|
fabric closed down permanently
|
View this Thread in Original format
| rubez |
wow. that's it permanently shut down now after some drug related deaths.
wtf. we had the same thing done to our local club (the arches)
what a load of bollocks, clubbing scene is getting ed.
a case for regulation methinks. supposedly the pills are stronger now than ever. no-one bats an eyelid about the thousands of alcohol related deaths every year, and that's regulated and taxed to the hilt.
a couple of people unfortunately die of "drugs", and there's hysteria. |
|
|
| Woony |
The whole drug thing is just a front. Apparently there were already plans for development in the area - http://www.constructionenquirer.com...d-project-team/
With construction going for at least £200m it would shock me if there weren't any bribes going, which is of course par of course in the construction business. Not to mention the local council gets to bump it's household by selling the property.
What I find curious is that nobody else from the London politics side is stepping in. While it may benefit the local council, closing an iconic club like Fabric is a really bad idea financially. We aren't in the 90s anymore, major Clubs like Fabric are a gentrification and tourism boost. |
|
|
| rubez |
london mayor and some MPs said they don't want to see it closed.
they claim people were inadequately searched, but everyone says they were the most stringent of all the clubs for searches - bouncers practically ass raping punters at the door and grabbing suspects off the dance floor.
no doubt they were itching to close this down, and this was their excuse (the deaths)
nothing else they could do, bar performing strip searches at the door. pathetic.
definitely political. |
|
|
| Sand Leaper |
| quote: | Originally posted by Woony
The whole drug thing is just a front. Apparently there were already plans for development in the area - http://www.constructionenquirer.com...d-project-team/
With construction going for at least £200m it would shock me if there weren't any bribes going, which is of course par of course in the construction business. Not to mention the local council gets to bump it's household by selling the property.
What I find curious is that nobody else from the London politics side is stepping in. While it may benefit the local council, closing an iconic club like Fabric is a really bad idea financially. We aren't in the 90s anymore, major Clubs like Fabric are a gentrification and tourism boost. |
Fabric has consistently struggled with drug dealing, sexual harassment of patrons and neighbour complaints during the last decade, and generally been on the radar for the local authorities. A conservative government doesn't need bribery to eliminate this kind of "problem" from the city, especially when you can replace the club with a museum, a far less contentious tourist magnet that puts far less of a strain on both security and bureaucracy.
Besides, the next step up in security required for Fabric to stay open was sniffer dogs and ID scanners. that. I'll take a tiny sweat box any day of the week if the alternative is to get a flashlight beam in my pupils whenever I get into the music. |
|
|
| Woony |
Doesn't London have a Labour major and I read the council members were Labour too. Not that being part of a "leftist" party means anything anymore in 2016 :p
And sure, a museum might be less controversial but there are many museums in the city, there's only one iconic club. A museum isn't going to attract that the people that Fabric attracted. |
|
|
| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | | there are many museums in the city, there's only one iconic club. |
Bit of an odd comment. In pure "tourist magnet" terms, Ministry Of Sound is just as iconic as Fabric, if not more. The fact that 90% of their line-ups are awful doesn't change that. And new upstarts like XOYO are also well on their way to ubiquity.
More generally, people may moan about the supposed decline of London's nightlife, but it's still bursting with venues putting on underground dance music. The line-ups that Fabric put on weren't unique in the city, and those DJs and styles will continue to get booked at other venues. As Jan suggests, Fabric had problems that came with being so famous. There are better venues in London.
The whole property development conspiracy may or may not be accurate, but superclubs facing closure from the police due to drugs is not remotely new. It very nearly happened to Cream in 1996, it happened to Home in 2000. We all know that serious dance music venues want drugs inside the club, and the measures taken to prevent them are lip-service. The drug laws are the problem here. |
|
|
| rubez |
someone should build a big club out in the sticks. or some abandoned part of town. wonder if it'd get hassle then.
then you'd have more of a security problem i suppose. maybe changing the name of the club regularly would work :stongue:
i want a return to the illegal rave days. |
|
|
| Woony |
Well, drug laws are obviously being selectively enforced, or they'd have to close all the clubs and festivals. They are almost always strictly enforced when it's convient, so I have a hard time believing there's at least not something else going on there. Maybe not straight up bribery but at least an interested in getting rid of the club in favor of development plans.
