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.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

 

LXIX - Portsmouth Drift Bar - 24/06/07

The Guestlist Live Session @ Portsmouth Drift Bar
Sunday 24th June 2007

Room 6
The Dawn Chorus

69! *chuckles like schoolchild* LMFAO 11!!1 lolz

So this was a live session thing we did for our favourite radio station The Guestlist, in which we played 2 sets of 4 and 5 songs which were recorded to go out on't radio. It was a bit weird, since we were all concentrating more on the radio recording than actually playing to the people at the gig, but it was good fun. No cricket on the green though, fucking horrendous June weather put paid to that.

Tonight's hil-ar-i-ous comedy moment was me trying to explain in KFC that i just wanted a pot of beans. YOU KNOW, BEANS? YEAH? I had had a real fat boy Sundy Roast with Beef, Pheasant, a sausage, yorkshire pud, cauliflower cheese and all the veg + bread and butter pudding, so all i really wanted was a pot of beans. Should i be hounded to the edge of the earth for just wanting a pot of beans?
x

 

LXVIII - Swindon Victoria - 21/06/07

Thursday 21st June 2007
The Victoria, Swindon

Dropstone
The Dawn Chorus

Mark Lamarr, Billie Piper and Diana Dors. What do these people have in common? They were all born in Swindon. That's right, they were all born in Swindon.

Swindon is closer to home when you actually go there. Just an hour or so, and even quicker to get back.

Luckily it was free entry, so we played to a decent crowd made up of a few of our Western fanbase (relatives), some of the other band's fans and quite a few people there on the off chance. Not that I could see a thing with a big bright light right in my face. Onstage air con though, very swish.

We met some very nice people in Swindon, and we also met a nice Asian man at the petrol station on the way home. He obviously thought we looked trustworthy because he let us come in to pick our snacks rather than make us choose from the little window. However, I think I somewhat overestimated his friendliness. After careful consideration I thought, yeah, he's a nice bloke, we'll have a little chat. So when he was serving me:

Me: "I used to do this too mate, do the night shift in a garage"
Him: (without looking up from his paper) "mm"

friendly enough to let us in, but not to have a conversation. Although, if I wasn't me, I probably wouldn't want to have a conversation with me either.

x

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

 

LXVII - Southampton Joiners - 19/06/07

Southampton Joiners
Tuesday 19th June 2007

The Little Ones
The Dawn Chorus
The MFV

After careful consideration I've decided this was probably our best ever gig. We played a set heavy on the more melodic side of our stuff, and it went down great. I managed to keep my voice pretty much in check for the big numbers at the end, which hopefully bodes well for the future.

The Little Ones were great, and lovely guys to boot, although they did try to half-inch our horse's head. On the whole, lovely stuff.

I apologise now for the very dull nature of the last few blogs. I promise I will include some interesting stories next time when im less tired. xxx

 

LXVI - Southampton Access Festival - 16/06/07

Saturday 16th June 2007
Southampton Access Festival
First Degree Records Tent

So there were 17 bands booked to play the tent, playing 25 minute sets with a 5 minute turnaround between bands, and a strict curfew at the end of the day. Well, surprise surprise, it ran over. I don't like to bitch, but that has to be about 9.8 on the inevitibility scale.

Anyway, we didn't really mind too much, it was something fun to do on a saturday afternoon. We only got to do 4 songs but we decided to give a new song its first outing, provisionally titled 'The Hope Will Kill Us'. Free Rehearsal after all!

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

 

LXV - Southampton Joiners - 31/05/07

Southampton Joiners
Thursday 31st May 2007

The Veils
The Dawn Chorus
Videosprint

I didn't see much of Videosprint as I was having major problems with our tickets. I long for the day when I don't have to go around counting tickets and collecting money before we play a set.

We had a bit of a shaky start, it was the first time we'd tried to start with 'I Can be Anything' and perhaps we should move it into the middle of the set for a little while. Otherwise things seemed to go pretty well, and the crowd were very receptive and incredibly quiet between songs, which was a welcome change from the boisterous Wedgewood Rooms a few weeks ago. The doorman/ticketman was very kind about our stuff, and compared us to the Beautiful South, which I took as a compliment of sorts.

I was really looking forward to seeing The Veils since I hadn't seen them for 3 or 4 years and I'm a big fan of both of their albums. So I'm sorry to say that they were a real letdown. Their singer came across as a real Prima Donna, knocking over his mic stands and repeatedly falling into the drum kit. He seemed to be deliberately spoiling their songs by not delivering the vocal properly, and my favourite song 'The Wild Son' was stopped after about a minute and not re-started. Their setlist had 12 songs and a 2 song encore, but they played 8 or 9 songs and then fucked off. They were rightly booed by the crowd when they didn't return for an encore. I found it disgraceful that they treated their fans that way, as far as I'm concerned if one person has paid to come and see you they deserve a performance. Hopefully it was a one-off, but I don't know if I'd ever risk seeing them again on the back of this shocking performance.

x

Archives

November 2005   December 2005   January 2006   February 2006   March 2006   April 2006   May 2006   June 2006   July 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   February 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   January 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   October 2009   December 2009   February 2010   April 2010   June 2010   July 2010   October 2010   February 2011   April 2011   May 2011   June 2011   July 2011   October 2011   November 2011   January 2012   February 2012   May 2012   July 2012   September 2012   November 2012   February 2013   May 2013   August 2013   April 2014   December 2014  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?