Fabric is saved

Further to news that Fabric nightclub is for sale, after its sister club Matter closed 'for the summer', the club issued this statement today. It's the first official announcement from the management since this whole hoo-hah kicked off. 

'The Fabric family is delighted to announce that Fabric is no longer in administration.  

Fabric has been bought by a consortium who fully back founders Keith Reilly and Cameron Leslie's vision; nothing within the scope of the Fabric ethos or team shall change. The consortium has formed a new company called Fabric Life Limited.

After 10 and a half brilliant years, we look forward to many more.'

Nuff said.

Raindance secret warehouse rave

Call yourself a real London raver? In that case you should know all about Raindance, one of the city's longest-running parties, which until recently was held at SeOne club in London Bridge.

Raindance is a mish-mash of all things old skool: hardcore, drum n bass, jungle, acid house and then some. It is one of the last true bastions of an era that gave birth to underground club culture as we know it today - as well as the notorious Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (anyone under the age of 20 won't have a clue what I'm talking about. Look it up.)

Dance music gods Prodigy are quoted as saying that in their early days, only two things concerned them: 'getting a record out and playing Raindance'.

But I digress. The reason I'm harping on about this is because Raindance, or more specifically its Jenkins Lane arena, has taken a new tack. It's breaking loose to host a secret warehouse party on Saturday 3 July - and it looks like fun.

Among the lineup will be the lovely Ellis Dee and Niki Dimensions (two of the nicest chaps on the planet). There will also be a live PA of classic stomper 'We Are IE' plus graphic design legend Pez will be putting up his original artwork for all you flyer whores to gush over. I will be one of them.

I insist you all come to this party. For details, head to www.secretraindance.com.

The Creators Project, 17 July

Here's an interesting London event for all you arty-clubby types.

The Creators Project, run by Vice magazine and Intel, is a 'celebration of creativity and culture across media'. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I do know it will include live music by Mark Ronson, Kele (Bloc Party), Filthy Dukes and Hudson Mohawke. The event reaches our bonny capital on 17 July. 

The five-city tour starts in New York on 26 June. The London leg includes interactive art installations by UVA and Radical Friend. Registration opens on 28 June - it's free, all you have to do is sign up at thecreatorsproject.com.

For more details on the London leg, click here.

I shall be raving in a field that day - a bunch of marvellously organised people have set up a homage to Glade out in the sticks - so I can't make it to Creators Project. But if you go, please leave a comment here and let me know what it was like. I'm intrigued.

Rinse FM gets a licence

Fantastic news - Rinse FM has been given a legal FM licence. The pirate station has been campaigning for this for three years - hurrah!

London has a rich and important history of pirate radio. I was lucky enough to witness it first hand from about 1997. But Rinse goes before that. Set up in 1994, it was another spearhead of the pirate armada, a consistently brilliant underground station that pioneered and promoted sounds like grime, dubstep and funky.

There's fairly sound evidence that pirates can attract more listeners than some corporate stations' specialist shows. And there's a reason for that - what Rinse calls the 'homogenized radio landscape' of London. They're right - pirate radio caters to a much underestimated market.

Hopefully Rinse won't lose its way like Kiss (a station that I do love, for reasons too long to mention here). It started out as a groundbreaking pirate station in 1985. But listen to Kiss in the daytime now and you might as well switch on your RnB jukebox. Its evening specialist shows are great and feature some top names, but to some extent you feel as if they are kicked into the corner, the ignored, scrawny, ugly child of the family.

I have every faith that Rinse will do well, and I'm really happy at this news. With recent cancellations and closures in the club scene bringing the mood down, it's great to have some sunshine after the rain.

Oh, and according to Wikipedia, in 2005 DJ Slimzee's Rinse antics resulted in an ASBO banning him from every rooftop in Tower Hamlets. That's a pretty funny ASBO.

Numbers at Fabric, Friday 9 July

Thought I'd flag up this event as I went to the last one and it was awesome!

The Numbers crew are returning to Fabric on Friday 9 July for a stompin' lineup featuring Roska, Ramadanman, Jackmaster and Marcus Intalex.

Numbers is a serious one to watch. It started as a club night in Glasgow and is now an umbrella for events, an artist collective and record label, covering a fusion of styles now widely called 'bass music'. And bass music, my friends, is the future.

