It’s the quintessentially British music venue known best for being home to the Proms, that summer-long series of daily classical music concerts.
Rich in royal history having been dedicated by Queen Victoria to her late beloved husband back in 1871, the Royal Albert Hall has hosted performances by some of the world’s leading artists over the past century and a half.
The Grade I-listed building on the edge of Hyde Park, with its distinctive glass and wrought-iron dome roofing, stages more than 390 shows a year in the main auditorium, including classical, rock and pop concerts.
It also hosts ballet, opera, film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment, sporting extravaganzas, school and community events, awards ceremonies and charity performances and banquets.
Now, following financial problems that at times threatened its very future as an arts venue, it is opening its doors to a radically new musical genre – dance DJs are battling it out to secure coveted slots which sell out to ravers of all ages.
Few would have predicted that legendary DJ Pete Tong, who hosted a sell-out gig there back in May, and urban music pioneer Trevor Nelson, whose soul music Christmas special is also immensely popular, would have proved such a success.
Meanwhile, Manchester’s Hacienda nightclub icon Graeme Park and the Ministry of Sound entertainment brand have also held hugely innovative nights at the Albert Hall recently.
The scale of the transformation in the Hall’s fortunes brought about by these acts has prompted the music industry to joke that the Royal Albert Hall has been ‘saved by the rave’.
The Royal Albert Hall hosts 390 shows a year in the main auditorium – and dance DJs are battling it out to secure coveted slots which sell out to ravers
One insider says: ‘Who would have thought that these DJs would be the saviours of a venue as steeped in history as the Albert Hall, that something so much more modern and less traditional would come to its rescue.’
It was respected music industry manager Neale Easterby who helped to bring Trevor Nelson’s sell-out shows to what would once have been considered an unlikely venue.
‘To be inside the building when Trevor, or indeed when any of the DJs is putting on one of their nights is an amazing experience,’ Easterby told the Mail. ‘You get the experience of being inside not just one of Britain’s most iconic venues, but one of the finest venues in the world. At the same time you get to hear fantastic orchestras performing with brilliant vocalists, helping to breathe new life into already classic tracks.
‘It’s an infectious mix. And seeing a younger, more diverse audience get to appreciate not just the music, but come to visibly enjoy being inside the Albert Hall is a wonderful sight.’
The Hall’s financial troubles began in earnest after it was hit hard by the Covid pandemic. It was forced to furlough 80 per cent of its staff and cancel hundreds of performances. The venue lost around £27 million in income and had to refund around £7.5 million in ticket sales. Some feared that it might never be the same again.
But post-pandemic the Albert Hall’s dance music revolution has been at the heart of its return to economic viability.
‘It is surreal and inspiring to come into such a historical place doing what we are doing,’ says Tong, of his now regular Ibiza Classics nights at the Hall.
‘It isn’t a nightclub, so you treat it in a different way.’
That has included drafting in the Albert Hall’s official organist Anna Lapwood, who has become something of a classical music sensation in her own right.
Pete Tong performing on stage at the Royal Albert Hall with a 65-piece orchestra in May
She described her performance at one of Tong’s sell-out shows there as ‘the greatest day of my life’ in a post on social media site TikTok, where she has 1.4 million followers.
The 30-year-old, awarded an MBE for services to music, has also described the ‘electric energy’ inside the Hall, saying: ‘You feel the audience’s excitement bouncing off the walls, and the organ just amplifies that connection.’
Only last month, she closed the Ministry of Sound’s sell-out takeover of the Hall, with what Lapwood now says was the ‘mash-up to end all mash-ups’, which included a reworking of dance act Faithless’s hit Insomnia on the venue’s beautiful organ, which – at the time it was built – was the largest musical instrument in the world and described as ‘the voice of Jupiter’.Trevor Nelson first staged his Soul Christmas extravaganza at the Albert Hall in 2019, with special guests performing re-imagined Soul and R’n’B tracks, with help from the incomparable BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Troy Miller.
The festive night was an instant success but has gone on to even greater heights in the aftermath of the pandemic, seeing artists such as Roachford and Corinne Bailey Rae perform.
He has also hosted a sell-out Windrush 75th anniversary event there and curated the BBC Concert Orchestra’s Sunday night Proms extravaganza, which sees classic Motown and soul tracks given a new lease of life.
Nelson describes the Albert Hall as a ‘magical’ venue.
‘Every time I walk inside I think exactly the same thing: incredible vibes,’ he says.
Another remarkable success at the venue has been the sell-out Haçienda Classical nights put on by Graeme Park alongside musical director Tim Crooks, at which tracks made famous at the legendary Manchester nightclub are given a rebirth by the Manchester Camerata orchestra.
Each Hacienda night has been a sell-out. The sight of ravers, who first danced to house music classics such as the seminal Strings Of Life by Rhythim and Show Me Love by Robin S in the 1980s and early 90s, rising from their seats and dancing like teenagers rather than people in their 50s and 60s, is a joy to behold.
Hacienda Classic nights have also seen the likes of Happy Monday’s star Bez and Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook grace the stage.
Much of the credit for the Albert Hall’s success with its dance music events can be attributed to its CEO James Ainscough, who returned as chief executive having previously been finance director, in 2023, following a spell as CEO of charity Help Musicians.
‘We want to have our doors as wide open as we did in the 1960s when we had early gigs by The Beatles, the Stones, The Yardbirds, Cream, Pink Floyd,’ says Ainscough.
‘We want to make sure the door’s wide open to a full array of artists and a full array of audiences.
‘Whatever the genre, age, ethnicity or anything else of the artist, we want to make sure everybody feels we’ve got something for them.
‘We’re not going to have less classical music, or fewer legends, there’s room for everyone here. We’re going to make sure that every single person fancies at least one night at the Royal Albert Hall each year.’
The enthusiasm for change is of course welcomed by all, but you just can’t help but wonder just what Queen Victoria would make of her precious building being the new home of rave.
