Ken Livingstone, you suck
This entry was posted on April 13, 2008
In the heart of London there’s a music venue called the “Astoria”. It has a capacity of 2000 and has been one of London’s premier venues since before I was born. It originally opened as a cinema in 1927, and was converted to a theatre in 1976. It’s now exclusively a music / club venue, and was in fact where I lost my gig-virginity.
I first went to the Astoria in 2006 where I saw Simple Plan for the first time. My trip to the Astoria was also when I met my best friend face-to-face for the first time. We queued for hours, and had an amazing time.
I’ve been to the Astoria several times since, and I’m going there on Friday for what might be the last time. It will most certainly be the last time I’ll see Simple Plan play there, and whilst I am excited to see my favourite band perform, I’m equally sad that it might be one of my last visits to the venue.
At some point in the near future, the Astoria is going to be knocked down to make way for the new Crossrail project.
Crossrail is “an exciting and visionary new railway proposal for London and the South-East. It will deliver a world-class, affordable railway, with a high frequency, convenient and accessible train service across the capital from 2017.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t we already have a high frequency, convenient and accessible train service across the capital? I believe it’s called “The Tube“. I don’t see how the Crossrail project is going to benefit the majority of people. It’s just going to make things slightly more convenient to get from Heathrow to Canary Wharf.
The Astoria will most definitely be missed by a lot of people. Not only is it home to a music venue which has showcased such performers as the Rolling Stones, Prince, U2, David Bowie, Nirvana, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Muse, the Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Oasis, System of a Down, Megadeth, and Pearl Jam (to name but a few), it’s also home to G-A-Y, the country’s most famous gay nightclub.
G-A-Y is one of the country’s longest running gay nightclubs, and it has done so much for the LGBT community, not just in London, but throughout the whole country. For a capital that’s approximately 10% gay, it’s a pretty essential club.
G-A-Y has also done so much for British music. G-A-Y gave a home to the first live performances of Westlife, Boyzone, All Saints, and the Spice Girls. It has also welcomed some of the biggest names in pop including Madonna, Mariah Carey, Donna Summer, and Kylie Minogue.
But not only is G-A-Y a music venue in itself, it provides a place for gay people to meet up and have a bit of fun in a safe environment. The Astoria is the only venue of its size that can give a home to G-A-Y - no other venue can do that.
Ken Livingstone (London mayor) says that although the Astoria can’t be saved (due to the Crossrail plans), drafts are being drawn up to try and protect the other music venues in the city.
He says “We’re basically putting in a vast train station but the developers that have actually drawn up the scheme for the area are replacing it with a larger live music venue… I understand the historics behind it, but it wasn’t at the cutting edge of modern comfort and so, my broad view is where you’re demolishing one, you’ve got to replace it with something better.”
What he (and many other Crossrail supporters) seem to be missing is the fact that we don’t want “something better”. The Astoria is perfectly fine as it is. We don’t need a bigger venue. It’s the size of the venue and its history that makes the Astoria what it is.
Take the O2 arena for example. It’s a modern, state of the art arena which can hold seventeen thousand people; but it has no atmosphere to it. When I see bands there, I don’t feel as much chemistry as I do when I see them at the Astoria.
When the Astoria is knocked down, London will lose one of its most loved music venues. G-A-Y will also be forced to move to a lesser location nearby, so although it will still be in one of the safer parts of London, it will have a completely different atmosphere.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown says “For decades the idea of Crossrail - a major new railway link connecting central London, the City and Canary Wharf to Heathrow and to commuter areas east and west of the capital - has been a long-held dream for business and Londoners alike.”
He also states that the Crossrail project will be of “enormous importance, not just for London but for the whole country”. I fail to see how the Crossrail project is important for people in, say, Liverpool. All it’s going to do is make things easier for people to get from the financial part of the capital to Heathrow, which as I mentioned earlier, is already possible via the existing rail connections.
I’m all for expansion and modernisation where necessary, but I have to ask myself “at what expense?” At what expense it expansion justified? Where is the line drawn? I believe it should be drawn on the other side of the Astoria, so that the venue which means so much to me (and even more to others) can stay where it is, doing what it does best.
Ken Livingstone and Gordon Brown (and everyone else behind the Crossrail project) - you suck
17 lovely people have commented
That’s unfortunate, sad, and many other unhappy things. 
The supporters say that it will bring money into the economy (30 billion pounds). Whenever the word “progress” is thrown around and coupled with vast sums of money, it’s almost impossible to stop historical things from being demolished.
Sometimes, I really hate infrastructure. It seems awful that a city would consider abandoning a part of its culture in order to accommodate… a mess. Because I don’t know what the public transit in London is like, but train stations in Calgary are simply disgraceful. They attract crime and trash and are generally ugly burdens on city life. Since London is considerably larger than my city, I assume the destruction would follow to scale. Sure, the train is a well-needed amenity. But if you already have ONE, why create another? It’s just like, creating another problem down the road. Or it’s like… Mirabel.
