Destroying the arts in London > Art 2
silly billy | 31.01.2002 15:55
Camden Council backs residents spurious, dubious complaints about west-end show based on African music.
From 'Metro', Jan 30, 2002
"A west end hit is told to beat it"
"an energetic dance show which has sold 100, 000 tickets is being told to move from a west end theatre for being too noisy.
Camden council has ordered the producer [Joe Theron] of South African musical UMOJA [Spirit of Togetherness] to leave the Shafesbury Theatre unless they cut noise levels... they had received only three complaints from residents about the nightly two-hour drumming sets.
The show has been a sell-out since it opened in November... Rolling Stone Bill Wyman said "It blew me away"...
The west end, especially Soho, is well known for the constant struggle between cosmopolitan visitors (who dont go to bed after the evening prayers on Radio Four) and the Nimby [#] residents, (who presumably do), and who rail against anyone who wants to have any fun in this city at all.
Why single out THIS show, out of how many based on conventional western diatonic forms ? I personally wouldnt have liked to listen to howling, wailing, CATS next door for the last twenty years , but so what ? Actually, these shows are quite handy for when my family come to visit. You cant really take them to a strike picket line or a mass demonstration, and I DONT want to take them to Buckingham palace, so BUDDY, or LES MISERABLES, or UMOJA for that matter, are a nice compromise.
[#Acronym: "Not In My Back Yard]
"A west end hit is told to beat it"
"an energetic dance show which has sold 100, 000 tickets is being told to move from a west end theatre for being too noisy.
Camden council has ordered the producer [Joe Theron] of South African musical UMOJA [Spirit of Togetherness] to leave the Shafesbury Theatre unless they cut noise levels... they had received only three complaints from residents about the nightly two-hour drumming sets.
The show has been a sell-out since it opened in November... Rolling Stone Bill Wyman said "It blew me away"...
The west end, especially Soho, is well known for the constant struggle between cosmopolitan visitors (who dont go to bed after the evening prayers on Radio Four) and the Nimby [#] residents, (who presumably do), and who rail against anyone who wants to have any fun in this city at all.
Why single out THIS show, out of how many based on conventional western diatonic forms ? I personally wouldnt have liked to listen to howling, wailing, CATS next door for the last twenty years , but so what ? Actually, these shows are quite handy for when my family come to visit. You cant really take them to a strike picket line or a mass demonstration, and I DONT want to take them to Buckingham palace, so BUDDY, or LES MISERABLES, or UMOJA for that matter, are a nice compromise.
[#Acronym: "Not In My Back Yard]
silly billy