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.Monday, February 21, 2011
CLXXXIV - Cambridge Haymakers - 19/02/2011
Saturday 19th February 2011
The Haymakers, Cambridge
Surviving Sunday
The Agitator
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
Not good. Still a little raw in the memory this one, I might eventually write more, but for now, let's just settle for 'not good', deal with it and move on.
EDIT! A little more information on this.... I thought it looked good, I was keen to support The Agitator as I thought they were great (I still do, and now with hindsight and thanks to Jools Holland lots of other people do too), but the show had had zero advertising or promotion and despite being free entry on a saturday night was woefully empty. It was one of those rare shows where the few people present didn't even seem to want to watch the music and sat round the corner instead. Then after we played we were offered pizza as payment. Thanks. The slim consolation of the day was going to Fopp and Nanna Mexico, now both firmly embedded Cambridge staples. Doesn't really make up for the shambles of a gig though. Ah well, on to the next one.
x
CLXXXIII - Lexapalooza @ The Old Queen's Head, London - 12/02/2011
Saturday 12th February 2011
The Old Queen's Head, London
Beans on Toast
Frank Turner
Random Impulse
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
+ loads more
EDIT - This was the best RSP gig so far. Awesome, awesome fun all round, a shame that FT turned up just after we finished our set, but we'll let him off. Steph completed the 50 egg challenge (50 sweetie eggs in three minutes) and we all had a great day. Especially Paul and Elliott who had there drunk faces firmly on by after party.
CLXXXII - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms - 19/12/2010
Sunday 19th December 2010
The Dawn Chorus (5-year anniversary special)
This was a very special day for all of us DC boys. We spent a long time preparing our set because we wanted it right, and we had all the tables and chai
rs out in the wedge. We also decorated the stage with ludicrous amounts of Christmas tat and did some Christmas covers. I felt atrocious but had loads of honey and lemon and managed to play a decent set.
Here's what we played:
Neil wrote the setlist so we played 'Stop the Calvary' ;)
Towards the end of this show I had a huge swelling of internal warmth - we had played to more people (there were probably 100 hardcore DC fans in the house), but it felt like an achievement to be playing the songs we wanted, the way we wanted to, and for people to be there and sharing it with us. No matter what other music we all get up to, we've done the DC for a long time, and there is a certain magic when we all hit our stride. I wouldn't change that for anything. Merry Christmas!
x
CLXXXI - Mr Wolf's, Bristol - 04/12/2010
Saturday 4th December 2010
Mr Wolf's, Bristol
The Dirty Roger
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
Good day out in Bristol, had a massive Fopp splurge and a lovely bit of cake and coffee, plus some nice noodles at Mr Wolf's.
We played our best set yet. Our friend Mr Joe Longridge helped us out on extra trumpet and he was great. We'd like to use him again sometime definitely.
On to the next one!
CLXXX - Portsmouth Drift Bar - 21/11/2010
Sunday 21st November 2010
Portsmouth Drift Bar
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
Crowns
Luke Ferre
Jimmy Stewart
Rossco
Rossco's birthday. He was drunk. We played well but weren't hugely appreciated. Rossco fell on me and gave me slight whiplash. Crowns were superb. Like the Pogues dressed as Editors. That's better than the other way around.
CLXXIX - Portsmouth Eastney Cellars - 03/11/2010
3rd November 2010
Portsmouth Eastney Cellars
My First Tooth
Porcelain Coins
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
Luke Ferre
A crazy, overly busy, running behind, hectic show. My First Tooth were ace. I was really close to falling off a stool and having the most pathetic folk/punk injury.
Good show
CLXXVIII - London Bull and Gate - 29/10/2010
The Bull and Gate, Kentish Town
Friday 29th October 2010
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
Youthless
Nut
Capelle
BIG LONDON HEADLINER! We've been here before... Club Fandango were a lame promoter, not even a promoter really. Funny, I thought they had a good rep. 4 totally different bands with no common thread, none of whom I'm sure were paid.
Not a good London gig. Good to get some experience under the belt though.
CLXXVII - Portsmouth Edge of the Wedge - 27/10/2010
Edge of the Wedge, Portsmouth
Wednesday 27/10/2010
Jumping Ships
The B of the Bang
Bear Cavalry
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
So this was my first ever show with RSP, I'd better supply some history....
When the DC had some down time around the Summer of 2011, when Wit was on holiday in China, Nelly (who plays in DC and produces all DC music) challenged me to write a solo album. The idea didn't sit right with me, as I've never wanted to front any of my music with my own name. For one I think my name is boring, and secondly I like to distance myself from my everyday personality when songwriting.
So instead of that I decided to write an album based on one of my favourite albums, Cool Hand Luke. This started because I love the incidental music in that film, and I thought we could recreate it with a couple of acoustic guitars, banjo, and some stomping.
I played the songs to Nelly and we put them on a dictaphone. He started writing other parts for the songs and we discovered that some of them were full band songs. We gradually roped in whoever was around the studio to get involved too, namely Elliott and Ochs from The B of the Bang, Kelv from All the Shapes who used to play in Seven Days at Knifepoint with Nelly, and Paul from The Dawn Chorus.
However, before the live band was anywhere near happening we sent a song in to Frank Turner when he was running a competition for demos on his website. We already knew Frank through the DC, so we didn't make it clear that it was some of the same people, we just sent it in. He loved it, and even though he worked out it was some DC members, he gave it the nod and it won the comp. So we had a split 7" with Frank Turner released before we'd played a gig. After 150+ DC gigs. Life is funny sometimes.
So back to the gig. We had rehearsed a lot, and we played well. Clearly I'm writing this a long time since the gig, but here's a live video:
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