Legendary London punk venue the 100 Club is set to close by Christmas if a sponsor or new buyer cannot be found. The club on the city’s central Oxford Street started out life as a jazz club, and was host to the infamous 100 Club Punk Festival over two days in September 1976; which saw seminal gigs from The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Vibrators, The Damned, Buzzcocks and Siouxsie and the Banshees. In a sadly familiar tale, rising rents and taxes have forced the owners to take stock of the viability of the venue, and they plan to close it by Christmas if a white knight cannot be found. Club owner Jeff Horton claims that his rates alone have hit £4,000 ($A6,600) a month, on top of property owner Lazari Investments jacking up the annual rent by a whopping 45% to £166,000 ($A275,000) per year.

Horton told London’s Evening Standard, “It makes me so angry, the government, Westminster Council and even some of the commercial landlords say they want to help small businesses, they say they want to preserve London’s uniqueness, they want to help multi-cultural venues. Yet we’re all that and all these organisations have all dumped on us from a great height.” Laying his cards on the table, the owner of the venue which has hosted gigs by the likes of Oasis, Primal Scream, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Queens of the Stone Age said, “What the 100 Club needs is a buyer or major sponsor to step forward. Barring that, we’re closing at Christmas despite being as popular as ever. It really is insane.”

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