The Dawn Chorus / The Retrospective Soundtrack Players - Blogging all over the World

Wednesday 27th September 2006
Rossco's Big Bash 2 @ Yates' Portsmouth

The Way
De Squeran
Saturdays and Sundays
Del Nil
The Dawn Chorus

A lot of people were saying we shouldn't have been first on the bill, but we quite like being on first at this type of show. You can get straight on and off without having to worry about things too much.

One thing I don't like about pub gigs, however, is that I don't have a clue where to look. At a proper gig type show you can look out and the whole audience is looking your way, whereas with a pub gig people are generally wandering around doing their own thing. I find it quite hard to be confident on stage when you're pretty sure more people are watching the Chelsea game.

One humorous moment though – I thought our song 'Michael' had received its most rapturous reception ever, only to realise that Chelsea had scored a goal a few seconds into the intro. Very embarrassing.

Del Nil's singer was a friendly chap and his band were tight as hell, although some of the guitar solos were a bit excessive for my personal taste. I like to impose a strict 16-bar limit on solos, whereas Del Nil went more for 16 minutes! As I said though, nice guys.

Saturdays and Sundays were, well, next. Apparently last time they were here they played first to 3 people, so this time Rossco put them on in the middle of the bill. By this logic I suppose you could argue that Grimthorpe Town should be in the FA Cup Final against Man U because last year they didn't get very far, but as we've established, the running order at these shows really doesn't matter that much.

De Squeron were next, but we were having Subway instead, sorry. It was very nice though, Toasted Club with Barbecue Sauce. Although they had barricaded of half of Subway with an impenetrable wall of chairs and bins, so we couldn't sit down or go to the toilet. (note to self – nobody cares about this tedious bollocks, shut up).

I wouldn't dare say a bad word about The Way because I'm terrified of them and their fans. So I guess that's the end of this entry.

One final point of note, my girlfriend bought me the latest Girls Aloud album, which I intend to listen to on the way from work, where I'm currently writing this, DON'T TELL THE BOSS x

Saturday 23rd September 2006
The Oyster House, Portsmouth

Well this one was a bit different it's safe to say. We got moving at about half five, Keef and Matt riding up front in the van with Soundman/general dogsbody Big Al, and me in the back with the gear. There's no other way of putting it – I was bricking it when I saw the place and its clientele. For a posh sod with plums in his mouth like me it was like stepping into an episode of Shameless. None of us got knifed or anything though so that was a bonus. Compared to what I had envisaged, the night actually went really well. Although the place was – no offence – a bit scabby, we managed to fluke a half-decent sound, plus we got to play almost all of the material we have written and didn't make too many mistakes. Comedy sidepoints of the day were: Chris Psaila and Soundman Big Al having a 'who's the most pissed?' competition (Psaila's tripping-over-a-1-inch-step-and-dropping-full-pint-on-floor act marginally beating Al's attempt to crush his own head with a speaker), and Keef going 100% mental at Neil for spilling Chinese take-away on his jeans. Compared to Neil's usual moderate existence this came as quite a shock.

Setlist:

The Town and The City / Blood in the Bath / The Man…. / Everest / All of this for You / Footprints / It's Alright

Michael / A Drop in the Ocean / Something's Changed / Escape / Everest / Act of God / Stay Sober / Little Pinpricks

Rally

Portsmouth Edge of the Wedge
Wednesday 20th September

The Dawn Chorus
???? (moody man from Chi)
???? (nice man with Bozouki)

Is that how you spell Bozouki? These acoustic shows are starting to be good fun now, a very nice break from the norm. After some initial problems with Matt's percussive love eggs, we arrived to the Edge where literaLLy three people were present, and two of them worked there. I felt like a really big man as I got to call the songs as we went - setlists are for pussies - and we debuted another brand new song, provisionally titled 'End of the World Party', with neil on Keys. Can't wait to play this in the proper set asap. I'm quite happy at the moment too, as we've been confirmed to support ex Auteurs and Black Box Recorder man Luke Haines in Southampton, so get down there on November 1st!

Southampton Unit 22
Sunday September 17th

They Don't Sleep
The Strange Death of Liberal England
Brenda
The Dawn Chorus

After our long and leisurely summer break, we returned to what's probably my favourite bill that we've played on. I never thought that in my life we'd be on a bill before Brenda's head-melting hugeness, but variety is the spice of this sorry existence and long may it continue. It was good fun getting back into the swing of it, and although we were a little rusty i reckon we did alright. Played new song 'Stay Sober' (with myself playing electric guitar for the first time ever (ARGH)) and it seemed to go alright. Except my squire - as much as i love it - simply refuses to stay in tune so that will have to be looked at.

The rest of the night was good fun also, although the proggy post-rock was starting to make my head hurt after a little while, simply due to the quantity. They don't sleep are still one of my favourite unsigned bands though, and lovely folks to boot, although their Sheffield accents need a little work.

x