44-592: Empire Pool may refer to: Empire Pool, the original name for Wembley Arena at Wembley Park in the London Borough of Brent Empire Pool, Vancouver , a swimming pool built for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Wales Empire Pool , an international swimming pool in Cardiff (demolished 1998) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
88-732: A cast of their hands, which can also be seen in the Square of Fame. Alice Cooper added his handprints in 2012 as the only solo artist to have headlined at the venue in the past five consecutive decades. Wembley Arena is served by Wembley Park station on the London Underground via Olympic Way , and Wembley Central station via the White Horse Bridge . Train services are operated by Chiltern Railways from Wembley Stadium station to London Marylebone and Birmingham . London Buses routes 92 and 440 stop directly outside
132-422: A famous personality joining the respective performer on stage and presenting them with their award. The Beatles were presented with one of their awards by actor Roger Moore , and Joe Brown was joined on stage by Roy Orbison who presented him with his own award. These ceremonies were filmed, recorded and later broadcast on television. Musical acts who subsequently performed there include Led Zeppelin (who played
176-488: A hypocritical attack on the commercial nature of the Brit Awards. In 2003, Nick Jago , the drummer of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club gave a "silent" speech lasting 7 minutes, infavourably compared the show to The Source awards, was booed and heckled and had to be physically removed from the stage. The Libertines won "Best British Band" in both 2004 and 2005, as well as "Best New Band" in 2003. The 2003 award win
220-517: A live performance than as a studio track. George Dalaras performed a sold-out concert at Wembley Arena on 27 June 1992. It is the biggest Greek concert ever held in United Kingdom. It was a personal initiative of George Dalaras in order to support Cyprus and to promote the Cyprus problem . Among others, Vanessa Redgrave and Georges Moustaki had taken part in the concert. Tina Turner
264-621: A live show, titled The Mighty Nein Reunion: Echoes of the Solstice , where they played Dungeons & Dragons . It sold out "in less than 6 minutes" with 12,000 tickets. On 19 November 2023, Chinese singer-songwriter Joker Xue returned as part of his Extraterrestrial World Tour. On 21 June 2024, singer-songwriter IU became the first South Korean female soloist to headlined the arena as part of her HEREH World Tour . On 11 October 2024, Japanese band One Ok Rock performed at
308-591: A plaque was Madonna , on 1 August 2006. On 9 November 2006, Cliff Richard added his handprints to the Square. Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi , of Status Quo , unveiled a plaque, with one of each of their handprints, on 16 December 2006. On 9 January 2007, Kylie Minogue included her handprints, on the final day of the London leg of her Showgirl Homecoming Tour. Seven time World Snooker Champion Stephen Hendry added his handprints on 21 January 2007. International country superstar Dolly Parton unveiled her plaque, on
352-544: A reinforced concrete frame of three hinged arches spanning 240 feet (73 m), which was the largest concrete span of any similar structure in the world at that time. Work on the Empire Pool began in November 1933, and it was opened on 25 July 1934 by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester . The swimming pool itself was 200 feet (61 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) wide with a removable deck for ice skating. As with
396-871: A season in the 1970s. Wembley also hosted the British Hockey League play-off finals weekend at the end of each season up until the league's disbandment in 1996. The arena played host to two pairs of NHL preseason games: the Chicago Blackhawks versus the Montreal Canadiens in 1992 and the Toronto Maple Leafs versus the New York Rangers in 1993 . The boxing World Championship bout between then champion Alan Minter and challenger Marvin Hagler , which
440-620: A special two night "Electric Magic" concert during their 1971 Winter Tour ; the poster for the event, designed by Steve Hardcastle, sold on the night for 30p, has become a collectors item, fetching over £500 at auction), T. Rex (whose Ringo Starr -directed documentary film Born to Boogie is centred on a 1972 concert at the Empire Pool), Genesis , David Bowie , the Rolling Stones , Bon Jovi , INXS , Pink Floyd (who played there on their 1974 British Winter tour and 1977 "In
484-490: Is the female artist with the most shows, with 25 and with 5 at Wembley Stadium (three in 1996 and two in 2000) Cliff Richard is the male artist with the most number of shows with 61, whereas Status Quo hold the record for a rock band with 45 performances. Irish band Westlife are the pop band with most shows with 28. Christina Aguilera performed there on 2, 3 and 5 November 2003 as part of her Stripped Tour . The shows were filmed and later released as Stripped Live in
