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David Ponte and Sir Torquil Norman |
Thanksgiving for a Roundhouse revival
Great traditions of the historic 1960s arts venue to be updated, upgraded and upheld
THE guest list read like a roll call of the great and good but tickets were not cheap: the party at the Roundhouse on Thursday night saw the entry fee at a whopping £3,000.
The reason? The event was held to celebrate a unique fundraising scheme, whereby 360 people were approached to donate the four-figure sum to help get the venue off the ground. And with the fundraising drive now complete, the Roundhouse’s original chairman and philanthropist Sir Torquil Norman threw the party to say thank you.
The guests included former Labour councillor and businessman John Mills with his wife, the former Director of Public Prosecutions Dame Barbara Mills; education commentator Fiona Millar; author Valerie Grove; and head of currency company Travelex and arts backer Lloyd Dorfman, who now sits on the Roundhouse board.
The Roundhouse has been open for nearly three years, has sold more than 750,000 tickets and established itself as a cultural beacon for London. Time Out founder and Roundhouse trustee Tony Elliott told guests how the venue had returned to its 1960s role as a venue that championed the best of performing arts. He recalled happy memories of visiting the Victorian railway shed in the late 1960s. “I saw The Doors and Jefferson Airplane play here,” he said, “and I vividly remember the last time I stood in front of an audience on this very spot. Time Out had co-organised ‘The Freedom and Responsibility in the Media’ conference in the early 1970s, which was invaded at a critical point by a large number of radical feminists who demanded a personal appearance on stage by the editor – in other words, me – of a recent issue of Time Out devoted to pornography.”
He added: “The Roundhouse had always been important to me as the home for important, unpredictable, experimental, artistic work from many genres.
“A commitment to continue this tradition – and update and upgrade it – is carried through right to today. There are a significant number of members of the Roundhouse Trust board who are there because of that, and most would leave instantly if the Roundhouse lost its nerve and drifted towards safer pastures.” |
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