Rock Circus

Madame Tussaud's Rock Circus (August 1989 – September 2001), was a walk-through exhibition celebrating the history of rock and pop music, featuring its major figures recreated in wax. It was located at the top four floors of the then-newly refurbished London Pavilion building at Piccadilly Circus, London. Predominantly British artists featured, but many American artists were also included. The attraction told the story of rock and pop from the 1950s to the then-present day by using videos, music, narration and audio-animatronic figures.

In the mid 1980s, the Tussauds Group began looking for a new attraction venture in London, having just been involved in the development of Chessington World of Adventures theme park in Surrey. Market research discovered that focus groups were attracted to the idea of a music-based tourist attraction, as opposed to other concepts suggested, such as an exhibition on the history of the city.

Deciding which musical stars should be represented in the exhibitions was left to general manager Martin King, head of Tussauds Studios Ian Hanson and rock writer Paul Gambaccini. The exhibition was opened in 1989 by Jason Donovan and closed completely in September 2001.

The attraction was built in the top four floors of the newly refurbished London Pavilion building at Piccadilly Circus, London. It featured wax figures similar to Madame Tussauds original venue, as well as an animatronic finale show. The audio-animatronic figures took up to a year to create and, depending on the complexity of movement involved, cost up to $170,000 each. The control systems for the exhibition were provided by Electrosonic Ltd.

Visitors walked around the exhibition wearing headphones which used infra-red technology to beam relevant audio material according to what you were looking at. The centrepiece of the exhibition was a 'live' show performed by a series of lifelike animatronic figures, looking at the history of Rock music from 1950 to the present day. The audience sat in an auditorium which rotated to view the various stages.

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