Music / Club395
Venue founder says visa denied due to ‘fundamental misunderstanding’
The co-founder of a grassroots club venue and creative community will have to return to Bangladesh if their visa request is not granted on appeal.
Ridwanul (Ray) Kabir Shakib’s application for a Global Talent visa through a scheme run by the Arts Council on behalf of the Home office has been rejected despite being endorsed by three cultural leaders.
Ridwanul came to Bristol to study and became embedded in the music community before taking over a “dying” venue in St Jude’s which they have turned into a “third space” and creative hub for emerging artists.
“I’ve seen and heard a soundsystem for the first time in my life, I’ve seen reggae for the first time, real UK garage, jungle,” they said of the city’s influence.
“I immediately felt very welcome, like I was home for the first time. I felt like I can lay my roots here and like I want to contribute to this city, culture, community.”
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Ridwanul has organised hundreds of gigs at Club395, on Little Anne Street below the Jam Jar, over the last three years as well as building a thriving creative community with over 500 members under the Bristol Creative Co umbrella.
But despite the visa’s criteria stating emerging grassroots cultural leaders and music event programmers were welcome to apply, Ridwanul’s application was rejected on the grounds their venue was too small scale, not “professional level” and not recognised by national media outlets.
Their application was supported by letters from Tom Paine of Team Love which programmes Love Saves the Day, Forwards and others; Robin Collings who runs Lost Horizon and leads on the Shangri-La area at Glastonbury festival; and Arcadia founder Pip Rush, all of whom Ridwanul describes as “mentors”.
The letters defined Club395 as a professional venue, as recognised by its Music Venue Trust membership, and Ridwanul’s work as “professional level involvement” which has made a valuable contribution to the industry in Bristol.
“They fundamentally misunderstood what artistic programmers and cultural leaders in grassroots cultures do and how to recognise them,” said Ridwanul of the Arts Council.
“Bristol has always been a city that values grassroots culture. Club395 exists because of that ethos. But the immigration system doesn’t recognise the people who build these spaces from the ground up, who work unpaid for years developing scenes before anyone notices, who programme the events that make Bristol’s music culture what it is.
“For immigrants building grassroots cultural infrastructure, working in the spaces between genres and between communities, developing artists, invisible to mainstream media – there is no clear route. The system cannot see what I do because it’s not looking for it.”
“I spent most of my time at the premises developing the space and keeping it open,” said Ridwanul. “To this day I have not been able to take a salary – it has been voluntary work and personal investment. At the beginning I lived on savings from my fashion brand, which I started in Bangladesh in 2016 when I was 19. Later I took on side work to support myself” – photo: Emily Brown
Ridwanul’s vision for Club395 was to provide a third space for people to spend time without spending money, exploring creative pursuits to find out where their interests lie and build confidence.
They encouraged a number of artists to perform for the first time at events they organised at the venue, including Club395 co-founder Kwazi, a Bristol hip hop artist who went on to perform at Glastonbury, Ssadcharlie who then appeared at Love Saves the Day and Soulbee who later played at the Jam Jar as well as venues in Paris.
“Ray was one of the main people holding up Club395 for so long and it was due to his determination that it stayed open,” said Kwazi. “He faced a huge amount of hardship… building a space for the creative community. Despite external pressure he continued to push on. Ray’s resilience and determination is hard to match and it shows that he’s passionate about being the leader for new creative initiatives in Bristol.”
Harry Brown, who has been attending Club395 events since it opened, agreed. “I have seen Ray’s influence all over the Bristol creative scene, he has been a staple for so many to have a chance to platform and grow themselves,” he said.
“Someone who has given so much to up and coming artists, musicians, designers and young entrepreneurs deserves to stay in this country. It’s a disgrace that the government aren’t currently recognizing just how important Ray is to our community.”
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Ridwanul’s approach to the arts – including personally taking out thousands of pounds worth of loans to pay for soundproofing, licensing and other costs to keep the venue open – has helped them to forge a supportive community which held fundraisers when Club395 was struggling financially.
