‘Who doesn’t love Brixton is a loser’ – epithet written on one of the 8ft letters which spelled out ‘WE LOVE BRIXTON’ on Windrush Square yesterday.
Photo by Jon Darke
Decorating the letters
And people gathering to watch…
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As a response to the London riots, a group of Brixton residents – including several shopowners from ‘Brixton Village’/Granville Arcade – have organised a ‘We Love Brixton’ event tomorrow on Windrush Square. They are going to install ‘WE LOVE BRIXTON’ in 8ft high letters on the square, as an ‘interactive sculpture’, which people will be able to decorate on the day. There will also be a ‘Speakers Corner’ for local residents to voice their opinions and music from the youth brass band, Kinetika Bloco.
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A brass band welcomed the first swimmers of the season at the Lido
Saturday 2: The Windmill is hosting electro-pop band Bearsuit, while Upstairs at the Ritzy has BBC 1Xtra’s DJ Edu playing ‘old skool beats’ for Back and Forth (A Night of Pure Old Skool).
Sunday 3: Take advantage of free swimming at The Lido this weekend – but will not paying offset the cold? Brrr. To warm up, there’s free jazz in the evening at The White Horse.
Wednesday 6: This looks like lots of fun – a night of entertainment at The Dogstar with Heart and Lung Unit. There’ll be storytelling, comedy and live music from contributors such as Brixton novelist Alex Wheatle, singer-songwriter Marc Picton and comedian Chris Dangerfield. All for only £3. You can read a review of the last event here.
Friday 8: It’s Faithless‘ last ever concert and they’ve chosen Brixton Academy for the final goodbye. The gig is even going to be broadcast live at cinemas across the UK, although not at the Ritzy.
Saturday 9: Help the dedicated ‘Friends of Brixton Windmill‘ plant the herb garden at the Windmill, 10.30am-12.30pm, in time for the re-opening of the windmill on 2 May. No experience needed and equipment provided. Read their wonderful blog here.
Every Saturday, Plan B holds the Community night as a platform for ‘innovative house, techno, disco and other forms of electronics’. Tonight it’s the Residents Party, dedicated to those who have a long-term association with South London. Headlining are Foolish Felix and rising Camberwell star Kid Who?. And you can get on a £3 guestlist if you email brixton@planbgroup.co.uk with a list of names and the subject ‘Brixton Blog guestlist’.
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Saturday: It’s Open House weekend, so grab a catalogue from Brixton Library and get snooping. And tonight Plan B is launching its monthly Community night with a set from Detroit disco producer, Moodymann.
Sunday: Brixton Academy is offering the chance to take a look backstage from 10am-1pm as part of Open House, although to be honest the halls are not so much ‘hallowed’ as, well, rather shabby. After a quick lunch, there’s still a chance to catch The Illusionist at 1.30pm at the Ritzy and, from 7pm, there’s the Ubuntu Soul Session at Ritzy Upstairs.
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A Plan B poster from December 2009
1. What’s your job at Plan B? What do you do day-to-day?
I am the Events & Promotions Manager at Plan B. I programme all of the events at the venue, as well as running specific in-house events. I also manage all of the marketing and promotion for the venue. On a day to day basis this includes everything from speaking to agents and building relationships with emerging artists, to attending a wide range of events throughout London and working with some of the best creatives money can buy.
2. How has Plan B been doing since it reopened last year?
Things have never been better! In the last year or so Plan B has not only regained its reputation as one of the most forward thinking venues in London (able to attract some of the biggest DJs and producers from around the world), but also has a great crowd, week in week out. I think people are pleasantly surprised when they make their first visit to the venue since the relaunch. Our focus on new music has certainly helped us, as has the resurgence of interest in Brixton as a whole. I have worked in Brixton for more than five years and projects like the redevelopment of Brixton Village and even things a little outside of the area, like Frank’s Campari Bar in Peckham, have shown just how much creativity there is here.
3. Is there a theme behind the people you choose to DJ at Plan B?
We book people we feel are doing something interesting and people with a connection to the area.
4. Do you want to promote local South London music or is your focus more on getting in big-name DJs?
A bit of both – South London has always had an incredibly rich musical heritage and these sounds have had a huge influence on the sort of music we listen to and promote. At the same time, South London is not particularly well catered for in terms of ‘big’ clubs and we feel that a lot of people have to travel to quite a long way to hear some of their favourite DJs, so we also have a keen interest in bringing people from outside the area to play here.
