2. The Dublin Castle, London, 16.02.15
I receive an email from Warchild UK announcing a series of small gigs to take place in various pub venues across England, titled “Passport: Back to the Bars”. The likes of Ride, Bastille, You Me At Six, and of course The Vaccines are to participate, with all the proceeds from the shows to be given to the Warchild charity. All you do is donate 4.50 to the charity through the band you want to see, and if you are lucky, you win a pair of tickets to the band of your choice. It’s a wonderful charity partnership between the music industry and Warchild, a great organization designed to help children cope with the aftermath and effects of war in developing nations. Since you can enter (and subsequently donate) a limitless amount, I enter twice. I don’t think too much of it, assuming that all my luck ran out over at the Village Underground. But it is one afternoon when I am up in Liverpool to watch a match at Anfield that I get a text from Warchild, informing me that I have won a pair of tickets to see The Vaccines in two weeks’ time. I am so excited that I nearly start crying and am about to do cartwheels into the River Mersey. Because if I thought that the Village Underground show was small… it would be nothing compared to that of the Dublin Castle.
We nearly walk past the pub and miss it altogether, the Dublin Castle just a short walk away from Camden Town station. The stage room, located behind the pub area, is smaller than the size of my entire flat in Southwark. The stage itself is a fifth of the size of the actual room, and there is no barrier; the only other pub venue I’ve been in before this is that of the Sebright Arms in Bethnal Green for Palma Violets. The Dublin Castle’s stage room is about half that size. London is constantly broadening my horizons and redefining the definition of “small and intimate”… the barman informs me that the pub is capped at a 150 person maximum.
About thirty seconds before The Vaccines are to start, I realise that there is no ‘backstage’. Where will The Vaccines come from? How will they get onto the stage??? Will they apparate? Trapeze????? A huge wave of cheers and yells suddenly erupt from behind me, and I turn to see that the crowd of 100 strong have parted, much like the Red Sea did for Moses. Except this time it is not Moses, it is Justin Young, followed by the entire band. All too quickly, Justin Young is at his mic stand right above me, and I am at crotch-level with Justin Young. I am close enough to Justin Young that I can see his pores!
The band need no introduction as they delve into ‘Handsome’, now a tune the majority of the crowd have familiarised themselves with. An upcoming album confirmed, the band treat the crowd to fresh material that hint to a new phase for the band that draws from electronic, indie-funk influences and heavy synths. The band look as if they barely fit on the stage, but this sort of cramped venue is the kind that works extremely well with the Vaccines’ style of catchy, fast-paced, indie-pop.
Once the set is over, we exit the stage room and into the pub, grabbing a couple pints on the off-chance that the band will hopefully stick around. We see a black beanie floating through the crowd, one that is attached to the head of a certain Freddie Cowan. With the help of the ale, I talk to him for a few minutes, and he asks me where I am studying in London. When I tell him that I attend King’s College, Freddie replies, “Oh, Justin went there. Congratulations. Clever girl.” That’s it. I now no longer need a university degree as I have received all the validation of my intelligence from Freddie Cowan of The Vaccines.
Pete Robertson, the drummer, is the next bandmate I accost. I talk to him about venues big and small, and manage to ask him which sort of venue he prefers playing; something I’ve always wondered about bands. “Oh that’s a tough one,” Pete says pensively. “On one hand we love playing big venues like the O2, there’s nothing like it. But we love doing small gigs too, and it’s great we could do this one. For The O2 we could invite about five hundred of our family members and friends, though, but for a small gig like this, we could only invite, like, ten!”
But it’s not as if the Vaccines have to choose, anyway. It is only after The Vaccines have achieved this level of fame and stardom that they are able to have a debate choosing between the O2 or a Camden pub. The dingy and dark pubs and bars across London are what propelled the Vaccines to be able to play the O2 in the first place, and the fact that they would even play such a tiny gig to just a small handful of fans just goes to prove that wherever fame and glory takes them, their heart will be as pure as ever.