It is getting close now. The final pieces of the Olympia jigsaw are being rapidly slotted into place. Soon, for example, we will find out who will be the first artist to take the stage at its new 4,000-capacity live music venue when it opens next spring. Nothing has been revealed yet. But in the temporary canteens and offices across the huge building site at the west London development, workers are making the case for their own personal favourites. One tells me he would love it to be Australian heavy metal veterans AC/DC, another dreams of the US rapper Post Malone. We shall see.
The reinvention of Olympia is a big deal for the capital, and west London in particular. Eleven years after Earls Court Exhibition Centre shut its doors forever — with Bombay Bicycle Club as the final act — its venerable sister venue only a mile away is getting smartened up for a remarkable renaissance.
