Colin

02nd June

"Chemical Brothers on 31 May 2020 were excellent.

The venue has the potential to be excellent but we also had one of those fire alarms. Apparently the same happened twice the week before dusring an event. I've been at a new hotel in Manchester where the same thing happened on 3 separate visits. Never been back again.

The venue blamed the alarms during Groove Armada on visitors in the toilets. But it's getting a habit at this venue so I won't go there again. Why are there fire alarm buttons in the toilets? I've been in other recently refurbished buildings and they haven't got fire alarm buttons inside the loos! Maybe someone sold them a super delux system - inappropriate for the venue. Put the alarms where they can be seen!

The security staff were VERY aggressive to a very placid audience - contrary to most other venues these days. Extremely odd.

From Roundhouse website (Google cache)
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Groove Armada performance 24.05.07
Roundhouse Statement

The Roundhouse would like to apologise to both the band and the audience over the interruptions to last night’s performance. This was caused by two fire alarms that led to the evacuation of the building in accordance with health and safety regulations. Three audience members smoking in a disabled toilet set off the first fire alarm. The second alarm was triggered by an audience member smashing a fire alarm break glass in the main space once the gig had resumed.
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http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:juJS5uutRM0J:www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/productions/groove-armada-1045+site:www.roundhouse.org.uk+groove+fire+alarm&hl;=en&ct;=clnk&cd;=1≷=uk&client;=firefox-a
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Andy Sutherland

25th May

"Groove Armada - May 07
Have been looking forward to this one for ages. After arrival at around 7:45 we chilled outside with a cool beer in the early summer sunshine until about half eight with a nice mix of cool and friendly people ranging from mid twenties to thirty somethings. We ventured inside for a short (15 mins) set from beardy man (beat box legend) who performed a brief and respectful Groove Armada back catalogue and got the crowd up for it.

All started fantastically with a really effective lighting rig and stage set. Sound was spot on and the crowd were well up fot it. Groove Armada now how to rock the party and they weren't about to let anyone down. However matters beyond there control were going to have a significant bearing on events when the fire alarm went off, leading to a complete and a very poorly organised evacuation that wouldn't have been out of place on an episode of Dads Army.

After waiting outside for over half an hour, spirits remained bouyant but the piss poor organistaion from the venue came close to spoiling this. Groove Armada returned to the stage soon after and Andy C sounded genuinly gutted but promised to play later and louder (later not that beneficial for those on a public transport agenda!).

Things picked up once again with the band playing a combination of old faves and new beats which were well received. However the debacle of fire alarm/evacuation happened again just before 11:00 which was the death nail for this goup who couldn't be arsed waiting around for another hour.

It could all have been so memorable and the tour deserves to do well because the sound and light combine to rock like only a few acts can manage. I know it wasn't their fault but it also wasn't their night. This episode doesn't change how I feel about a fantastic act (both live and dj set) but f*%k the Roundhouse for their piss poor organisation.

Groove Armada *****
Roundhouse *"