Soirée: March to Save Passing Clouds & London's Music Venues!

Soirée: March to Save Passing Clouds & London's Music Venues!

Saturday 17th September 4pm Hoxton Sq, leaving 5pm up Kingsland Road to Passing Clouds
THE MARCH TO SAVE PASSING CLOUDS AND LONDON'S MUSIC VENUES!

Followed by event at Gillett Sq, Dalston from 6.30 and an all night candlelit vigil outside Passing Clouds

Greetings Passing Clouds, music and culture lovers!
Every month we loose another fabulous music venue or another is threatened! It's time to UNITE to demonstrate the urgency for councils and central goverments to step up and protect London's culture and nightlife!

Last month Passing Clouds was forciably evicted by developers after two years of battles to extend our lease and now resembles a maximum security prison having been painted grey, covered in metal hording and with guards and dogs on 24 hour patrol.

However hope is not lost! If Hackney Council grant our current application to make Passing Clouds an ASSET OF COMMUNITY VALUE, blocking development or sale withouth the consent of the community. We will also ask them to evoke ARTICLE 4 PLANNING DIRECTIONS, successfully used by Wandsworth council to protect 104 pubs in their borough.

So join us for a spectacular procession from Hoxton Sq, up the Kingsland Road to Passing Clouds in support of our much loved venue and all other venues including Fabric, Silver Bullett, Shapes and 12 Bar Soho that have tragically closed in the last year.

We'll be doing it in true PASSING CLOUDS STYLE with a vibrant party atmosphere, tonnes of glitter, glitter, theatrics, live music, drumming and a neighbourhood block party in Gillett Square thereafter.

Join us in a historic day to save Passing Clouds from extinction!
Expect to see all the faces of people who have been involved in Passing Clouds over the fullness of its epic ten year history!

TIMINGS:

4pm: Meet at Hoxton Square dressed in your BEST OUTFIT!

5pm: Grand procession up the Kingsland Road led by a giant BEATING HEART and trailing LIFE BLOOD of London's music scene!

5.30pm: Ceremony outside Passing Clouds (it's going to be fabulous!)

6.30pm: Passing Clouds neighbourhood BLOCK PARTY in Gillett Square featuring an epic line up of music and speeches. Special guest musicians include Winston Reedy, Ricky Ranking, Disraeli and Sam Lee.

There will also be representatives from the Musicians Union, the Music Venue Trust, the Nighttime Industries Association, the Hackney Carnival, the East End Preservation Society, the Open Dalston Campaign.

10pm: AFTERPARTIES include
Little Blue Ball/Passing Clouds afterparty in the Junction Rooms hosted by Planetman
Live Jazz at the Vortex
Late night SAVE PASSING CLOUDS cafe chill out at the Hive After

Be there! And remember Passing Clouds loves you, infinitely! xxx
Want to get involved and help out? Email us: [email protected].

*** VENUES ACROSS LONDON HOLD A ONE MINUTE SILENT VIGIL IN SOLIDARITY WITH PASSING CLOUDS CLOSURE***
Venues and bars all over London are showing olidarity fof Passing Clouds by turning off their music and holding a silent vigil to show what our world will look like if we continue to loose our our cultural spaces.

Venues include:
Rich Mix, Scala, Hackney Empire, Hootenanny, Brixton Jamm, Dalston Superstore, Village Underground, The Vortex, The Forge, Bussey Building, Jamboree, The Bedroom Bar, Dalston Roof Gardens, Upstairs at the Ritzy, Styxx, The Hope & Anchor, 512 Bar, The Others, The Hive Dalston and The Urban Bar

ABOUT the Passing Clouds situation
Passing Clouds was sold in November 2015 in a secret deal to property developers Landhold Developments, the Passing Clouds community have been fighting to protect our iconic ten-year old music venue from unnecessary development.

Two weeks ago Landhold Developments sent private a security firm to evict Passing Clouds without warning despite being in negotiations over a 15 year lease.

Passing Clouds is now likely to sit empty, resulting in thousands of pounds in security costs a day for developers Landhold Developments, unless they come to a sensible arrangement with Passing Clouds.

Passing Clouds is the heartbeat in a thriving local economy, bringing thousands of people into the borough and creating creative and economic opportunities for a huge number of people.

Meg Hillier MP (Hackney said, 'Live music venues such as Passing Clouds are part of what makes Hackney and Dalston a magnet for creatives and a hotspot in our city’s leisure life. It is vital that developers and planners recognise that it is venues like these that contribute so much to make areas desirable. If these are lost, some of the very reasons why Hackney is such a popular place to live and work are undermined.'

