I thought they'd give it a bit of coverage but not really front page news. I looked a little closer and noticed that picture they had used to illustrate the "drinkers" looked a bit familiar.
There was also something familiar about the colouring, but I couldn't immediately put my finger on it.
I turned to page three and carried on reading:
There was an "online flyer" inviting the public to "party on the tube". At this point the colouring and my words hit home. It wasn't an online flyer but my blog post about the Circle Line Party.
The image of the "wine on the line" drinkers was of a YouTube video about the Jubilee Line Dinner Party which happened on November 27th 2006. As you can see from the video it was a very quiet sedate and funny party involving about six people and the commuters felt it was all very funny and joined in.
It's a bit strange that the London Lite chose a very sedate party to illustrate the "huge party in defiance of the Tube booze ban".
Obviously I handed this story to them on a plate, as Associated Newspapers wanted to use the opportunity to show that they had reached out to me for my opinion on their coverage. Note they've decided not to photo shop out my comment that says: "Don't forget to let The Evening Standard know what you think of their coverage of the Tube Booze Ban & Circle Line Parties as their letters guy contacted me for help."
I spose I expected a little more of them in terms of pictures that they could have used to cover this story. But hey ho. I think Bolli sums up my opinion of them way better than I could:
"Will this be mai looz payper 2 morrow?"
Sneak peek of my first and Final Circle Line Party photos here,
Update - 3rd June 2008 - now that I actually have internet back I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the media's reporting of the event even though London Lite continues its "sensational" front page stories as seen above. If you've seen last night's London Lite you will know what I mean.
Both Metro and the londonpaper actually tried to tell the story from the viewpoint of people who were actually at the party and weren't just commenting on what they had seen on TV. Those of you in the comments below who went to the party as partygoers didn't see the scenes that the TV show, as like myself you probably stayed till about 11ish and then left. Sure I saw people getting arrested. I saw people very, very drunk who had no idea what they were there for which is sad. But to blame this on the main Circle Line party organiser is simply unfair. As Metro said about the British Transport Police "officers refused to blame the organisers for the trouble, instead accusing 'a very small minority' of spoiling the party."
Metro writer James Ellis openly "flouted the ban for an hour yesterday - and was not challenged. A TfL worker saw us at Waterloo but gave a wry grin and moved on".
The londonpaper open their piece on pages 8-9 with a very telling sentence: "The Last Round on the Underground was one of those events that thousands attended, but thousands more will claim they were at".
You can see the full article here but here are a few more quotes: "From the chants of "Hey Boris, leave our booze alone" to the army of Johnson wigs spilling out of the Barbican, the message was clear: London had decided to stick two fingers up to London's new mayor. His "silly new rule" was said to be unenforceable"... "Despite an idiotic few fronting up to police at King's Cross there were few genuine hell-raisers in evidence".... "Non partying commuters looked on in amusement."
And to those of you who say that the organiser was naive in not expecting that trouble would flare up, I would like to wholeheartedly agree with Neil Evans - one of the commenters below who says:
"I'm amazed BTP and TfL didn't see this event becoming what it turned out to be, personally i'd have shut the zone one lines totally for 'engineering'."
UPDATE 4th June - How the US viewed this:
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