Fabric loses it's license - Closes doors for good

[ubern00b]

I am pretty sure I know the reception this thread will get on these forums but lets give it a try. Anyone else here a Fabric regular and had to wake up to the news this morning that Islington council has revoked their license and their doors are to remain shut, indefinitely?

http://mixmag.net/read/fabric-news
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...laces-are-where-we-get-inspired-a7229436.html
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...djs-in-fury-over-fabric-closure-a3338531.html
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/05/fabric-nightclub-closure-uk-nightlife-drugs-death

I for one am truly gutted. I have spent almost all of its open years at the club starting with my 21st birthday and carrying on all through my 30's (I am 35 currently) so it is a big part of my life. It is just as big a part of the lives of the artists that play there regularly, were discovered there and it contributes and curates a massive part of London's music culture and even heritage.

Yes there is a drug problem but it is not endemic to JUST Fabric. Any club these days is rife with with issue. Instead of closing down a club because of it, tackle the problem at it's source, or at least a little higher up the food chain than at the end user. However, people are going to do what people do and there is very very little that you can do to stop them.

Anyway, it is a sad day for London's nightlife and clubbers at large.

 

[ubern00b]

Does it matter?

The club should have investigated, rather than let the police do it for them.

The club has done everything in it's power to try tackle the problem. I have been there on numerous occasions where they have busted people on the door with things, they had an amnesty bucket for people to put things in themselves. I have witnessed people dragged off the dancefloor or smoking area and into private rooms to be dealt with. I have even witnessed said private room door being ajar and someone being given a beating (not the best way to deal with it but it goes some way to show they were TRYING).

The last time their license was under threat the council wanted sniffer dogs on the door. They complied. I cannot tell you the number of sniffer dogs friends of mine have walked past, petted, you know name with substances on them and nothing from the dog.

In my opinion, the only thing closing the club says to me is that the Police failed in THEIR duties. Why is it up to the club to have sole responsibility to "fix" this issue. Isn't this what the police are there for? Crack teams and programmes to bus suppliers, importers etc? Where is their responsibility in all of this?

 

[ubern00b]

this is a little bit unrelated but on the mention of the police. Where is the line of responsibility drawn between the police and the clubs for such laws being broken?

If the police can stand up and say that the club wasn't doing enough to stop drugs entering the club, cant the club stand up and say the police must have not been doing enough to prevent people possessing the drugs in the first place

Bravo sir. You typed yours out while I was typing mine but our sentiments match exactly.

 

[ubern00b]

And they do that how exactly?

There are many clubs who manage to keep drugs issues to a minimum, clearly Fabric couldn't or didn't want to do that. The Police can't just ignore that people are dying in this place.

What about the 108 people who died in police custody over the same period that the club was open? Shall we ignore that instead?

 

[ubern00b]

Whatever happened to him?

He never played at Fabric but used to go on about it like he did. He used to have a slot on a radio station called Rough Tempo and was working on being a DnB DJ but Fabric was far far far out of his reach at that point in time.

 

[ubern00b]

The police HQ has not been earmarked for redevelopment though

I would have thought Scotland Yard was prime location

 

[ubern00b]

I'll just leave this here:

http://www.constructionenquirer.com...ondon-assembles-200m-smithfield-project-team/

 

[ubern00b]

Delusional guy.

Just found one of his shows from RT on Soundcloud, albeit from 2 years ago. Not a bad mix tbh if you're into your Jump-up. Hearing a lot of stuff from DJ Pleasure, DJ Sly and the Low Down Deep Recordings camp.

___

Didn't get end up getting banned from OcUK? I recall something about stolen goods?

His mixing was never bad, his track selection was decent but he was just new on the scene and with his amount of exposure and other DJ's up and coming at the time there was no way he just blasted on the scene and got a slot in Fabric!

And yes, he sold stuff on the MM that people never received. He did refund them in time and yes he is perma'd. From my recollection of events anyway.

 

[ubern00b]

A friend just made a valid point. Are they going to shut down Carnival? There are more murders, robberies and drug related events happening there YEAR ON YEAR than over the entire course of Fabrics life-span.

 

[ubern00b]

Wow, they can't possibly have said that with a straight face.

Why not? Is closing the club going to make the 350k clubbers that pass through its doors every year suddenly sit at home drinking mineral water or sipping on their tea?

Or have I misunderstood.

 

[ubern00b]

Because I don't believe that closing Fabric will have any impact on the drug culture either way.

Agreed.

Fabric seems to want us to believe that if the club is closed, the fight against drugs will lose a champion. I don't buy that for a minute. The owners would have been turning a blind eye, as most of them do.

Well, we can speculate them turning a blind eye all we like, we don't know. As for losing a champion, they will. Fabric has imposed many measures to try and fight the drug problem and has conformed to every single demand by the council and police even as far as putting dogs on the door every single night they were open. No other club has done this.

