Scarlet Mist fades away

Ethical ticket exchange Scarlet Mist has closed down, founder Richard Marks announced via its Facebook page. Launched in 2003, the website acted as a means for music fans to sell unwanted gig and festival tickets at face value, in reaction to the increasing numbers of tickets being sold at high mark ups by online touts. The site previously closed in 2011 because of "unacceptably high levels of fraud carried out [on the platform] by a small number of criminals", but reopened again early the following year. In a statement about this week's closure, Marks explained that whilst fraud remained an issue: "I've been running Scarlet Mist more or less single-handedly for the past eleven years, as a part-time hobby whilst doing my day job as a hospital doctor. It has been fun to run it, and it has been a useful service. Unfortunately my wife is now disabled and I need to devote more time to caring for her and my family".

Cockpit closes

Leeds live venue The Cockpit, active for 20 years, has this week closed for good, and with immediate effect, its operator Futuresound Events has confirmed. The Cockpit has been closed since the 19th Juyl, when the premises were shut to the public (on a temporary basis, it was then hoped) for "essential maintenance work" but the venue's website now reveals that "it is no longer viable to deliver you the level of service you deserve with the building in it's current condition".

Venues troubled in East End

The Macbeth

Two venues in East London are under threat of permanent closure. The nightclub East Village, has already been temporarily shut down pending a police investigation whilst The Macbeth, is fighting a planning application to build a residential block directly behind it.

A notice posted outside East Village states that its licence has been revoked by Hackney Council, pending a review within four weeks, due to suspicions that two men involved with the venue are "connected to serious crime".  Two men were arrested under the Proceeds of Crime Act following a joint operation by the Hackney Metropolitan Police's Money Laundering Team and Licensing Unit.

Meanwhile, the nearby Macbeth pub has launched a petition against a planning application that could see its live music nights curbed, or possibly ended altogether.