Mensheng, an acoustic guitarist, performs at Hidden Agenda on July 30. Photo by Doug Meigs

A music venue hidden inside a Kwun Tong factory building - Hidden Agenda - is resisting orders to shutdown. The venue's refusal to give in has become a rallying call for musicians and artists working in Hong Kong's derelict industrial areas, Doug Meigs reports.

Every night, a cacophony of drums, guitars and keyboards resonate from bands practicing in Kwun Tong's converted factory spaces. Street-side, the muffled sounds of rock and roll clash with dilapidated sights: a semi-trailer idles while a group of manual laborers take a cigarette break, oblivious to the district's new soundtrack.

Local manufacturing industries relocated to the mainland in the 90s, leaving factories vacant and where artists and musicians could relocate and capitalize on low-rent studio space. Hidden Agenda's organizers estimate that Kwun Tong factory buildings now provide band practice rooms for 80 percent of Hong Kong's independent musicians.

A small number of live music venues have opened (and closed) in Hong Kong's industrial spaces. None gained the notoriety Hidden Agenda has achieved in such a short time. Hidden Agenda opened in 2009, converted from a band practice room. The venue relocated in 2010 when the building owner sold the original property to developers. Now in the Ko Leung Industrial Building on 25 Tai Yip Street, visitors must enter through a back alley and ride an old freight elevator to the sixth floor.

Hidden Agenda is becoming a key hub in the disconnected community of musicians working or practicing in Kwun Tong. At the end of July, Hidden Agenda hosted the Eastern Kowloon Music Industry Festival to showcase Kwun Tong's local musical talent. The two-day festival also served as a rally for bands and music lovers to support Hidden Agenda and bands threatened by the current industrial revitalization policy.

"According to the existing law, the land use of industrial buildings does not allow converting the space into studios. That means the band rooms and studios are not allowed," said Kimi Lam, Hidden Agenda's manager. "I think it's only natural to have a festival in Kwun Tong. There are about 300 industrial buildings in this area. I'd estimate there are at least two bands in each of these buildings, and there are roughly 1,000 bands in the area. As far as I know, some industrial buildings have the entire floor rented to bands only - like 15 band studios on the same floor."

Lam said sustainable live music venues are essential to support Hong Kong's local musicians. Trouble arose in late February, when a government spokesperson said the Lands Department had received a complaint about "unauthorized use at the subject premises". The department inspected Hidden Agenda's facility. Officers took photos and left. The department finally issued a letter in May, ordering Hidden Agenda to cease operations as a music venue by June 21. "From the land lease point of view, 'art and music' do not fall within the 'industrial and/or godown' use as stipulated in the land lease," a Lands Department spokesperson said.

Lawyers volunteered to help, pro bono. Hidden Agenda wrote a complaint letter to the Lands Department. As of July 27, the department had not yet replied. Lam said she would not close the venue unless the government forces it to do so. Anticipating a return visit from the Lands Department, Lam said she was surprised on the day the government ultimatum should have taken effect. Instead of Lands Department officials returning, as she expected, officials from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) visited the place.

Lam said she was away at the time, but FEHD officers called to inform Hidden Agenda that the venue must apply for a Places of Public Entertainment License. A department spokesperson told China Daily, "the case was referred to the FEHD by a relevant department. The FEHD is currently looking into the matter, and will take appropriate action where necessary."

In reply to an information request, a Lands Department spokesperson replied by email that, "following the issuance of a warning letter in May 2011, staff of District Lands Office/Kowloon East (DLO/KE) conducted an inspection in June 2011 and found that the subject premises was locked and unattended. DLO/KE is now seeking legal advice on the case."

Business has continued as usual at Hidden Agenda. Lam said weekly shows are booked solid until December. Their lease will end in January. Renewing the lease could be another problem, though Lam said they have a good relationship with the landlord.

Shows during July have included international bands and mainland musicians, along with local acts. Hidden Agenda caters to all musical tastes, with genres ranging from acoustic singer-songwriters to death metal. In June, a German-Japanese electro-pop duo, Pitchtuner, performed for a crowd of 60 hipsters. Lam said audience sizes vary from a handful of people to 300, with ages ranging from 15 to 50 years old, mostly local students and many foreigners.

Jakob Pedersen, a Danish national living on the mainland, said he often visits Hong Kong and Hidden Agenda. At the end of July, he introduced the venue to a friend from Holland. Pedersen said he has been "underwhelmed" by Hong Kong's music scene, especially compared to Shanghai and Beijing. "After the Expo, Shanghai is booming with underground venues. Hong Kong has just a few."

