The Dawn Chorus / The Retrospective Soundtrack Players - Blogging all over the World
My name is Kyle. I am a happily failing indie/punk/folk/country/rock musician from Hampshire, UK. I have been singing and songwriting in The Dawn Chorus since 2005, and The Retrospective Soundtrack Players since 2010. I love these two bands like my brother/wife rolled into one. This blog details the shows I have played with both bands, in chronological order.Thursday, May 31, 2007
LXIV - Havant Arts Centre - 24/05/07
Havant Arts Centre
Thursday 24th May 2007
The Dawn Chorus
The Gun Show
Hardly Heroes
This one was quite cringey, or cringeworthy, depending on whether you use proper English or not. It was just quite a strange evening. The vibe was similar to that of a kids' youth club or Snap disco, and everyone there seemed to be under 17 or over 40. Strange indeed. It was a first for me - the first time I've ever been recognised by pupils I have taught. Although they were much more embarrased than me! It was also one of those venues where the bar is well away from the music room, so the crowd completely disappeared between bands and you had to try to grab them back with your first song. Again, we seemed to play well and the Promoter loved us, it was just quite an unusual venue. More of a case of take the money and run, but at least the money was good :)
Thursday 24th May 2007
The Dawn Chorus
The Gun Show
Hardly Heroes
This one was quite cringey, or cringeworthy, depending on whether you use proper English or not. It was just quite a strange evening. The vibe was similar to that of a kids' youth club or Snap disco, and everyone there seemed to be under 17 or over 40. Strange indeed. It was a first for me - the first time I've ever been recognised by pupils I have taught. Although they were much more embarrased than me! It was also one of those venues where the bar is well away from the music room, so the crowd completely disappeared between bands and you had to try to grab them back with your first song. Again, we seemed to play well and the Promoter loved us, it was just quite an unusual venue. More of a case of take the money and run, but at least the money was good :)
LXIII - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms - 19/05/07
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
Saturday 19th May 2007
Gilkicker
The Dawn Chorus
Del Nil
Palais
Our fifth time at the Wedgewood Rooms and in a word... carnage. That is the best word to describe the venue after this night rolled through. I have never seen so much spilt beer and broken plastic cup, and the place was only half full! We played pretty well i think - video is on our myspace site now - but the crowd were rowdy as hell. It's a shame some people couldn't have been a little more attentive, but there you go. We had to play pretty much our 7 loudest songs just to be heard. But we played well, and that's all you can really do. Gilkicker were great, but I do slightly disagree with the way they let their manager put all their kit away. Very rock and roll.
Saturday 19th May 2007
Gilkicker
The Dawn Chorus
Del Nil
Palais
Our fifth time at the Wedgewood Rooms and in a word... carnage. That is the best word to describe the venue after this night rolled through. I have never seen so much spilt beer and broken plastic cup, and the place was only half full! We played pretty well i think - video is on our myspace site now - but the crowd were rowdy as hell. It's a shame some people couldn't have been a little more attentive, but there you go. We had to play pretty much our 7 loudest songs just to be heard. But we played well, and that's all you can really do. Gilkicker were great, but I do slightly disagree with the way they let their manager put all their kit away. Very rock and roll.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
LXII - Ilfracombe Landmark Theatre - 06/05/07
Sunday 6th May 2007
Ilfracombe Landmark Theatre (Landmark Beer Festival)
Bad things about the Ilfracombe weekend:
1) We went for a little too long and ran out of things to do for a whole 2 days, perhaps we didn't need to leave at 9am Saturday morning when we weren't playing til 9pm Saturday night!
2) Some very 'local' (think league of gentleman) pubs we visited on the Saturday night.
3) Biblical weather on Saturday night meant that our good friends Aron, Ben and Sally had their tent destroyed.
4) The 10% strength ale ran out too quickly.
5) Cross-dressers walking into our hostel room (actually this was quite funny)
6) 6-hour drive home in Bank Holiday traffic.
Good things about the Ilfracombe weekend:
1) Living purely on fish and chips, cornish pasties and ice cream.
