Brixton calling 
Southwark Playhouse, London
★★★★★

WHEN Brixton Academy had to close its doors in 2022 following a tragic crush in which two people died, many thought its days might be numbered as the Metropolitan Police pushed for its permanent closure. Music lovers the world over leapt to its defence with 50,000 signing a petition against the revocation of its licence and the venue is once again one of the capital’s premier music venues.

This is not the first time that Brixton Academy has gone dark and much of the goodwill it received following the awful events of December 15 2022 will have resulted from the incredible story of Simon Parkes and his revival of the venue from abandoned cinema to a prime stage for the world’s premium popular musicians (and much more besides) beginning when he bought it for £1 in 1983.

From the moment Parkes snuck out of Gordonstoun school, where he was school mates with a “profoundly sweaty” Prince Andrew, to watch Chuck Berry at the Finsbury Park Rainbow in the mid-1970s he was in thrall to live music — and there was no turning back.

Dyslexic and with just one arm (as the result of being a thalidomide baby), his memoir, Live At the Brixton Academy: A Riotous Life in the Music Business is over a decade old but now arrives on stage with an almighty bang!

With Brixton Calling, Kick It Anywhere bring Parkes’ story to life with sheer panache; but this not just a tale of a music venue. As director Bronagh Lagan points out in her astute programme notes, it is about “a collision of cultures” which founded “the emergence of powerful grassroots alliances across race, class and identity.” The heap of casual racism that saw Parkes’ project almost collapse in the early years is just one factor reflecting this.

Max Runham in the lead role brings all the cocksure bravado required to brilliantly reanimate some nigh-on unbelievable goings-on. Meanwhile, Tendai Humphrey Sitima ably backs him up as his indispensable partner and Brixton stalwart Johnny Lawes. Bronagh’s pulsating direction sees both negotiate multi-part playing, and also play music with real skill, capturing a myriad of characters with dexterity and humour — all vividly lit by Derek Anderson.

With sagas of hallowed names from Fela Kuti to Kurt Cobain via Arthur Scargill (and even Margaret Thatcher) it is difficult to deny that this era of the Brixton Academy may well have changed the country.

Brixton Calling is a journey you just can’t help but get wrapped up in.

Runs until August 16. Box office: (020) 7407-0234, southwarkplayhouse.co.uk.