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Form 696

Form 696 applies in 21 boroughs of London.
The reason for the existence of this form?
To control live music.
If you’re interested in putting a night on, then this form will become familiar to you in the not so distant future.
Every artist performing up and down the country will be EXPECTED to fill in all of their details including Name, address and telephone number, along with the ethnic background of the expected crowd which the venue then has to hand over to the police.
The Police say they need these details so that they can pinpoint which acts and venues attract trouble makers. Which in my mind is something the police should already know.
Fergal Sharkey (the head of UK music) is already on the case, taking advice from solicitors as to whether or not he would stand a chance of stopping the form becoming mandatory in venues the length and breadth of the country.
Martin Reynolds (director of the pub and beer association) said “I know of licensees faced with this saying that they are just not going to put live music on. Form 696 is being used only in London so far, but there are similar things going on around the country, where police are asking publicans to sign various protocols. It has gone too far frankly.”
Det Ch Supt Richard Martin (head of the mets pub and vice squad) Says that “It’s not about being risk averse, it’s about managing the risk.” I say surely bringing form 696 in is taking a bigger risk than having a night of Hip Hop on in a 125 capacity venue that employs badged security staff on the door, because let’s face it people do not respond well to having their freedoms taken away.
It’s basic human rights and form 696 is the right way to cause rebellion. Not just from ethnic minorities but the white majority also.

Supt Martin went on to say “If you’re a publican and you are just having some performers to entertain your regular customers then you won’t be EXPECTED to do a risk assessment.”
We have live music on at the stock room every single night that we are open. And the reason why? To attract a crowd down and to entertain them. Which is what every single pub, club and venue in the country does, it’s just common sense.
 
Today the pub and club industry is struggling. Prices are forever being pushed up as the average wage stays the same. Form 696 is a sure fire way of putting an end to socialising in an enjoyable environment. The government and the police both want you to stay at home, and if you do have the balls to venture out of an evening the only place to go will be a wetherspoons in which the cheap beer will be the only apology you will get for having the soul sapped out of you the second you sit down.
As manager of a small venue in Sheffield I know just how constrictive form 696 will be. I have a partner and our first child is due on the 4th of July (the honest truth) which as we all know is a day marked by Americans to celebrate their independence.  As a British male approaching 30 I’ve watched this country over the years becoming more and more Americanised which seems to have coincided with more of our rights been taken away.
If form 696 comes into play I am in no doubt that I would lose my job, my income, my stability. And I would struggle to provide. Not just for myself but also for my young family, and what with the job market being as it is I know that I would struggle to find other work. Meaning that I would be another in the long long line of people on benefits which are also been taken away at a rate of knots. Now who’s going to explain that to my unborn child?
Form 696 is playing with peoples lives. Yours, mine, our childrens. And long will it continue unless we stand up, and stand up now. Sign the petition set up by John McClure, (http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Scrapthe696/) not just for me, not just for yourself. But for everyone who ever wished they had a voice, who ever wished they could live the life that they are entitled to.

so the cold night air hit me in the face like a heavyweight waiting round the corner to jump the skinny bespectacled kid who had just beat him in the ring. The kid had it coming. There's no way he shoulda won. There's no way the heaveyweight shoulda lost. The music filled the street but the breeze owned it. Forcing all the late night walkers to pull a face that said, yeah, now I'm cold and I lost my coat inside that place. Some young punk with itchy fingers and a sweaty brow spied it on the back of my chair, and waiting, for his moment, plucked it up and ran off to meet the wind, screaming as it slapped him on cheek. I can't feel you, I've got this jacket and this jacket is what will keep me warm as I wander my way home forever. The heaveyweight was broken, how did he do it. How did I not see him coming. How did I lose my crown to him. The kid just smiled, put on his jacket and walked out to meet his new foe, the wind, in his new stolen coat and his new crown, that he won from a man twice his size when he couldn't bare to look at the world he had created for himself.

At the start of October 2008 a small group of people got together in what is now known as the stock room. A name change, a change back and a change back again along with a few stressful days in between led us up to the 25th and the opening night.

Not knowing what to expect of the evening a little apprehension hung in the air, like a pair of shoes strewn over a telephone wire. But unlike the shoes we were not left dangling, open to the elements...

Low and behold people came in, to watch Steff Esposito perform as the opening act with his beautiful tone of voice and way with words. Followed by Dr Robeatnik working his magic in a haze of finger whirlwind fretboard dancing. incorporating loops, beats, and the ability to hypnotise and mesmerise a crowd. People launched themselves forward to soak up what was going on at the business end of the stock room....

Breathless after the Robeatnik set, Pretty ripped took up their position to play their way through the evening as more people entered the front door.  Smiling faces and great music convinced them to stay and focus on the line up gracing the stage (although there is no stage, as yet, it's just the floor)  

King Capisce where fourth in line and got the entire place dancing the night away as their music grabbed hold of everybody including the bar staff, and quite possibly the leadmill bouncers. The Banana Flavoured dub-cats closed the live section of the night having headed from across town after a charity gig at the moorfoot tavern (bless 'em,) and it seemed that the earlier gig had placed them in a groove they simply followed on from, ensuring nobody left the dance floor, especially when the Sticky DJ's took over on the decks.

Six days later the Halloween horror night took place, seeing punk been spat over a series of dead people, vampire bats, china dolls and Captain Jack Sparrow (think he just wanted an excuse to drink lots of rum) from bands Deadbeat At Dawn, Sammy's Fatal Mistake, The Deadites and the Hyenas... Local film makers Paul Shrimpton and Theo Cane Garvey had their horror films played on a large screen projector, and Tom (Nazdrove) played the evening out to kept the dancing dead from their early graves.

Tom Rodwell performed the Saturday after, aided and abetted by Andrew Oxley both playing the blues in an intimate setting, surrounded by friends, an appreciation of good music and good sound (two guys wandered in from the outside convinced a 1920's record was been played.)

Saturday November the eighth saw Matt (opus) bring his sound system, studio 45 out to play and to shake your chest plate and rattle the doors as dub showed us the way to step.

Electric Tape Recorder folked us on a physcadelic trip over the rainbow aided and abetted by the lovely Anna Haigh. Rosie Electro sexily played her way through a brand new set made even better by the awful Zapp brannigan, "in it for the boobies" all I saw was a pair of tits on stage trying to perrform, just not in a musical sense. Which is exactly what The Figments, Winos, The Theives and Pirouettes managed to do in a blistering night with these four up and coming guitar bands.

Sticky managed to unstick a freezing night with a Robert Johnson inspired blues set from Bannana Flavoured Dubcat Karl. Along with a nine piece ska/funk/carnival band The Limes who got the cold night dancing. The Sticky DJ's played the evening into the morn' with breaks, hip hop, dubstep and ska ensuring everyone was left, looking forward to a Sticky Christmas on Saturday the 20th of December (rumour has it Santa will be in attendance but we're making no guarantees, unless you've all been good this year)

The stock room is in its infancy, and the team is learning all the time. We believe that Sheffield needs a venue open to everyone, to everything. Still taking shape and growing all the time. The first piece of artwork began on the 10th of November and the smoking area is slowly starting to take shape. We received two canvases from artist Chris Hill on Monday the 24th of November that will be hung very soon, and we hope it may long continue.

Every night has seen a nice crowd, and that's all we want. A nice place for nice people.