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.Sunday, July 24, 2011
CCII - 2000 Trees Festival, Gloucestershire - 16/07/11
Saturday 16th July 2011
Two Thousand Trees Festival (Busking Box)
DC/RSP/BOTB mega busk-off
One of the five favourite gigs of my whole life, and it wasn't even a proper gig. The organisers had asked me to do a DC acoustic set after all the main bands finished at 11pm, so Nelly and I started off playing 'Fractured City' on a couple of acoustics, and then gradually Simps, Wit and Kelvin arrived and played whatever they had at hand as we bashed through various songs and covers for an hour or so. The crowd of people that gathered were amazing and made it into a truly special moment. I like to list the sets after this type of show, so here it is, as best as I can remember. DC = The Dawn Chorus, RSP = The Retrospective Soundtrack Players, BOTB = The B of the Bang.
Fractured City (DC)
Relatively Young and Quite in Love (DC)
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel)
Green, Unpleasant Land (DC)
Why Bother? (Weezer)
Real Cool Hand (RSP)
Plastic Jesus (RSP)
50 Eggs (RSP)
Send Me the Hell Back Home (RSP)
Death is the End (RSP)
Last Day on Earth (BOTB)
That's Not Love (DC)
We Are Free (DC)
You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon)
The Hope Will Kill Us (DC)
Heart of Hearts (DC)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
CCI - 2000 Trees Festival, Gloucestershire - 16/07/11
Saturday 16th July 2011
2000 Trees Festival, Gloucestershire
Disraeli and the Small Gods
The Wave Pictures
The Travelling Band
Charlie Barnes and The Geekks
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
+loads more
I cannot express in words how much I dearly love 2000 Trees festival. We were first on the Leaf Lounge stage and Nelly and I cut it a bit fine (due to biblical weather and general disorganisation), arriving about 20 minutes before stage time. Or perfect timing, as I like to call it.
There were tonnes of people out to see us which was very humbling when you're first on on a smaller stage, but people seemed to come out in force which was lovely. Neil Morris did about 70 eggs in the egg challenge, which must be some kind of record. Afterwards we sold out of Cool Hand Luke CDs, which, again, was very humbling.
During the day I saw some pretty decent bands (Islet, Danny & The Champs, Twilight Sad - who you really need to say inside, or at least in the dark) and a couple of excellent bands (Frightened Rabbit, The Wave Pictures), saw some old mates (Charlie Barnes, Ben Morse, Addis & the Birmingham massive, countless others), ate some nice food (Chorizo burger, moroccan Chicken thing) and generally had a lovely time.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
CC - Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays - 03/07/11
Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays
Sunday 3rd July 2011
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
Kyle (solo)
Bemis
Strange days indeed. If this had been outdoors on such a gorgeous day there would have been a lot of walk-by traffic, as it was we had to get a lot of our friends and family down to make it worthwhile. I did a solo set, which was fairly soul-crushing, although it did provide a somewhat legendary moment when Pauly B played the solo to 'Relatively Young...' over the song 'Come on Home.' Smooth.
We played the whole RSP album for the first time, though the sound was fairly dodgy and by far the two most interested crowd members were by nieces (aged 1 and 2.) Ah well, not like it was a landmark show or anything......
CXCIX - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms - 30/06/11
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
Thursday 30th June 2011
The Walkmen
The B of the Bang
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
Sadly Portsmouth people (or maybe people in general) don't seem to be nearly as clued up as they should be, as the Walkmen only managed to sell about half the tickets for the Wedge (capacity 400). They were superb though.
BOTB were also excellent, great to see my bro Keef from DC nailing the bass just like he always does in any band. RSP's first wedge show, it was a little quiet but great fun.
x
CXCVIII - Glastonferret @ The Mad Ferret, Preston - 26/06/11
Glastonferret @ The Mad Ferret, Preston
Sunday 26th June 2011
Race Horses
Hey Sholay
We Walk in Straight Lines
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
The Jackpot Golden Boys
The Random Family
Richard Barry and the Chaps
Rae Morris
Mystery Tea House
Lakeview
We love Glastonferret. This was our first time as RSP, and we made the round trip in a day. Portsmouth to Preston and back.... that's some sweaty backs in the car. We did this show without Nelly as it was very close to the birth of the beautiful baby Imogen, but somehow we managed without his slide guitar skills and stomping/screaming prowess.
The way there was insanely cramped but we made it through (no sat-nav required - Paul's directions to Preston: 'drive to Preston, turn right at Staples.') Kelv accidentally bought three KFC meals on the way there, so when we went to 'spoons for the traditional shitty Sunday dinner Kelv stayed at the venue and somehow managed to get off his face in the space of about 50 minutes. However, he played like an absolute champ, covering Nelly's electric guitar parts too.
Excellent fun as always - indoor hay bails, tasty cider, nice people, good sound. You only have to do a ten hour round trip to get it.....
CXCVII - Brighton Druid's Arms - 09/06/11
Brighton Druid's Arms
Thursday 9th June 2011
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
Max Fletcher
Jack Boyd
As correctly pointed out by Murray in Flight of the Conchords, small gigs are the best. Old music industry trick - small gigs if you want to sell out. The Druid's Arms is absolutely TINY - certainly no stage or anything like that. The kind of tiny pub gig where you have to move some tables out of the way to make space to play. And don't get me wrong - more often than not, as long as the pub isn't some kind of chav hell, I really like these shows.
Soundcheck took forever since I don't think they were expecting a ludicrous 6-piece folk/punk monstrosity, but all we had to do in the end was give up monitors, which wasn't the end of the world in such a small place. There was a kooky barman (european...) who arrived on roller blades and kept them on to serve from the bar in. Kelv and I had some lovely in-house Thai food made by the chef Pokky. I knew this because it said on the menu 'FOOD HOMEMADE BY POKKY.' However, when I said 'Thanks, Pokky' upon service of our food, he looked at me like I'd invaded his personal space. Poor old Pokky. I don't know why I did it actually, I never call shop assistants by the name on their badge.
Our show was immense fun, the egg challenge was slightly spoilt by a big fat pissed twat who also did his best to ruin Plastic Jesus 1 by hollering 'Dirty Old Town' over the top. He was ejected by the landlord after a few songs though, legend. We did a short, sharp, raucous set and had a joyous, sweaty old time. On the way home I managed to snag 5 croissants (and other similar french pastry delights) for a measly £1 from a service station. WIN.
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