Eventim Apollo Hammersmith

During the peaking years of the disco era (1978) I played drums at the Hammersmith with disco giant Sylvester, and also returned to the theater a few nights after our performance to catch my friends, George Clinton and Parliment/Funkadelic. The Hammersmith reminded me of the some the theaters in the USA such as the one and only Apollo Theater in New York. It’s good to know the Hammersmith is still going strong and it’s well kept. Long live the Hammersmith!!

Views of the auditorium and the restored Compton organ console in August 2007:
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Restoration work has now been completed on the Compton theatre organ and its capabilities have been shown off to the new owners. Hopefully some concerts will be arranged in the future.

My company, HWS Associates, is currently restoring the magnificent 4 manual, 15 rank Compton organ at the Apollo.

Peter

In 1957, when known as the Gaumont, the exterior was used as a location in the British movie “The Smallest Show on Earth” starring Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Margaret Rutherford and Peter Sellers.

In the film the young couple who have inherited a closed down ‘flea-pit’ cinema decide to go to a real movie palace to see how things should be run. This was called the ‘Grand’ in the movie and they join the queue outside (poster frames advertising Danny Kaye “Knock on Wood” & Stephen Murray “Guilty?”). Scenes inside the auditorium were filmed at the Odeon, Richmond, located just to the West of London. /theaters/6260/

The exterior of the ‘flea-pit’ Bijou Cinema in the film was a mock up errected between two railway bridges in Kilburn, North London (site is still there today) and the interior was a studio set.