Jim Masters On London Underground's Velvet Room Closure

London's longest running techno night Base has temporarily shut down after their Charing Crosss Road venue The Velvet Room was shut down by London Underground officials redeveloping Tottenham Court Road tube station. Set up by Carl Cox and Jim Masters in 1996 (when the Velvet Room was still known as the Velvet Underground) the tiny basement club had become London's last weekly techno event, featuring many of the world's top techno names.

"We knew building work was happening soon though the latest information we'd had was that there could be up to 18 months left before they had to shut the club," Jim Masters told Skrufff.

"I got back from our Base night in Ibiza last Thursday went to the venue and that's when we found out we had just one more week.

Base are currently looking for another venue "ideally another Velvet, somewhere in the West End", as Jim puts it, and remain firmly committed to their beloved techno.

"Abroad, especially in Europe, the UK techno scene is regarded really strongly but that's mainly because of the DJs and the artists rather than the club scene. It's progressively been squeezed out by venues. Certain members of the press unfortunately gave techno a pretty bad name about four or five years ago, for what reasons I don't know, but I think people started associating techno with really hard music and lots of boys with their tops off when really it's not necessarily just about that."

Adding that Base has always drawn a cosmopolitan crowd of Spanish, Brazilian and South African male and female clubbers he remained upbeat about both his club and the music's future.

""Techno sets its own agenda, it's always been out on its own, and pretty anti-commercial and anti-trying to follow any trends. It's always gonna' be there, there's always loads of people who are passionate about it."

http://www.baselondon.net (contact Jim Masters for more information [particularly if you can recommend a new venue]: jimmasters@digitaldisco.co.uk)
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