Brixton Calling review – tender portrait of an iconic venue and the unsung hero who built it

Southwark Playhouse Borough, London Alex Urwin’s warm drama tells the story of Simon Parkes who at just 23 bought the Brixton Academy for a pound and turned it into a mainstay of the UK music scene This is the story of a derelict building and the man who turned it into an unlikely cultural landmark. The man was Simon Parkes, the building the Brixton Academy, and this drama inspired by his memoir. Written by Alex Urwin with warm flecks of comedy, it seems like musical hagiography at first. The tone is retrospective, indulging in the romance of remembering the dark, beer-soaked spaces that Parkes loved as a teenager.