Lam said about 300 people attended the two-day concert then. On the final night, police officers tried to enter the venue. Lam said the officers claimed someone inside had dialed "999" and yelled "Help!" before hanging up. Hidden Agenda's management declined admission to the officers because they lacked a search warrant. Lam said no one had yelled for help and no one was in danger. The four uniformed officers and two in plain clothes then left.

"It's like passing the ball around," Lam said, referring to the increasing pressure on Hidden Agenda.

Teresa Sair, a spokeswoman for the Lands Department said that Hidden Agenda could jump through a series of bureaucratic hoops with the department acting as the landlord to solve the lease problems. Sair said Hidden Agenda must seek permission from the Town Planning Board, apply for a waiver, and pay a fee. However, completing the steps would not necessarily guarantee approval.

Lam said the waiver alone would cost HK$120,000 per year. And the application process doesn't end there. Hidden Agenda must then apply for a Places of Public Entertainment License, which she said requires inspections from the Fire Department, Buildings Department and Electrical and Mechanical Services Department.

She does not think the applications would be successful, so they do not plan to apply for a waiver at present.

Prominent Hong Kong violinist and composer Kung Chi-shing said he supports Hidden Agenda, but he hopes that the venue will meet the necessary safety requirements to operate legally. He said Hidden Agenda is on the cusp of creating a new scene in Kwun Tong; and closing the venue would prematurely kill a yet-unfulfilled contribution to local culture.

Kung said the government's approach to promoting culture is lopsided, with too much emphasis placed on top-down directives, and not enough assistance at the grassroots level. Kung curates the Street Music Series outside the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wanchai.

"(Government officials) are worried about spending billions of dollars to build the West Kowloon Cultural District, but how much does it cost to buy a few old buildings and fix them up and let the artists rent for really low rent?" he said. "That's so easy, it can be done in one year. And West Kowloon, you're talking about a 12-to-14 year project."

Wong Ah-kok, a spokesman for the Revitalization Independence Partnership confirmed the sentiment. "The Cultural District is not built for us in any sense. It might be built for the high arts artists from abroad, but not for the local artists, especially not the local musicians who play independent music," he said.

Wong is a spokesman for the Revitalization Independence Partnership. The organization champions cultural reuse of industrial buildings. He's also a musician and rents factory space for a band room one floor below Hidden Agenda.

The Revitalization Independence Partnership began in response to Chief Executive Donald Tsang's 2009 Policy Address, which outlined new tax incentives for industrial building owners to convert industrial properties to high-end commercial use. Wong and other musicians fear gentrification would raise rents.

"After the revitalization policy, (Hidden Agenda's) previous landlord said he couldn't rent anymore - he sold the place, and that's when we realized that the whole revitalization plan is going to destroy the scene," Wong says. "Our attention is not just focused on the music scene but the whole cultural, music and arts business that relies on the industrial buildings," he said. "We realized that we have almost the same issues."

Wong hopes that Hidden Agenda's plight could galvanize a large-scale movement to counter the revitalization policy. Aside from band rooms in Kwun Tong and Ngau Tau Kok, visual artists also occupy industrial areas in Fo Tan, and performance artists rent old factories in San Po Kong and Tai Kok Tsui. Before Hidden Agenda's lawyers sent a letter to the Lands Department, the venue's Facebook page posted an event encouraging supporters to complain to the department.

Riz Farooqi and his band King Lychee performed at Hidden Agenda on July 30. King Lychee is Hong Kong's most successful hardcore band. Farooqi started the band in 1999, and since toured extensively on the mainland, in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Hardcore music, however, remains a very niche genre in Hong Kong.

Without live music venues, Farooqi said King Lychee wouldn't have achieved success. Hardcore shows attract rowdy crowds, mosh pits and stage-diving. He said Hidden Agenda is one of the few places in Hong Kong where start-up hardcore bands might have a chance to perform.

King Lychee has rented a practice room in Kwun Tong for the past 10 years. Although hourly studio rentals could be found in Mong Kok and scattered elsewhere in Hong Kong, Farooqi said industrial practice space is essential for local musicians to reach a professional level.

"These factory spaces became the lifeblood of local Hong Kong music," he said. "Sometimes after practice, when we come out onto that main road (in Kwun Tong), I'll forget for a moment that I'm in Hong Kong. Kwun Tong is this weird little haven where people can rent space for cheap, and you're free to make music. That's your home away from home."

(HK Edition 08/09/2011 page4)