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

Saturday 2nd October 2010
Lincoln Drill Hall

Tom Williams and the Boat
The Dawn Chorus
Headstrong (?)

....so we woke up at Bullsy's awesome flat and one DC member was less than on top form. Little did I know when he uttered one single deafening cough at 5am that Nelly had already been sick 3 or 4 times, with another 6 or 7 to come during the course of the day.

We watched a bit of Super Nanny at Bullsy's and then wandered into town for BOGOF full english breakfasts. Nice.

Lincoln has an incredible cathedral, I'm not a religious man but it was quite awe-inspiring. I didn't find this out until it was all lit up at night and I was desperately looking for my car so that I could drive home. Before this could happen we played to about a hundred 15-year olds, which was different to say the least. We actually went down quite well, until we played Last Day of April, to which a few of them slow danced but most of them cleared off. Something to remember for our next underage gig.

Nelly had an emotional day - the highest he got on his wellbeing scale was 83%, but he was as low as 25% at times. On the way home he got stuck on a dead end road and threw his Mocha. And that isn't a euphemism for ejaculation. We did, however, all make it home, albeit with sore heads and tired, tired bodies. Strange days indeed.

Friday 1st October 2010
Walk the Line Festival @ Cheltenham Boogie Lounge

The Dawn Chorus
Brown Torpedo
Swift Manoeuvre

Call it The Dawn Chorus' weird weekend. Strange times indeed. Drove straight from work on Friday night through shitty traffic, but it was nice to be greeted by a top soundguy and our good mate Bullsy. Suffice to say we don't often play at venues called 'The Boogie Lounge', but they put up with us scumbags for one night.

It was actually a bit quiet but everyone there seemed to be really into our stuff. We even got an encore call but the sound had to be cut, so we did 'Ring of Fire' acoustic in the middle of the dancefloor. Then the proper fun started, several games of silly drinking games with Bullsy in a quality local pub, but did the toilet smell of paint or carpet? Who can say. Neil had a few Bretons (french cider?) but that story unfolds properly tomorrow...

Southsea Fest @ King's Theatre, Southsea
Saturday 18th September 2010

The Strange Death of Liberal England
The B of the Bang
Revere
The Dawn Chorus

Yet another glorious, glorious day for a Southsea Fest. Check back through these blogs if you need to, it is always sunny, without fail.

Everyone was running around like crazy at the Kings trying to make riders for all the big stars playing elsewhere - Pulled Apart by Horses, The Xcerts, Goldheart Assembly, Rustic Pony. We got 24 beers between all the band members, which works out at exactly one beer each, if you don't include Strange Death's orchestra.

We were very worried about playing to a perfectly empty theatre since the doors weren't opened until 5 minutes before our stage time. But... it was pretty good in the end. We played well and the audience swelled nicely through the set. They were also incredibly attentive, it was a pleasure to play.

Revere sounded as grand as the venue required, and Botb played lots of new stuff which I really enjoyed, though they had some sound problems and were pretty down about things afterwards. I loved their new stuff though.

Strange Death played most of their very, very good new album and even had a mass DC/Botb/Revere love-in to finish the set. After this I buggered off to go baby-sitting (rock and/or roll) but the rest of the boys had a very, very messy night. Another lovely SSF, bring on the next.