Kentish Town’s legendary Bull & Gate venue will cease to exist, having been taken over by the Young’s group, who own the Geronimo pubs.
One of metal’s much loved venues, a host to concerts reaching all the way back to early days, will see its last gig on the 4th of May 2013.
Current promoter Andy Macleod of Club Fandango commented: “Since 1980 a small, slightly smelly, part of the Kentish Town Road has been a home-from-home for hundreds of young hopefuls seeking to make their way in the musical world. Consider that for a while in the ‘80s the Camden Falcon, Finsbury Park’s Sir George Robey and the Bull & Gate were the cool places to play in North London. Then consider that neither of those other venues exist any more. And then consider that the Bull & Gate has bullishly spent the past three decades just being…the Bull & Gate. Happily, this means that it never went out of fashion because, for the people who loved going there, it was never in fashion.”
The irony, added Macleod, is that “having weathered the storm of free gigs and hipster swinging out of East London, having battled through five years of recession and having fought against the tide of depression rolling over the guitar-gripping side of the music industry throughout this decade the venue is going to be taken down by a gastropub”.
The venue had banned metal concerts towards the end of 2012 for an unfixed period of time, but any potential light at the end of the tunnel has now faded and died. R.I.P.