Nightclubs are not associated with recreational drug by some bizarre and unlikely coincidence. They're associated with recreational drugs because recreational drugs are a big part of the nightclub culture.

Agreed. So how do we tackle this? Closing clubs and forcing the problem elsewhere? Prohibition has taught us nothing it seems.

 

[ubern00b]

If that's the usual way that that stat is used it's incredibly misleading

Yes but it works for "our argument so we go with it

or someone could die of a drug overdose whilst the police are giving them first aid and waiting for an ambulance

In the case of the last 2 deaths at the club there is no evidence that the substances that caused their death were purchased inside the club and both patrons died later on whilst in the care of paramedics or in hospital, so the same chain of thought applies here.

 

[ubern00b]

frequented by people like yourself who are happy for friends to take their drugs in to sell.

I was going to reply to your post in its entirety but it has to be a troll? If you would like to quote exactly where I have said anything to this degree that leads you to judge my or my character in such a way please do so and I will happily digress.

 

[ubern00b]

Fabric the club rather than Fabric the venue is shutting down?

Expand? They are one and the same? I am not aware that anything "Fabric" branded happens anywhere other than the Fabric venue in Farringdon?

Or do you mean, Fabric is a venue and the nights they put on are largely "takeovers" with labels and DJ's from those labels, playing to a crowd?

 

[ubern00b]

I imagine it'll be re-developed.

http://www.constructionenquirer.com...ondon-assembles-200m-smithfield-project-team/

Posted this earlier, it got lost in the replies I suspect.

 

[ubern00b]

Without reading the story i'm going to take a stab and assume "Ectasy" use was the cause of their death.

Reason I put it in inverted commas is because most X people think is X is not actually X.

It's PMA which is basically far stronger, so people take what they think is their normal dose of MDMA and get obliterated. There was documentary by Vice called whats in my baggie, basically something like 70-80% of the MDMA they tested was not MDMA.

I'm astounded some days how many risks people take with their health....

This is a big bug-bear I have with the media and their reporting of such things. They continuously report on contaminated MDMA as 'super strength MDMA' which does nothing to help the problem. Idiots see this and go 'i need to source this stuff'. Instead of reporting that it's actually PMA/PMMA which is lethal in even small dosages (80mg can kill you dependant on body weight) they almost glorify it. Incredibly bad and harmful reporting.

 

[ubern00b]

Didn't help one of the kids took 3 pills in with him. Dropped them all and 15 mins later was disappointed they weren't working. Bought a 4th and dropped that.

Recon 4 pills in 15 mins of half decent stuff will probably kill you. Let alone some of the strong pills you get today.

Real pure MDMA actually has an LD50 of 80mg/kg which is a LOT to take. Taking 4 pills in 15mins will see you in a bad way but it won't kill you. Those pills were adulterated, I'll put my money on it. Otherwise there is the obvious effects of the drug that play a part in your demise such as dehydration, water intoxication or simply overheating.

 

[ubern00b]

I don't know the intricate science of things but just aware that 4 pills would put you in a really bad place, after being in a really great place momentarily.

Yes I was coming from a overheating point of view. Not necessarily the purity/quality of the pills.

All the kids these days are bang on the ket though. The media reports he did 4 pills but who knows how many bumps of let may have been consumed along with alcohol, bit of weed? You never know. It always boils down to 'hey were killed by dodgy pills' but it's rarely just that, if ever.

 

[ubern00b]

Perhaps the authorities should shut down The Dorchester following this recent death -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ead-after-Dorchester-hotel-cocaine-binge.html

Drugs are everywhere from the superclubs to your local pub.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/politics/868105/the-houses-of-charliement/

Indeed they are.

 

[ubern00b]

Most X is actually X.

A very small percentage, tiny in fact, turns out to contain PMA usually because whoever is manufacturing the drugs have done it incorrectly, or knowingly added it. The problem with PMA is just how dangerous it is, and people who have unwittingly taken it tend to take far too much trying to feel the effects, which then kick in a few hours later all at the same time.

The Vice article about the baggie from what I remember, was based in America around the time the whole 'bath salts' thing was very much in the media. Dizzy kid who bought what they thought was X from a stranger, most of the time got research chemicals. Bear in mind that buying drugs from people they don't know at public events carries with it a massive amount of risk.

If most X was PMA, you wouldn't get a handful of people dying each year from pills - it would be hundreds/thousands out of the 250k a week who take 'pills'.

There is a large amount of pills sold as MDMA that is PMA/PMMA or other adulterants, though. This is the prime reason that harm reduction websites exist. I won't go into them of course but any 'user' worth their salt should be checking these regularly as well as testing whatever they buy to ensure it is what they think it is.

People have to look after themselves and take on the responsibility if they choose to do such things as clearly, the government only want to lock people up and close down clubs instead of doing something to REALLY tackle the problem. Whatever that may be.