Academy Music Group Ltd (AMG) launched its newest venue, Carling Academy Oxford on Thursday 20th September 2007, with New Young Pony Club, followed by the Magic Numbers on Friday 21st and local heroes, Young Knives on Saturday 22nd, to an ecstatic full house each night.
The site of the former Zodiac on Cowley Road was developed over four months to create three separate, flexible performance spaces for live music and club events with a total building capacity of 1,350.
Designed to the highest specification, Carling Academy Oxford is perfectly positioned to attract a strong calibre of international touring artists to the City due to its larger capacity and technical capabilities.
The £2,000,000 project has state of the art facilities both front of house and backstage, including multiple plasma screens across the venue and on stage.
Carling Academy Oxford, the main venue downstairs, has a maximum capacity of 1,020, and is flexible for alternative configurations. The secondary venue is the upstairs area of the building and named the Zodiac to reflect its heritage and has a capacity for up to 436 persons. This venue continues the positive step in AMG's policy for encouraging and developing new bands and artists to play in professionally equipped venues.
The third area is Bar Academy and has a capacity of 280 that operates as a stand-alone venue, or an additional room for club nights. In designing the building, flexibility was a key factor to supporting music in Oxford as a must-play location for new talent and developing acts from the region to the touring circuit.
Academy Music Group has also introduced an optional 562 'seated format' for Carling Academy Oxford and seating for 236 people in the Zodiac. The 'Matrix Floor Bar System' is a further investment by AMG to offer varying production arrangements for music shows and comedy nights through to theatre-style performance and alternative events.
AMG has also added a new Box Office outlet, the Oxford 'Ticket Shop' to sell tickets for all AMG venues nationwide, plus the majority of major, live music, theatre and sporting events across the UK.
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