Meeting The Vaccines

My last day in London before my Easter break was certainly no normal day, but another perfect example of why being in the capital offers so many amazing opportunities. The 30th March marked the release date of The Vaccines’ new album Combat Sports, and to celebrate, HMV Oxford Street hosted both a live performance and a signing for fans anticipating the release.

Myself, my flat mate Imogen, and everyone else in the intimate 250 person crowd, were treated to an afternoon of exclusive performances, as well as some old favourites, and I thought I’d retell the day here for my blog, as this (unfortunately) isn’t going to be something that happens every day.

Imogen and I got to Oxford Street about an hour before the 2pm signing, sussed everything out and realised we had time to kill, as no one was queuing up yet. What I liked about this event in particular was that, because they only sold a certain amount of tickets, we were guaranteed to meet them and see them perform, instead of the uncertainty of other signing events in which you could be queuing up for hours and end up not meeting them.

When we’d perused Oxford Street for a while to kill time, including a mandatory visit to the Disney store of course, we made our way back to HMV, and were directed to collect our pre-ordered CDs/vinyls, ready to be signed by the band later on. The excitement certainly started to set in then. Another thing I respected about this event was that we were not charged extortionate prices for the experience, and only for the price of the record itself, which, because I only ordered the CD, only cost me £10. For a singing and a mini gig, this was very reasonable in my eyes.

After collecting our CD, which was also a quick and easy process for the staff to find my order and give me a wrist band, we started to queue on the top floor of the store. The queue moved very fast and was moving minutes after we got there, and we were then led towards a door at the back of the store, which led to a staircase. I have seen images and videos of HMV events like this before, and I just assumed that the store was closed and rearranged in order to accommodate the signing and performance. However, I was pleasantly surprised to be led to an entirely enclosed room from the rest of the shop, which resembled any normal small gig venue in Liverpool, like Studio 2 on Parr Street, or the loft at The Arts Club.

Adorned with cute fairly lights and a neon pink HMV sign at the back of the stage, the wait began for The Vaccines to perform for us. The crowd filed in quickly, and though we were promised a 2pm start, it must have been about 2.30pm by the time they came out. This was slightly annoying to be standing around, but I suppose any gig in any capacity does normally require a bit of waiting, and as the band walked out, said hello, and launched straight into new album banger ‘Nightclub’, I was in no position to complain.

The set was a perfect mix between old and new songs, as the confident band members proved indefinitely to this intimate crowd of loyal fans, why exactly they supported their work in the first place. Showing off the amazing new album, they played ‘Your Love Is My Favourite Band’, ‘Surfing The Sky’, ‘Take It Easy’, and closed with ‘I Can’t Quit’. Amongst these new showcases were flouries of classics, such as ‘Dream Lover’, ‘I Always Knew’ and of course, the iconic ‘Norgaard’. Playing a set of eleven songs in total, I felt so privileged to be seeing one of my favourite bands in such an intimate and special capacity, amongst equally excited fellow fans. Frontman Justin Young charmed the crowd effortlessly with cheeky winks, prolonged eye contact with the audience (with me during Dream Lover - which made me melt, understandably), and constant thanking of the crowd for their support in present and past releases.

Belting it out - Justin passionately working the microphone during ‘Dream Lover’.

A tender moment between the members came when Justin paused the set to individually congratulate the band on this new release. They all followed suit and congratulated Justin in return, to which he responded ‘they just don’t hear that enough’, which was the sweetest thing in the world. The excitement of being with this band on such a monumental day was so special, and you could see quite clearly that they were oozing with pride, and so they should be. Their performance was impeccable, energetic and arguably the most polished musical performance I’ve seen live in a while, both evident in Justin’s voice, and the talent of all of the musicians.

When the performance was over, it was finally time to start the signing. There was again a bit of a wait while the stage was packed up, and the band went backstage. A queue finally formed and by this point the butterflies were going crazy in my stomach. The gig was so good in itself that it seemed too good to be true that I would also get the pleasure of meeting them face to face and getting them all to sign my album.

The queue was very speedy and it must have only been about 15 minutes at most before me and Imogen were near the front, which was hidden behind a curtain - only escalating my nerves and excitement. When we finally got through the curtain, there were only a few people in front of us before we met them, and we were but a few feet away from the table. One thing that has always worried me about this kind of singing environment is that it is a quick process, with little time for conversation as the line methodically moves down each member as they all sign the album. I was worried in the back of my mind that the opportunity wouldn’t be fulfilled as well as I’d like and selfishly just wanted a 20 minute conversation with each of them.

A blurry screenshot from my Instagram story - minutes before meeting the band.

It was finally our turn to go up to the table. Monster lead guitarist Freddie Cowan was first for me to meet, and all panic that this interaction would be wasted melted away as he said hello, looked up at me and said ‘wow I LOVE your leather jacket’. Following from this comment was a good minute at least of myself and Freddie discussing jackets as he said that he has such an addiction to buying them, that he never wears them in enough to look old and cool, but be thought I had actually done that and loved how it looked. Understandably, I was close to speechless at this interaction, and could only get out the words ‘you can have it if you like!!’, to which bassist Arni Arnason jokingly said ‘no! Don’t you dare give him that!’ As if that weren’t enough, I was then greeted by the frankly offensively attractive face of Justin, by which time all coherent brain activity had completely gone out of the window. I simply asked how he was and thanked him for signing my album, but we certainly shared a laugh when Imogen, who was following behind me in the queue, unashamedly asked Justin for his number (who can really blame her), and all five members laughed along as Justin wrote the number 2 next to his signature on Imogen’s album.

After meeting and thanking the rest of the band, we stumbled out of the exit, stunned and frankly star struck beyond belief. All fear that they wouldn’t live up to expectation, or that we wouldn’t get a long interaction disappeared, and I could not believe how surreal the whole experience ended up being. After this experience, I would highly recommend attending an event like this in HMV in the future, should one of your favourite bands do so, as although the signing is fast paced with no opportunity for photos or anything, the performance, and simply having a small interaction with musicians that you love and admire, is a priceless experience without doubt.

To treasure forever - singed by all five members of the band; my copy of Combat Sports.

I see The Vaccines on tour at Alexandra Palace in London at the weekend, and this event has only escalated how unimaginably excited I am for that. Having seen a bigger gig of theirs a few years ago also, I just know that it’ll be a performance of epic proportions. I will review and recount that experience if people are interested!

I hope you enjoyed hearing about this crazy day I had recently, and I only hope I get to experience similar things with some of my other favourite bands in the future.

Thaaaaaanks for reading

H x