Tally ho, you lot. Normally I like to keep this blog fairly lighthearted and try to avoid getting too political about things, but today is a bit different.
Below you'll see a short film made by one of our talented correspondents - Max - about the steady decline of club culture in the UK. I know that a lot of you are based overseas (bad luck), but the principals discussed in this film are pertinent to all big cities.
The last few years have seen a number of famous and not so famous clubs close their doors in the face of heavy handed local authorities, outdated licensing laws and the predations of planning authorities.
The club that this film focuses on, Passing Clouds, was the sort of venue that our scene relies upon. We're never going to be in a super-club like Fabric, which can rally the support of thousands of passionate followers. We need these open-minded venues to support our scene, which the mainstream are not going to back.
In fact, Passing Clouds was one of London's top vintage remix venues - in my top five places to check if I wanted a last minute night out. Around the same time that PC closed its doors for the last time, another of vintage remix's first homes shut down, the Bedroom Bar.
As Chris Tofu indicates in the film, the developers and incomers are not interested in preserving cultural hotspots if they can make more money by turning them into flats, while in the unlikely event that a venue doesn't disappear during a 'regeneration' project, the chances are they're going to want to play mainstream, middle of the road music. They're risk averse, these developer types.
Anyway - Check out the film, and have a read of Max's 'Director's Notes' below. And if there's a venue near you that's under threat, stand up and do your bit to protect it, lest we all have to listen to Deadmau5 and his ilk forever more.
Toodle pip
Jack the Cad
‘Passed Clouds: A Story Of A Dying Club Culture’ is a
documentary about Club Culture and the closure of clubs throughout the UK.
This documentary was originally made for my final university
project, and it is about an issue which is very close to my heart. Nightclubs
and grassroots music venues are seeing their doors shut, up and down the
country, many of which receive no fanfare at all.
The documentary intends to bring a focus on to clubs such as
Passing Clouds and bring attention to other grassroots venues that have faced
similar fates. As a DJ myself, I performed at Passing Clouds and Bedroom Bar
only a few weeks before they each had to shut their doors. I had some of my
first ever gigs at those venues, and to see them get shutdown was totally
devastating.
It is fantastic to see people rally to save clubs such as
Fabric, but unfortunately most clubs don’t have the following or financial
capabilities to keep their doors open in hard times.
The closures come down a few key reasons: the price of
property, increases in rent, drugs, noise issues, as well as local councils
enforcing difficult to meet restrictions & being unsupportive of the
nighttime industry.
In the documentary I speak with a number of industry
professionals who share their thoughts on the closures and the reasons behind
them, as well as sharing their personal anecdotes of what club culture means to
them.
I also explore how clubs and music venues play an invaluable
economic role to our society, but even more importantly, how they play a
significant role in bringing people together and creating communities which
otherwise might not have existed without these venues & spaces.
Last year the BBC made a short documentary on the topic of club
closures, but I felt that it trivialised and failed to truly show the meaning
that club culture plays in many people’s lives. One of the key problems I found
with was their choice of interviewees. One on whom was Steve Aoki, an American
EDM DJ. I felt he was highly unqualified to speak on the topic of UK club
culture, and that his fame was the only reason for being in the documentary. It
ends up coming across as very corporate and unrepresentative of real
underground scenes. My documentary attempts to try and look at the topic from
the people who are really involved in the scene, and to give an unfiltered view
into how the people who are really being affected feel (Rather than a multi-millionaire
DJ who doesn’t even live in this country).
The main purpose of the documentary is to inform people about
the significance that club culture plays in many people's lives, and to show
that it is more than just going out and getting pissed with your mates on a
Friday night; but rather it is about music, love & human connection.
It doesn’t matter what music you like, whether it’s Electro
Swing or Jungle or Techno, if you care about your subculture, it is time to
stand up and protect it, because if things keep going the way they are, there
will not be anything left to protect.
If you are interested in reading more about the topic, here are
a couple different reports which I used in my research for making this
documentary:
Nighttime Industries Association: ‘Forward Into The Night’:
Mayor of London’s ‘Rescue
Plan For London’s Grassroots Music Venues’:
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