Alternative Olympics: the punk band

From behind a fridge in a tiny Hackney Wick studio, the music of 100%Beefcock and the Titsburster reverberates throughout the graffitied building which is the band’s second home.

To quote guitarist Terry Nixon the band makes “a hell of a noise”. So much so that they would not dream of complaining about the din of living near the country’s highest profile building site – the Olympic Park.

But there are other aspects of the London 2012 Olympics that do bother them. Leading the list is the impact the Games has had on their creative corner of east London.

Part of me wants it to go back to the way it was – to be neglected or a bit of a ghetto because that’s what I loved about the area. Terry Nixon

“It’s like a set has been pulled down. It’s completely surreal and there’s nothing there of what was there before”, Terry told Channel 4 News.

“It wasn’t a particularly sought-after place to live which is one of the things I liked about it but that soon changed and now it’s the new cool place to be.”

100%Beefcock and the Titsburster are going on tour for the next three weeks. Terry says they don’t want to “put a dampener” on other people’s excitement: “I think most people who aren’t up for the Olympics are leaving – we’re leaving and we’ll come back when it finishes.

“We deliberately timed a tour to go away to Wales and Ireland so we can get away while it happens. I don’t think anyone knows what impact it’s going to have.”

‘All the creativity is going’

The two-women band are frustrated by efforts to “clean up” Hackney Wick’s graffiti-filled walls.

French Drummer Hinde Rouighi has lived there for around seven years: “Lots of places have opened to use the hype of the area to get some business. We used to be a little community helping each other but now it’s become a huge trendy place with no soul really.

“All the creativity is going because they try to control us a bit too much.”

Terry says authorities have approached Hackney Wick in the wrong way: “They’ve spent a lot of money trying to clear the area up rather than embracing what it was.”

“Part of me wants it to go back to the way it was – to be neglected or a bit of a ghetto because that’s what I loved about the area. I think if it gets too gentrified or cleaned up then it will lose what it had – its soul but if that does happen we’ll move onto another place – another undesirable ghetto.”

They are opinions shared by Hinde who says the area is changing in several different ways: “I used to park my car outside for free but now they want to charge us £600.

“I used to study the economy and after every Olympics most of the areas become a ghetto so I’m hoping and praying for this area to go back to what it is.

“In September if things haven’t changed I think I will move out from Hackney Wick because it’s not what I came for.”