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For anyone involved in the alternative London music scenes the recent news that Plastic People, the legendary Shoreditch club, is facing closure by the Met will have come as not just a surprise but also a real blow to the creative heart of the city. And considering London's recent hyper-gentifrication ahead of the Olympics, said creative heart is starting to shrink more and more by the month it seems. Over on the Mr Trick & Wrongtom site, Tom has made a very good case for how surreal a move this is. I'll just copy what he said below and urge everyone who's ever been to the club or cared about London's creativity and real club scene to join the FB group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=312688015977&ref=ss&v=info) and await details of how we can all help which should be coming in later today. Suffice to say that if we the people do indeed have a voice as we are often led to believe it will be heard loud and clear in this case – #saveplasticpeople is London's top trending twitter topic today and will continue to do so I'm sure until the council and police realise the enormity of what they are thinking of undertaking.

Wrongtom – Plastic World (http://www.mrtrickandwrongtom.com/2010/02/22/plastic-world/)

Kool Keith once asked “is the world made of plastic?” but as far as I can work out the world’s made of shit these days, and I’m sorry to be so crass but for those in the know London’s clubland is facing very sorry days to say the least.

It was announced at the weekend that the East London institution that is Plastic People is facing possible imminent closure at the hands of Hackney’s police force who wish to revoke PP’s license to prevent “public nuisance” and “crime and disorder”.

I could be completely mistaken and maybe there’s something more sinister at play here but in a town littered with what seems like an endless array of soulless drinking dens frequented by shit-faced city-boys and “going up London Gary” weekenders, why would one of the few venues dedicated to the cause of pushing new music face closure?

Remember The Spitz? Only a few years back you could have been one of a handful of people watching anything from outsider punk rock to Restiform Bodies wrestling both nasty hangovers and their Gameboys live on stage but sadly not any more because now Spitalfields, thanks to a mediocre makeover, is now a lifeless sack of nothing out of the ordinary. Has anyone noticed there’s now a tex-mex restaurant bankrolled by depressing hen night’s on Brick Lane? What’s really happening to this part of town?

Just to set some records straight this isn’t self centred gushing, I’m by no means bias, and will be the first to admit that Plastic People could often attract a cliquey crowd who to quote a nameless patron “would show up to the opening of an envelope” but I’d hardly associate rowdiness with the place or the people. Anyone that’s been to CDR can vouch for a crowd gathered together to explore the wonders of music so fresh it might have come off the mixing desk barely an hour before it was aired, in fact It’d be hard to name an event held there in the past decade which wasn’t solely about the music. So put simply, what on earth are the Met thinking?

Have the slew of strip clubs been issued with such an order? What about that BNP pub up Hackney Road? There are so many places which clearly contribute to the piss and vomit stained pavements of shitty Shoreditch that pointing the finger at the one place which doubtfully contributes to the local stench seems downright ludicrous.

As I say though maybe I’m gravely mistaken and there’s something we don’t know going on behind the scenes, or maybe the council for some mad reason want a Walkabout in it’s place, either way if you give a damn about one of the last bastions of creative clubland then get involved over on facebook.

On a personal level I’ve enjoyed many a night there from Big Dada’s Gosh! nights to testing out tracks on their amazing rig at CDR and hope this wont spell the last of these People and their fantastic Plastic.

Posted via email from Laurent’s pot of randomness