21/11/2006 AntiProduct 'Good Vibrations' party

Subject	AntiProduct 'Good Vibrations' party
PostedDate	11/21/2006 8:19:00 AM
	An interesting night out in Fulham. AntiProduct are having an 'invite only' party at the swanky five star restaraunt Deep to celebrate the classic Beach Boys song 'Good Vibrations' being 40 years old. This was originally planned to coincide with the release of AntiProduct's new cover of said song's release as a single. However, the release has now been put back to the New Year - the party is going ahead anyway.  I arrive with my 'guests' at Fulham Broadway tube station and we get the free shuttle bus that has been thoughtfully provided to take us to the venue. We get in on the guestlist and head to the bar for the free drinks that the invite and general hype behind the event promised. There we find that the bar isn't actually free as we had expected after all - unless you are 'special' enough to have a VIP stamp on your hand and the free drinks vouchers the 'VIP's have been issued with...  I feel bad as I have told my guests to expect a free bar - at least at the start of the evening, and now they are having to pay.  However, there are some bikini clad girls in high heels wandering around giving out free Jaegermeister and tequila shots - which softens the blow a little. I was under the impression they would be some free food as well, but I never saw so much as a packet of crisps all night so I guess that was just for the VIP's as well.  Free goodie bags containing copies of the new Sylvia Massy remix of the 'Good Vibrations' single had been promised as too, but although we could see them lined up, they also appeared to be just for the 'special' people and I ended up going home empty handed.  Several people expressed considerable dismay to me about this state of affairs and things not being 'as advertised'.  Apparently, some of of people who did manage to blag a goodie bag found no CD inside, but other bags definitely contained CDs.  Fortunately, the music side of the event was more satisfactory. AntiProduct and the various support bands all played 'acoustic' sets. In So Far started off the procedings - this was the first time I had seen their new lineup. They seemed to play well, but the sound mix was rather poor and prevented them from coming across as well as they should. In between bands we managed to grab some free shots from the lovely bikini girls to supplement the drinks we bought at the bar - £4 for a bottle of cider didn't strike be as being great value for money, although the not very nice lager was a less outrageous £3 a pint. It was nice to see plenty of familiar faces from APRA  although some well known hardcore members were conspicuous by their absence...  There were a few other familiar faces present as well and in spite of certain aspects of the event not being as promised, we managed to have a good time.  Before AntiProduct there was an act consisting of some bloke stapling AntiProduct flyers onto his body and jumping on broken glass - which resulted in cut feet and blood on the floor. The point of that being? He also stapled flyers onto his topless female asistant - and they fell off again straight away. I was somewhat underwhelmed.  Then on to the main event - the AntiProduct 'acoustic' performance. As is usually the case, the so called acoustic perfomance was anything but, with an acoustic guitar plugged into an amp, plus electric guitar and bass. One of the rules (we rock & roll by) of 'acoustic' shows seems to be that the band are seated on stools instead of standing - why this makes it more 'acoustic I don't know? The result of all this affectation is simply a normal electric set - only with clean sounding guitars instead of distorted ones. Oh well, it makes a change to hear the songs sounding different anyway. Although A.Product has been given a stool for this performance, nobody seemed to have explained the correct use for said item. He proceeded to use it as a miniature stage and stood on top of it while dancing like a lunatic! Clare and Milena looked terrific in amazing leather dresses!  As usual they sounded great too. New bass player Chris Catalyst looked sharp in a blue sparkley suit  while new drummer Ben Graves looked suitablely ghoulish and punky. The set was surprisingly long and featured favourites from both albums released so far, as well as forthcoming (now delayed until the New Year) single 'Good Vibrations' - a rather stonking version too! As well as the usual lunacy from A.Product himself, the show was further enlivened by a couple of the 'bikini girls' joining the band to dance suggestively with each other - which naturally enough went down well with the male members of the audience - and some of the females too.  Lots of fun all round - if you couldn't enjoy all that then there is something seriously wrong with you!  We were expecting the very rocking Teenage Casket Company to play next, but to our (and Teenage Casket Company's) surprise another band started setting up instead.  No one seemed to know who they were, or particualrly seemed to care as people started to drift off home.  As it was approaching midnight by then I started to consider doing the same. Teenage Casket Company decided there was no point them even attempting to play by this point and packed up and drove home - less than happy after a six hour drive to London, to end up not even playing.  I decided that heading for home would be a good idea as well, as I had to be up for work at six in the morning.  At this point I discovered that the free shuttle bus that had brought us to the party was no longer running, so we would have to make our own way back to the tube station.  A certain hat wearing music journalist and myself found another bunch of party-goers in a similar situation outside and we obtained a map from one of them.  After a fashion, and after only one wrong turning we found our way back to the tube station - which of course by then was shut.  Neither of us had any idea what night bus to get, but inspection of a couple of bus stop timetables furnished the information needed. Presently I found myself on a bus headed for Tottenham Court Road, from where I can easily get home at any time of day or night. I decided to get off the bus a couple of stops early in the Holborn area to save myself having to walk back to there. I did this, and as I looked round at what had seemed familar surroundings from the top deck of the bus - I realised I wasn't in Holborn after all.  I was in Knightsbridge! This is also where I ended up after falling asleep on the tube in the morning on the way back from AntiProduct's recent gig at Electrowerkz - and the bloody shops weren't open then either! I needed a piss anyway, so once that was out of the way I was back on another bus - and this time managed to get off in more or less the right place. One more bus later and I was home - nearly three hours after leaving the party. I managed to grab about three hours sleep before getting up and going to work.  I hate having a day job.  Still, in spite of some things at the party not being as we had been led to believe - it was a fun night and some interesting things happened from my point of view so it was certainly worth going.