Giovedì 25 Nov 2010, 19:21

Wed, 24th Nov 2010

It is with sadness that we have to announce the closure of The Luminaire and The King's Head on 31st December. It's been a labour of love for a while now, and at this point it makes no sense for us to continue. We hope to be able to do some final farewell shows, probably in late March, and we'll let you know about those through the usual channels.

To all those who supported this independent venue, and the great artists who played here, since we opened back on 1st March 2005; you have our grateful thanks.

We were nothing without you.

Andy, John and all at The Luminaire

Well, that sucks. When I moved to london the luminaire was the first venue I fell in love with. The creative director at my old company was friends with Andy, and used to help put on a night there occasionally.

Dutifully a bunch of us trundled along after work to support it. I was immediately blown away by the venue and the gigs it put on. I ended up spending a lot of time there over 2006 and 2007. Once i'd moved to East London I stopped visiting as much. It was harder to get to and I had a wealth of interesting venues on my doorstep, but I still made it there from time to time - especially for the regular James Yorkston christmas gigs with mulled wine and minced pies. In hindsight I think my music taste had diverted from that which the Luminaire put on, both moving ever slightly apart, I became less interested in the listings, but they were still doing amazing things, just not so-much my taste anymore.

It was always a groundbreaking venue. It was nice inside, didn't stink of piss, the floor wasn't (too) sticky, there were seats, a reasonable bar and most of all a strict attitude. In later years signs adorned the walls chastising those who would talk loudly through quiet sets "no one paid to hear you talk to your mates, this isn't a pub". It's the right attitude for a venue that actually cares about putting on good music.

So it's a real shame to see it go, along with Bardens Boudair (which also recently closed). London needs more venues like it and will suffer for it's loss.

It sounds like there will be some farewell shows, i'll make a point of going to those. It needs a send off. In the mean time, these are some of my favourite gigs i've seen there:

* Tilly and the Wall, Emmy the Great and Semifinalists
* The Blow, KES and Death Sentence Panda
* Youthmovies, Eugene McGuinness and Adam Gnade
* James Yorkston and The Athletes, David Thomas Broughton and Harpists
* Johnny Flynn and Mechanical Bride