For almost 150 years, the Royal Albert Hall has stood tall as one of the most impressive music venues in London.
From classical music masterclasses to incendiary rock gigs, this grand domed building has seen it all over the course of its long, storied history.
Today, the Hall will ready itself to host the First Night of the Proms, kicking off two months of incredible music. For our guide of what to expect from the season, click here — even if you’re not the biggest fan of classical music, there’s still plenty to enjoy, as our alternative guide proves.
To celebrate the occasion, we’ve picked out 10 of the Royal Albert Hall’s most iconic musical moments.
First ever concert — March 29, 1871
It was meant to be a grand opening, but the first concert ever held at the Royal Albert Hall was hardly auspicious. It began well enough — both Queen Victoria and Edward VII were in attendance, with the former so overwhelmed by the occasion that she couldn’t even address the crowd — but as soon as the music began, the problems started. The echo, which bounced around the huge domed ceiling, was a great distraction. Engineers scurried around trying to fix it, but their attempts were futile — in fact, it wasn’t until the 1960s that a solution was finally found. Those mushroom-shaped diffusers that hang from the ceiling? That’s what finally did it.
The Titanic Band Memorial Concert — May 24, 1912
Five weeks after the Titanic sunk into the Atlantic, a memorial concert was thrown at Hall. It was to remember the 1,514 people who lost their lives in the disaster, with a particular focus on the eight musicians who carried on playing right up until their last moments. And what a tribute it was. More than 470 musicians took part, comprising what was described at the time as “the greatest professional orchestra ever assembled”. It was an emotionally charged evening, but the most poignant moment coming right at the end, with a rendition of Nearer My God to Thee — the hymn played by those onboard musicians as the ship began to disappear into the water.
The Great Pop Prom — September 15, 1963
The Beatles and The Rolling Stones only ever performed together on the same bill a handful of times, and this was the first of them. It was way before either band had achieved the superstardom that awaited them, with the Stones still months away from releasing their debut album. That said, Beatlemania had already arrived — Please Please Me was in the shops and thousands of adoring devotees stormed the auditorium, quelled by a small army of security guards in front of the stage. The night made a strong impact on Paul McCartney, who would later remark: “Up there with the Rolling Stones we were thinking: ‘This is it — London. The Albert Hall. We felt like gods.”
Bob Dylan — May 26 and 27, 1966
When Bob Dylan came to the Hall to play two concerts in 1966, he arrived amid a swirl of controversy. His conversion from acoustic to electric had begun, drawing the ire of much of his fan base — just days before these shows, during a gig in Manchester, a screaming audience member accused him of being “judas” . Here, he tried to placate both camps by playing the first half acoustically, and then inviting a full band onto the other half for a second. It was pointless; he was heckled throughout. Maybe it left a bad taste in his mouth, for it was 47 years before Dylan returned to play the venue.
Jimi Hendrix — February 18 and 24, 1969
The legendary guitarist first played the Hall in 1967, riding a wave of praise and fervour for his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. They returned two years later, with Hendrix and his musicians playing some blues rarities, rather than the hits they were known for. When they left the stage, the mood was incendiary. The masses demanded an encore and, after what seemed like an eternity, their demands were met — the band returned and tore through Purple Haze and Wild Thing, with Hendrix on the floor, plucking the guitar with his teeth as the crowd flooded the stage in appreciation.
Pink Floyd — June 26, 1969
Is it the sign of a successful gig to receive a lifetime ban from the venue immediately afterwards? It depends whether you earn it the way Pink Floyd did. The gig, which came at the end of a UK tour, was billed as “The Final Lunacy” and more than matched the description. During the song Work, Rick Wright fashioned a table on stage with hammers, saws and planks of wood. Later, a man dressed as a gorilla burst into the auditorium. To finish, two cannons were fired and a pink smoke bomb erupted. It was all too much for the Hall's bigwigs, who had been struggling to deal with the increasingly raucous crowds at the venue’s rock gigs in recent years. They swiftly barred Pink Floyd from performing there ever again and, in 1972, decided to ban “pop and rock concerts” altogether, citing the “hysterical behaviour of a large audience often encouraged by unthinking performers.” Neither decrees lasted — Pink Floyd were back playing there a year later, while the blanket ban was just as short-lived.
The Who and Friends — November 27, 2000
Roger Daltrey was one of the first artists to fall victim to the Hall’s ban on rock and pop, after The Who’s 1972 show at the venue was cancelled. He doesn’t seem to have held any grudges though, and has since become the driving force behind one of the Hall’s greatest charitable endeavours. Since 2000, a series of gigs have been held in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust — of which Daltrey is a patron — with more than £20 million being raised in the process. The very first concert was a big one, featuring The Who, Noel Gallagher, Bryan Adams, Paul Weller, Eddie Vedder, Nigel Kennedy and Kelly Jones.
David Gilmour and David Bowie — May 29, 2006
When David Bowie was invited onto the stage to play alongside David Gilmour in 2006, no one in attendance knew just how significant of an appearance it would turn out to be. It was Bowie’s first and only appearance at the Hall, but it would also turn out the be his last ever public performance. The Starman, as always, was a magnetic presence, duetting with Gilmour on the songs Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb, seeing out the concert to a standing ovation.
Adele — September 22, 2011
Some gigs are so special that someone has to record them. Adele at the Royal Albert Hall was one of those gigs, filmed for a DVD and later broadcast on the BBC. By the time the singer came to play the venue, she was a global star — her second album, 21, was released at the beginning of the year, topping charts the whole world over. This concert captured everything that made her great, from her off-the-cuff chat between songs to that flooringly beautiful voice. Her first song of the encore, Someone Like You, was performed with such profound emotion that by the end of it, she was wiping away the tears. Looking around the crowd, she wasn’t the only one.
The Last Night of the Proms — 2016, 2017 and 2018
Brexit has dominated the public conversation since the 2016 referendum, and has even permeated the Last Night of the Proms. Traditionally a show of proud patriotism, with renditions of Rule, Britannia and waving Union Jacks, the series closer has since been the scene of pro-EU demonstrations, with a sea of European flags amongst the crowd. Last year, there were 20,000 of them. It has divided opinion — no surprise when Brexit’s involved — but, according to composer Howard Goodall, it should come as no surprise. In 2018 he said: “Anyone saying that music and politics aren’t supposed to mix and that the pageantry of the Last Night of the Proms should be ‘just’ a concert reveals themselves, I’m afraid, as lacking in even basic knowledge of music’s history.”
