The news that Gecko has closed isn’t exactly a surprise, though another body blow to what’s left of Hong Kong’s fast-diminishing ‘live’ music scene.
The late night club down that tiny- and grubby- alley way off Cochrane Street, and popular melting pot for musicians to come together and see what develops onstage, has seen various changes in management and been plagued by some unwelcome hangers-on in the posses of Nigerian drug dealers for over five years.
It’s quite incredible that this murder of crows has been given a free pass to peddle their wares right under the noses of the local gendarmes despite all this being revealed here, and in the SCMP.
To get into Gecko, we’ve always had to sidestep and turn a deaf ear when being approached by these pariahs asking for our preferences- coke?Smack? Ice? Hash?
With this going on, it was a matter of time before our local constabulary did their usual bumbling thing: A few weeks ago, they barged into Gecko like an army going into war and got the wrong man, or as was the case here, a scapegoat in the shape of a venue for music.
Who wants to frequent a club where one has to be on pins and needles and worry if les gendarmes will play the man and not the ball?
While Hong Kong sees another venue for ‘live’ music “closed for renovations”, or whatever the current management chooses to call it, the Nigerian coke express continues to expand its business all the way into Wyndham Street and down into Pottinger Street.
Does any of this make sense to you? Are these pusher men allowed to expand their operations because of some weird version of “diplomatic immunity”- and, if so, who’s allowing this pox on Hong Kong society to continue?
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