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

Monday 27th October 2008
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Frank Turner
Chris T-T and the Hoodlums
Emily Barker
The Dawn Chorus

Wow. How good is Frank Turner these days? Not that he hasn't always been but last night he was just incredible. I'm so happy that more and more people are getting into his stuff, it couldn't happen to a much nicer guy.

We played 10 minutes after doors (!) but it seemed that the venue was over half-full, which for a 400 capacity room is pretty impressive. As somebody pointed out, either word about us is getting round or people didn't have much else to do. Either is fine by me. We probably played our best Wedge set, a few technical gremlins at the start and i had the beginnings of a cold in the back of my nose but otherwise it was great fun. Chris T-T was great, I'd never seen a full band set from him before. All of his and Chris T-T's band were lovely guys too. Great fun all round really. Just have to set the expectations very low for Plymouth tomorrow. Very, very low. More on that to come.

x

Sunday 26th October 2008
The Prince Albert, Brighton
Free Tibet Benefit gig

Arty Karate
Mantra
The Dawn Chorus
Mono
+more

The tour rolls on. We left London at about 10 after some very welcome bacon sarnies - thanks again Claire - and watching a bit of The Championship. Speaking of football, Paul woke up with a sore head after Pompey had lost Harry Redknapp to Spurs. Watched the Chelsea Liverpool match in Brighton and had a good laugh at a bloke in Yates' falling a sleep over his pint and doing that head-rolling-around thing. Weather was absolutely grim but we went to the pier anyway and stuck our heads through those wooden boards with those holes that make you look like a muscle man and volumptuous woman or married couple. Also had a go on some wicked old arcade games including the one where you scan your face in and then someone has to punch it. Saw a man playing a basketball game but getting into it too much and forgetting to pull his jeans up over his builder's bum crack.

Another really nice venue, this was a Free Tibet benefit show - at least they said it was free but people seemed to be putting money into a bucket on the way in - BOOM BOOM! For the second time in 3 gigs i got lost during soundcheck - this time heroically lost and on foot. Ended up sprinting around town up and down hills to get back to the venue on time. The show was fine, only downside was having our set cut short when it didn't really seem necessary, but what can you do? It wasn't our gig after all. I forgot to say, I got flashed by a speed camera yesterday in London so I'm praying on not finding a ticket on my doormat soon. Slept at home in own bed after this show, lovely.

x

Saturday October 25th 2008
London Nambucca

H.U.M.A.N.S
Depot
(Unkknown)
The Dawn Chorus

Show was a little bit of a let down but the rest of the day was good. Had a nice lay in at Bill's in Bristol and then spent over an hour trying to find Frenchay Halls where Keith slept. Considering it's a fucking huge campus it was surprisingly well hidden. Had a lovely steak sarnie at the Tobacco Factory before buying some goodies from Aldi and getting on the road.

I guess the only disappointing thing was that we were on so early; we played pretty well and the (very small) crowd seemed to like it, but it just felt like a bit of a step backwards being on at half 8. I wasn't massive on Nambucca as a venue either, too many people hiding round the bar. After we played me Keith and Ben went to look for food but had to settle for McDonals's where there was a strange Portugese woman who grunted when she walked and nearly knocked keith's Big Mac of the table with her big bum when she sat down next to us. Mad people in London are ten a penny though aren't they?

Stayed at Claire's in Hackney and got to sleep on a proper bed which was awesome. Thanks today go to Gareth and Claire for putting us up.

x

WORLD TOUR OF THE SOUTH
Friday 24th October 2008
The Croft, Bristol

The Dawn Chorus
Reikidogs
Burn the Witch
Stanton Delaplane
Poppy

Our first tour (sort of)! 2 cars and a stylish roofbox crammed with gear and sweaty bodies. The croft was a cool little back room type venue, the sort of place i like. I got lost parking my car when we were meant to be sound checking and had to rush in. The show was ok, it was a charity gig for Barnado's with acoustic acts in the front room inbetween full bands in the backroom. It wasn't packed by any means, but we started playing to about 10 people and ended up playing to more like 30 so that can't be too bad. There was also some nice cake on sale, I had a tasty bit of fruit cake. It was also nice to be able to go out and have a few shandies after the show with our friends in Bristol, even if Ben managed to take half the group on an hour long walk around Bristol in the freezing cold. What else? A man touched my bum in Start the Bus. Thanks to Bill and Joe for putting us up.

x

The Vic, Swindon
Saturday October 11th 2008

The Dawn Chorus
Silhouette Showgirls
Elaine Dismissed

I've promised myself i'd be in bed by half ten and its 10.29, so here goes: not bad, done better shows but done worse, elaine dismissed had nice harmonies, weird cartoon sex film between bands, very foggy drive home, david the promoter is a nice man, that'll do

London Koko
Sunday October 5th 2008

Operahouse
Rosie and the Goldbug
The Dawn Chorus
Apologies, I have none

Well this was a bit different. A long way from The Betsey Trotwood, certainly. Not that there's anything wrong with the Betsey, in fact I rather like it. But this was different. Bullet points perhaps? Why not....

My parents drove us to the show in the big Blue fun bus. Lovely stuff. We didn't have them on our guest list so we had to smuggle them in early for soundcheck and keep them inside all night so that they never had to try to get back in again.

A green room, a multitude of dressing rooms, a quite sizeable rider - as we've established this was not our usual show. It was a student freshers' week thing, in case you were wondering.

I actually got lost inthe venue several times, the stairs never seemed to take you where you thought they should. And the corridors smelt a bit of sick.

Operahouse's tour manage was a bit of a legend.

We played well i think, a little fast and excited but well. We were worried when the venue was almost empty for the first band even though they played at 10, but by the time we played there was a good size crowd. The most people we've ever played to I would've thought.

After we played we had to load all of our stuff out of the street level exit and leave since it was midnight and I had to be up at 6 the next morning. I got to bed at 3 but it was well worth doing.