QUOTES OF SUPPORT

Professor Paul Gilroy: Our beloved London is being stripped of its cultural richness. Austerity, speculation, financialisation and privatization mean that soon there may be nowhere left either to dwell or to play. As the sands of that destructive storm swirl around us, Passing Clouds is one of the last Oases. It's a nourishing, convivial place that overflows with life and restorative energy. The last decade has made it a cultural hub where community and creativity could be remade and renewed. We must safeguard it at all costs

Roots Manuva: Passing Clouds is home from home for me: a vital cultural institution with an incredible community spirit. I love it for the vibrant atmosphere and unique live music. When I'm there i never want to leave.

Charles Thompson MBE (CEO of Screen Nation): "Over its ten year history, Passing Clouds has hosted and supported a huge number of artists of African and Caribbean decent. As an active promoter of social and cultural diversity in London, Passing Clouds has been successful in becoming an important cultural incubator, at the same time making a considerable contribution to the UK creative sector. Furthermore, let us not forget the community role that Passing Clouds has played in Hackney over the last 10 years, namely providing vital space, support and services for hundreds of local community groups. This makes its existence even more essential to Londoners, in the wake of the huge cuts to local public spending. I do not believe London, as a proclaimed world-class multicultural and economic centre, can afford to lose such an important community hub. This is why I have committed to ensuring that Passing Clouds remains a part of our proudly diverse London."

Dr Paul Warmington: London is renowned worldwide as a dynamic, multicultural centre, leading in music and art - and Hackney's Passing Clouds is one of the venues have helped create the city's energy. London has its banks, palaces and postcards but London today is also the product of its local clubs, dancehalls and cafes, with their commitment to roots music, ital food and nightlife. Passing Clouds is part of a grassroots tradition of community art and activism that must not be erased for the sake of profit. Please support Passing Clouds' campaign to remain part of the life of the city. By the people, for the people!

Dave Robinson (Stiff Records): It is essentially imperative that great live collective venues like Passing Clouds in Dalston survive and not succumb to the never ending march of the opportunistic property developers. We need places for our art to exist.

Trevor Horn CBE: Passing Clouds is more than a venue, it is a hub, a space for more culture to be born, develop and grow. The sounds, music and vibes created in the space are unsurpassed and there will be a lack, a hole, a space left that cannot be filled. Shutting passing clouds is to remove the natural habitat of musicians and bands. Its like cutting down the musical rainforest - how will the alternative musicians survive?

Katharine Hamnett MBE: In an era when musicians increasingly need to play live gigs to survive-We’ve got to save Passing Clouds, one of the last great multi-cultural live music venues in London.Its a showcase for new and old talent alike.It makes a huge cultural and economic contribution to the area and beyond.

Nick McCarthy (Franz Ferdinand): How can we tolerate losing Passing Clouds? It’s one of the only truly multi cultural music clubs in the world, and i must say I’ve been to a few. How much poorer would we be without it. Well let’s go to the barricades!

Felix Buxton (Basement Jaxx): I love Passing Clouds. I’ve been there many times and seen amazing Columbian bands, all kind of music and I think it should be saved.

Adrian Sherwood (producer): Passing Clouds is one of the best venues in the UK bar none.

Matt Black (Ninja Tunes):Passing Clouds is a precious jewel, all the more so after the destruction of a huge number of London's music and cultural venues over the last decade, largely by property speculators. This is not an opinion but a shocking fact. In this sense, the whole community of London's world leading music scene which has earned and continues to earn massive amounts for the UK is directly threatened by the loss of Passing Clouds. The UKs true value lies more in culture than in property and financial services. The rampant cash-in on selling off unique and irreplaceable community assets will be bitterly regretted by future generations. It's a sale of birthright for a mess of pottage situation! London is full of new 'luxury' flats, many of them ugly, many of them mere assets of vacant investors. Passing Clouds is something much more valuable: a true community asset, as evidenced by the huge support of the community protesting its closure.

Youth (producer/Killing Joke): Passing Clouds has created a well needed community space and is an artistic volcano which has earned the respect of major international artists as one of the best live venues left in London. Possibly because of the unique ethos and philosophy of those involved. Please support Passing Clouds. We all need to recognise and support the value of venues like this for our general well being.

Tanita Tikaram: Every time I 've visited Passing Clouds I've been buzzing afterwards . Telling my friends about a magical place with a true mix of people of all ages & backgrounds & reflected in a programme of live events & activities that is vibrant & diverse. If we keep closing spaces like Passing Clouds, as a city we are turning our back on the community, creativity and the local economy that attracts people here in the first place. How can that be good for London?

Beverley Whitrick (Director, Music Venue Trust): Passing Clouds illustrates perfectly what Music Venue Trust means when we talk about grassroots music venues being social and cultural hubs. Losing a venue such as this would not only leave a cultural hole but would also negatively impact on many local businesses whose well-being is interconnected with this lively hub. The case for championing Passing Clouds goes much further than its musical programme.