And you know, here in Berlin the enforcement of drug laws is incredibly lax compared to the UK. If the local council / police want to get rid of a club they will find something else like noise complaints, licensing technicalities or faults in the building safety regulations etc. |
|
|
| rubez |
| the council findings were that there was drug use going on, evident by 'sweating, glazed-eyes, and people staring off into space' :stongue: |
|
|
| Lews |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
More generally, people may moan about the supposed decline of London's nightlife, but it's still bursting with venues putting on underground dance music. The line-ups that Fabric put on weren't unique in the city, and those DJs and styles will continue to get booked at other venues. As Jan suggests, Fabric had problems that came with being so famous. There are better venues in London. |
People are always complaining about this, yet I feel like every couple weeks I'm also hearing about a brand new venue, who are always bringing in the 'next top DJ from Berlin' etc. The idea that the nightlife is dying is a ridiculous proposition. It may indeed be true that it is on the decline, overall, but it also seems like it's just moving to new places. It's certainly nowhere near death.
Regarding Fabric and drugs, I always found it interesting that every time I went there I felt sexually assaulted at the door, but then as soon as I got inside, it was the easiest thing in the world to acquire drugs. If I had wanted to I could have killed myself ten times over, simply on what was offered within 5 minutes of being inside. They certainly weren't doing EVERYTHING they could to remove drugs from the premise - probably because they would lose a vast amount of business if they had done so. Most people in there were obviously ed up - as one would expect at a dance club. The idea that people weren't is laughable.
The property development issue is interesting. Fabric is (was?) in an area that had actually managed to avoid most of the gentrifying London has been hit with in the past few decades, but it seems like it's been going that way slowly the past few years. (There was actually an article in the FT about it last month - and once the FT starts talking about property in an area, you know it's done for.)
I find it odd that The Independent article everyone is throwing about on FB right now doesn't actually make it clear how Islington Council will profit off the closure, just that the Tories are to blame for cutting money to Council, which has then led to them closing Fabric because they need money? Perhaps I'm mis-reading it, I haven't had enough coffee today :( |
|
|
| Woony |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lews
Regarding Fabric and drugs, I always found it interesting that every time I went there I felt sexually assaulted at the door, but then as soon as I got inside, it was the easiest thing in the world to acquire drugs. If I had wanted to I could have killed myself ten times over, simply on what was offered within 5 minutes of being inside. |
Interesting, to me that makes it seem that unlike what they said in that speech, they had to bow to organized crime. Unless the doormen are widly incompetent, if a dealer gets inside a club it's the because the club wanted him inside. Here in Berlin, they let dealers inside on the premise that they aren't being obvious. If you want to buy drugs inside of a club here, you have to look around. As far as I can remember, i've literally never been approached by someone wanting to sell me drugs at Berghain even though there's obviously copius amounts of drugs inside. Or maybe it's just a culture difference?
RE: Fabric as a clubbing icon - I wasn't necessarily talking about pure tourist magnet terms but the status a club like Fabric has with the edgy, "up do date" yuppie and trust fund kid demographic, which I think is a valuable (in a financial sense) demographic for any major city. Cities like New York and Paris have just begun trying to win them back in the past few years after decades of trying to curb them down. Berlin and Amsterdam have made "careers" out of catering to that demographic with laissez-faire policies. |
|
|
| Lews |
| quote: | Originally posted by Woony
Interesting, to me that makes it seem that unlike what they said in that speech, they had to bow to organized crime. Unless the doormen are widly incompetent, if a dealer gets inside a club it's the because the club wanted him inside. Here in Berlin, they let dealers inside on the premise that they aren't being obvious. If you want to buy drugs inside of a club here, you have to look around. As far as I can remember, i've literally never been approached by someone wanting to sell me drugs at Berghain even though there's obviously copius amounts of drugs inside. Or maybe it's just a culture difference? |
It's also possible that I look more like someone who wants drugs but does not have any than you do. Regardless, I had friends go to Fabric one night and they texted me, knowing I've been several times, asking if the dealers worked for the club, because they were so blatant. I obviously don't know the arrangement they had with the club, and I certainly wouldn't suggest that they did work for the club, but they were definitely tolerated. |
|
|
|
|
