The Mean Fiddler, one of London's most famous music venues, which has stood derelict for five years, is to be resurrected by Mama Group, a small British music promotions group listed on the junior Aim market.
It is one of a handful of the capital's fading landmark music venues, including the Jazz Cafe, The Garage and The Borderline, which was yesterday sold - together with a majority stake in Britain's best known gay club operator G-A-Y - to Mama for £8m.
The underperforming sites were sold by Mean Fiddler Group, a business taken private two years ago jointly by US firm Live Nation, the world's largest live music group, and Irish veteran promoter Denis Desmond.
Under Mama, the Mean Fiddler and its sister sites will return to be part of a stable of London venues - including the Forum in Kentish Town - which formed the nucleus of the Mean Fiddler promotions empire built up by founder Vince Power in the 1980s.
Mr Power and Mr Desmond quickly became bitter rivals in music promotion, having each won control of close to half of London's major venues.
In the 1990s the battleground between the two Irishmen extended into festival promotions. Mean Fiddler took on Reading and Leeds festival as well as an interest in Glastonbury, while Mr Desmond's business MCD developed the V festival.
Ultimately, with festivals proving more lucrative than the original small venues business, Mean Fiddler was sold and Live Nation, then part of US media conglomerate Clear Channel, took control of a 51% stake with Mr Desmond owning the rest.
Mr Power, who had at first opposed a sale, walked away with about £13m for his share of the business.
Yesterday's deal leaves Mama, which also has seven small Barfly music venues around Britain, with the right to trade under the Mean Fiddler name. The Aim company has enjoyed considerable artistic success, hosting early performances by bands such as the Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand.
It hopes to bring back a blend of emerging talent and well known names to its newly acquired sites, though some will need a dramatic makeover - the 600-capacity Mean Fiddler in Harlesden, north-west London, has been shut for five years and The Garage, in Islington, for more than a year.
