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Led Zeppelin’s live album and a closed theatre on Brixton Hill


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Brixton History – Led Zeppelin’s live album and a closed theatre on Brixton Hill

By mike urban  – July 11, 2019

In 1976, heavy rock superstars Led Zeppelin released The Song Remains the Same, a live soundtrack album of the concert film of the same name.

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Unexpectedly, the artwork featured an illustration of the old Scala Theatre at 101 & 103 Brixton Hill – a building we’ve documented extensively over the years but never knew had a rock’n’roll connection.

We were alerted to Brixton’s link to Led Zeppelin after seeing a discussion on a fan forum, where contributors were trying to work out where the band had rehearsed ahead of their 1973 US tour.

Several theories were discussed with one poster deciding, “I think the whole 73 tour rehearsal space thing being in any way involved with The Song Remains The Same cover was just a mix up.”

However, it did lead to the former Scala Cinema being positively identified as the building on the artwork for the album, so we thought we’d celebrate the band’s connection to Brixton:

The artwork is clearly identifiable as the building in Brixton Hill.
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Since closing in 1957, the old cinema building has had a multitude of tenants, including the Camping Centre and Tarpaulin and Tent Mfg Co (2002), Dalxiis Restaurant (2006), South Beach Bar (2009), White Sands venue (2014), Believers Home Chapel (2015), SGH Events Hall (2018) and it’s currently being used as the Tami Gospel Centre (2019).

The illustration was created by Hipgnosis artist, George Hardie who also designed the iconic cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ album.

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http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2019/07/brixton-history-led-zeppelins-live-album-and-a-closed-theatre-on-brixton-hill/

 

 

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51 minutes ago, gibsonfan159 said:

So, Hipgnosis more or less just found an old building for the artwork and there's no significance? 

That's a dumb comment. Does the building on Physical Graffiti have to chosen for some deep mystical reason? The old man painting on the cover of LZIV? 

It's good to finally know where the TSRTS image originates from.

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39 minutes ago, gibsonfan159 said:

I was asking a serious question. I've always wondered if there actually was a connection and found the article interesting. Apparently there's no actual connection or significance, right?

Okay. It just sounded like you were upset at Sam posting the article.

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