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

Sunday 2nd September 2012
The Slaughtered Lamb, London

The Dawn Chorus
Ben Marwood

DC farewell gig #2. The usual anxiety about no-one coming, but once again, people came! Not a crammed-full room of sweaty moshers, but a gathering of about 50 people who knew our stuff and were excited to spend the evening with us. We were truly spoilt.

Huge thanks to our good friends Steve and Gill Bland for putting on the show, to Ben Marwood for supporting at short notice, and to everyone who came, including those who started a do-ci-do pit when we played 'Ring of Fire' - that was a memory that will stick with me for a long time.

Friday 24th August 2012
The Portland Arms, Cambridge

The Dawn Chorus
Paul Goodwin
Sam Inglis

Well, suffice to say it had been a while. To provide some background information... we decided that we'd pull the plug on the DC after 6 years and this was the first of our three farewell shows. We had played Cambridge many times over the years, visiting Nanna Mexico and Fopp numerous times, playing 'bum' on Parker's Piece numerous times and playing to, erm, numerous people.

I won't lie, many times the actual visit to Cambridge has somewhat overshadowed the gig in the evening - you'll be able to find several examples in this blog if you look back far enough - but this show was absolutely not one of them. I'm always anxious about playing quiet shows, although it bothers me less and less as time goes by, but tonight a nice little crowd came out and they gave us a truly lovely reception. I'll always be hugely proud of what we did with DC, and I think we offered something live that we never fully captured on record, so it was a huge pleasure to get the band back together again. We played a great set (I don't even need to be modest now we've packed up!) and got an encore call and everything. It was the sort of evening you wish could just go on forever - playing music with your friends, to a small, half-full room of people who give a shit. That's all I have ever wanted and it's nice to occasionally get it.

Saturday 11th August 2012
Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

Johnny Foreigner
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players

...so we left the wedding and hot-footed it over to Portsmouth to play the Wedge supporting Johnny Foreigner and... oh dear. It was very empty. There were definitely less than 50 people watching us -which is fine in a 100 capacity venue, but less fine in a 400 capacity venue. Even more infuriatingly, the wedge actually has an adjoining tiny venue, the edge of the wedge, in which everyone could have snugly fitted, making both the bands and the punters feel more comfortable in their skin. Ah, well. The Club NME guys were all lovely and accommodating, I guess it was just one of those 'win some lose some' days, emphasis on the latter. RSP have now played the wedge twice, supporting two great bands (The Walkmen and JoFo) to a combined audience of around 150.

Saturday 11th August 2012
Steve and Kerry's Wedding, nr Chichester

The B of the Bang
The Day of the Rabblement
The Retrospective Soundtrack Players
The Pompey Pluckers

This had to be a quick 'in and out' jobbie, since we had a gig in the evening to honour, but we couldn't turn down the chance to play at our friends Steve and Kerry's wedding. Some of us went to school with Kerry, so it was quite strange (but nice) to see lots of people we hadn't seen for a good 10 years since we left. It was, as you'd expect from the couple, a wonderful little do and it was a real shame we had to head off early to play another gig....