At the last Numbers party at Fabric the vibe was excellent and the music off the hook. Expect to hear everything from house, breaks, hip hop, funky and drum n bass to dubstep and what I like to call 'sophisticated dubstep' (not quite so much woooh-woooh-woooh.)

For more info on Numbers, click here: http://nmbrs.net
For the Fabric deets, head here: www.fabriclondon.com/club/listings

Free Kode9 jungle mix

Awesome dubstep producer Kode9 has done this month's mix for Fact Mag - and it's a blend of lush '94-'96 jungle.

The mix is available for download for three weeks only - so get over there quick:
www.factmag.com/2010/06/07/fact-mix-156-kode9

Kode9 is a super wicked DJ so this mix makes me very happy indeed. He's the dude behind the Hyperdub record label and apparently also has a phD in Philosophy. Now isn't that an interesting fact?

T Bar closes

I might as well change the title of this blog to 'The Death of London Venues'. Or something.

Anyway - another week, and another club closure. This time, T Bar bites the dust. The venue, which is just around the corner from Liverpool Street, has put out this statement:

'After six and a half years of incredible music, outrageously good times and spectacular memories, T Bar has decided to finally close its doors for good. The decision is a result of a change of heart, change of climate and a need by those involved to move forward in a different and fresh direction.

The love and support that T Bar has received over the years from some of the most high calibre DJs, fans and music lovers has meant it has become firmly established as one of east London's most admired institutions for quality dance music. Initially starting out in the Tea Building on Shoreditch High Street, during its reign it hosted some of the most talked-about parties in London and beyond. For six years T Bar strived to showcase a unique and vast army of talent and all without charging for admission.

T Bar's move last year to Houndsditch enabled new opportunities to broaden their musical spectrum, introduce new nights and residencies and secure rare performances from more high profile acts such as Groove Armada, Riva Starr, DJ Pierre and Marshall Jefferson. This partnered with a change in London's climate led to a change in pricing policy earlier this year.

Sadly London's recovery was not as speedy as all had hoped and T Bar's goodbye comes amidst the sad demise of other well respected venues around London, which makes it all the more hard to swallow. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who spent time to make T Bar what it was and cementing it firmly in the hearts and minds of so many people across the globe.'

In its former guise in Shoreditch (pictured above), T Bar was a reliably hilarious venue. It was the sort of place you would run into industry bods as well as east London's party crowd - and it was free. I once spent an epic night there drinking with the Mixmag crew and Swedish House Mafia dude Steve Angello. I got so messy that each time I went to pay for a round, I put the total amount in the 'Tips' section. Needless to say, the staff loved me that night. 

I only visited T Bar's current home (on Houndsditch) once, for the Red Bull party in March featuring Scuba, Untold and Jamie Vex'd. It was a good night, but I felt it didn't capture the vibe of the original T Bar, and the upstairs conservatory room was slightly weird. But the main issue was the huge, glistening skyscrapers that towered over the new venue, as though the suited-up City Boys were keeping a watchful eye on the scuzzy ravers below. It just didn't feel right.

For more details (I presume, since there's nothing currently on their site related to the announcement), head to www.tbarlondon.com.         

Fabric for sale

Today it was announced that Fabric is up for sale.

The Farringdon club, which recently celebrated its 10th birthday, has gone in to administration following the closure of its sister venue, Matter.

This isn't the first time the club has gone into administration, and when that news broke a few days ago I had hopes that it would once again manage to get back on its feet. However, administrators have now instructed the club's agents to find a buyer.

The announcement claimed that a number of potential purchsers have already expressed an interest, which means that hopefully the venue will continue to operate as a club. However, the beauty of Fabric lay in its underground ethos, staunchly championed by its founders Keith Reilly and Cameron Leslie. Who knows in what direction the new owners, if any, will take it.

I used to consider Holborn venue The End, co-owned by Layo and Mr C, as one of London's best clubs. When I revisited it under its new incarnation The Den, I realised that a successful club is so much more than the space.

The Den is now, to be honest, a shit venue - which is a massive shame. You walk in there and scruffy sofas take up half the dancefloor, making it look like a student bar. The toilets are drenched with the puke-inducing waft of too much incense, burned to mask the smell of wee. The new owners don't love it like the last, and you can tell.

Let's hope Fabric doesn't go the same way.