Wembley Arena

Wembley Arena is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, Greater London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is Greater London's second-largest indoor arena after the O₂ Arena, and the ninth-largest in the United Kingdom.
The Empire Pool was built for the 1934 British Empire Games by Arthur Elvin. As its original name suggested, it was where the games' swimming events were held. The pool was last used for the 1948 Summer Olympics. The modern arena is now used as a venue for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport.

History

The building was designed by the engineer Sir Owen Williams, without the employment of an architect. Williams built a unique structure, with cantilevers meeting in the middle, thus avoiding the need for internal pillars. He also used high quality concrete, meaning that it has aged far better than many more recent concrete buildings. The building had a reinforced concrete frame of three hinged arches spanning, which was the largest concrete span of any similar structure in the world at that time.
Work on the Empire Pool began in November 1933, and it was opened on 25 July 1934 by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. The swimming pool itself was long and wide with a removable deck for ice skating. As with the adjacent stadium, construction was supervised by R.J. Fowler, Wembley's chief building inspector. The end of the building opened up and led to sunbathing terraces and lawns. The sides had 15 massive concrete buttresses and the tops of the ends were glazed with 20 narrow window lights of increasing height from the edges to the centre.
Ice hockey was introduced to the Empire Pool in October 1934.
In 1940 the Empire Pool was used to billet several hundred Gibraltarian evacuees who were removed from Gibraltar as the Fortress was extensively reinforced in expectation of heavy Axis attack and possible Invasion.
In October 1976, the Empire Pool was awarded Grade II Listed status, protecting it and recognising it as a building of special architectural interest, technological innovation and virtuosity. On 1 February 1978, the Empire Pool was renamed Wembley Arena.
When the venue was known as the Empire Pool, it hosted the annual NME Poll Winners Concerts during the mid-1960s. Audiences of 10,000 viewed acts like the Beatles, Cliff Richard & The Shadows, the Monkees, the Hollies, Dusty Springfield, Joe Brown & the Bruvvers, and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. The individual performances were then finished by a famous personality joining the respective performer on stage and presenting them with their award. The Beatles were presented with one of their awards by actor Roger Moore, and Joe Brown was joined on stage by Roy Orbison who presented him with his own award. These ceremonies were filmed, recorded and later broadcast on television.
Musical acts who subsequently performed there include Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, Genesis, The Faces supported by the Pink Fairies and the New York Dolls, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, INXS, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, The Eagles, The Electric Light Orchestra played a then record of 8 consecutive nights in 1978, the Grateful Dead, Dire Straits, Status Quo, Queen and the Who.

Renovation

The venue was renovated, along with Wembley Stadium, as part of the early-21st-century regeneration of the Wembley Park area. The arena was closed for fourteen months, starting in February 2005, for a refurbishment costing £35 million; events were moved to a neighbouring temporary 10,000-seat venue, the Wembley Arena Pavilion. The new arena opened to the public on 2 April 2006, with a concert by Depeche Mode. The temporary pavilion was moved to Attard, Malta, opening as the permanent Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre in December 2006.
In September 2013, it was announced that AEG Facilities had signed a 15-year contract to operate the arena. Wembley Arena was inherited by ASM Global following its formation on 1 October 2019, when AEG Facilities and SMG merged. Following the acquisition of ASM Global by Legends, the venue has been operated under the Legends Global brand since December 2025. Legends Global is the trading name of a group of companies, including Legends Global Facilities, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 7393342 whose registered office is at Manchester Arena, Hunts Bank Approach, Manchester, M3 1AR.
The building was renamed the SSE Arena on 1 June 2014 after energy company SSE plc bought the naming rights to the venue for 10 years. Since early 2022 it has been known as OVO Arena Wembley.

