if New York can die so can London

resurrecting an old thread buuut..

http://www.dummymag.com/features/the-hydra-broken-and-uneven-profile

hydra/broken and uneven promoters talking about problems promoting in london recently

"The only thing is, this year in particular, we've noticed a – not that it's been spelt out like this – a clampdown on the way temporary licenses are being handled in certain boroughs in London. You can probably notice that there are less TBA-type events going on because it's increasingly difficult to secure a temporary license in London at the moment.

...

At the risk of sounding all doom or gloom, there's an element of what we're involved with being on its arse at the moment, to be honest. There is this difficulty in securing anything on a temporary basis which makes it difficult for promoters to do what they do and, obviously, when certain areas are under the scrutiny of the authorities in this way the potential for things to come to a standstill exists.

...

I just kind of feel that when The End closed, when Turnmills closed and the venues in the Kings Cross area closed down – I don't feel the needs of the people who went to those venues were adequately responded to in London as a whole. I find it strange and it's shame that when the club polls come out – not that they are to be taken as gospel but they are an indication of what's out there – there's probably only about six or seven clubs from London in top 100 worldwide."

six or seven is more than i can think of

So, is London dead yet? Sure feels like it.

Possibly. I went out to Subclub in Glasgow the other weekend, and I haven't been to a 'dance music' venue that good in London in a long while. Loud, dark (why do so many clubs find it so difficult to get the lighting right), friendly people - even if the music that night wasn't the best, then with a better DJ (and that prob happens most weekends, just got the timing wrong) it would have been amazing

What was on? Music is quite an important part of the whole thing I'd say - although agree, not the only important thing.

actually having said that i do like bussey building in peckham. still usually a fairly varied mix of people, even after that vice article, and all up for a dance. thats about it tho. peckham palais could be good but isn't, altho maybe i'd give it another go if there was a good lineup happening there. i liked world unknown when they were in their brixton venue. other than those i wouldnt exactly be filled with suggestions if someone visiting was to ask me where to go out in london.
wonder what the squat scene is saying these days..

It was veering towards generic house and techno, that's about all I could say. I agree about music, but if the other elements are in place, I can deal with mediocre sounds sometimes. I've been too many times to venues where the music is in theory great, but the sound and people suck, and where everyone is watching each other.

Edit @ glasshand - the one time I went to Bussey, I had a great time, agreed with your synopsis

baboon2004 said:

I've been too many times to venues where the music is in theory great, but the sound and people suck, and where everyone is watching each other.

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yeh this is the worst part about london at times imo

The Actress and Kassem Mosse night ta Peckham Palais was great actually, but it's hit and miss.
Rhythm Section at Canavans is usually enjoyable, fun space and a good crowd.
Corsica Studios is solid, reliable, a little uninspiring.

Probably the place that has had the best vibes recently is the Lift Venue and that's not even a proper club.

Hydra / Broken and Uneven night at Electric Brixton with Jeff Mills / UR / Rob Hood was a real poster child for bad it's got. Terrible night (excluding the last hour or so of Jeff).

Still having a lot of fun, but it's not exactly an embarrassment of riches.

As another out of town data point, I've popped up to Birmingham on the train for the last couple of House of God nights and the vibes there have been head and shoulders above near everything in London recently.

That being said, Wifey a couple weeks ago was absolutely amazing (full disclosure: I was playing. That's not the only reason it was great though), as was the last DBA party. They were both at lift and had pretty similar crowds so still not looking great on the variety front.

i will have to check out lift.
i've only been to canavans once but it didn't seem like it could count as a proper venue, its a bit like peckham's version of efes!
corsica is reliable but pretty uninspiring like you said. resent the door being like £20 every weekend if you don't get tickets. and its orrible when they ram the place out.

i resisted datwun's anti-london in his jackin article for the guardian at first, but then i went to 2.31 and thought yeh fair enough.

i want to see another venue in peckham, altho that would surely seal the deal on what joe muggs was calling the "gentrification frontline" in this article about some music festival in the car park below frank's

edit: shame about that hydra night. i went to one of theirs at ican studios last year that was really good

Hey London, please don't die, I only just got here.

