✅ What We Are Asking For

We call on Alex Proud, Proud Group, and all associated entities to:

💷 Pay in Full:
Settle 100% of outstanding wages, fees, and debts owed to performers, workers, technicians, and suppliers.
🗣️ Acknowledge the Harm:
Publicly recognise the systemic exploitation of freelance artists, workers, and contractors over multiple years.
🔁 End Phoenix Operations:
Stop the cycle of liquidating companies, rebranding under new names, and abandoning debts to avoid financial accountability.
✍️ Commit to Fair Practice:
Guarantee transparent contracts, fair pay timelines, and respectful treatment of all freelance and contracted workers going forward — across any current or future operations.
⚖️ Restore Trust in the Arts:
Address the wider misuse of public funding and racial bias issues flagged in council reports to help rebuild integrity in London’s creative and nightlife industries

✅ Our 3 Main Goals Moving Forward (until these demands are met):

🚫 Stop New Openings:
Halt the launch and rebranding of new Proud Group venues until existing debts are settled and practices are reformed.
📢 Raise Public Awareness:
Inform audiences, artists, and the wider community about Proud Group’s documented history of wage theft, exploitation, and financial misconduct.
🔍 Investigate Current Operations:
Push for formal investigation into the financial, licensing, and employment practices at active Proud venues, including Haus of Cabaret (formerly Proud City).

🎭 The Cabaret Unpaid: A Call for Payment, Respect and Accountability
Collective action for artists unpaid by Alex Proud and his affiliated venues: Proud Cabaret, Proud Embankment, Proud Brighton, Haus of Cabaret Brighton, Haus of Cabaret London, and the newly launched Sinners in Shoreditch.

For years, performers, dancers, circus artists, technicians and creatives have helped make Proud venues dazzling, profitable and unforgettable.

But behind the curtain, a different story has played out:
artists, staff and suppliers left unpaid – sometimes for months, sometimes entirely.

📄 Invoices ignored
📪 Contracts left unresolved
⏳ Wages and fees still overdue, with no explanation

We are a growing collective of artists speaking out – many of us still owed thousands of pounds across Proud Cabaret, Haus of Cabaret and other venues operated by Alex Proud and his associated companies.

📊 An internal document, passed to us by a private source within the Proud operation, identified £107,000 in unpaid performance fees owed to freelance artists. This figure reflects only a portion of what is believed to be outstanding and does not include producers, technical crew, bar staff or suppliers.

📋 Our campaign spreadsheet – based on voluntary submissions – has already logged £112,977 from just 42 submissions. These numbers continue to rise as more people come forward.

📢 Several suppliers have also reported individual losses of over £100,000-£300,000 including production teams, technicians and long-term contractors.

Meanwhile, business appears to continue under new names. In March 2024, the most recent company linked to Alex Proud – The Strand Photography Gallery Ltd – entered voluntary liquidation. This follows a series of earlier closures:

💥 Proud Brighton Ltd: liquidated with £851,925 in unpaid debts
💥 Proud Power Ltd: closed with nearly £2 million owed to over 130 creditors
💥 Proud Publishing Ltd: owed £275,000 to HMRC and £30,629 to Brighton & Hove City Council
🔍 An investigator has described this as a potential pattern of phoenix trading – where businesses are closed and relaunched under new names, leaving creditors and staff behind.

🚨 Despite these unresolved debts, a new Proud-led venue, Sinners Shoreditch, is reportedly being launched.

We believe this cycle of unpaid labour and evasion must stop.

We are not a union.
We are not lawyers.
We are artists.
And we are organising.

 
✊ Support This Petition If You Believe:
🎭 Creatives deserve to be paid – on time and in full
🏛️ Venues must be accountable to those who power their stages
❌ This kind of exploitation has no place in the arts
 
✍️ Why Your Signature Matters
This petition is not just about numbers. It is about visibility, leverage and collective power.

Every signature helps us:

🔁 Show this is not an isolated incident – it is a recurring pattern
🧾 Provide evidence when speaking to councils, funders and press
💬 Empower others who are still afraid to speak up
⏱️ Apply pressure that makes silence harder to maintain
🎉 Since launching, we have already seen some overdue payments made.
But we will not stop until every artist is paid in full.

Your signature says:
I see this. I support this. I will not let it be ignored.

 
📣 How You Can Help
✍️ Sign the petition – see link PETITION HERE
📲 Follow the campaign on Instagram: CABARET UNPAID
📋 If you have been affected, please complete our anonymous performer form to share your case FORM HERE
Together, we will keep building momentum until no creative worker is left behind.

 
🎯 Our Signature Targets
Each milestone unlocks new action:

🧾 1,000 signatures: Submission to councils and the Arts Council
📣 2,000+ signatures: Media outreach and public letter to Proud Cabaret
🏛️ 5,000+ signatures: Submission to MPs, cultural funders and the NTIA
📍 10,000+ signatures: Call for parliamentary attention and national press coverage
The more support we receive, the more pressure we can apply.

 
💪 Together, we make it impossible to ignore.
 
Legal Note:
This petition is based on publicly available information, internal documentation and direct testimony. All references to company liquidations and unpaid debts are supported by verified filings. Allegations of phoenix trading are presented based on independent investigator commentary and are not stated as legal conclusions. This petition is shared in good faith to seek transparency, accountability and fair treatment for workers in the performing arts.