Stephen Budd (Chairman, the Music Managers Forum): Passing Clouds has for years been one of London’s key pillars supporting new young artists to perform live. They have an extraordinary track record of booking young and emerging artists. If they are forced to close permanently, this represents a huge lost to London's music community and to managers seeking outlets for their new artists. Passing Clouds are a vital part of the ecosystem of London’s music scene which helps makes this city the envy of the musical world’

Disraeli (Disraeli and the Small Gods): Passing Clouds plays a vital role int he continued existince of a flourishing creative community in east London. It is a meeting place, a place for developing new ideas nad a very important source of education for us here. I can't think of any other venue which serves as a point of connection for such a diverse range of people from across our community. Its loss would be a tragedy for east London.

Sam Lee: If London could be defined by one institution that represents the spirit of community built, culturally independent, socially diverse, environmentally minded and open doored idealism, Passing Clouds is it. The city's finest example of such brace and at times radical interventions that lives off the love of its local and global community. To close Passing Clouds would be to cut another nerve out of our city and numb the body to the point of cold senselessness. The choice is there: let London eat itself out of existence or celebrate the things that make it so great.

Natalia Tena (Actress) As soon as I entered their lair I was saturated by a plethora of colours, a decor and a beat that I knew meant I had found a nighttime home in the heart of London. My band Molotov Jukebox have filmed videos there, played there and danced there countless times (their swing nights are briliant!) because it is a unique gem in London that I would recommend to anyone and everyone. I defy anyone to not have a great night at Passing Clouds. This needs to stay open, because like all interesting areas in London, East London is being now slowly taken over by a different richer demographic, who were drawn to the area exactly because of places like Passing Clouds, only to want to change them and dilute into the next posh gentrified unaffordable part of London, tearing down another little part and soul of the city. We don't need more overpriced bars where I have to get a mortgage for a cocktail (or a coffee!) and ear plugs just to swallow down the music, or more flats at extortionate prices that only a few elite can even contemplate buying. We need caves of wonders, pockets of fun and love and endless music, especially in a city that can be as unforgiving and unfriendly as London. We really do need Passing Clouds.

Andi Oliver (TV presenter): Passing Cloud sis a rare thing, a completely all encompassing community space where no one is turned away and no one is alienated. A place for everyone. Whilst for big business London is seen as expanding for ordinary people up and down the city, it is rapidly shrinking, a vast number os building previously earmarked for community space have been demolished or gutted and turned into luxury flats or office space. For years when no one else was interested in Dalston or anywhere else in Hackney, Passing Clouds served and enriched the people of Hackney, creating a home for music, art and creative nurture, a place to meet to spend time to explore each other’s lives and now that Dalston has become the next spot earmarked for fast cash returns, once more the artists and stalwart people of the community are being pushed out. Londoners are fed up! WE matter our lives matter our communities matter. We NEED Passing Clouds. It’s one of the only places we have left.

Iain Sinclair (Author): Passing Clouds is a marker of place. One of those enterprises that make place place, rather than just random necklace of downwardly imposed interventions. The locality needs it. The city at large needs the noise it makes and the life it contains.
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Sadiq Kahn (London Mayor) 'No one wants a situation where clubs or music venues are closing down. It's really important.'

Meg Hillier MP (Hackney): Live music venues such as Passing Clouds are part of what makes Hackney and Dalston a magnet for creatives and a hotspot in our city’s leisure life. It is vital that developers and planners recognise that it is venues like these that contribute so much to make areas desirable. If these are lost, some of the very reasons why Hackney is such a popular place to live and work are undermined.​

Councillor Emma Plouviez (Chair, Licensing Committee Hackney Council): As a live music venue it is unique and, at a time when barely a month seems to pass without news that yet another London venue has been lost to developers, I am throwing my support behind the Passing Clouds community and its campaign to save the venue.

​MC Angel (Lyrically Challenged): Passing Clouds gave me hope in a time when I didn’t believe in life any more. I was mentored by the community as an artist and went on to have many successes in the music industry. Passing Clouds saw my potential when I couldn’t see myself and spent hears helping me to develop as a person and an artist. Passing Clouds is a community venue that brings hope to those who need it most.
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Russ Jones (Hackney Globetrotter): Passing Clouds is really really unique in its provision of diverse live music entertainment and community projects. It is an essential part of what makes Hackney and London great and places of positive world wide reputation. The positive effect it has on so many people’s lives is unquestionable and it is just such a fun and welcoming place to be. It truly deserves to be acknowledged an important asset in the community.​