Barry Hyde from The Futureheads and Hard-Fi’s Richard Archer have both spoken out against the planned closure of The Astoria in London.

As reported yesterday, London mayor Ken Livingston confirmed that the legendary venue will be knocked down to make way for a new Crossrail service through the capital.

There is already an online petition to stop the demolition going ahead, but now bands who have played the venue are having their say.

Richard Archer said: "A lot of these older venues have something about them. They were built for live performance and this is one more gone. It's a real shame, I'm gutted."

Futureheads singer Hyde told the BBC that The Astoria has a charm that newly build venues can’t create: "Venues should be dirty, they should be a bit smelly because smelly things happen in venues.

"Sweaty people had fun and The Astoria was always something that you'd look forward to."

Ken Livingstone has also hinted that a new venue will be built to compensate for the loss of The Astoria.

(by Scott Colothan)