5. What’s thinking behind your ‘Community’ night – and why?
Proper house music has always had a home in the area, from the notorious Rooty parties run by Basement Jaxx to DJ Harvey’s now legendary sessions many many years ago, to things happening at the moment, like Andy Blakes’ World Unknown warehouse parties. The main idea behind ‘Community’ is to create a night that redefines peoples perception of what constitutes a ‘house’ night in the area – this isn’t about Ibiza anthems or about some ‘legend’ making a comback to a bunch of builders from Bromley, this is about listening to quality music with like minded local people in an environment that feels intimate. We want to bring back some of the affinity for the area that has been so strong in the past; that’s why we called it ‘Community’.
6. What has the reaction been to Community so far?
Fantastic! People seem to be getting very excited about the night (especially the Moodymann / Floating Points night on the 18th September – see below) and all of the people we have approached about playing at the night have been impressed by our vision and commitment to the project.
7. How do you view yourselves within the local community and why?
We do a lot of work with Strong Look in Brixton Village, which is run by a former employee of ours. We also spend a lot of time at Rosie’s Deli and are on first name terms with a lot of the small restaurants and bars in the area. We certainly see ourselves as part of the local community and have been championing Brixton for many years, I am not sure how local people see us, but they are always smiling when they leave here.
8. In 2007 Plan B joined the Brixton Collective and you were interviewed in ‘Time Out’ saying that it is a struggle to convince people to come to Brixton. Is that still the case?
I think things are very different these days. At the time, the area suffered from a lot of negative media attention and the two years of Victoria Line weekend closures for refurbishment work really didn’t help. But it is fantastic to see so many new things happening – from the redevelopment of the space in front of The Ritzy, to the work the police have been doing to clean up the area around the underground station. There are more creative people in the area now and a lot of opportunities for small businesses to flourish, in a way that is not possible in other areas of London – people have begun to support what they see around them, which is great. Even the old school Brixtonites have realised that they do not have to be stereotyped. We are reaching a critical mass. The troubles of the past have helped us prepare for the success of today.
9. What has been your favourite ever night at Plan B and why?
I have so many favourite nights it is hard to pick. David Rodigan’s set at the RBMA party back in February was incredible. However my favourite night was probably the after show party we did for LCD Soundsystem a few months back. James Murphy (lead singer of LCD Soundsystem) played disco records all night with Erol Alkan, and Soulwax were on the lights. It’s going to be hard to top that, although saying that I am very very excited about having Moodymann play!
10. Do you ever go partying anywhere else in Brixton?
All the time. I really like The Rest Is Noise for a pint after work and my favourite night in London is still DMZ at Mass.
'Community' at Plan B this month
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Guest blogger Kaye Wiggins, journalist for Third Sector magazine, reports from last night’s co-operative council meeting
About 70 residents gathered in a warm, crowded room in Lambeth town hall last night to discuss the co-operative council plans.
During the two-and-a-half hour question and answer session with council leader Steve Reed, almost all of those that asked questions said they welcomed the idea, at least in theory. But they raised concerns about how it would work in practice.
One of the biggest concerns was how the council would make sure the whole local community had its say about the plans. “I know most of the faces here,” said a lady on the front row. “We’re always here; we’re always debating with the council. There are a lot of other people in the borough. We need to get to the grass roots.”
Reed said the public consultation on becoming a cooperative was the biggest the council had ever held. He said there would be surveys, roadshows, public meetings and – surprisingly – random vox pops outside tube stations during rush hours to ask local people what they thought.
He also said the co-operative idea was not just a way of coping with the 25 per cent cut the council will make to its overall spending in the next four years.
He said involving local people in providing public services would make the services more responsive to the community’s needs. He stopped short of saying which services would be provided in this way, but said housing would be “an extremely interesting area to look at”.
One resident voiced a concern that seems likely to be repeated as the consultation goes on. “I already co-operate with the council by paying my taxes,” she said.
But maybe we should take heart from a suggestion made by councillor Jackie Meldrum, who said there could be “some kind currency to be a reward system” for residents that helped the council to deliver its services.
