Albert Hall loading bay gets pop music makeover

LONDON (Reuters) - For one day only, visitors to the Royal Albert Hall in London will be able to go underground to the loading bay and see giant graffiti portraying the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger and Paul Weller.

"LOAD," which is open to the public free of charge on Monday, June 22, brings contemporary street art and some of the greatest names in rock and roll to the walls of one of the bastions of classical music, albeit three floors underground.

"We do want to change people's perception," said Lucy Noble, the Hall's head of programing.

"We do want to do new and challenging things so that people think, 'Wow, look at what the Royal Albert Hall's doing.' And why not? Just because we are a 138-year-old building, it doesn't mean to say that we can't embrace new ideas and do new things."

Alongside The Killers, The Beatles, Elton John and Frank Sinatra, appear representations of Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Muhammad Ali.

"Every single thing that you see depicted in the artwork, all of these people have performed at the Royal Albert Hall or been at the Royal Albert Hall," said Noble.

In 1954, British wartime leader Churchill was honored with an 80th birthday concert. He was also the first person to give a television broadcast from the Hall in 1946.

And Einstein spoke there in 1933 to raise money for the Refugees Assistance Fund, helping those fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe.

PROMS TO POP

LOAD is the latest in a series of exhibitions held at the distinctive red-brick, curved building in Kensington, London.

Best known for the "proms," a summer season of classical concerts with a patriotic finale attended by thousands of boisterous fans, the Hall has also hosted tennis matches, rock concerts and speeches by leading figures.

For members of the "Wonderland Collective," one of the attractions of decorating the large brick walls of the cavernous loading bay far beneath the stage and auditorium was the idea of permanence.

"The fact that it's staying now for however long, that's a big incentive for any artist," said Finbarr DAC, one of the graffiti artists who has been working in the bay around the clock for the last few days.

"Every artist including Banksy has done work that's been painted over. This is not going to be painted over. At least that's the plan anyway."

He and his partners, brought in by alternative events organizer Daydream Network, used stencils and projections to create black-and-white, highly polished representations of the stars of the stage, be it political, scientific or musical.

"Every time you look, you will catch something new but that's the whole point, that you get people to constantly look and look again."

(Editing by Steve Addison)