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#1732772854536528-573: The Empire Pool , now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley , London , England. The 12,500-seat facility is London's second-largest indoor arena after the O 2 Arena , and the ninth-largest in the United Kingdom. The Empire Pool (also known as Empire Pool and Sports Arena) was built for the 1934 British Empire Games by Arthur Elvin . As its original name suggested, it
572-645: The Masters snooker tournament from 2007 until 2011. The European League Of Legends Championship Series, which is a competitive esports league in the computer game League of Legends , played its round of matches at the arena in 2014. The 2015 League of Legends World Championship quarterfinals took place in the Arena. In September 2018, the playoffs for the FACEIT Major: London 2018 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship took place in
616-431: The Arena on 23 October 2018, in recognition of how Freddie Mercury and Queen gave the iconic Live Aid performance in 1985 at nearby Wembley Stadium . On 17 November 2018, London based DJ Andy C performed a DJ set lasting five hours, the first all night event to take place in the venue's history. The event had sold out in three days six months prior. On 10 March 2019, Chinese singer-songwriter Joker Xue headlined
660-554: The Empire Pool / Wembley Arena was the venue for the Wembley Professional Tennis Championships which was a part of the professional Grand Slam from 1927 until 1967. From the late 1960s to the late 1970s, the Skol 6-Day cycle race was held there. An indoor velodrome of 166 metres was assembled from sections each September. This was Britain's first indoor velodrome. Top professional riders from
704-650: The Empire Pool was renamed Wembley Arena. When the venue was known as the Empire Pool, it hosted the annual NME Poll Winners Concerts during the mid-1960s. Audiences of 10,000 viewed acts like the Beatles , Cliff Richard & The Shadows , the Monkees , the Hollies , Dusty Springfield , Joe Brown & the Bruvvers , and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich . The individual performances were then finished by
748-478: The Empire Pool was used to billet several hundred Gibraltarian evacuees who were removed from Gibraltar as the Fortress was extensively reinforced in expectation of heavy Axis attack and possible Invasion. In October 1976, the Empire Pool was awarded Grade II Listed status, protecting it and recognising it as a building of special architectural interest, technological innovation and virtuosity. On 1 February 1978,
792-521: The European 6-Day circuit came to London, including Eddy Merckx , Peter Post , Patrick Sercu and many others. British riders such as World pursuit champion Hugh Porter and British Champion Tony Gowland also competed. The Wembley Lions and Wembley Monarchs were two ice hockey teams that used the venue regularly during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, while the London Lions used the venue for
836-584: The Flesh" tour), Roxy Music (played two nights there - 17 & 18 October 1975 - on their Siren tour), The Eagles (on their Hotel California 1978 tour), the Grateful Dead , Dire Straits (who played there on their "Brothers In Arms" tour in 1985 (13 consecutive nights) and "On Every Street" tour in 1991), Status Quo , Queen and the Who , The venue was renovated, along with Wembley Stadium , as part of
880-681: The Rolling Stones were most commonly featured. Venues included the Royal Albert Hall and the Empire Pool, Wembley . In 2008, a compact disc was given away with a special souvenir box set issue of the NME magazine on 27 February 2008, called NME Awards 2008 . In 1994, the awards were briefly renamed the NME Brat Awards , with the title intended as a parody of the Brit Awards . The initial award ceremonies were supportive of
924-497: The U.K. Beyoncé performed there on 10 and 11 November 2003 as part of her Dangerously in Love Tour . Live at Wembley was filmed during these two concerts. Pearl Jam hold the attendance record for one show, with 12,470 fans at their 2007 gig. Madonna performed at the arena eight times during her Confessions Tour . The Confessions Tour album was filmed during these concerts. On 3 August 2013, Nepathya became
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#1732772854536968-638: The World Tour . They would return on 8 to 10 December 1980 on The Game Tour , and in September 1984 on The Works Tour . ABBA played six sold-out concerts, from 5 to 10 November 1979. The shows were filmed by Swedish television for a documentary which was released in 2004 on DVD as ABBA in Concert . In September 2014 Universal Music released Live at Wembley Arena , featuring most of the concert of 10 November on CD, vinyl LP and digital format. After
