MAMA & Company is a live music and entertainment company which owns and operates a number of live music venues and festivals in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2005, it has since acquired many other venue-holding companies, expanding its reach significantly across England. The company owns six London venues and three regional venues: Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen, The Forum in

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the open ...

, The Garage in Islington, The Institute in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, The Ritz in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, and

The Arts Club The Arts Club is a London private members' club founded in 1863 by, among others, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Lord Leighton in Dover Street, Mayfair. It remains a meeting place for men and women involved in the creative arts either ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. The venues range in capacity from 300 to 2,300. In addition, MAMA operates several festivals and events, including Lovebox (London), Wilderness ( Oxfordshire), The Great Escape ( Brighton), Somersault ( North Devon),

Global Gathering Global Gathering was an annual dance music festival by Angel Festivals Limited. Festivals are held in countries such as the UK, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and feature leading electronic music artists from around the globe. The festival ran ...

( Stratford-upon-Avon), Godskitchen, and Future Gods events.

History

On 11 June 2007, the company purchased the Hammersmith Apollo and The Forum. The same year, MAMA Group acquired Mean Fiddler Holdings Limited the company which owned The Jazz Café, The Garage, The Borderline, and held a majority share in

G-A-Y G-A-Y is a long-running gay nightclub, based at Heaven in Charing Cross, London. It started in 1976, and for many years was based at the London Astoria. History G-A-Y started in 1976 in the Sundown club in the basement of the London Astoria (l ...

. On 6 March 2008, the group acquired The Picture House,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

from Luminar Liquid Limited, a subsidiary of

Luminar Group Rekom UK (formerly The Deltic Group Limited & The Luminar Group Ltd.) is a private company with an estate of 46 nightclubs and has the largest square footage of nightclub capacity in the United Kingdom. History Luminar Group Holdings plc was ...

Holdings plc. On 1 April 2008, MAMA acquired The institute, Birmingham and on 13 June 2008, they acquired a majority share in Global Gathering Group Limited (formerly Angel Music Group Limited), the company which owns GlobalGathering, Godskitchen, and Future Gods brands. MAMA acquired 100% of Global Gathering Group Limited in 2011. On 22 September 2008, MAMA Group acquired Heaven (London) Limited, the company which owns the leasehold of the Heaven Nightclub. On 15 January 2009, HMV Group purchased a 50 percent stake in MAMA Group. The new company, Mean Fiddler Group Limited, operated 11 venues across the United Kingdom, including the Hammersmith Apollo, The Forum in Kentish Town, The Garage, Jazz Café, The Edinburgh Picture House,

Digbeth Institute The O2 Institute (originally known as the Digbeth Institute) is a music venue located in Birmingham, England. The venue opened in 1908 as a mission of Carrs Lane Congregational Church. It has also served as an event centre, civic building and ...

in Birmingham, Heaven, G-A-Y Bar, G-A-Y Late, The Borderline, and Aberdeen's Moshulu. In January 2010, HMV bought the whole of the MAMA Group in a deal worth £46m. HMV sold the Hammersmith Apollo to

AEG Live Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

and

Eventim UK Eventim UK is an events and ticket agent, based in London, England. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Europe's largest ticket retailer, CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA. Eventim has been a member of STAR (The Society Of Ticket Agents And R ...

in May 2012 for £32 million. It sold the remainder of MAMA & Company to management backed by

Lloyds Development Capital Lloyds Development Capital (Holdings) Limited (LDC), is a mid-market private equity house and subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, established in 1981 as Lloyds Development Capital Limited. From 1999 to 2011, it was known as Lloyds TSB Developme ...

in December 2012 for £7.3 million, which also included the company's 50% stake in Mean Fiddler Group (excluding Heaven and the G-A-Y businesses). March 2013, MAMA acquired East Village Arts Club (formerly The Masque),

on 5 February 2013 and Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen. In 2015, MAMA was acquired by LN-Gaiety, a joint venture of Live Nation UK and the parent company of

MCD Productions MCD Productions is an Irish concert promotion company. Established in 1980, and headquartered in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin. History The company was founded by Eamonn McCann and Denis Desmond, the company name MCD is made up of their ini ...

. Three MAMA venues, the Ritz in Manchester, the Forum in Kentish Town and the Institute in Birmingham, would be rebranded by Live Nation as the O2 Ritz Manchester, O2 Forum Kentish Town, and O2 Institute Birmingham respectively.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:MAMA and Company Live Nation Entertainment Event management companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in the City of Westminster Entertainment companies established in 2005 2005 establishments in England Festival organizations