Empire and Hippodrome The site was originally occupied by the Empire variety theatre and ballroom that was designed by John Dent Harker and opened on 4 July 1895. It was renamed the Hippodrome in 1900 and used as a circus, but ten years later was converted to a cinema.
ABC Theatre The former Hippodrome Theatre was bought by
Associated British Cinemas (ABC) in April 1929. They planned to rebuild it in 1939, which was halted by the outbreak of
World War II. The old theatre closed in 1960. Most of the building was then demolished and the new ABC Theatre was built in the shell of the old building with stalls and circle seating with a capacity of 1,934. It also had a permanent revolving stage. The ABC Theatre opened on 31 May 1963 with the
Holiday Carnival summer season stage show which starred
Cliff Richard and
The Shadows. It was used for stage shows during the summer months with films and concerts in the winter.
ABC Cinemas' sister company
ABC Weekend TV televised their
Blackpool Night Out show from the theatre which starred the likes of
Freddie Davies,
Mike & Bernie Winters and
Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson. Four songs they sang live at the gig appeared on the
Anthology 2 compilation album in 1996 – "
I Feel Fine", "
Ticket to Ride", "Yesterday" and "
Help!". The Beatles were also shown singing "Help" at the ABC in Episode four of the 1995
The Beatles Anthology documentary series. It was renamed the Cannon Cinema in 1986, the MGM Cinema in May 1993 The club was closed for a month in October 2005 when it lost its late night drinks licence in court, after Blackpool Police had presented a dossier of alleged violence at the club, which magistrates decided was so serious they withdrew the licence to sell alcohol after 11:00 pm. The club re-opened on 26 November after agreeing to withdraw their application for a new 4 am licence. After the club closed in January 2006 following the refusal of a 4am licence, it was bought in May by national operator Nexum Leisure who undertook a £1m refurbishment of the venue. In June 2007 the venue launched a weekly Polish Night (Polska Noc) aimed at the resorts Polish and
Eastern European population. On 7 September 2008,
John Robb the vocalist in the
punk rock band
Goldblade who co-founded
The Membranes in Blackpool in 1977 and who also works as a journalist and television
pundit, hosted a special event entitled "A Celebration of Music, Fashion & Football 1975–1995" at the Syndicate, with guest speakers
Andy Nicholls,
Shane Meadows and former
Inspiral Carpets musician
Clint Boon. On 14 September 2008 the Syndicate staged a
boxing event with American former
world heavyweight champion,
Tim Witherspoon making a guest appearance.
Eric "Butterbean" Esch took on Mark Potter for the
European Boxing Federation Heavyweight title. The Syndicate closed on 10 August 2011, posting a closing notice on Facebook. The building was later demolished in 2014. ==References==