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

Saturday 10th May 2008
Southampton Kolebka

The Dawn Chorus
Peter Lyons
The Inklings
Joe Parker and the Power

We fell victim to the heatwave on this one. It was a beautiful evening, and there were tonnes of people in Kolebka - though they were all in the garden. I'm not bitching about it, I would probably rather have been in the garden than standing inside a venue that was so hot my glasses steamed up when I walked in. Not quite a free rehearsal ('free rehearsal' is the code for a gig for which the only purpose is exactly that), but not far off.

JP and the P - I only came in half way through their set after having an atrocious dinner at Varsity (three-man sandwhich anyone?), and my verdict would be: good but ropey. Joe and a guest lady were doing a version of 'Henry Lee' as covered by Nick Cave and PJ Harvey which was very nice, but then he and his band did a few numbers and sounded very unrehearsed, which was a shame.

The Inklings brought a lot of friends along and were a very strange prospect indeed, not necessarily in a bad way. They sounded like a cross between 50s doo-wop and 80s pop a la Haircut 100. Very tight, though I couldn't see them through their huge throng of mates.

I saw Peter Lyons and band a few years ago at Lennon's and wasn't that impressed, but this time I thought they were awesome. Acoustic guitar, banjo, laptop and a broken up drum kit. And some really good songs, which I think is what was missing a few years ago.

We were really tight and played as well as we have for ages, but it was pretty much an empty room. You win some, you lose some.
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