No Rock And Roll Fun

MAYBE IT'S SOMETHING ABOUT GLASTONBURY: Hot on the heels of the usual annual licence problems down in South Mendip, and Manchester having to pull a stage show based on Glasto, now plans by the family Eavis to bring a charity event to the London Astoria looks like going implants-up as the Astoria has lost its licence. Now, we're no big fans of Mean Fiddler (as regular readers will know) but to close a venue down because there was a shooting incident outside the venue a year ago seems to be especially unfair and ill-considered.
Of course, last year Westminster City Council closed down Home over some sort of "Young people take drugs there" panic; and while the Council claims that its objections to the Astoria's licence is about ensuring the safety of people going to the venue, you have to wonder. Earlier this year, the leader of Westminster, Simon Milton, said "I recognise that it is ludicrous to ignore the fact that drug taking does occur but to implicitly encourage it by providing adequate supplies of drinking water needs careful consideration. " - or, in other words, the illegality of drugs means that a simple, effective safety measure should be denied them. But then nobody would be surprised at a Council which sold its graveyards for fifteen pence being mealy mouthed...