Elton John and Charli xcx announced among first Apple Music Hall gig headliners
Further dates at the new Battersea Venue include Arlo Parks, Burna Boy and more
Apple Music Hall has only just announced its arrival as a new venue at Battersea Power Station, but it already has one hell of a gig diary.
Apple has announced the first run of artists set to perform at its new 600-capacity London space, with Elton John, Baby Keem, Skye Newman, Troye Sivan, Arlo Parks, Burna Boy, Chase & Status and Charli xcx all booked to take the stage.
And the first name through the door is a pretty big one. Elton John will officially open Apple Music Hall on Monday 28th September, followed by Baby Keem on 2nd October and Skye Newman on 7th October.
The rest of the initial schedule runs through the autumn and into December, with Troye Sivan on 13th October, Arlo Parks on 22nd October, Burna Boy on 29th October, Chase & Status on 26th November and Charli xcx on 2nd December.
Big names incoming
The first three shows are particularly imminent, with tickets for Elton John, Baby Keem and Skye Newman going on sale at 9am BST on Monday 28th September. Yep — tickets for the Elton show are being released the same day as the actual performance itself. Keep in mind that Elton has also retired from large-scale global tour schedules, making this an extremely rare hot ticket.
But refreshingly, the tickets are at very accessible prices — none are listed for more than £40 at present, across all shows.
Tickets for the remaining shows will be released at a later date, with Dice the partnering ticket service to book through.
So what makes Apple Music Hall different from London's other gig venues? For starters, this isn't a massive arena where you'll need binoculars to see the artist. The purpose-built venue holds just 600 people, with Apple specifically designing it to combine the intimacy of a small gig with the production capabilities of a much bigger show.
There's a 38-foot-wide stage that can be rearranged for traditional or in-the-round performances, while a 48-speaker Spatial Audio system surrounds the audience.
Behind the scenes, things get even more Apple-y. The venue has two recording and mixing studios, infrastructure for 16 or more cameras and a dedicated broadcast control room. That means performances can be recorded in Spatial Audio, turned into broadcast-ready productions and captured on multicamera video – all from the same gig. Shows will also be livestreamed globally, so that 600-person capacity doesn't necessarily mean only 600 people get to experience them.
Apple Music Hall might be one of London's smallest new venues – but its ambitions match the scale of the tech giant behind the curtains.
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