webvictim.net

Yesterday I went to London with Kloopy, A2 and DEATH2 for the AAC (Alphabet Alcohol Challenge).

The AAC involves visiting one Underground station for each letter of the alphabet (excluding J, X, Y and Z as there aren’t any stations that begin with those letters), finding the nearest pub, drinking a half pint and then going to the next station. We had our first half at Aldgate East at 11:04am, and finished at Waterloo at about 10:30pm. Yeggstry and genclay joined us halfway through at King’s Cross.

My feet and legs are now absolutely killing me and I can’t walk properly, but it was awesome fun. I’d think twice before doing it again, but I’m proud to say that I completed the whole challenge :)

During my time at University in Liverpool, I didn’t witness much violence at all. Despite the bad reports that you sometimes hear about big cities, Liverpool was never that bad a place to go out. Of course there were incidents, but they were usually minor, and I never experienced any such trouble myself. This may be because I tend to keep myself to myself, but I never felt uncomfortable or unsafe when I was out in the town.

There is a big club called “Nation” in Wolstenholme Square. It’s most well-known as being the home of “Cream”, Liverpool’s famous nightclub which closed several years ago. There are still other events going on there, and during my three years I went to a few drum & bass nights there. They were always good fun, everyone got on (mostly because they were all on ecstasy and too busy gurning and hugging each other to do anything else). There used to be an event every Wednesday called “Medication”, which offered cheap entry for students, loud house music and many single people for the night. I went quite a few times - it wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I like a night out as much as anyone else.

One particuar time, my housemate Paul’s younger brother came over to visit from Ireland. Paul, wanting to show him a good night out, got us all to go to Medication for the evening. We had a good evening, but on leaving at 2am (closing time), Paul got into an argument with the bouncers. He tried to go out of the door holding a bottle of WKD in each hand, and the bouncers (rightfully) stopped him, saying he couldn’t do so. The corridors for leaving were very narrow, and Paul asked if he could step outside quickly to finish his bottles and clear the corridor. The bouncers were indignant that he couldn’t, and Paul downed the remains of one bottle and then proceeded to argue with the bouncers. They forced his bottle off him and pushed him out of the door, where he proceeded to noisily remonstrate with them about the injustice of them taking a drink off him that he had paid for. He asked several times to see the manager, only to be met with apathy and silence.

I’ll admit it now, he was being a bit of a tool. I understood where he was coming from, but the bouncers were only doing their job and making sure that he didn’t go and smash the bottle over someone’s head. Obviously it seems like a good idea to argue when you’re drunk, however.

The bouncers grabbed Paul and dragged him to the other side of a set of security railings, which are put there to keep the crowds back from the exits. There were lots of people around as it was kicking out time, and the scuffle didn’t go unnoticed. An official-looking woman who seemed to be the manager had appeared at the exit, and Paul promptly escaped the bouncers’ grasp and went up to question her on why he couldn’t finish his bottle. He’d barely got two words out before two bouncers grabbed him again, forced him back to the other side of the security railing… and then began to throw punches at him. The crowds backed off and there was a lot of comotion - girls screaming “get off him!” and many people just watching and wondering what on earth Paul had done to deserve this.

He went down to the floor almost instantly, as the bouncers were big and he didn’t really stand a chance. His brother saw this and ran over quickly, punching one bouncer and throwing him backwards, but he took a surprise punch from the other bouncer and hit the floor himself, at which point yet another bouncer ran in, and they both started kicking what I can only describe as seven shades of shit out of them both. I like to think that I’m able to look after myself, and I won’t deny that I was very tempted to jump in to try and help Paul out, but upon seeing the kicking they were receiving, I really wasn’t about to throw myself into it when I wasn’t part of what was going on in the first place.

This all happened very quickly, and was probably over in ten seconds or so. Before this happened though, one of the bouncers grabbed Paul’s bottle, and broke it over his brother’s head. I’d seen enough by this point and I think the crowd had too - the jeers and shouting had become absolutely deafening, and the bouncers backed off and went back to the door of the club, taking a lot of verbal abuse from the irate crowd. Paul and his brother managed to pick themselves up and were in a bad way. Paul’s teeth were wonky, his nose was bleeding and his face was red from the kicks he’d taken - his brother was bleeding profusely from the side of his head where the bottle had struck and he too was nursing a lot of bruises. There was a police van just round the corner and we told them about everything - a few policemen got out and started the questioning the bouncers and the crowd, and the driver gave us all a lift to the hospital.

I don’t think anything ever came of this in a legal sense, but it was an eye-opener for me. I’d never seen violence that bad in real life before, and again I was quite shocked by it all. One thing I will note is that when the fight originally started, one of the bouncers shouted “watch for the camera” as they ran over to Paul - it’s quite clear that the bouncers watched exactly where they started the trouble because they knew they could be caught on CCTV if they did it in certain areas. It’s the age-old “give them a kicking down a back alley” style.

Needless to say, I think that the bouncers in both these stories are pathetic, spineless police force rejects who have a god complex and a serious problem when it comes to abuse of pseudo-authority. I won’t say that Paul wasn’t inviting them to start something with him, but the use of a bottle is never, ever necessary.

