1997 Convention Report!
at the Dome Dub Club...Saturday 25th October
The sixth Antics in the 90's convention took place last week in London, and I was there, so here's what happened...
This was the third convention which I had been to, and I knew that if this one was anything like the previous two, then it would be excellent!
Firstly I met up with another fan (hi Matt!!) in the pub which is part of the actual venue, then we went inside to find ourselves in a room full of Adam Ant merchandise!
There were many interesting items up for sale, including limited edition mugs, rare posters, just about every record in Adam's discography, as well as postermags, magazines, tour programmes etc (I think you get the idea!). However, the most interesting and unusual item on display was a full scale wax work of Adam! This item originally came from Virgin records in London, and it was to be sold to the highest bidder! However, no one came anywhere near the asking price.
After chatting to some other fans for a few minutes, and showing off my photos of Adam at my uni, Matt, Alan and I made our way upstairs to the Ant disco..
The main area of the convention had a huge dance floor, as well as a massive video screen which had been put in place especially for the event. At this point, the video screen was showing some rare performances by Adam on UK television.
At around two o'clock we had the first of the special presentations. This was for Chris de Niro's new band, 'Jackie Onassid'. Some details about the band were given out, then we were shown their new video, 'Meditation Man'. The track was pretty good, although most people couldn't wait to hear Adam's music again!
Just in case you are wondering, the picture above is of Chris de Niro, and yes, this was near the end of the day after a few drinks!! Maybe I should have warned him that I was taking photos to put on the internet!!
And the picture on the left here is of Terry Lee, who had turned up for the fourth year running!
Competition prizes were handed out for best dressed fan and best dancer. The best dressed prize went to a woman dressed in the Kings gear, and the best dancer prize was won by a highwayman look-a-like. The prizes were donated by Marco, and this included a pair of his boots! There was also a quiz, and six people managed to get all ten right - they were very difficult questions!
We were then shown some more rare videos, including stuff denoted by Chris de Niro which had never been shown before! Then we were shown a video of Adam performing in May with Rachel Stamp. This was filmed on a camcorder, but the quality was pretty good - the video featured both Adam and Marco performing two Rachel Stamp songs.
The big exclusive came just after five, when the video of Adam performing at my university was shown. People were amazed to see Adam performing Wannabe by the Spice Girls. You can see a full report of this appearance on my site if you click here!
After this, the Ant disco, run by Bryan Stanton, got underway. Adam's music sound great on a home hi-fi system, but hearing Adam's music belting out at a nightclub is a totally different experience!! All the favourites were played in the last hour and a half, including Stand and Deliver, Dog Eat Dog, Cartrouble, Zerox, and the final song of the night was Physical!
It was such a shame that the event had to finish, but it had been great. I think this is an appropriate point to mention Umesh Mistry, without whom the event would never have got going all those years ago! Organising an event like this takes hours of hard work and many late nights - so thanks Umesh for making this convention so 'wonderful'! (yeah, sorry about the pun!)