1012-614: The Year Show was held there from 1959 to 2002. From 1979 to 1983, indoor speedway was held during the winter, with the riders racing on concrete on a 181-yard track Two NBA basketball exhibition matches were played at the arena in1 October 1993, featuring the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic . It hosted the final of the Premier League Darts in 2009 and 2011 as well as the 2010 playoff finals. It also hosted
1056-474: The adjacent stadium, construction was supervised by R.J. Fowler, Wembley 's chief building inspector. The end of the building opened up and led to sunbathing terraces and lawns. The sides had 15 massive concrete buttresses and the tops of the ends were glazed with 20 narrow window lights of increasing height from the edges to the centre. Ice hockey was introduced to the Empire Pool in October 1934. In 1940
1100-515: The arena as part of his Skyscraper World Tour. The 13th Global Siyum HaShas of Daf Yomi took place in January 2020, the largest of its kind in the UK. The second series of BBC One 's The Wall was filmed at the venue in 2020. On 17 March 2023, All Time Low filmed their live show Alive at Wembley, which was live streamed and released on vinyl. On 25 October 2023, Critical Role filmed
1144-475: The arena for their Premonition World Tour , giving their largest show in the UK since their debut, with a special appearance from Ed Sheeran . During the 1948 Summer Olympics , the venue hosted the Olympic boxing , Olympic diving , Olympic swimming , and Olympic water polo events. The venue hosted Olympic badminton and Olympic rhythmic gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics . From 1934 until 1990,
1188-589: The arena. The venue has hosted many professional wrestling events from Joint Promotions , WWE , NXT ( TakeOver: London ), World Championship Wrestling , World Wrestling All-Stars , Impact Wrestling , and Progress Wrestling , With the reopening of Wembley Arena in 2006, a "Square of Fame" area has been created in front of the arena. Similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame , notable Wembley Arena performers are invited to have bronze plaques imprinted with their names and handprints. The first star to have
1232-512: The arena. Wembley Central station is located nearby on High Road and is served by London Overground , London Underground, Southern and London Northwestern Railway services. NME Awards The NME Awards is an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine NME ( New Musical Express ). The first awards show was held in 1953 as the NME Poll Winners Concerts , shortly after
1276-580: The awards reflected the NME ' s support for the "New Rock Revolution" garage rock revival , with the Strokes winning three awards ("Best New Act", "Best Album" and "Band of the Year"). After the 2002 awards, an article on Telegraph.co.uk reported that the winners of the NME awards "were almost interchangeable" with the winners of the Brit awards and criticised then editor Ben Knowles for what they saw as
1320-479: The awards reflected who received the most coverage by the magazine; "Who else was going to be Best British Band? You don't write about something that much and then not tell you that you're Best British Band". Elsewhere that year, whilst collecting an award for his charity work, Bob Geldof called host Russell Brand a "cunt" to which Brand replied "[It's] no wonder Bob Geldof is such an expert on famine – he's been dining out on ' I Don't Like Mondays ' for 30 years." In
1364-406: The band for this concert. A notable attendance record was set in the early 1970s by David Cassidy in his first tour of Great Britain in 1973, when he sold out six performances in one weekend. The experience and the associated mass hysteria was documented in a TV special called "David Cassidy: Weekend At Wembley". Queen first performed at Wembley Arena from 11 to 13 May 1978 on their News of
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1408-581: The burgeoning Britpop scene with Blur becoming the first band in the modern era to win more than three awards, coming away with five total. Again in 1996, rival band Oasis won four awards: Best Band, Best Live Band, Best Album ( (What's the Story) Morning Glory? ) and Best Single (" Wonderwall "). Later in the decade, major winners were the Manic Street Preachers (4 awards in 1999) and Blur (3 awards in 2000). In 2002,
1452-569: The ceremony was followed by the NME Big Gig at the adjacent O2 Arena, where the Cribs performed with Johnny Marr , followed by Klaxons , Bloc Party , Kaiser Chiefs and Manic Street Preachers , who also performed with Tom Clarke of the Enemy and Cerys Matthews . In 2009, Oasis were nominated for a record 7 awards, whilst Villain of the Year went to George W. Bush for the sixth year in
1496-611: The early-21st-century regeneration of the Wembley Park area. The arena was closed for fourteen months, starting in February 2005, for a refurbishment costing £35 million; events were moved to a neighbouring temporary 10,000-seat venue, the Wembley Arena Pavilion. The new arena opened to the public on 2 April 2006, with a concert by Depeche Mode . The temporary pavilion was moved to Attard , Malta , opening as