Mirabel is an airport outside of Montreal. It was built in the 1970s with a mind boggling amount of government money, on land that was working farmland. The government sent these farmers packing, and built the airport, which was meant to replace the perfectly located P-E Trudeau airport in Dorval. It’s now the second largest airport in the world, but it’s located in the middle of nowhere. It can accommodate 50 million passengers, but instead it handles small cargo shipments. Essentially, it is a big blob of “Oops,” the Quebecois and Canadian infrastructure has left us with. Now it is used as the odd movie set, and as a race track. It’s completely ridiculous.
The truth is, nobody really cares about anything but being flashy. Think of the risks being this flashy can put them in? I mean, say this new Crossrail is a flop? The people of London have then lost the money, and a piece of their culture. And what if it is a success? Well, then they are taking business away from the pre-existing forms of transportation! It doesn’t make sense to spread the two across the board! Doesn’t it make more sense to keep the money concentrated in one rich area, than thinly spread across two failing ideas?
I’m afraid it’s all about money as usual.
Capitalism is rife and the government is in the pockets of the BIG corporations.
It’s a much bigger problem than just loosing your favorite venue, our human rights are being eroded because of this too!
I’m sorry the Astoria is going and I’m even more sorry, no, scarred that our freedom is going with it.
That’s so sad about the Astoria! Historic things or systems being destroyed to make way for pointless things seems to be popular nowadays. This definitely isn’t as drastic, but my whole middle school district is getting split up because our city felt it necessary to build another high school when most people just moved away because our economy is failing. Now, we have no say in what high school we’re going to, we’re being split up from all our friends, and our city is poor. This whole, perfect system is being messed up, and it sucks. Obviously, it isn’t as big a deal of what you’re talking about, but I can see why you’d be upset. Why do we need to change things when they’re perfect the way they are? Maybe the leaders of the world are just bored? 
I don’t know.
Crossrail is a load of sh*t. Pretty much all the stations on the route are already covered either by the tube or overground so what the f*ck is the point!
While I don’t know anything about this other than what you contained in your blog entry, I agree with you wholeheartedly - it’s basically taught here and worldwide that London’s tube is amazing and covers everything, so…
As for new “better” venues not having atmosphere - I completely agree.
And what is up with the lame stars in my comment! please2remove. 
Reply: The asterisks are there inline with the commenting policy. Please2read.
I went to the Astoria in February to see Enter Shikari. Personally, I’m not too bothered about where the band plays as long as I can get there easily, but I understand why places like this with history are important.
And I see what you mean about not needing a bigger venue, because sometimes it’s nice to feel like the band is playing in a room, rather than being stuck at the back of a huge arena.
I would too, be mad if a place is taken down and I had some memories with it.
I’m going to go ahead and play devil’s advocate here: Clearly there is a demand for it, or else they wouldn’t be going ahead with it. Agree/Disagree?
Aw that’s not fair! I have it when stuff like that happens and we have no control over it… I’m angry about this now >,<
No way! G.A.Y. is one of the biggest LBGT nightclubs outside of Canal Street (Manchester) and Brighton - they can’t move it and hope for the best to put some stonking useless railway through the old venue
G.A.Y. also had McFly play completely starkers XD
G.A.Y. also had McFly play completely starkers XD
Oh my!
As for knocking down Astoria, it’s a great shame as I lost my gigging virginity there! Personally I think there is demand for this Cross Rail thing though, as the tube pretty much sucks unless you are going uber late at night when they aren’t packed and smell — not to mention the strikes which cripple the entire capital. (damn drivers!)
Unfortunately nothing lasts long in this city, lets just hope they aren’t planning to any more damage to the music scene!
Those people seem to think they are giving something, but actually they take something valuable away. Near the place where I live, there once were green fields and tranquility and then they screwed it up when building the new super express way to the airport. And this is not the only example.
By the way, you have been tagged by me 
That’s like what New York University is doing to New York City’s East Village. In fact, it’s what big business is doing to all of New York City.
Well yeah I mean they can move the venue elsewhere or whatnot, but it’ll never be the same. Though, this happens all the time. A park I used to visit often whilst growing up in Surrey is now full of houses that have been left half-built for years. My old school is basically now just a big muddy field used as a dumping ground.
Places change and people ruin memories to replace them for something that usually isn’t even needed. I personally dislike the way Gordon Brown is changing things.
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Hev said:
Your not upset about this are you, Rachael? I agree I hate it when they tear down the beautiful old wonderful buildings to put up something they think is needed. Anyway, from my understanding, hasn’t “The Tube” been working for a long time. Surely if it wasn’t preforming up to par then the people of England or London would have raised hell and made the government fix it. Maybe this is just the government’s way of getting the club out of the way, I don’t know. I am sorry that you are losing your club.