page_title: Southend-on-Sea
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Southend-on-Sea / Entertainment and culture / Music
caption_attribution_description: English: The old Plaza Cinema, Southchurch Road The dome of the old Plaza Cinema, Southchurch Road, looking south-west.
context_page_description: Southend-on-Sea, commonly referred to simply as Southend, is a large coastal town and wider unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, 40 miles east of central London. It is bordered to the north by Rochford and to the west by Castle Point. It is home to the longest leisure pier in the world, Southend Pier. London Southend Airport is located 1.5 NM north of the town centre.
  Southend-on-Sea originally consisted of a few poor fishermen's huts and farms at the southern end of the village of Prittlewell. In the 1790s, the first buildings around what was to become the High Street of Southend were completed. In the 19th century, Southend's status of a seaside resort grew after a visit from Princess Caroline of Brunswick, and Southend Pier was constructed. From the 1960s onwards, the town declined as a holiday destination, Southend redeveloped itself as the home of the Access credit card, due to it having one of the UK's first electronic telephone exchanges. After the 1960s, much of the town centre was developed for commerce and retail, and many original structures were lost to redevelopment.
context_section_description: Southend has three major venues; Chinnerys, the Riga Club (formerly at the Cricketers Pub London Road) at The Dickens, and the Cliffs Pavilion. The Railway Hotel is a live music pub, which features a variety of acts, and curates the Southend Pier Festival.
  Concerts are also shown at the Plaza, a Christian community centre and concert hall based on Southchurch Road, which was formerly a cinema.
  Junk Club, at one time a centre of Southend's music scene, was predominantly held in the basement at the Royal Hotel during the period of 2001–06. Co-run by Oliver "Blitz" Abbott & Rhys Webb, of The Horrors, the underground club night played an eclectic mix from Post Punk to Acid House, 1960s Psychedelia to Electro. It was noted as spearheading what became known as the Southend Scene and was featured in the NME, Dazed & Confused, ID, Rolling Stone, Guardian and Vogue. Acts associated with the scene included: The Horrors; These New Puritans; The Violets; Ipso Facto; Neils Children and The Errorplains.
  There have also been a number of popular music videos filmed in Southend, by such music artists as Oasis; Morrissey; George Michael.
  Bands and musicians originating from Southend include Busted; Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly; Danielle Dax; Eddie and the Hot Rods; Eight Rounds Rapid; The Horrors; The Kursaal Flyers; Nothing But Thieves; Procol Harum; Scroobius Pip;  These New Puritans and Tonight.
caption: The Plaza Centre
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