Rudimental principle: raise £50,000 to save Hackney youth club
AWARD-WINNING London band Rudimental are backing a campaign to save a historic Hackney youth club which promotes boxing and music to steer teens away from crime.
The Pedro Club was set up in 1929 and Dame Elizabeth Taylor was patron for decades until her death in 2011.
But it now needs £50,000 to survive and has launched an appeal backed by the drum and bass group. The club has a music suite where tracks can be recorded and mixed, as well as boxing classes, arts activities and football and basketball. Rudimental’s Piers Agget, who was brought up in Hackney and went to the club, said: “I got into music there, it’s where it started.” He said he made a string of contacts there that helped him to success with Rudimental, who have won a BRIT award and been nominated for a Mercury Prize.
“It all could have been different for me, I could have made wrong choices,” he added. “I played football with people in gangs but the Pedro Club helped to give me a focus. There is real friendship and help. The guys who ran it were like father figures. With knife crime so bad kids need somewhere to go.”
Pedro was set up by philanthropist Baroness Harwood and is now run by former boxers James Cook and Derek Williams, who said: “In this time when there are so many stabbings it is especially important we give young people a chance.” To donate visit justgiving.com/pedroclub