“It’s been directly funded by the community rather than depending on the Arts Council or MVT. “That’s how we’ve come so far,” they said.
Bristol Creative Co, which they were planning to register as a CIC before the immigration issues, encourages people to support the local circular economy, sharing resource to strengthen communities.
“Bristol is full of talent. But the city is quietly becoming a place you can only belong if you can pay. If the only options are home or spend money, people disconnect,” they said in a social media post which flagged projects like Share Bristol, repair cafes, community farms, clothes mending workshops and reuse initiatives.
Ridwanul was also working on an innovative heart rate-prompted club lighting concept which they hoped would help grassroots venues increase revenue, Ridwanul is developing a heart rate responsive lighting concept, with Rush and his Arcadia team expressing interest in potential future use on their festival stages.
They were in the process of programming a UK-meets-South Asia cross-cultural DJ series at the Love Inn, with a view to programming similar lineups on stages at festivals like Boomtown Fair and was in discussions with ARC bar founder Javier Tanke to resurrect No 51 Stokes Croft with d’n’b workout sessions, sauna, vegan food trucks and jazz, soul and techno gigs that would financially support their community projects.
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Ridwanul has until February 11 to appeal the Arts Council’s decision, and they will then take up to four weeks to make their final decision.
“I will have to leave the UK if the decision is not overturned,” they explained. “As a Bangladeshi passport holder, I also cannot travel freely. Most countries require costly visa applications with extensive checks even for tourist visits. That would cut off my access to my friends and community.
“Even to come to the UK I would need a tourist visa, or a job from a UK company with a sponsor licence that pays at least £40,000. Alternatively, Club395 would need to be able to obtain a sponsor licence and pay me £40,000 a year, which a grassroots venue cannot do.”
They told Bristol24/7 that if they returned to Bangladesh, currently – due to political turmoil – “in a state of chaos… It was always queer unfriendly but now it’s more dangerous”, they would have to fundamentally change their identity: “I’m very expressive with my fashion, and I have a spiritual outlook on life very different to the religion I grew up with and the rest of my family.
“I find the UK has freedom of thought and expression, so it feels safe being here. I was always in survival mode before I came to Bristol, suppressing my self-expression and hiding my views.”
But Ridwanul says applying for asylum is not a viable route due to the limitations this would place on their ability to legally direct a company, run creative projects or rent a room.
Ridwanul says his last recourse for formal support is to attend an online surgery run by Carla Denyer who gave her first speech as an MP at a Green Party gathering held at Club395 to celebrate winning the election in 2024 – photo: Ridwanul Shakib
Their concern lies with the hundreds of artists affected if their venue and projects collapse, and they hope their cause will ultimately help to change the system.
“The best and most that everyone can and should do is make noise about the grassroots scene in Bristol and about people like me. There are others going through similar things with the talent visa,” they said. “There’s a problem in Bristol, all this is not being told anywhere. Everything that’s happening truly at the grassroots level is invisible to everyone.
“It’s all about making noise about legal pathways for people like me to stay in the UK that’s not connected to financial income.
“How do you train your arts council officer to understand and recognise grassroots talent? They’re saying my experience level needs to be higher but I need them to give me time. I did all this in the last three years, I can do 100 times more in 20 years.”
Shakib, aged 28, is embedded in the local creative scene and says they have found a home in Bristol where they can express themself fully – photo: Ridwanul Shakib
“I want this to push people to help the UK in turn to help themselves,” they added. “These talents that have grown here, that are leaving, we’re only giving to the UK. There’s nothing we’re taking – we don’t get universal credit or public funding.
“I want this to push for change for everyone in my position. I feel awkward bringing a lot of attention to myself but if there’s a bigger goal to it that’s what I would like it to do.”
Find out more and support at www.gofundme.com/f/rooting-for-ray
Main image: Club395
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