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as if they can throw another event

but there is no way in hell I would ever consider going to one of their events again. The sheer incompetence and ignorance displayed in the whole thing (including the interview they had after the event where they tried to clear things up) was breathtaking. Never again.

Fuck 'em.

of the artists still haven't had any money. Such a shitty situation.

field day and atp have survived.

If they're REALLY going to start doing events as Bloc I wonder if this is all building up to some sort of spectacular concilitory gesture (though how any of them have any money now is beyond me...)

The simple posting of a new image on their Facebook page (which contains the url of a new, currently empty site) suggests that the Bloc festival, which shut down amid scenes of chaos last year, forcing its organisers to subsequently fall into administration, is set to make a return — in London. Judging by the comments on their Facebook page, not everyone is happy about that, particularly those who bought tickets for 2012’s event and have yet to be reimbursed.

So what’s happening here? It’s a bit confusing, so we called the administrator, Jamie Playford of Parker Andrews, to find out more. Here are three main points:

1. While in administration, there is no legal problem in Bloc using their name to potentially stage a new event. The rules are different if a company is in liquidation and, at any rate, Bloc only ever used their name under licence (from themselves).

In a nutshell: Bloc can carry on as Bloc. Whether that’s advisable is an entirely different matter.

2. Bloc are still trying to get £1m off insurers for the festival being cancelled and further money back from one of the ticketing agencies. There’s no timeline on when either will be resolved, but meetings with both parties are planned for next month.

3. A six-month update will be going out to people owed money at end of this week. However, Playford suggests, it’s unlikely say anything more than the initial directors’ report.

More news as we get it.

Just posted, series of club nights at an "East London Venue TBA"

http://www.bloclondon.com/

Its arrogance is quite breathtaking

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=18759

but even if I were prepared to buy tickets to anything these jokers put on, which I'm not, that `East London venue TBA` would be giving me shivers:

``although its quite basic, there is something special about it. We've spent a few months doing it up ourselves (with a lot of help from some mates—thanks chaps)``

I believe that they're sincere about the music and are sorry that the event went badly, but they clearly seem to think that something bad happened /to/ them, like a natural disaster, rather than admitting and acknowledging that they're incompetent organisers who should be legally prohibited from promoting any sort of events anywhere close to that scale ever again.

Will definitely be checking out some of the new nights they're doing.

Turns out they're estate agents (?!)

http://www.thestoolpigeon.co.uk/features/news-bloc-announce-ten-new-london-shows-for-2013-speak-to-resident-advisor.html

All i can think is that they're a pair of massive tossers and they can fuck off if they think they are getting any more money from me.

Whatever their reputation was before, they just seem like money grabbing idiots to me, however good their taste in music.

Ooh I don’t know, what did I do today? We kind of get up late and probably go for a stroll down by the canal in Hackney Wick, and then it’ll probably be time for some lunch, so go and have some lunch and talk about what we did at the weekend and music, that sort of thing. Answer the phone, shout at each other – we bicker a lot, probably bicker and argue about money, disagree with each other’s decisions that have been made over the weekend on email. Then it’ll probably be time for another walk, might get to the office for the first time by about 3.30pm, go on Facebook for a little bit and then fuck it off and go to the pub at about 5.30pm or something.

Base Logic Productions’ administrators have now published a progress report online. According to Parker Andrews, all ticketholders owed money are likely to get some back, but it is “unlikely to be 100% of your claim”. As a further obstacle to fans left out of pocket by last year’s Bloc Festival — though admittedly, many will have already been refunded by their banks or credit card companies — the administrator is seeking an extension of the administration, as he does not believe matters like the organisers’ insurance claim will be resolved before the automatic close date of July 10. Since the company’s creditors are unlikely to object, this means that, in all likelihood, no-one will be getting any money before next January at the earliest.

Some people may not have seen this in the comments of another thread;

We really need to address the refunds issue.

Bloc was run by an independent company that relied on ticket money coming in, so that it had money to go out, on setting up music festivals.

Up until the Friday that Bloc was cancelled, the company had always covered all of the bills associated with the festival with this money - mostly in advance of the event itself. Many independent festivals happening this summer are set up in exactly the same way.

The company had been going since 2006, pushing the music we loved and creating some pretty fun parties along the way. Many of you will have been to Bloc prior to 2012 and we hope you have many positive memories from those times.

Last summer, suddenly, and unexpectedly, the event was cancelled and the company had to refund everyone who had bought tickets.

But of course it wasn't able to, as that money had already been used to set up the festival. Despite what you may hear elsewhere, pretty much everyone including almost all of the artists, had already been paid.

So the directors put the company into administration.

That means that the company no longer belongs to the directors, and what cash was left in its coffers is transferred over to the administrators to sort out on behalf of anyone owed.

Now we're not looking for any sympathy, but as a bald statement of fact, the directors themselves were utterly wiped out financially by this. The administrators report and company accounts show how little the directors had been paid over the years. You can look it up. As anyone who promotes underground music for a living will tell you, it's not about greed - there are easier ways to get rich.

All of this means that the company that has been set up to run this new series of Bloc shows does not have any of the money associated with Bloc 2012. And that's why it can't offer refunds to anyone either - as much as we wish that it could.

Refunds were made available for everyone who bought their tickets with a UK credit or debit card, via the chargeback scheme. A form was published and if you filled out your name and address you could apply. Most people have done this, and received their refund.

Unfortunately, this wasn't possible for a minority of people. Those who didn't use a UK bank card or came from abroad could not get a refund via this method. That’s a brutal reality of everything that happened and a hard one for us to stomach as you were probably the ones who made the most effort to be with us.

Holding a party which is free to anyone who has not been refunded is a great idea and one which we have spent a lot of time trying to make work - but the reality is that it would be completely impossible to administrate and produce.

Bloc is something very personal to us. It's been running for more than ten years in many different formats and it's grown so much bigger than we ever knew it would - with your backing and support. We don't want to let one cancelled event ruin what had been such a positive thing.

We understand all the frustrations, the anger, the annoyance - we've felt all of this too, in fact lived it for the past six months. But we can't allow ourselves to be buried by them.

Some of you are furious with us and everything we stand for. That's understandable. But some people they would like to give us a second chance - and that's brilliant.

We're grateful to them, and if they want to come to the parties that we run, and enjoy them, we want them to be able to. Thanks to all of you who have already booked into the new series, it's going to be great.

So we're getting back up, slowly, producing the kind of events that we used to in the past, and hopefully replacing foul memories with good ones. The only thing for us is to move forward. And we would like you to come with us.

Bloc x

progress report to creditors and ticketholders – 1 February 2013

http://www.parkerandrews.co.uk/news/bloc-ticketholders/

Not only were they doing a 'second' early bird deal (buy 3 get 1 free), Beat Manifesto now have 100 half price tickets on sale. Both these deals are for Model 500... this weekend.

Still claiming they didn't over-sell. Delusional.

http://www.timeout.com/london/clubs/bloc-booking

Hyperdub w/ Kode9, DJ Rashad, Ikonika, Scratcha DVA, Cooly G, Walton, Morgan Zarate @ Fabric on Friday or Leveon Vincent, Marcel Dettmann on Saturday instead. Who wants to see some old techno dudes play again anyway when was the last time they had a good track. You have choices, especially in London.

(on a mailing list I have asked to be removed from about a dozen times) offering £5 tickets for the night this weekend. Has anyone been to any of them?