That being said, Wifey a couple weeks ago was absolutely amazing (full disclosure: I was playing. That's not the only reason it was great though), as was the last DBA party. They were both at lift and had pretty similar crowds so still not looking great on the variety front.

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Went to the Wifey thing, my first night out here. Was really good (and great set btw), but the sound could have used a bit more oomph and the size/vibe kind of felt more like a houseparty than a club/rave. Not a bad thing mind you, but doesn't feel like a venue likely to make much impact on any scene.

i want to see another venue in peckham, altho that would surely seal the deal on what joe muggs was calling the "gentrification frontline" in this article about some music festival in the car park below frank's

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Granted I don't know much about the social dynamics of London, but surely a club/venue can reach across gentrification frontlines, bringing new and old residents together, rather than just enforcing them? Maybe not if all they put on is noise nights or Morricone recitals, but there has got to be some middle ground surely?

One a more general note. Does this dearth in venues/clubs in the capital tie into the lack of a new 'nuum-sound in any way. Old / old sounding house as a safe bet to fill floors?

peckham palais

corsica

pmsl

trilliam said:

peckham palais

corsica

pmsl

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whats pmsl??

benw said:

whats pmsl??

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Pissing My Self Laughing.

Not been to Peckham Palais but I've been to loads of great nights at Corsica, not quite sure what's so loltastic about it.

the sound could have used a bit more oomph

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as the person providing the sound i wholeheartedly agree, but the venue has noise constraints and i was only allowed to plug in a fraction of what i came with

noise constraints are the hardest thing about london parties, have been for ages, it takes a very particular kind of venue to be immune from those problems. i'm happy the venue exists so have to respect their noise policy.

Mr. Tea said:

Pissing My Self Laughing.

Not been to Peckham Palais but I've been to loads of great nights at Corsica, not quite sure what's so loltastic about it.

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Peckham Palais has a really good system but it's an odd venue.

Surely Trilliam is laughing at the fact that people are bemoaning the alleged death of London then only citing a few marginal venues with internet-led line ups as if that's the be all and end all of everything?

Oh yeah London's dead the only good venue is a ticket-only loft fuck off

slackk said:

Surely Trilliam is laughing at the fact that people are bemoaning the alleged death of London then only citing a few marginal venues with internet-led line ups as if that's the be all and end all of everything?

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Is Corsica "marginal"? It's not Turnmills-sized but it's hardly a tiny basement squat, either.

slackk said:

Oh yeah London's dead the only good venue is a ticket-only loft fuck off

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Hmm, yeah I guess - though I wouldn't say London was 'dead' by any means, just very expensive at the moment and with an emphasis on pre-bought tickets which rather takes the spontaneity out of clubbing.

I wasn't saying it's the only good venue in London, was just listing places that I've enjoyed going to recently. Poor wording from me. They are all small places that are never going to generate or impact any kind of scene (as Alfons says), I'm not really fussed on that front.

If what you want is London as vibrant (dare we say 'nummy) scene, then it's pretty obvious that London House is the place to be. That's really the definitive answer to this whole thread, and the only reason we're discussing anything else is because most people (myself included) think it's really boring music. Don't think it's surprising that people would rather discuss stuff they actually like, even if that does result in a myopic view of the situation. I don't even know what venues those nights are at because I'm just not interested. If size is important then you should probably start talking about Fabric as well which is far from dead. It just sucks.

Slackk's doing something with the Boxed nights, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I'm pretty sure that's moved venue every time, which I would assume is a sign that it's not easy finding somewhere that feels right.

London - Still has a lot of good music, but I'd say not a lot of great parties at the moment.

Cant think of many great consistent weekly, monthly or even bimonthly parties considering the size of the city. Even parties that do run semi regularly have to change venue so much just because venues have so many different issues at the moment.

Two venues that we built our night at have now gone this year, East Village and Cable and they were both good spaces.

Elijah said:

Cable

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I'm certainly not going to mourn that shithole, had some really terrible nights there. On one occasion it seemed to be staffed entirely by people who got turned away from the army for being too aggressive and not intelligent enough, I mean actually deliberately malicious as well as incompetent, and another time they shut a couple of hours early because they weren't taking enough at the bar! Some of the rankest club bogs I've ever seen, too. Absolute shower of cunts.