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Steve Reed
Don’t be surprised if you read through the reports on Conservative manifesto policies and get a sudden sense of deja-vu. ‘Mutualism? Public sector co-ops? Collective strength? Where have I heard it all before?’, you might think. Well, that would be almost exactly one month ago, when Lambeth Labour launched its plans for the ‘John Lewis’ council amid much publicity. The Tories and Labour seem to be swapping policies around like FA Cup player stickers at the moment. ‘Mutualism’ might just become one of the buzzwords of the election and Steve Reed, leader of Lambeth Council, is the man fronting the Labour brand.
Reed has one hell of a job. Lambeth is the second largest inner London borough and the 19th most deprived borough in England. But he is experienced – he has been a councillor of Brixton Hill for twelve years – and he is confident about his plans to improve the area. Let’s start with the John Lewis council, or the ‘cooperative council’, as he prefers to term it. This was launched as a creative solution to the inevitable cuts to all council funding after the election. “Councils are generally working on the assumption that it will be about 15-20%, which is a lot of money. When you’re facing cuts like that, there is only a limited number of things you can do.” The Tories have gone for the ‘easy Council’ in Barnet, with bogstandard services to all and the possiblity to top-up if you have the money. That doesn’t seem fair on those who are most needy and yet most unable to pay.
Reed believes he has found a better way: involving people in the running of their services with the possibility of financial recompense later on. He cites some co-operative schemes already running in Lambeth – the Lilian Baylis community centre and Freshview, which provides resources to clear derelict land and has allowed residents in Josephine Avenue to set up their own community garden. “It works really well. People have a real sense of ownership and people sometimes for the first time know the names of their neighbours. All of that for a lower cost than if the council had come in and done it itself without those other benefits.” Reed believes that if the same values are applied more widely across the borough, there will also be better services and “more community empowerment” costing less money. His future plans include community trust schools, “where the community has an ongoing relationship with the school as an alternative to the academy model.”
Co-operative intentions haven’t always worked in Lambeth, as the Lambeth Living experience has proved. I put to him that it could become a way of passing on accountability; “It’s not passing the buck at all”, Reed insists. “It’s not the case that people have not wanted this. We could do a Freshview every week there is so much demand.” What happens if the co-operative services start to fail? At what point does the council step in? “What we must never do is de-professionalise services. If for instance any school under whatever form of ownership sinks below a minimum standard then it will remain the right of the local authority to step in. That’s very important, because you can’t allow people to have a sub-standard education.”
The John Lewis council still has a way to go in a very short space of time. First, a commission of experts and users will publish a white paper and identify areas to pilot the model. Part of that will be a public consultation, although Reed is cagey on exactly when it will take place – @Jason_Cobb blogged today that it will be after the election, which means that voters won’t know exactly what they’re voting for in May. “We’d want the commission to come back with the first set of proposals by July so that we can roll them out from September. We’ll learn from the pilots and be able to apply them more widely to other areas.”
Funnily enough, the area where Reed admits to the most problems during his Lambeth tenure is where an ALMO – a semi-cooperative model – is in charge: housing. He doesn’t blame the cooperative model for the problems and, of course, he does his best to take the blame off Labour.”There were already deep-rooted problems to do with the management of the housing service that go back years. Then the new IT system for Lambeth Living was implemented badly, so a lot of the data about leaseholders, vacant homes and repairs suddenly were no longer on the data systems. The work for that data system was done under the Liberal Democrats. The IT system has now been sorted out.”
Reed admits it’s a big challenge to improve housing even with the IT problem fixed, but is confident enough to say it will be sorted within 18-24 months: “At the moment 10,000 of the ca. 30,000 council homes don’t meet minimum government standards. We’re due a quarter of a billion pounds from the government to bring it all up to minimum standards. Then there’s the other side of the challenge, which is giving tenants a better day-to-day service. That means better repairs, re-letting vacant homes faster, and issuing bills to leaseholders accurately and on time.” An admission that Lambeth Living hasn’t gone quite as planned is implicit in the Lambeth Labour manifesto, giving the ALMO 12 months to improve or else.
It is difficult to interview any politician in the run-up to the election. Reed was certainly in campaign mode – the implication was often that Labour can do no wrong and it’s all the fault of the Lib Dems. Having said that, he is articulate and sure of his argument. The debate about to be unleashed on co-operative government could change the way we engage in local government. It doesn’t seem quite right that we are unlikely to have any idea what it will really look like until after the election, but who knows, Lambeth could be at the start of something exciting.
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