As the nation’s favourite "village hall" celebrates such a major birthday, we take a look at the most iconic moments over the years 🧵👇
telegraph.co.uk/music/concerts…
The Great Pop Prom
🎶 This 1963 fundraiser was one of only a handful of times that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones performed on the same bill
🗣️“We were thinking, ‘This is it – London! The Albert Hall!’ We felt like gods!’” said Paul McCartney.
Madame Butterfly
🎤The arena was flooded with 50,000 litres of water for a staging of Puccini’s opera in 2015
A regal audience
👑 The Royal family have kept close links to the hall.
🩰 Diana, Princess of Wales, attended a performance of Swan Lake by the English National Ballet in March 1997
The Last Night of the Proms
🇬🇧 Flag-waving has always been an integral part of the famous evening, but it became a political battleground in 2018 as Remainers brandished EU flags, while Leavers had their own pro-Brexit banner.
Miss World protest
📺 In November 1970, millions watched on TV as feminist activists disrupted the beauty contest, bringing Britain’s Women’s Liberation Movement to worldwide attention.
Celebrating Winnie
🇬🇧 The hall has held many political events in its 150-year history, such as this Primrose League rally in 1953, which was attended by Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
🗣️ He made a further 15 appearances at the hall between 1911 and 1959
Prog-rock ban
🎸 Pink Floyd received a lifetime ban from the hall, following a 1969 gig that involved the firing of two cannons and a pink smoke bomb.
✖️ Three years on, pop concerts were banned completely.
🎉 It didn’t last – Pink Floyd were back just a year later
A warning speech
🗣️ In 1933, Albert Einstein spoke to a packed audience at the hall about his fears over the looming crisis in Europe, asking, “How can we save mankind and its spiritual acquisitions of which we are the heirs? How can one save Europe from a new disaster?”
150 years of the Royal Albert Hall: the most iconic moments through the decades 👇 telegraph.co.uk/music/concerts…
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