Historic cinema becomes music venue for a night (From Oxford Mail)

Historic cinema becomes music venue for a night

4:40pm Sunday 6th September 2009 in

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An Oxford cinema is to set to swap the film reel and popcorn for block-rocking beats when it hosts its first live gig later this month.

Under new ownership, Oxford’s only remaining independent cinema, the Ultimate Picture Palace, is hosting a night of jazz, rock and electro music on Thursday, September 17.

It will be a case of mic, camera, action when the single-screen theatre in Jeune Street, East Oxford, becomes the unusual location for the live music extravaganza, which will feature Oxford based solo artist Mr Fogg.

The event will also see a performance by the Braindead Collective — a new band which includes Greig Stewart, the drummer for chart-topping band the Guillemots.

The night has been set up by Phill Barry, who records under the alias Mr Fogg.

Mr Barry is currently cutting his debut album with Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has previously produced songs by Bjork including her duet with Thom Yorke, lead singer of the Oxford band Radiohead.

The 27-year-old, of Abingdon Road, said: “I was just looking for an interesting place to do a gig because you tend to get a lot of gigs in very boring venues.

“I spent a lot of time on the Cowley Road when I was younger and I have always been intrigued by the look of the Ultimate Picture Palace, but I haven’t actually been to see a film in there.

“As an independent cinema it is part of the do-it-yourself culture of the Cowley Road.

“It should make a great venue for music and we can use the screen to project video.”

Mr Barry, who started the independent record label Kicking Ink Recordings last year, added: “If you’re normally going to the cinema everyone is sitting down but on this occasion I don’t know if people will want to sit or stand on the night.”

The gig night is another reel in the colourful history of the picturehouse which was built in 1911 and operated as a cinema for nine years before closing in 1920.

The Grade II listed building was mainly used for storage for almost six decades before it re-opened as a cinema in 1974.

Its new co-owner Jane Derricott, who took over the venue in the last two months, declined to speak to us.