Fluffed Lips

This was billed as a Mega Fluffer Pit Party featuring four bands and two DJ sets. I feel like I should have my money back on nearly all counts but instead got further stung at the outrageously expensive bar. At least we started off in Weatherspoons... So a big night out for a right sleazy party in trendy Elephant and Castle at the Coronet which is one of the last of the gritty places to go round there and I thought it had already been closed down. At their bar prices seemingly not deterring the punters it can't be through lack of money. Due to various circumstances and confusions I meet Simon latish at the nearby Weatherspoons for prinks as my daughter would say, the one that can legally drink, although to her I suspect Weatherspoons is an expensive night out rather than pre drinks. Anyways I meet Simon there thinking that we both got spares but Jules is hot footing it from work and after wandering around the E&C for a while meets us in the pub. Why's it that I cycle through it twice a day and I still trot off in the wrong direction whenever I leave the tube? By the time we sup up it's gone 10 so I suspect we've missed Madonnatron (am sure I'll catch them at the Windmill some time but failed to so far) and the FWF supergroup. Looking forward to seeing Future of the Left though who I seem fated to miss every time they are meant to be playing. With an over zealous door man who made me turn out all my pockets looking through my wallet, baccy and keys purse and only just stopped short of donning his latex gloves any hope of seeing what the left will become evaporated. Do I really look like some drug peddling hood? Was he told to search anyone with creepers cos you know what those Teds are like with their flick knives? Am I living in the 2010's? The stage is in the centre of the room which gives for crap viewing. And the DJ there don't look like anyone from Bo Ningen as advertised but maybe it's PINS. Certainly not loud enough to be Bo N and what I could hear of the music it sounded crap. No one dancing in fact a very sedate atmosphere and if this is what a Mega Fluffer Pit Party is then god help anyone at a run of the mill Fluffer Pit Party. A visit to the bar results in me being a tenner lighter in exchange for 2 of the smallest tins of beer ever produced (think size of the old barley wines but about half as strong) and a free tap water for Jules. Things perk up when Black Lips take the stage and really get going when the loo roll starts flying. Oh what fun. Then a big paper mache head type thing is rolled out into the audience giving me my first injury of the night as it poked me in the eye. Unable to see properly on the edge of the mosh I mistakenly stagger into the depths of it and soon bobbing along with the crowd. At a particularly vigorous end to one song I'm pushed backwards and fall over someone already grounded and go down on my elbow. Another injury. Once I'm up I take the view that if you can't beat em then join em and party on down, or rather up and down, going with the flow. A knee in the thigh and elbow in the chest completes my injury list of head, torso and upper and lower limbs. I espy Simon suspiciously close by and wonder if he's getting me back for some past misdemeanour. The band play an energetic set of rock n roll, punky sleaziness, sleazy punkiness and with a back beat reminiscent of psychobilly. And that's all you're gonna get on the music critic front. Oh yeah, they did a slower one I wasn't particularly impressed with and they look pretty damn good on stage. After they finish their set there's no encore and the lights come full on answering my question as to whether the mega fluffer pit party was going to get down and dirty until the advertised finishing time of midnight. It wasn't. Everyone sorts of hangs around thinking is that it then before leaving. The staff evidently wanting us to leave a lot quicker than they wanted us to get into the place. At 45 quid (I had the luxury of 2 tickets) plus the drinks prices it was rather an expensive way to see one band. I think I'll stick with the Windmill where the ratio of dosh to band is about 50 times less. Literally.

Next day I see Simon and Jules again to see the mighty, although going through a dangerous cash flow patch, Dulwich Hamlet beat Lowestoft Town with a late although well deserved header. It was bloody cold by the end. To sort their cash flow they should employ whoever sets bar prices at the Coronet.

Apologies (though I don't mean it really) for about a dozen words about the band's music and football team's performance but that's what you get when you don't pay for journalism. At least the rock and roll accountant will enjoy the bits about pricing...

These pictures are for free. Well the band one is but the other may be chargeable as Jules took it.

My view at Black Lips

My view with blue lips