“We’re gonna lose everything.”
Earlier this month, London’s legendary Fabric reopened its doors after having its license taken away in late 2016. Even though Fabric is back in business, there are still concerns looming over the vitality of London’s clubs.
Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, talks about the magic he experienced there when it first opened – and the concern he has over the future of London’s nightlife. “It was brilliant, madly exciting, on a bigger scale to other new clubs,” he says in a new interview with Pitchfork. “Where’s the equivalent of that now? We’re miles away from it all of a sudden.”
Last September, Hebden was invited by Mayor Sadiq Khan to speak at city hall about Fabric’s closure, but he is still concerned about the changing landscape that forces night clubs to close. “What worries me is nothing’s being done fast enough,” he says.
He continues: “We’re gonna lose everything, and then everyone’s gonna wake up and be like, ‘Oh well, we don’t have any nightlife, we should try and build some up now.’ That doesn’t come out of nowhere—it takes years.” Hebden is putting in his own efforts and announced last April he was looking to transform neglected club Trocadero into London’s Berghain.
Read next: Fabric’s closure cast a shadow over 2016. But there’s life beyond the London superclub