Issue 74 / February 2017

18
Bido Lito! February 2017
SAVE UR
CULTURE
Words: Jessica Greenall / @jessrg1995
Photography: Sam Rowlands / samrowlandsphoto.com
Gary Brown / gbmultimedia.co.uk
Over the past decade, we have witnessed Britain’s
subcultures and creative spaces suffer under
redevelopment and gentrification. Clubs have been
an easy target for these convenient closures, being dubbed as
dangerous, hedonistic, drug-fuelled wastes of public space.
Rather than helping clubs deal with drug use or to build a
relationship with its community, closing them is becoming an
all too familiar ‘solution’ for local councils and town planners.
Since recently being threatened by property developers looking
to build flats in the Baltic Triangle, 24 Kitchen Street said it best:
“we want music venues and creative spaces to be embraced
within the city’s long-term vision, not briefly tolerated, then
swept aside...”
The closing of Fabric London’s doors in September 2016 felt
like the final blow to Britain’s club culture, and its reopening
doesn’t provide much hope of a brighter future. Fabric’s
management was given a 155-page document stating the
rules and regulations the club must abide by to remain open.
This included raising the minimum age for entry to 19, a more
thorough CCTV monitoring, ID scanners and lifetime bans for
anyone caught asking for drugs. When compared with Europe’s
more forward thinking attitude towards clubbing, lumping
these new conditions onto Fabric feels like a useless attempt
to do the impossible: prevent drug use in clubs once and for all.
Ironically, on the same day Fabric announced its closure, a
German court ruled that Berlin’s famous nightclub, Berghain,
should be considered as culturally significant as theatres, concert
venues and museums. By boosting its status, the club is now taxed
at a lower rate than regular ‘entertainment events’. To provide a
safer environment for clubbers, the Netherlands has encouraged
harm reduction approaches by using monitoring systems for safe
and legal drug testing. Not only has this prevented tragic deaths,
but it has allowed authorities to be notified about new and
dangerous substances. Although free, charity-run drug testing in
clubs has been supported by Lancashire and Manchester police,
who have said they will not prosecute anyone who makes use
of the service, it appears Britain still has a long way to go. Our
nightlife, which holds global significance and has helped form
the careers of an endless list of musicians, isn’t being considered
with the same cultural significance and identity.
This gradual regression of creative spaces has revealed
their vital importance to both the public and artists who are
rightfully fighting back. Fabric launched the campaign ‘Save
Our Culture’ to raise money for their legal battle. The campaign
was accompanied by electronic and house music events,
including two daytime events at Camp and Furnace hosted by
Circus. Circus has been providing Liverpool with internationally
celebrated electronic artists for over a decade. Starting off as
a simple house party, Circus evolved into an integral part of
Liverpool’s club culture. Its founder, Yousef, stated that the
public’s eagerness to help Fabric revealed “an underestimation
of how important this culture is and how dance music has
permeated many areas of modern life.”
A disregard for and prejudice against club culture is something
we have seen before. Just as the Northern Soul phenomenon of
the late 60s and rave culture of the late 80s created controversy,
their cultural significance is now recognised. Today’s club scene
has its roots in these and numerous other cultural phenomena.
It is a culture that is already cemented into our history and
identity. Long may that be the case.
After it was announced on Monday 21st November that Fabric
would reopen, 27th November and 27th December became two
days of celebration at Camp and Furnace. Here’s my experience
of the two nights…