Mike Skinner has featured historic gem Hoxton Hall on the cover of his new dance music album.
The producer, rapper and DJ known as The Streets is pictured outside the former Victorian music hall in Hoxton street on the sleeve of The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The Light, (Warner) while his self-directed debut feature film was partly shot inside the arts venue.
The Mercury Prize nominee and BRIT award winner first broke through in 2002 with the influential album 'Original Pirate Material' and has gone on to headline Glastonbury and collaborate with the likes of Kano, Fred Again, and Greentea Peng.
His new album has been described as 'an ode to club culture' and features 15 tracks which celebrate dance music from bass and garage to house - accompanied by Skinner's trademark lyrical wordplay.
Featuring tracks like Money Isn't Everything, the melancholic Walk of Shame and the stream of consciousness of Shake Hands With Shadows, the album is currently being aired on a nationwide tour including a date at Alexandra Palace on November 16.
Meanwhile his film ‘The Darker The Shadow, The Brighter The Light’ is a noir murder mystery based in London's clubland, which Skinner has written, directed, shot, edited, scored, and funded, himself - even creating his own special effects.
It was shot at a number of UK locations in 2022, including atmospheric Hoxton Hall with the songs on the album acting as a soundtrack for the film.
Stuart Cox CEO of Hoxton Hall said: “we were thrilled and gobsmacked, as it was only when Mike Skinner came back to visit Hoxton Hall the week before the album was dropped, that he let us know that they had chosen their album cover image - and it was Hoxton Hall! Hoxton Hall had been one of the main locations for the film, and Mike Skinner spent long hours here filming – so it made sense. When they were filming the Hall certainly looked like a lively club night with Mike up on stage. It’s quite something that a Grade II* listed original Victorian music hall would become a modern icon.
"Hoxton Hall just glows on the album cover and in the movie and will be glowing again next month with all our Festive Shows!”
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