"The all new Academy is chic, sleek and cool. Cowley Road remains one of the most interesting and bohemian streets in the country, and this fabulous new venue is a shot in the arm for Oxford and beyond" - BBC Oxford
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.
Academy Music Group Ltd (AMG) launched 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 project has state of the art facilities both front of house and backstage, including multiple plasma screens across the venue and on stages.
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 220 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.
Carling Academy Oxford has a 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.
Quickly established as a high profile venue on the touring circuit, acts to have played the Academy in the last six months include Hot Chip, Justice, The Ting Tings, The Go! Team, Foals and Hadouken!.
The Zodiac is a hot bed of emerging talent featuring the likes of Vampire Weekend, Duffy, Digitalism, Seasick Steve, Seth Lakeman, Duke Spirit, Lethal Bizzle and Lightspeed Champion.
| 
