For the greater cause

Fundraiser raises awareness of mental health and male suicide, in Tottenham and nationwide By Luchia Robinson “The news affected everyone here. There wasn’t anyone here that didn’t know who he was, or who didn’t absolutely love The Prodigy, at some stage in their lives,” said Asher Wiener, Manager at club venue, The Cause– speaking of […]By

Co-Founder, Stuart Glen Credit: Luchia Robinson

By Luchia Robinson

“The news affected everyone here. There wasn’t anyone here that didn’t know who he was, or who didn’t absolutely love The Prodigy, at some stage in their lives,” said Asher Wiener, Manager at club venue, The Cause– speaking of the passing of Keith Flint, frontman of rave band, The Prodigy– who died by suicide in early March.

“I think we all had this exact same feeling over it, and on top of that, because of it being a suicide, it is extremely relevant to The Cause– us being people that are trying to push positivity in mental health– trying to bring light to that issue. It meant a lot to all of us.”

In tribute to Keith Flint, and to raise awareness of male suicide, The Cause team decided to host a one-night fundraiser at the 400 capacity, industrial venue in Ashley Road, Tottenham Hale.

The immediate response to the March event, saw it selling out within an hour.

“It was literally like going back in time. Somebody decided to donate thousands of pounds’ worth of lasers to the event that we could use, so [we] really put loads of production into it. It was completely over the top for the size of the room– everybody crawled out of the woodwork and came down early, and just danced and got involved,” said Stuart Glen, Co-Founder, The Cause.

Seizing upon the success of the tribute night, Stuart was compelled to reach out to a network of promotors, proposing the idea of holding co-promotion, Prodigy tribute nights in venues across the UK (which included Leeds, Aberdeen and Sheffield)– for what would be the ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’ tour– named after The Prodigy’s 1994, second studio album.

“We worked with an agency called NLA Artists who sourced DJs across the whole tour to play for nothing. They all [gave] up their time, and [drove] from out of town to come and play.

“A lot of them had shared line ups with The Prodigy before, or support- ed them, so it was nice to bring that old kind of 90s type rave vibe back, in such a positive way,” said Stuart.

Headliners, including Slippmatt, A Guy Called Gerald, Renegade Soundwave and Daz from 808 State, provided throwback, dance music experiences, alongside acts, local to each city on the eleven-date tour.

“It wasn’t centred on ‘how can I make my party the best?’, it was on ‘how can we all work together and try and do something really great?’” said Asher.

“That whole ‘gives you faith in humanity’ type scenario– this [was] one of them.

“It’s amazing not only seeing people actually attending these events, because that itself is something that is special– it’s just everybody getting together, even though knowing that their time spent on it, is not going to earn them any money necessarily.”

Asher Wiener, Manager, The Cause Credit: Luchia Robinson

With the tour having raised over £17,000 for charities, Mind and CALM, the team at The Cause are continuing to plan and coordinate projects at their Ashley House site– where they will be based until January 2020.

The club space, which was always intended to be a temporary fixture, will then move elsewhere, as development works take place in the Tottenham Hale area.

“We were originally told we would be here guaranteed until August, and that it might roll on,” said Stuart.

“The fact that we’ve got to January- I know is not very long, but it feels like a slight relief.

“It gives us a bit more breathing space to make it work, and to try and find a new home– if we can find a space– which is the challenge.”

“When we started, we said we wanted to support charities, […] although [in this case] it has taken a tragedy for everybody to unite, it feels good that we’ve actually managed to raise awareness and raise some funds from whatever resources we’ve had.

“The path that we’ve done it, has changed a little bit, but it’s really good to achieve it.”

If you need help with your mental health, or you feel in any way suicidal, please seek assistance:

Visit mindinharingey.org.uk

Visit thecalmzone.net

Visit samaritans.org. You can call 116 123 for free, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

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