2) Hilarious realisation that our hostel room was actually darker with the light ON, due to the streetlight about 3 inches from the window.
3) Arcade with The Simpsons and Italia '90 arcade games!
4) Ales with ridiculous names which all taste the same.
5) Seeing lots of old friends - it's amazing how many people in the West we know between us.
6) Possibly the nicest soundman ever.
7) Playing a well-recieved 2 hour long set to mostly people we didn't know - including an encore call. Although due to playing literally every song we know, we had to do Rally for the encore - complete with a ludicrous prog into to pad it out a bit! Although signing cds for people was quite a bizarre experience. I still don't have a signature after 23 years.
On the whole, top notch.
Ilfracombe Landmark Theatre (Landmark Beer Festival)
Bad things about the Ilfracombe weekend:
1) We went for a little too long and ran out of things to do for a whole 2 days, perhaps we didn't need to leave at 9am Saturday morning when we weren't playing til 9pm Saturday night!
2) Some very 'local' (think league of gentleman) pubs we visited on the Saturday night.
3) Biblical weather on Saturday night meant that our good friends Aron, Ben and Sally had their tent destroyed.
4) The 10% strength ale ran out too quickly.
5) Cross-dressers walking into our hostel room (actually this was quite funny)
6) 6-hour drive home in Bank Holiday traffic.
Good things about the Ilfracombe weekend:
1) Living purely on fish and chips, cornish pasties and ice cream.
2) Hilarious realisation that our hostel room was actually darker with the light ON, due to the streetlight about 3 inches from the window.
3) Arcade with The Simpsons and Italia '90 arcade games!
4) Ales with ridiculous names which all taste the same.
5) Seeing lots of old friends - it's amazing how many people in the West we know between us.
6) Possibly the nicest soundman ever.
7) Playing a well-recieved 2 hour long set to mostly people we didn't know - including an encore call. Although due to playing literally every song we know, we had to do Rally for the encore - complete with a ludicrous prog into to pad it out a bit! Although signing cds for people was quite a bizarre experience. I still don't have a signature after 23 years.
On the whole, top notch.
LXI - Portsmouth Havana - 04/05/07
Friday 4th May 2007
Portsmouth Havana
The Dawn Chorus
The Stations
B of the Bang
This was sort of our little warm-up for the Ilfrtacombe festival a few days later. We played 3 songs for the first time: Fractured City, Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) and We Both Go Down Together (Decemberists). We don't usually do covers but we had to nail them as we'd only practised them once and we needed them to pad out the Ilfracombe set. Havana was quiet and it does seem like we've played there a hell of a lot of times (5 actually), but it was still pretty good fun and Kurt Cooder danced in the horse's head again, this time to 'Ring of Fire'.
The Stations were lush as usual, and i'm glad i didn't slag them off for walking out during our Drift Bar gig together last week, as it turns out their house got burgled while they were playing. Shit Luck. B of the Bang had some sound problems but battled through and played damn well, especially for their first ever full band show. And I have to give them props for being named after (surely) Linford Christie's technique for starting a sprint race.
x
Portsmouth Havana
The Dawn Chorus
The Stations
B of the Bang
This was sort of our little warm-up for the Ilfrtacombe festival a few days later. We played 3 songs for the first time: Fractured City, Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) and We Both Go Down Together (Decemberists). We don't usually do covers but we had to nail them as we'd only practised them once and we needed them to pad out the Ilfracombe set. Havana was quiet and it does seem like we've played there a hell of a lot of times (5 actually), but it was still pretty good fun and Kurt Cooder danced in the horse's head again, this time to 'Ring of Fire'.
The Stations were lush as usual, and i'm glad i didn't slag them off for walking out during our Drift Bar gig together last week, as it turns out their house got burgled while they were playing. Shit Luck. B of the Bang had some sound problems but battled through and played damn well, especially for their first ever full band show. And I have to give them props for being named after (surely) Linford Christie's technique for starting a sprint race.
x
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