1540-552: The final night of her UK tour, on 25 March 2007. Canadian musician Bryan Adams unveiled his plaque, on 10 May 2007, just before his 25th appearance at the venue. Just three days later, singer Lionel Richie was presented with his plaque on 13 May 2007, after another sold-out performance at the arena. Irish boyband Westlife unveiled their plaque on 28 March 2008, after 27 sell-out shows, in the space of 10 years. They have sold 250,000 tickets. All four members, Shane Filan , Nicky Byrne , Kian Egan and Mark Feehily were presented with
1584-566: The first Nepalese band to perform at the Arena. On 19 December 2015, Nightwish became the first Finnish act to headline the Arena. On 2 April 2016, Babymetal became the first Japanese act to headline the Arena and set the record for the Arena's highest ever merchandise sales. On 12 November 2017, the 2017 MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony was held at the arena. The event was hosted by Rita Ora and featured performances from Eminem , Demi Lovato , U2 , The Killers , Kesha and more. The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody premiered at
1628-588: The founding of the magazine. Though the accolades given are entirely genuine, the ceremony itself is usually carried out in a humorous and jovial manner, and have included categories in the past like "Villain of the Year" and "Worst Record". The trophies given to the winners resemble an extended middle finger . The awards began as the NME Poll Winners Concert and associated awards ceremony in 1953. These continued through until 1972, where concerts were filmed and broadcast on ITV . The Beatles and
1672-509: The latter won, was held at Wembley Arena in 1980. The arena hosted the MF & DAZN : X Series 004 and 007 events for KSI vs FaZe Temperrr and KSI vs Joe Fournier in 2023. The arena played host to BAMMA mixed martial arts events on in May 2011 ( BAMMA 6 ), September 2012 ( BAMMA 10 ) and September 2017 (BAMMA 31) as well as UFC on Fuel TV: Barão vs. McDonald , in February 2013. The Horse of
1716-726: The permanent Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in December 2006. In September 2013, it was announced that AEG Facilities had signed a 15-year contract to operate the arena. The building was renamed The SSE Arena on 1 June 2014 after energy company SSE plc bought the naming rights to the venue for 10 years. Since early 2022 it has been known as OVO Arena Wembley. The Grateful Dead have released recordings of complete shows from 7–8 April 1972 as part of Europe '72: The Complete Recordings . The Grateful Dead also performed at Wembley Arena on 31 October 1990 as part of their fall 1990 European concert tour. Bruce Hornsby accompanied
1760-503: The same year, Kaiser Chiefs were nominated for a six categories and won Best Album for Employment . In 2007, Razorlight received a worst album nomination for their self-titled album , which NME themselves gave 8/10. This made it the highest rated album to receive a worst album nomination. The 2008 award nominations were criticised in The Guardian for a lack of diversity and not including any female artists. Also in 2008,
1804-513: The title Empire Pool . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Empire_Pool&oldid=893597529 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Wembley Arena Wembley Arena ( / ˈ w ɛ m b l i / ) (originally
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1848-460: The tour, the members of the band talked about the warmth of the Wembley audience. "It was like coming home after a couple of nights," said guitarist Björn Ulvaeus . A finale from these concerts, "The Way Old Friends Do", is the closing track on ABBA's seventh studio album, Super Trouper . Vocalist Agnetha Fältskog said it was the vibe from the audience that made the track work so much better as
1892-407: Was notable for Pete Doherty breaking and entering former bandmate Carl Barât 's house stealing many of his belongings, including his award. In 2006, Arctic Monkeys won both "Best New Band" and "Best British Band" in the same year and became the third band in the modern era to win three awards (Best New Band, Best British Band, Best Track). In his speech, lead singer Alex Turner alluded to how
1936-560: Was where the games' swimming events were held. The pool was last used for the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. The modern arena is now used as a venue for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The building was designed by the engineer Sir Owen Williams , without the employment of an architect. Williams built a unique structure, with cantilevers meeting in the middle, thus avoiding the need for internal pillars. He also used high quality concrete, meaning that it has aged far better than many more recent concrete buildings. The building had
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