Looks like bad news for all those into their funky house and dirty pop, if this poster on Old Ford Road is anything to judge by. The 'new era of club culture' in the East End, with "massive DJ's/PA's" (sic) every Friday night, has been cancelled! Dang and blast. Still, nice of the organisers to let everyone know by putting a huge 'Cancelled' sticker over the poster.
But hang on, what's that text at the bottom? Looking closely at the sign, the following small print can just about be read:
"This poster has been cancelled by London Borough of Tower Hamlets"
A quick visit to the Tower Hamlets website turns up this press release from mid-July, including the following comments from Councillor Shahed Ali:
"This is a creative way to crack down on fly-posting. We’re showing would-be fly-posters that they’ll be wasting their money if they put up illegal advertisements in the borough. It can take up to 45 minutes to remove just one poster and often scraps of paper are left behind - but it only takes a couple [of] seconds [to] stick the ‘It’s Cancelled’ sticker on."
We have to give them credit for originality. Will this state-sanctioned subvertising actually do what the council hopes and discourage flyposters? Or will it royally piss them off and encourage reprisals, whilst simultaneously irritating the hapless citizen wrongly lead to believe that their favourite club night has been called off? And has anybody seen these signs in other parts of London?