Returning acts

The Grateful Dead have released recordings of complete shows from 7–8 April 1972 as part of Europe '72: The Complete Recordings. The Grateful Dead also performed at Wembley Arena on 31 October 1990 as part of their fall 1990 European concert tour. Bruce Hornsby accompanied the band for this concert.
A notable attendance record was set in the early 1970s by David Cassidy in his first tour of Great Britain in 1973, when he sold out six performances in one weekend. The experience and the associated mass hysteria was documented in a TV special called "David Cassidy: Weekend At Wembley".
Queen first performed at Wembley Arena from 11 to 13 May 1978 on their News of the World Tour. They would return on 8 to 10 December 1980 on The Game Tour, and in September 1984 on The Works Tour.
ABBA played six sold-out concerts, from 5 to 10 November 1979. The shows were filmed by Swedish television for a documentary which was released in 2004 on DVD as ABBA in Concert. In September 2014 Universal Music released Live at Wembley Arena, featuring most of the concert of 10 November on CD, vinyl LP and digital format. After the tour, the members of the band talked about the warmth of the Wembley audience. "It was like coming home after a couple of nights," said guitarist Björn Ulvaeus. A finale from these concerts, "The Way Old Friends Do", is the closing track on ABBA's seventh studio album, Super Trouper. Vocalist Agnetha Fältskog said it was the vibe from the audience that made the track work so much better as a live performance than as a studio track.
George Dalaras performed a sold-out concert at Wembley Arena on 27 June 1992. It is the biggest Greek concert ever held in United Kingdom. It was a personal initiative of George Dalaras in order to support Cyprus and to promote the Cyprus problem. Among others, Vanessa Redgrave and Georges Moustaki had taken part in the concert.
Tina Turner is the female artist with the most shows, with 25 and with 5 at Wembley Stadium Cliff Richard is the male artist with the most number of shows with 61, whereas Status Quo hold the record for a rock band with 45 performances. Irish band Westlife are the pop band with most shows with 28.

2000s

performed there on 2, 3 and 5 November 2003 as part of her Stripped Tour. The shows were filmed and later released as Stripped Live in the U.K. Destiny's Child performed there on 18 and 19 June 2002 as part of her Destiny's Child World Tour. Beyoncé performed there on 10 and 11 November 2003 as part of her Dangerously in Love Tour. Live at Wembley was filmed during these two concerts.
Pearl Jam hold the attendance record for one show, with 12,470 fans at their 2007 gig. Madonna performed at the arena eight times during her Confessions Tour. The Confessions Tour album was filmed during these concerts.

2010s

On 3 August 2013, Nepathya became the first Nepalese band to perform at the Arena. On 19 December 2015, Nightwish became the first Finnish act to headline the Arena. On 2 April 2016, Babymetal became the first Japanese act to headline the Arena and set the record for the Arena's highest ever merchandise sales.
On 12 November 2017, the 2017 MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony was held at the arena. The event was hosted by Rita Ora and featured performances from Eminem, Demi Lovato, U2, The Killers, Kesha and more. The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody premiered at the Arena on 23 October 2018, in recognition of how Freddie Mercury and Queen gave the iconic Live Aid performance in 1985 at nearby Wembley Stadium. On 17 November 2018, London based DJ Andy C performed a DJ set lasting five hours, the first all night event to take place in the venue's history. The event had sold out in three days six months prior.
On 7, 8 and 9 March 2019, American musical duo Twenty One Pilots performed three shows at the arena as part of The Bandito Tour. On 10 March 2019, Chinese singer-songwriter Joker Xue headlined the arena as part of his Skyscraper World Tour.

2020s

The 13th Global Siyum HaShas of Daf Yomi took place in January 2020, the largest of its kind in the UK. The second series of BBC One's The Wall was filmed at the venue in 2020.
On 17 March 2023, All Time Low filmed their live show Alive at Wembley, which was live streamed and released on vinyl. On 25 October 2023, Critical Role filmed a live show, titled The Mighty Nein Reunion: Echoes of the Solstice, where they played Dungeons & Dragons. It sold out "in less than 6 minutes" with 12,000 tickets. On 19 November 2023, Chinese singer-songwriter Joker Xue returned as part of his Extraterrestrial World Tour. On 21 June 2024, singer-songwriter IU became the first South Korean female soloist to headline the arena as part of her HEREH World Tour. On 11 October 2024, Japanese band One Ok Rock performed at the arena for their Premonition World Tour, giving their largest show in the UK since their debut, with a special appearance from Ed Sheeran.
On 2 March 2025, Korean pop group, Aespa, performed at the arena as part of their "Synk: Parallel Line" tour, making it their second show in London, after their first tour, "Synk: Hyper Line". On 12 March 2025, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor Ian Chan, a well known member of Cantopop group MIRROR, will begin the first stop of his "Tears" in My Sight solo concert tour. On 3 May 2025, Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora performed at the arena for her What Happened to the Earth? tour, giving her biggest solo show in the UK. Fredrik Svabø and Pomme were the opening acts. On 25 May 2025, Philippine pop group BINI performed in the arena as part of the Biniverse World Tour 2025. On 13 December 2025, American pop-punk band Bowling for Soup are set to perform their biggest headline show at the arena, with Wheatus and Punk Rock Factory set to open.