Camden’s iconic Barfly grassroots gig venue returns this month
The birthplace of stars
Camden’s most iconic grassroots venue is making a comeback. After a decade away, Barfly will officially reopen on the 22nd of June, reclaiming its iconic name and returning to the heart of Chalk Farm Road.
For anyone who spent nights in Camden during the 90s and noughties, Barfly was an accomplished proving ground for up and coming acts. With a mere 200-capacity room, it's where future arena acts sharpened their teeth long before the stadium tours and Brit Awards arrived. Coldplay, Adele, Muse, Ed Sheeran, The Cure, The Killers, The Libertines, Kasabian, Biffy Clyro, Jamie T and My Chemical Romance all passed through its doors between 1996 and 2016.
It was also the type of venue where ridiculous stories became part of the mythology. Ed Sheeran once played four shows in one night there in 2011. Frank Turner apparently holds the record for most performances on the Barfly stage. If you were tipped as “the next big thing” in British music, chances are someone dragged you to Barfly at some point to see if you really were up to scratch.
To launch the new era, it's fitting then that Frank Turner will headline a special reopening show, bringing things full circle for an artist whose history with the venue runs deep.
Turner first played Barfly in 2001 with his band Million Dead, before later returning as a solo artist for a string of packed-out performances, including his first ever sold-out solo show there in 2006.
A vital lifeline for live music
The venue’s return comes at a time when grassroots music spaces across the UK are under serious pressure from rising costs, redevelopment and shrinking margins. New owners Propaganda Independent Venues, Dan Ickowitz-Seidler, Richard Buck and Camden music figure Chris McCormack, say the relaunch is as much about preserving cultural history as it is reopening a club.
Inside, the revived Barfly will mix old-school nostalgia with a few upgrades. There’ll be a Wall of Fame packed with archive images from the venue’s history, a vinyl listening bar inspired by Tokyo’s famous audiophile spots, and even a 1959 AMI jukebox identical to one once owned by Amy Winehouse. The main room’s sound system and lighting rig have also been upgraded, while the downstairs bar is being redesigned to shift from daytime pub to late-night club space.
The real appeal is simpler than that: Barfly is one of those venues people talk about with almost irrational affection. Anyone who spent some time in Camden during this time would talk about the place with a mystique, and if you never had the chance to go, you felt like you were missing out.
Tickets for the Frank Turner reopening show go on sale from 9am on the 15th of June, with access via sign-up through Barfly Camden. Given the venue only holds around 200 people and nostalgia is a powerful drug, they’re unlikely to last long.
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