. Dionysus is energy unbound, mad, callous, destructive, wasteful. Apollo is law, history, tradition, the dignity and safety of custom and form. Dionysus is the new, exhilarating but rude, sweeping all away to begin again. Apollo is a tyrant, Dionysus is a vandal.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)