Greedy Levellers To Build Yuppie Flats in Brighton

At a time when the homeless of the city are being denied all help by council edict, and squatters are being routinely illegally evicted by Sussex police, The Levellers who made a career out of appearing radical and politically engaged are selling part of their building to build yuppies flats.

Imagine the social use that this building could have been put to.

The Levellers claim to have met up on a travellers site.

Scratch a hippie and the yuppie shows through.

Sounds like a good target for some pro-active squatters to reclaim the land for the community before the advertising execs move in.

Bob Geldoff would be proud of these boys.


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Article liberated from today's Argus reproduced below
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The Argus

20 Feb 2006

The Levellers join property boom

by Jan Melrose
Charlie Heather, drummer with The Levellers
Charlie Heather, drummer with The Levellers

They may be named after anarchist freedom fighters but folk-rock group The Levellers are about to embark on every respectable conservative's dream.

The Brighton band, agitrockers and heroes of the Nineties' alternative scene, are moving into property development.

They are spending millions on a warehouse conversation to create flats which, when finished, might not look out of place in a trend-setting lifestyle magazine like Elle Decoration.

They are planning to transform the upper floors of their Metway recording studios, a once run-down warehouse in Canning Street, Kemp Town, into eight one and two-bedroom flats, the likes of which could attract any young, upwardly mobile professional with a bit of cash to flash around.

The design plans for the development read like an estate agent's sales pitch, with words like "retro Sixties" feel and "penthouse" in the brief.

The band, formed by Mark Chadwick, Simon Friend, Jon Sevink, Jeremy Cunningham, Charlie Heather and Matt Savage, take their name from both The Level in Brighton, where they first started playing in pubs, and a 17th Century political movement which espoused equality, liberty and the ideals of shared property.

Under the proposals, their recording studio and offices, let to private businesses, would be moved underground to the basement.

As many of the original Victorian features as possible would be restored and new steel gates would be commissioned for the courtyard entrance, more for cosmetic reasons perhaps than to keep out the riff-raff.

Neighbours got their first glimpse of the £2 million project, a year in the planning, at an exhibition on Thursday hosted by drummer Charlie.

He said: "The roof is continually leaking, the upkeep is getting more and more expensive, the heating system should be in a museum and the space is inefficient. We are creating the flats to help pay for the upgrade of everything else. It's not about making lots of money, it's about improving the building and giving the Metway a long-term future, which at the moment it doesn't have."

The plans, submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council this week, met with mixed reaction from neighbours.

Jim Miller, of Hendon Street, Kemp Town, said: "I can see they need to develop the building but I don't want it to be out of character.

"The parking here is already a problem and that could get worse. I'm worried about being overlooked and the light being blocked out."

The band, who will record their ninth studio album this year, moved into the 10,000 sq ft Metway, a former carpet warehouse and clock factory, 12 years ago. It has been their creative base ever since, helping them clock up eight top 20 singles and a string of albums from Truth & Lies to Weapon Called The Word to Levelling The Land.

If planning permission for their plans is approved, building work is likely to begin in 2008 when the band celebrates its 20th anniversary.