Check out the final part of our favourite Astoria moments. If you missed them you can also check out part 1 and part 2 of our retrospective look at the venue on the day it’s due to close its doors for good.

Jonathan Selzer (reviews editor): “Kinda showing my age here, but the Astoria was responsible for a lot of my formative experiences – getting to see Death play in 1992 was revelatory, and the intensity Chuck Schuldiner put out onstage made me a death metal fan for life. I also got to see Soundgarden play there circa ‘Badmotorfinger’. I remember Chris Cornell racing across stage with strips ducktape down his chest, fans clambering towards the stage like it was some kind of Apache raid and feeling like I was going to get sucked into the speakers just because of the sheer gravity of the sound. Revolting Cocks at the Astoria back in 1990 was one of the most jaw dropping live experiences I’d ever had, a total WTF headcrush riot with strippers, blow-up dolls and all manner of fucked up characters spilling across the stage, and not far off was Killing Joke around 1994, and I’ll never know whether the performer Bingo, whose was well known for taking a chainsaw to a metal codpiece, really was fucking the model onstage or not.”

“Not only do I have too many individual memories of the venue to count, but it also connects many of them together, and it feels like I’ve gone through musical journeys there. I’ll never live down slagging off Nirvana when they played there to promote ‘Bleach’, but weirdly, Godflesh were the main support, and seeing them play their final show at the Astoria years later, with KJ’s late Raven on bass and Fear Factory headlining laid out a beautiful chain of influence that covers over two decades of my personal history. I also saw my favourite band ever, Swans, nearly bring down the roof, and they played their last ever show at the LA2. Frontman Michael Gira came onstage naked at the end, waving to the audience, and when the lights go out, for some reason, that image is going to stick with me.”

Terry Bezer (web editor): “Wow, I’m really, really going to miss the Astoria. Queuing up overnight for Black Sabbath tickets in 2000 and it being worth every second, the barrier to the bar being absolute bedlam when Slipknot arrived for the first time, Alice In Chains opening with ‘We Die Young’, Anthrax’s last London show with John Bush, Glassjaw blowing Soulfly away on ‘Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence’…all amongst the best moments at shows I’ve ever seen.”

“Dave Grohl hitting the drum-stool with QOTSA at the LA2, Rocket From The Crypt being thrown onto an indie bill and scaring the shit out of everyone in the building, Airbourne’s Joel O’Keefe getting to the bar, picking up a pint and getting it back to the stage with out a drop being spilt, Social fucking Distortion tearing the place a new one, Deftones and Will Haven on ‘Around The Fur’…I’ll be here all day.”

“All in all, it’s a very, very sad for all London-based gig-goers but all that’s left to do is to toast the good times we’ve all had there and, if you’re in the building, have a drink for Neville – the greatest security guard to ever walk the earth.”

Malcolm Dome (contributor): “I can actually recall when the Astoria was a cinema – amazing, eh? As a venue, so many great bands. Slipknot’s first ever UK show is a stand-out. They were truly an experience. As were Soulfly a few years back. Machine Head in the mid’90s, at a time when their stock was falling away, showed their professionalism by dealing with a power outage very impressively. They didn’t just leave the stage, but stayed on entertaining the crowd.”

“Some of the best times were experienced with bands who pulled virtually no-one. Law And Order had about 20 people at the gig, but were tremendous nonetheless. Dio, in the early 1990s, could barely scrape together a big crowd. In the days when Tracey G was on guitar, and got some serious verbal abuse from certain quarters. Marvellous to see the way the band have stormed back in popularity in recent times. The Alan Parsons Project playing before a SEATED audience. Oh, and let’s not forget Alice Cooper doing three nights at the venue, and Slayer being…well, Slayer-like!”

“Perhaps now is also the time to reveal the old pass trick on the balcony. There again…maybe not!”

Jerry Ewing (contributor): Danzig in 1990, Chili Peppers about the same time, Black Sabbath 1999, Dio peforming Holy Diver, the most recent Corrosion Of Conformity and Down gigs there, Twisted Sister in 2004 and of course, Airbourne this year.