Farewell, old friend.

So, tonight we say goodbye to a part of British music history as Astoria plays host to it's last ever gig before being bulldozed to make way for Cross Rail, a new rail line that will allow people to get from Essex to Maidenhead a little faster.

I feel a particular sadness in that as a teenager growing up in London, Astoria and Mean Fiddler were an intergral part of my social life. Whether it was going to gigs or blagging our ways past the bouncers at Club X on weekends, I spent a many a night at the great venue. It is even the place where I got my first ever concussion at a Less Than Jake gig sometime around 2001; I got clocked on the back of my head by a full can of beer that had been lobbed from the seating area during a bottle fight.

And I know that they're building a new music venue to replace it but the new venue will be around 6000 capacity whereas the entire point of the Astoria was that it was a relatively intimate venue of 1600-2000 where you could go and see small bands and big bands alike. And I'm sure that the new venue will have state of the art facilities and loos that actually lock but it won't have the spirit of this rickety old place.

And so it is with heavy heart that I bid you adieu, fair Astoria. May you rock on in peace.