Our fearsome Security Kitty patrols Woofah HQ

I’ve been neglecting the blog recently, but updates have been appearing regularly in the sidebar cos of my new twitter feed. Apologies to all the people who’ve left comments here, especially NagHammadiEye, for my lack of responses…

My suspicion is that short updates and links will appear there from now on and bigger pieces will be blogged. I have mixed feelings about this but it seems like the easiest option with not much time available…

So the new issue of Woofah is being warmly received. All contributor copies have been mailed out now and tonight I will tackle the backlog of orders. London shops will get copies after work tomorrow.

As many of you will know, Woofah was conceived on the dancefloor of BASH – the reggae/grime/dubstep club run by The Bug and Loefah at Plastic People. Plastic People is an awesome venue probably best known for its regular FWD nights – FWD is to dubstep what Metalheadz at the Blue Note was to drum ‘n’ bass I suppose.

Plastic People’s soundsystem and its selection of promotions has made it legendary. I first went there for some nights run by the Manasseh crew which included Sugar Minott and the late Junior Delgado toasting over records selected by folks like Dave Hendley and Manasseh themselves. It was an incredible experience being literally feet away from some reggae legends with the full weight of PP’s soundsystem.

The club is now under threat as its licencing regime is challenged by the Metropolitan Police and reviewed by Hackney Council.

More news on that soon (and the campaign to keep it open), but it should go without saying that I would be gutted if it closed.

As History Is Made At Night has pointed out, this has to be seen in the context of the wider gentrification of the south of Hackney – the City moving slowly north.