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

The Cross Kings, Kings Cross
Sunday 26th August 2007

David Goo
The Dawn Chorus
Steve Bland Band
Jukebox Vandals
Nigel Spooner-Harvey

Despite all 5 of us being stuck in a traffic jam in Neil's Tardis 306, we made it in pretty good time. Had a decent soundcheck then enjoyed the Cross Kings' awesome food - Veggie Lasagne, Risotto and Chocolate Brownies - oh yes. Nigel S-H was w nutcase legend, he did a poem before every band's set. Before our set it was one about trying to make soup and throwing a fish at his Brother. Or something. Steve Bland sorted us with the gig and I thought his set was pretty cool too, coming on like a kind of chirpier Ed Harcourt, although the sound in the venue didn't help to get across his mandolin, accordion and brass players.

We played fairly well and it was nice to do a decent length set, although I made one of my worst errors ever by starting a song with my capo on the wrong fret. Ouch. This may have had something to do with drinking a bit more than usual since I didn't have to drive for once in a blue moon. OOOHH, GARY LAGER! Good fun all round xx

Saturday 25th August 2007
Lee-on-Solent Angling Club (?)

The Gun Show
The Dawn Chorus
Captain Fantastic
The Model Village

We did this for Paul, the drummer of the Gun Show whose birthday it was. It was a bit Phoenix Nights, but amazingly not the most Phoenix Nights gig we've done. We saw our old mate Joel which was nice, and we spent most of the day sitting in the sun eating barbecue although we forgot the frisbee. I neglected to mention the first act on stage - a middle age sweaty bloke in a Status Quo T-Shirt playing improv guitar over Clapton and Pink Floyd songs. For about an hour, seemingly. But he was enjoying himself. The gig was actually quite fun when we got round to it, we did 6 songs and let The Gunshow get on with the business. Which they did with aplomb.

Sunday 5th August 2007
Chalgrove Live Festival, Oxford

So we all woke with that gruesomely hung over, furry mouth, stiff neck, stinking of BO in a hot tent festival feeling and made our way down to Oxford. Me and Paul - the designated drivers - were still pretty drunk and the scorching sun didn't really help with the hangover on the drive down. Paul was probably the worst for ware out of all of us - he was white as a sheet when he was attempting to eat a bowl of Frosties in a service station.

We had no idea how either of these festivals would go, but we agreed to do the Chalgrove fest since Oxford is right on our path back home from Derby. I suppose after Saturday's pleasant surprise we should have expected a comedown, but with all due respect the Chalgrove Festival was a shocker. A huge field with more trade stalls in it than people. And there weren't that many stalls. An enormous stage with a barrier maintaining a 20 foot gap between band and audience. Or where the audience should be. To top it all off, the organisers were pissed off at us for not bringing a drum kit. To a festival! 10 bands in a day and they expect them all to bring their kit. And to top that off (lots of toppings here) we were down to play an hour long set. The words 'free rehearsal' come to mind. I can't say I've ever felt quite so much like I wanted to be anywhere else than on that stage, playing old songs to a handful of people who weren't really listening. Oh well. As I said earlier, it was on the way home anyway so it was no great shakes. On a positive note, the guys from the 2nd stage were very kind in lending us a bass amp, and the man from the Beer tent bought us all a drink and had some very nice things to say. Then I drove the last few hours home, watched the end of the Charity shield, had a nice big proper hot meal (Beans on Toast IS a meal if you have cheese and ham underneath and an extra slice of toast), saw my girlfriend for a few hours and then collapsed into bed and slept for 12 hours straight. Great Days.
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4th August 2007
Y-Not Festival, Derbyshire

What a weekend. To start with our trusty van (well my Dad's trusty work van) got vandalised by vandals a few days before we were due to drive to Derby, so we had to go in a couple of cars instead. We left at about 7 on Saturday morning and all was going swimmingly until we got near our destination and realised that our Satnav had taken us to a deserted quarry - last year's festival site. We didn't have a map in the car so we had to have around 10 very stressful phone conversations with Neil - who was already at the festival - to navigate us through the last 2 miles to the new site.

Y-Not was a cool little set-up; gorgeous views, a great little stage and sound, cheap food and drink and a really friendly atmosphere. The only downside was a few too many rubbish bands (any band covering Disco 2000 and the Foos' Learn to Fly in the same set needs to be shot). But we made the day pass with a few games of cricket and frisbee and plenty of Gary Lagers. WAAYYYYY. After all the bands there was a UV disco in the acoustic tent, which basically consisted of shit loads of cheap UV necklaces and accessories, some truly horrendous music being terribly mixed, and lots of pissed up festival goers. It was fun for half an hour or so but it all got a bit much, and me and Neil had to bail out to let the others try to trap some jailbait. Great Days. Somewhere amongst all that we played a set, which went down pretty well.

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