KOKO

KOKO is a live venue and club at 1a Camden High Street in Camden Town, London, in a Grade II-listed former theatre. It opened in 1901 as the Camden Theatre, where Charlie Chaplin performed early in his career, became the Camden Hippodrome in 1909 and was turned into a BBC studio in 1945, home to The Goon Show for a decade. The Rolling Stones recorded their live “Cops and Robbers” EP there in 1964.

In 1977 it reopened as The Music Machine, hosting punk acts such as the Sex Pistols, Adam Ant and The Clash, who played a four-night residency in 1978. Steve Strange and Rusty Egan took it over in 1982 as the Camden Palace, a home of the New Romantic scene that hosted early Culture Club and Eurythmics shows and Madonna’s first UK performance. It became KOKO in 2004, closed after a rooftop fire in 2019 and reopened in April 2022 after a three-year redevelopment.

The auditorium, with six balconies and two mezzanines, holds up to 1,410 standing, and the building also has a roof terrace and a private club space. KOKO Electronic launched in 2022, and promoters such as LWE, Undivide and DJ Marky & Friends have brought Ant TC1, Benny L, Blackeye MC, DJ Storm and Doc Scott.