First, this month, changes to Scotland Yard’s controversial Form 696 and now new government legislation on disability discrimination which could have an equally profound effect on clubland.
All clubs with at least 25 members, be they private members’ clubs or nightclubs, will have to obey strict disability guidelines if government proposals to close a legal loophole are accepted. Venues will be consulted over an extension to the Disability Discrimination over the coming weeks; under the changes, clubs would not be able to discriminate against those who were disabled.
In other words, they’d need to make ‘reasonable’ efforts to ensure their spaces are more disability friendly. Clubs would need to consider bringing in lifts and ramps, for example, as well as widening entrances and exits. Those venues failing to comply with the proposed legislation would likely face heavy fines, not to mention compensation hearings brought about by members of the public.
“Clubland should make provisions for disabled people” Lee Bennett, owner of both Centro and The Den (formerly The End and AKA Bar,) agrees. “They’re deemed as a liability rather than embraced as normal punters.
“My only concern is that a lot of venues, fundamentally, just aren’t safe for the disabled. We recently had a situation a gent in a wheelchair wanted to come in to Centro. It meant carrying him downstairs into a packed room where he couldn’t move about freely and that then posed massive problems in terms of potential evacuation procedures. These aren’t easy things to sort.”
Bennett, like many club owners and promoters, thinks that whilst change is necessary common sense should prevail: “Any guidelines need to be voluntary not compulsory. Not all venues are capable of disabled provisions. It’s the old adage of forcing a square peg into a round hole.”
In any case, the club community would argue that it has been willingly making disabled provisions for some time now. One thinks of global party movements like Deaf Rave, run by Troi ‘DJ Chinaman’ Lee for over 5 years now. Deaf Rave hosted a special tent at Glastonbury in June offering suitably heavy club tunes that deaf clubbers can ‘feel’, not to mention sign language interpreters for line-up announcements.
Meanwhile disabled dance nights like London’s Beautiful Octopus Club are going from strength to strength. Organisers have big parties planned for the South Bank Centre and Deptford arts venue The Albany this autumn, both mixing DJs, VJs and ‘Burlesque’. All this follows Beautiful Octopus’ successful summer appearance at the Paradise Gardens Festival in East London where deaf, Down’s Syndrome and other disabled clubbers revelled on a dancefloor boasting easy access, good space, readily available support and event information and, of course, quality music.
This month, Salford welcomes the opening of a nightclub specifically for adults with learning and physical disabilities. Gone Clubbing will run fortnightly, the first venue of its kind to give people with special needs the chance to enjoy live music and raving. Volunteer and ‘founder’ Steve Hendry explains: “These people are marginalised and constantly told what to do. They love music and tell me they want to go to a nightclub that is not in a church hall with bingo and raffles.”
Disabled rights groups applaud all such measures but claim nevertheless that voluntary action and voluntary Civil Rights legislation isn’t enough – in their minds compulsory law is the only thing that will help solve the club industry’s current inadequacies.
Dance music, the sound that ‘back in the day’ supposedly brought all creeds, colours and kinds together under one roof, is about to face yet another major test of its credentials.
