The projected arena inside the Dome. Mmmmmm. Not scary at all. Oh no.

'In an almost combative way, he launched into a tour guide's patter, describing the huge dimensions of the Metro-Centre, the millions of square feet of retail space, the three hotels, six cineplexes and forty cafes. 'Do you know,' he concluded, 'that we have more retail space than the whole of Luton?'
'I'm impressed. Still...' I pointed to the shops on either side of the travelator, filled with familiar brands of jewellery, cameras and electrical goods. '...You're selling the same things.'
'But they feel different.' Carridine's eyes seemed to glow. 'That's why our customers come here. The Metro-Centre creates a new climate, Mr Pearson. We succeeded where the Greenwich dome failed.' - J.G. Ballard, Kingdom Come

Yesterday I participated in an inaptly named 'open house' tour of the Millennium 'no one will ever call it the 0₂' Dome. What a crock of corporate shit. A perky young Asian lass in a brightly-coloured 0₂ tabbard and jeans, a representative of the Anschutz Entertainment Group gave a group of thirty of us a tour round the perimeter, pausing every few metres to slough off another few gobbets of incomprehensible corporate-tease: 'the concessions will take up 25% of the footprint'; 'the 0₂ could fit 12 football pitches inside it...am I repeating myself? [nervous giggle]'

Obviously I only went along to see just how far the corrupt, illegal casino was coming along. But, surprise, surprise, despite the open house website claiming that hardhats would need to be worn for the Dome tour, in the actual event, we were informed that they weren't needed after all as we weren't going inside - a last minute decision to prevent public/media eyes from spotting all those caskets of roulette wheels badly hidden behind the stage? There certainly was a lot of security involved in any event - cameras confiscated and names needed in duplicate before we were even allowed within twenty metres of the beast.

The Dome is of course to be turned into an all-bouncing, all-distracting entertainment centre by July 2007. According to the badly printed puff-sheet we receieved on our way in 'Day or night, visitors can step into an incredible world which caters for their every need and provides them with an experience they will remember for the rest of their lives.' There will also be 96 Corporate Suites (Whatever they are)! And 'up to 30 units of bars, restaurants, cafes and retail'...mmm, I really fancy a nice beer in one of them sexy units....



Despite all the talk of 'catering to needs' there won't be any prostitutes, hookah bars or porn here as the man responsible for building the 23,000 capacity arena, the 11-screen cinema, the units of clubs, bars, shops and restuarants is a psychotic Christian who wants everyone to watch only his Evangelical propaganda and 'family-oriented' musical acts. He is very scary.

The more you find out about Philip Anschutz and his entertainment group, the worse it gets. Infamous for hosting a cowboy-outfitted Prescott a few months ago, Anschutz is a homophobic, censorship-promoting, pot-hating, 'intelligent' design funding christian, who really does put his money where his bigotted little mouth is, throwing cash at bills to defeat gay rights in Colorado, hawking right-wing newspapers, backing shoddy re-workings of the telelogical argument for the existence of God, and funding a campaign to censor 'corrupting' films. The Dome is to be a rallying ground for such 'approved' musical acts as Celine Dion, Bon Jovi and everyone from er, 'Pavarotti to Anthrax' as our puppyish tour guide put it. Anthrax?! It just gets scarier. I fear the dome is housing not just an illegal super-casino (our propaganda merchant twice joked that 'there's no casino in there!' The lady doth protest too much, methinks), but a breeding ground for all manner of deadly bacteria (and that's on top of the plague-ridden marshes of the brownfield site that already poison the whole area).



Our tour guide told us brightly 'We build stadiums. We fill stadiums.' 'Yeah, so did the Nazis!' I said, not quite loudly enough to be heard by anyone beyond the reserved-looking Japanese architecture students standing in front of me.

But the Dome is in a weird financial quandry: 'The investment by Anschutz is partly conditional on the granting of a 'super casino' license by the British government. Without this license, Anschutz's investment will be reduced by half, to about £300m.'

So unless AEG get the casino deal, they're only going to build fifty percent of the 'units' and suites...hmmm...well, all we got to see was a wall with some wires sticking out of it, so perhaps all this ultra-corruption will put the kibosh on it all and we'll never get to see the Billy Graham/Nickelback double-bill after all...

Apparently, AEG has the exclusive right to screen any new episodes of the Chronicles of Narnia films (another gleeful fact imparted by our guide). Well, he has bankrolled them, via the charmingly named 'Crusader Entertainment'. Horrah! Kultur has never been in safer hands...


A solitary St George's Cross flutters menacingly outside the Dome

'The huge bomb detonated in the upper level of the basement car park had torn through the floor of the Metro-Centre, the explosive pressure blowing out the glass and aluminium panels two hundred feet above the atrium...Opening the passenger window, I gazed at the dark triangle near the apex of the dome. It would soon be repaired, but for the moment a section of space-time had been erased, exposing a deep flaw in our collective dream' - J.G. Ballard, Kingdom Come

AEG MUST BE STOPPED! THE DOME MUST BE DESTROYED!