Camden Crawl – basically North London’s answer to SXSW but without any good bands and in Camden – has gone into liquidation.
This is pretty shitty. Lots of bands on Twitter have claimed they still haven’t received payment for the show and people who worked for Camden Crawl have no doubt lost their jobs.
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So Camden Crawl? Did you really just go into voluntary liquidation without paying us or anyone else?
— Jack Cooper (@jackmazes) July 3, 2014
#CamdenCrawl gone under without paying 2 Invada bands. They point blank refused to pay advance deposits & used the #TrustUs mantra throghout
— Invada Records (@invadauk) July 3, 2014
But, we’ve got to say, surely someone saw this coming. We’re not financial advisors but if your business plan is to overcharge people to go and see a bunch of bands – who play every week in small pubs – in a bunch of cramped sweaty venues you have to queue to get into, you might run into trouble. Here are the reasons Camden Crawl just doesn’t make sense in 2014.
It’s in Camden
Camden: the place so bad it’s tried to burn itself down twice. The idea of a two-day indoor festival taking place in a small area frequented by goth French exchange students, grown-men with badges on their bags, and weird children in Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise is hardly going to compete with a lush nine stages in Victoria Park. The only people who like Camden are David Guest, Ronnie Joice and Suggs. Case closed.
The line-up is weak
ABC, Atari Teenage Riot, and Of Montreal were all booked as headliners – which is pretty varied but also pretty depressing because, let’s be honest, Of Montreal sound like cardboard, Atari Teenage Riot sound like a teenager having a tantrum while holding a keyboard on the wrong setting, and ABC, though great, have been playing tiny gigs around London for years. At around £30-£50 a ticket, you would expect a lot of actually good names lower down on the bill – but, TBH, there are only a handful we actually recognise. Compare that to, say, Field Day’s line-up of Fat White Family, Metronomy, Todd Terje, SOPHIE, Sky Ferreira, Blood Orange and Jon Hopkins all for the same price and it’s pretty hard to see why anyone would buy a Camden crawl ticket.
You have to queue
Ok, so not only have you spent several sheets just to watch a band that once got mentioned in the backpages of Kerrang play a secret set at Underworld, you’ve also got to queue to get in. So – you’re basically paying to stand in a queue which – top tip – you can do for free by walking to your local post office. Or, if you want the full experience, pay a group of friends to stand in a line for hours while someone plays a Johnny Foreigner album through their phone.
Again – you’re in Camden
Can Camden go into liquidation too, please.
