London's Call the Office Closes Indefinitely

The Ontario venue "hopes to resume spring / summer 2021"

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Nov 25, 2020

Call the Office — the beloved bar and live music venue in London, ON — has announced it will close its doors indefinitely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Owner Darren Quinn, who took over operations last year after the venue went up for sale in 2018, announced that the venue will close following a final pair of shows this week, with hopes "to resume spring / summer 2021 but truth be told really not sure what will happen."

"We have been beaten down by this financial landscape and there have been many obstacles even pre-COVID as this business has never been easy," Quinn wrote on Facebook, citing a lack of government support and insurance issues not unlike those of Toronto's Dakota Tavern.

The two remaining shows, set for Thursday and Saturday, are capped at 50 physically distanced audience members, as London operates in the yellow tier of Ontario's coronavirus response framework.

"We have unfinished business here but only time will tell if we will get the chance to continue, and if not us we hope someone will carry the torch," Quinn concluded. "I can't wait until I am either behind the bar, or in the crowd again."

Call the Office has been a fixture of London's live music scene since 1983. The venue has hosted the likes of Radiohead, Green Day, Blink-182, the Tragically Hip, Melvins, Teenage Head, the Sadies, PUP, Jeff Rosenstock and many more.

In a post yesterday (November 24), Quinn had warned followers of an unofficial crowdfunding campaign for Call the Office that was circulating, writing, "it is a scam and not us...do not send them money and report them asap!!!!! We are not collecting funds."


 

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