KOKO

On January 6, 2020, the copper dome of Camden High Street melted. Eight fire engines worked until 2:37 AM and the red theater the neighborhood calls KOKO was left wounded in the roof. Beneath that dome, not only had Madonna and Prince debuted: the UV lights of Peach and Clockwork Orange had also been turned on, the house, acid, and trance nights that turned the Camden Palace into one of London's rave dance floors.

From the Palace to the central booth

W. G. R. Sprague built it as the Camden Theatre and it opened at Christmas 1900. It was the Camden Hippodrome, a cinema, and, since 1945, a BBC studio. In 1977 it returned to live music as The Music Machine. In 1982, the Camden Palace was born: Steve Strange's new romantic, the pioneering house of Delerium with Colin Faver and Eddie Richards, The Prodigy in full rave explosion, and, in the nineties, Clockwork Orange on Saturdays, Frantic and Peach with Graham Gold, Pele, Darren Pearce, and Dave Lambert, until the 2004 closure.

2004: the building is called KOKO

Oliver Bengough and Mint Group bought the exhausted Palace and reopened it in 2004 as KOKO, with 1,410 people standing between the dance floor and the boxes. The Grade II listed theater recovered the red, the boxes, and the stalls. In the following years, reunions of Peach and Clockwork Orange returned, and the room remained both a club and a stage.

Fly tower, 360 degrees, and d&b

The fire accelerated a three-year, £70 million renovation. In April 2022, Arcade Fire reopened 50,000 square feet of venue: Victorian auditorium, six boxes, terrace, Secret Club, Cafe KOKO, and The House of KOKO. The room features a d&b audiotechnik XSL with a DS100 engine and V-Series in VIP boxes. The fly tower, recovered with English Heritage, allows DJs to play in the round, with the dance floor open over the old stage. In 2023, it was Venue of the Year at the LIVE Awards.

KOKO Electronic, Fridays and Saturdays

Since that reopening, KOKO Electronic occupies the theater every Friday and Saturday from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM, with last entry at 3:00 AM. It is not a touring brand: it is the club programming of the venue itself, with lasers under the dome. Helena Hauff, Kerri Chandler, Honey Dijon, Gilles Peterson, Michael Bibi, or Green Velvet have passed through that geometry. The rest of the week, KOKO is a concert hall. Mornington Crescent is opposite.