Brixton Academy is one of London’s premier live music venues. It was the site of the historic 1997 comeback of the Sex Pistols, host to The Smiths' last ever gig and the location for Billy Ocean’s video for When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going. It is currently known as The O2 Academy.

Originally the Astoria, a cinema and theatre, the building first opened its doors in 1929; the Al Jolson film The Singing Fool was the first feature shown. The cinema remained open until the 70's when it closed its doors and the building entered a period of stagnation which finally ended in 1981 when it reopened as a music venue called The Fair Deal. However, a major refit and an opening gig by UB40 weren’t enough to gain sufficient financial success for the venue and it closed soon afterwards.

The entrepreneur Simon Parkes had more success in 1983 when he reopened the venue as Brixton Academy, a major new London music venue with a maximum capacity of nearly 5000 people.

The 90's saw the refurbishment of the exterior of the building to its original Art Deco grandeur.

Part of the charm of the Academy is that, despite its large capacity, it is not an arena venue and so allows a certain intimacy between the act and the audience, which makes it popular with both. It has been voted venue of the year twelve times in the annual NME Awards, held by the popular music magazine New Music Express.

The 2007 Sex Pistols comeback concerts planned for three nights in September 2007 sold out in under five minutes and two more gigs were added due to popular demand. This record has been equaled by Rammstein, Massive Attack, The Clash, The Prodigy, Arcade Fire, Nine Inch Nails, Bob Dylan and HARD-Fi, who have all played five consecutive nights at the venue.

When dance band Leftfield played in 1996 their high bass levels loosened the ceiling plaster and they were banned from using the same sound system in the future.

Amongst other notable events in the Academy’s history were the recording of Hole’s 1995 MTV Unplugged sessions there, Motörhead’s 25th Anniversary concert and the recording of live performances for the movie 9 Songs.