During the summer before starting university, my friends and I were looking for some excitement. We’d all been 18 (and hence old enough to drink) for quite a while, and going out in the same old places had become rather boring - particularly when you consider that we’d actually been doing it illegally since we were 16 anyway.

For some reason, we decided to go out in Hertford, which is the county town of Hertfordshire (duh) and about a 20-minute train journey from Hitchin station. We arrived there one evening (it may have been a Friday night, I can’t remember) and set about having a few drinks - the town was quite busy and we had a good time, ending up in “Zero’s” bar at about 11pm. The place was closing shortly and we were told that we could go downstairs to their club (”Sub Zero’s”) if we paid, as it was open later. We went down, and continued the evening. The place was a bit of a dive, but the music was playing and it wasn’t too bad. Matt and Craig (my male company for the evening) were talking about Matt’s girlfriend, Jo (who was also there) in a friendly manner and there was some goading and larking about on their part as they discussed all this.

As a part of all this, Craig got Matt in a friendly headlock and ruffled his hair. At this point, everything went a bit crazy. Three bouncers rushed over to split them up, then forced each of their arms up their backs and frog-marched them to the exit. I rushed after them, realising what had happened, and tried to explain to the bouncers that they’d made a mistake. Craig and Matt were also doing the same at this point, but of course nobody was listening. They got to the top of the stairs and were escorted to the front entrance and pushed out. Craig turned round and raised his hands, saying “whoa, whoa, you’ve got it all wrong mate”… at which point the bouncer punched him in the face. He didn’t just do it once either, he gave him three or four hard punches - made Craig’s nose bleed but didn’t manage to knock him down. I watched the whole thing happen in astonishment, and when we were standing out on the street afterwards, Matt was full of righteous indignation and called the police.

We went to court on two separate occasions for that incident, but in the end the judge didn’t convict him due to lack of evidence on the CPS’ part. The CCTV footage from outside the club was never obtained because it conveniently went “missing” (funny that) and there just wasn’t enough other evidence to find the bastard guilty. He was suspended from work for six months or so while the court proceedings were going through, and I hope with every fibre of my being that he sat at home and worried about going to jail for a long time. I’m not sure if he still works there, mainly because we’ve never been back.

My friend James is the bar manager at the excellent Billy’s Wine Bar in Harpenden, and last night they were celebrating their 14th birthday. Matt, Jo and I duly headed over there (braving the snow, I might add - what the hell is snow in November all about?!) for a fun night out.

They had a Spanish/Mexican theme going on (we’re not quite clear why, as the place usually shows no affliation) and so lots of Corona was being served, the bar staff were all in sombreros and there was a Spanish band playing at the back. Their percussionist was handing out his spare instruments while he wasn’t using them - I was on the maracas and Matt was on the tambourine - we got well into it and had some brilliant fun.

It was a really great evening, I drank quite a number of margaritas and bottles of Corona and got nicely merry. The best part of it all was that I didn’t feel bad at all this morning! We were invited to go to Chicago’s in Luton with all the bar staff and a few other people that we knew but it was getting late and I didn’t fancy staying out until mid-morning when I had to be up for work. Next time, though…

I went to London this weekend to meet a load of people from #php - it was great fun. It’s always interesting to put faces and voices to the people you talk to every day.

The photo was taken outside a Tescos near Hammersmith, where we went after the pub to purchase some beers before heading back to SIR-Millar’s flat for alcohol and Werewolf. Good times!

I went to see the Arctic Monkeys at the London Astoria on Thursday night, and I can honestly say that it was the best gig I’ve ever been to in my life. I’ve seen Oasis, Incubus, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink 182 (I was a lot younger, and I’m not proud), Scissor Sisters, Faithless, The Music and quite a few others, but none of them came close. Incubus were my previous favourite live band, but the Monkeys beat them into a cocked hat.

The atmosphere in the place was just fantastic. The Astoria is quite small and only holds 2000 people so it was much more personal than most gigs I’ve been to before. I arrived fashionably late and so only saw the second support band, “The Little Flames” - they weren’t bad at all, although I didn’t know any of their stuff. The Monkeys came on at 9 and started with “Brianstorm“, their new single. After that, they played “Still Take You Home”, which is probably my favourite tune off their debut album, and the whole place just went off. Everyone was jumping around and singing their heads off - I’ve had some rushes of adrenaline in my time, but only coming up on ecstasy compares to the surge I got when they started playing that tune.

They were on for about an hour and ten minutes in total, played all the popular tunes off the debut album and about four off the new album. It was just an astounding gig and I’m so glad I went. I’ll definitely be buying the new album when it comes out on the 24th - “Teddy Picker” is currently my favourite tune off it. They played it at the gig and it just stuck in my head.

I’ll write a bit more soon, but I have work to do. I’m in the London office this morning (work on a Saturday, my god!) to provide onsite technical support (for “technical support” read “sitting on IRC on my laptop”) while new carpet tiles are fitted. And when they’re done, I’m going to go and meet Andy for a pint or three somewhere in London :)