Southbank Centre : Rankin's Front Row

Southbank Centre : Rankin's Front Row

A celebrity in his own right, photographer Rankin created Rankin’s Front Row
for Southbank Centre, collaborating with other artists, prominent individuals and
members of the local community associated with us over the years. Rankin himself
took part in a competition here for budding photographers at the age of 22.

Rankin’s Front Row celebrates the contribution and extraordinary performances
of many great artists and individuals, and supports our fundraising campaign by
encouraging our audiences to Name a Seat in the Royal Festival Hall. Take your
seat alongside the artists and celebrities in Rankin ’s Front Row and contribute to
the refurbishment of Southbank Centre ’s Royal Festival Hall by naming a seat for
yourself or someone special.

Click here to Name a Seat in the Royal Festival Hall
or phone 020 7921 0984

Read and share memories with the Love the Festival Hall project.

Rankin - My first big break as a photographer came when I was
22 years old. I had just moved to London for my first year of college and decided to enter an open submission photography competition at the Royal Festival Hall. In the queue I found myself next to the photographer Nigel Grierson, famous at the time for his album covers for 4AD, the iconic indie label. I thought I would never make it. The theme of the show was ‘Contact’ – I submitted a contact sheet portrait and ended up winning second prize. I remember the elation I felt at seeing my work displayed in the inspiring setting of the Festival Hall.

Since then I have returned to the Southbank Centre many times. I came in 2000 to photograph Scott Walker and in 2004 to take Morrissey’s portrait, when they were curators for the Meltdown Festival. I have come twice to watch the brilliant Elvis Costello perform, and I sometimes come at weekends with my son, just to soak up the bustling atmosphere.

I feel honoured to be given this opportunity to support the place that gave me such a boost at the start of my career.




David Gilmour - In 1964, when i was eighteen , i managed to buy tickets for 6 shillings and 6 pence to see Bob Dylan at the Royal Festival Hall. I got a memorably dodgy lift hitchhiking from Cambridge but it was a brilliant concert; just voice, acoustic guitar and harmonica, not at all like the gigs that were the norm at home.

From that moment I came to see the Royal Festival Hall as the home of a rather more eclectic sort of music. In 1969 it was unfortunately more electric than eclectic when I played there with Pink Floyd and during an afternoon sound-check got a bolt of rogue AC from my guitar which sent me flying backwards right over the drummer’s head to land several feet away, the other side of the drum kit.

Thirty-two years later, at Robert Wyatt’s invitation, I found myself back again, this time for the 2001 Meltdown Festival, doing an unplugged concert accompanied by cello, double bass and the beautiful voices of a Gospel Choir. After years of playing anonymously huge stadiums around the world it was a delight to be in the more intimate surroundings of the Royal Festival Hall. It felt like coming home.