O2 Apollo Manchester
Stockport Road, Ardwick Green,
Manchester,
M12 6AP
Stockport Road, Ardwick Green,
Manchester,
M12 6AP
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I worked at the Apollo as Assistant Manager under Ken Cooper, someone I will always consider my mentor, in the 70’s. It was by far my favourite cinema and I loved the proscenium arch with it’s changing colours. Those changing rooms below stage could tell a few stories!
The ABC Ardwick doubled as a cinema and as a district office for the ABC Cinemas group. Dougie Revis was the charming, sensitive, avuncular District Manager until 1969 when he was replaced by Jimmy Gold who was by comparison charmless, aggressive and (many people believed) altogether better suited to gangland thuggery than to cinema management.
One of the usherettes was Anna Ingham, an attractive and very presentable teenager who had clearly blossomed since junior school, where she had been well-known for having an almost-permanently runny nose.
left here in 1982,also showed The song remains the same.
Some photos from 2004:–
EXTERIOR
AUDITORIUM FROM STAGE
AUDITORIUM TOWARDS STAGE
AUDITORIUM ACROSS
AUDITORIUM LOGES
i have worked at the apollo as a projectionist to show some of the pop concert films like pink floyd the wall and the song remains the same the projectors are ross gc3s on carbon arc and westrex valve sound i worked there in 1983
and the district number was J14.
The Beatles did indeed play there and Pathe News either did their first colour newsreel or cinemascope ratio for that concert
ABC Ardwick used to be the District Office for the Manchester area
The Apollo Theatre, both inside and out, is prominently featured in “The Charming Man,” an episode of the popular British TV mystery series, “Blue Murder.” The plot concerns the murder of a rising pop singer soon after he gave a concert at the Apollo. In the USA at least, “The Charming Man” can be found on DVD in boxed Set 4 of “Blue Murder.” I don’t know if it’s packaged that way elsewhere.
Nice theatre and THE BEATLES played there.
I have been to the Apollo many times as a concert-goer, it was the first building to start my interest in old cinema buildings, it is absolutely stunning inside, fantastic surroundings to see a band in! So glad that it has been kept!
Here is the link to The Beatles live at the ABC Theatre (as it was then) in 1963:–
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……..and here is a clip of the British première of ‘Hell is a City’ at the ABC Apollo (as it still was) in 1960:–
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There is a newspaper ad for “Hell is a City” at the Apollo about halfway down this site. I couldn’t figure out where most of the theaters were that they were discussing here.
http://www.levyboy.com/cinema.htm
Here is a recent b/w photo.
a photo of the side entry and ballroom building from 1989 when it was the Inn on the Green pub
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3390633122/
and of the front of the building
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3390634358/
This is a 2008 exterior view.
Here is another photo of the Apollo Theater.
More photos here.
Exterior:-
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Interior:-
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A lovely auditorium photograph here:
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A 1999 exteriot photograph of the Apollo Theatre here:
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/ic7/82.jpg
It is a complex and cumbersome mechanism which provides only limited protection. A fair description of the listing process can be found at
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Sadly there are too many occasions of a developer either appealling against the original listing and getting a building de-listed (Odeon Newcastle Upon Tyne) or allowing (assisting) a building to deteriorate to the point where demolition is the only viable option.
THE APOLLO WAS AN ABC THEATRE FROM 1943 – 1977 AND WAS FOR MANY YEARS ONE OF THE COMPANY’S MOST IMPORTANT LIVE VENUES, HAVING A VERY LARGE STAGE AND EXTENSIVE DRESSING ROOM FACILITIES. IT IS FEATURED IN MANY PATHE NEWSREELS FOR SHOWS SUCH AS THE BEATLES AND THE ROLLING STONES (PATHE NEWS BEING AN ASSOCIATED BRITISH SUBSIDIARY) AND SHOWS WERE FREQUENTLY TELEVISED THERE AS ABC TELEVISION WAS BASED IN MANCHESTER.
TERRY CHARNOCK