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

The Crown Tap, Ringwood
7th April 2007

Well I don't want to spend too long blogging this one because every minute I spend thinking about it is a minute i'll never get back. As far as greetings to a venue go, try this one for size:

"I'll warn you now boys, this is a rough pub. But if it gets really bad, I'll make an excuse for you to cut the set off early. What kind of music is it?"

"Erm, sort of folky, country indie i suppose"

"Oh well it might go down well with the gypsies I suppose"

I suppose the bottom line is we knew it would be shit, and we only ever did it for the money, which we got. But dear God it was bad. We took up half the floorspace of the pub. They had never had a band play before. It was pretty inbred. When we finished our first song, literally nobody clapped apart from our 3-strong band of supporters. After that, a man took the opportunity of gaps between songs to say "shite" or even "fucking shite". Between every single song. There were constant shouts for Oasis songs. And the trouble with playing in a shithole is that it makes you start playing worse. Neil did a proper Les Dawson style solo, I forgot to sing during one song. But when nobody wants you there, what's the incentive to play well?

By the time we finished our first set, most of the punters had left, but we were informed that they usually come back at about half ten, and we should play then. Luckily they didn't come back, but 4 of our mates did turn up, so we then had over half the pub onside. By the time we finished the 2nd set, there was literally nobody apart from us, our mates and the landlord and landlady. But they were dead nice, they bought us all drinks and we got paid, so really, even though it was absolutely shit, it wasn't actualy too bad.

x