Watermans Arts Centre

Watermans Art Centre is a multipurpose arts centre. It is located in Brentford, England alongside the banks of the River Thames overlooking Kew Gardens in west London, England.

It includes a 239-seat theatre and a 125-seat cinema.

Built on the site of gas works, Watermans Arts Centre was in planning for 15 years. A trust was put in place in 1975 and there was a fundraising drive. The Hounslow Arts Trust managed to raise around £150,000 but it was not enough to build the centre. A planning deal was made with the developer of offices adjoining the current site which, along with the Trust's money, paid for the construction. It took about three years to build and cost about £2m. The building was designed by the architectural firm Oscar Garry & Partners. The original building contained a theatre, cinema, and gallery. The two studios are a later addition. John Baraldi was the first director of the arts centre.

The very first event in the theatre was a concert by India's leading sitar player and Beatles guru Ravi Shankar.

Watermans established a reputation for live music and early raves took place there. In fact, the term Acid Jazz was originally coined by DJ Gilles Peterson at one of Nicky Holloway’s Special Branch gigs at the Watermans in late 1987. Gilles Peterson recollected that "Acid jazz happened when Bangsy and me were playing at the Waterman’s Art Centre in Brentford. A one-off gig by Nicky Holloway. I think Paul Oakenfold or Pete Tong were DJing. It was all ‘get on one, matey’ and it was banging acid house."

On 19 August 1988, alternative rock band Spacemen 3 gave an unusual live performance. An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music took place in the foyer to act as a prelude to a screening of the film Wings of Desire. Peter Kember, Jason Pierce and Will Carruthers were joined by Rugby musician Steve Evans. They played a 45-minute jam, based around a single chord strummed by Evans, featuring riffs from some of the songs from their as yet unreleased Playing with Fire material. This performance was recorded and was later released, in 1990, as Dreamweapon.

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