6. Metropolis Music Studios, London, 14.05.15
When the Vaccines’ Twitter account advertised an official album listening party at their label’s studio, with entry only to be won through a competition, I knew I couldn’t bear to miss it. I am on a ‘Vaccines In London’ streak, and I don’t dare bow out early. Just like Ke$ha once sang, THE VACCINES ARE MY DRUG. Or something. I tell all of my friends, family members, pets to enter the contest, as each win gets a pair of tickets. I don’t win, but luckily my friend does, and it is on a rainy weekday that we find ourselves at the home of Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, West London, with not really any idea of what to expect.
All of the contest winners are seated in a large recording studio room, where we are told that we will be the first to hear the new Vaccines album, English Graffiti, in full, played for the first ever time. We are encouraged to tweet reviews and feedback, and then we are left to ourselves in the spacey room, given a full listen of the entire record (on maximum volume blast). This isn’t a gig, of course, it’s simply an album listening party, but it’s the first one I’ve attended; and the Vaccines themselves are sat in the little room above us, with a transparent window so that they can look down and gage our reactions! My first impression of the album is positive, of course, already having heard majority of the tracks multiple times during the gigs (it dawns on me that I’ve watched ‘Dream Lover’ live on five separate occasions before finally hearing the studio version). Immediate highlights are songs ’20/20′ and ‘Give Me a Sign’, both of the signature pop variety the Vaccines are masters of, but peppered with influences of electronica and retro synths.
After the listening session the fans are invited up to meet the band, where Pete and Justin greet me like old Eton schoolboy mates. They sign a few of my records (Freddie’s favourite ever cover is the American EP release of ‘Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra) if anyone is interested), and we bolt out of there, never realising that one could achieve nirvana in somewhere like Chiswick.