The Womb Room, located at 25 NW Ninth St. and co-owned by Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne, received a cease-and-desist order Dec. 29 from the Oklahoma City Fire Marshal’s Office, which cited occupancy code violations.
The gallery was slated to host the Plastic Ono Band, the reincarnation of the avant-garde rock group formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, following a New Year’s show in Oklahoma City Saturday night.
The order first came to light Thursday afternoon when Coyne’s wife, Michelle Martin-Coyne, posted a video to Twitter showing Coyne arriving at the Womb Room to discover the notice stuck to the door.
“Fire Marshall has shut @WombGallery down…@waynecoyne Trying to work it out…” Martin-Coyne wrote.
Coyne later Tweeted, “Can’t say anything more about the Womb being shut down!!! But the Beatles song We Can Work it Out I think it the answer!!!”
Fire Department spokesman Chief Mark Woodard said the agency had gotten wind of the large after-party and, after an inspection of the building, determined it did not meet fire code for such a sizable gathering.
“They have not applied for a special permit or contacted us to have an assembly there or anything and that’s why the order was issued,” Woodard said.
He added that the after-party would have “a lot of people assembled there, and this building does not meet the code requirements for public assembly.”
Though Coyne was hopeful on Thursday, just before 11 a.m. Friday he tweeted, "Fuck!!!! Fuck!! Fuck!!! Womb is shut down!!!!"
Watch a video about the closing, below.
Update: The party has been moved to the OKC Farmer's Market at 311 S. Klein. Watch another video announcement from Delo Creative below.
Photo by Mark Hancock
