Academy Music Group (AMG), whose shareholders include Live Nation, SJM Concerts and Metropolis Music, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of the Opera House in Bournemouth, following the successful grant of a new lease with Arnewood Estates Limited.
 
A Grade II listed building, the Opera House has been an entertainment venue for over 100 years and boasts a magnificent interior with period features, including the proscenium arch, art-deco styling and ornate steel work. It has a capacity of 1,925 and will host in the region of 150 events per annum.
 
“The venue is beautiful” says AMG’s Chief Executive Officer John Northcote. “It fits perfectly within our estate in both look and feel and capacity. It’s in great condition and we’re looking forward to making some minor operational improvements, but primarily bringing the same vibrant diary of live acts and club events that people expect from AMG venues, filling a significant gap in the market.”
 
The venue will be renamed O2 Academy Bournemouth from September. AMG began a long-term partnership with O2 at the beginning of 2009 and customers can enjoy benefits such as priority access to gig tickets at O2 Academy venues across the country. “AMG continues to go from strength to strength and with the addition of O2 Academy Bournemouth, we’ll be giving O2 customers on the South Coast an opportunity to benefit from Priority Tickets at a venue close to them,” said Mark Stevenson, Head Of Sponsorship at O2. 
 
The Opera House originally opened as The Grand Pavilion Theatre in 1895 with various incarnations over the years. It was first used as a circus, and in 1899 became The Boscombe Grand Theatre for its music hall days and The Boscombe Hippodrome several years later.
 
In recent times it has converted to a dance hall, a Royal Ballroom and was a renowned venue for the disco era of the 70s, club acts of the 80s and the dance explosion of the 90s, where leading UK club brand Slinky chose the Opera House as its home.
 
Following a multi-million pound refurbishment in 2007, the main auditorium is the heart of the venue. A stunning theatre, there are three levels for seating, plus royal boxes and booths.
 
More recently AMG announced a majority shareholding in O2 ABC Glasgow and is preparing to launch a brand new site, O2 Academy Birmingham, in September 2009. AMG venues attract some 3.5 million customers every year.
 
 
All press enquiries: Louise Kovacs - Academy Music Group      
T. 0207 787 3128
E. louise@academy-music-group.co.uk

 
About Academy Music Group
Academy Music Group (AMG), whose shareholders include Live Nation, SJM Concerts and Metropolis Music, is the UK’s leading owner and operator of multi-award winning, nationwide O2 Academy venues in Brixton (London), Islington (London), Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Oxford as well as O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire (London). AMG is also a majority shareholder in O2 ABC Glasgow.
www.academy-music-group.co.uk
 
 
About Live Nation

Live Nation’s mission is to maximize the live concert experience. Our core business is producing, marketing and selling live concerts for artists via our global concert pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 22,000 concerts for 1,600 artists in 33 countries.  During 2008, the company sold over 50 million concert tickets and drove over 70 million unique visitors to LiveNation.com. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into ticketing and building the industry’s first artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform.  The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol LYV.  For additional information about the company, please www.livenation.com/investors.
 
 
 
About O2
• Telefónica O2 UK Limited is a leading communications company for consumers and businesses in the UK, with 20.8 million mobile customers and over 404,000 fixed broadband customers as at 31 March 2008. 
• Telefónica O2 UK Limited is part of Telefónica Europe plc which is a business division of Telefónica S.A. and which owns O2 in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic, and has 46 million customers.
• In 2006 Telefónica Europe acquired Be, the UK fixed broadband provider, and in October 2007 O2 launched its broadband service using the Be network.
• O2 is the naming rights partner of The O2, the world-class entertainment venue.
• O2 was ranked highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and fixed broadband customers according to the J.D. Power and Associates UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Studies 2009..
• In February 2009 O2 became the first UK mobile operator to be officially certified with the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of O2’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and the 15% reduction in energy consumption achieved over the past three years.
• O2’s UK mobile network covers 99% of the UK’s population.  O2’s 3G network covers over 80% of the UK population and is fully HSDPA-enabled, providing speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps for customers with an HSDPA-enabled device.
• Telefónica Europe also owns 50% of the Tesco Mobile and Tchibo Mobilfunk joint venture businesses in the UK and Germany. 
• For b-roll footage of O2, please visit www.digitalnewsagency.com
• For further press information about O2 go to http://mediacentre.o2.co.uk