Credit: Found On Internet

Yesterday it was made public that the group behind the Barfly, the Mama Group plc, has made a bid for the several Mean Fiddler venues and theirs name. The deal, that follows hot on the heals of the group picking up the Forum and Hammersmith Apollo, will see The Garage, The Borderline, The Jazz Cafe, and possibly more shockingly, the name Mean Fiddler, join the Mama Group. The only venue excluded from the deal is The Astoria and the Mean Fiddler itself which would turn back into the LA2.

The Mama Group currently has Mean Fiddler's former CEO, Dean James, raising money from city funds and it would seem Dean is buying up the portfolio he was ejected from a few years ago in a very eleborate bid to get his office stationary back.

Sources say Live Nation's takeover of Mean Fiddler was only ever to have been interested in Reading & Leeds festivals, and cared little for the other properties. This bid from the Mama Group plc seems to confirm this theory, and allows Live Nation to offload the venues, possibly the name, while keeping the lucrative festival division and allowing them some space with the competition commission.