And it's lift-off!
- Darwin’s Rejects
- 2 hours ago
- 9 min read
This might turn into a bit of an essay.
Sorrynotsorry.
After a frantic Friday of sorting out lists of people who blew us away by buying tickets, guest lists and final preparations the day finally arrived! I won't deny I was searching Spotify and Apple Music the minute midnight arrived, and also flicked the Lyric Page over to the one I'd pre-prepped to include the album tracks (like anybody was checking for lyrics at that time of day, ha!).
A night of patchy sleep for excited me saw me up and ready way ahead of when I needed to be for the day itself. We all made our own way into Nottingham by early afternoon ready to get things set up for the big night - luckily, Russ finally took delivery of the stage backdrop that very morning! I (Alan) bumped into Jamie en route to the venue, and caught the rest of the band at Rough Trade, aside from Jim who we'd planned to arrive prior to...
So, all of us were in the vicinity ready to help Jim load his drums and the merch from his van - he was only able to get as close as BrewDog thanks to Nottingham's rather stringent traffic regulations, so a quick grab of everything allowed him to go and find a suitable parking spot and come back to us, having utilised the lift to get everything into the venue. The guys at Rough Trade were great in letting us straight up to the room (and green room), and Matt the lovely sound engineer was already in situ.
Which gave us an amazing chunk of time to get set up and soundchecked - we're so lucky to work with some amazing sound techs like Matt, but very rarely have the absolute luxury of a proper prolonged soundcheck, this is a real treat. Wireless microphone mishap for Russ aside, it went swimmingly - checking each channel individually then blending the mix with a run through of a few different songs. I found a cunning spot to mount my audio recorder on the off-chance I could capture a lovely recorded memento - and like that we were done, and clearing the way on the stage.
Paul and Teresa had already arrived followed by Richard, Bob and Rob so all of the wonderful Shanks' Pony crew were in the house ready to have their own luxurious soundcheck ahead of their opening set. In the meantime we did a Chuckle Brothers-like mounting of the backdrop at the back of the stage, and I had a chance to vandalise the black walls of Rough Trade with a chunky white marker as so many other bands and artists have done already - we utilised a step ladder and my prodigious height to snag a great vantage point (see at the top of the post).
Meanwhile Michelle had got the merch looking beautiful, and we headed to the green room to take a moment. I'll be honest, having time was a weird concept to me, and I felt restless - as such I headed to the Angel with Ellie and Warren (where Russ and Jamie already were!) for a quick drink with some of the hardy revellers who'd come out to see us - great to have some downtime to catch up with folk, although it wasn't too long before it was time to head back.
I met up with my parents outside the venue and spirited them along with Jem and Jon into the room a little early to snag somewhere decent to sit, Ella had arrived with Pops too who'd made the trip up from Stevenage to see us, what a legend! Soon enough, the bar is open, the doors are open, Nicola and Stuart are covering the door, Ella, Pops and Michelle are behind the merch and people are arriving, this project is a full on team effort and it's all hands to the pump now we're underway.
As a steady stream of people start to come into the room I can't help but stand and marvel at what is occurring infront of me, there's lots of people very familiar with us from the festival and gig scene, there's lots of folks we've collectively badgered from our other walks of life - for me it was so humbling just to see so many people from the different facets of our collective lives out in force to support us. I can't begin to overstate how special that is and how much it means to us.
The counterpoint to that is you feel bad not having masses of time to chat to each of them (even if at least three of them said I looked like Roy Wood!). I had half planned on nipping to get changed for the gig during the support slot, but I bloody love Shanks' Pony so I went early to change rather than missing a chunk of their set in order to unleash a garish orange outfit just for our performance. Shanks' absolutely smashed their set - just as I would expect, and had the crowd singing and dancing just like I hoped (and knew) they would - friends and family new to our scene enthused to me about how great they were, which is lovely to hear!
I do need to (continue to) reflect on how absolutely crazy and humbling it was to see a room full of people here to support our album launch. We were all absolutely buzzing, a little nervous and overwhelmingly grateful that so many folk put their faith in us to pull this off. In booking and promoting this night ourselves, we've only strengthened the massive respect we already had for gig promoters - it's a tough time out there, money is tight - we are so so appreciative of everyone's support.
Whilst I was busy schmoozing with as many folk as I could I bumped into none other than Kenny and Karen of Ferocious Dog fame, a weird role-reversal situation that further scrambled my fairly well scrambled brain. I could write a whole post (and probably have previously on other blogs) about how Ferocious Dog are pretty much the root node that brings a lot of our scene, and certainly our band, together. I'll refrain for now.
Just as we were nattering I was unceremoniously dragged back to the stage, it was time to go on - we lurked in the little ajoining passage, Ellie cued up our intro music (SpongeBob Squarepants - don't ask me!), Warren signalled to Matt it was time to mute the music, and it was show time.. we clambered onto the stage, another track briefly started playing via Ellie's phone at the end of SpongeBob - oops - never mind, we semi-seamlessly launched into Rollin' Road and we were underway - for me at least the nerves evaporated and I was lost in the revelry of playing.
We'd decided, since it was a launch night for Unnatural Selection we'd play the album in full and in order - lots of the songs on there are live staples, some much less so - but as we got going it was just so much fun, I hope that was obvious - it looked like the crowd were enjoying it too! Rough Trade doesn't have the best dimensions for a full house, but I think a decent mix of the assembled crowd were happy to locate themselves in the peripheries, if everyone wanted to get infront of the stage it would've been rather snug!
Walk Away along with Rollin' Road is regularly gigged, so we were able to ease into some of the more challenging less frequently played songs. Traitors is one, it went well I think! Even with some knickers arriving on stage I think at this point, ha! Cabin by the Sea is a long song so we don't often include it in live appearances as we generally only have a modest set time to play with, but this night we had a much longer slot so it was fun to include it (I still won't let Russ add a happy ending so he's threatened a sequel).
Car Park Jig has never made a live appearance yet - we toyed with it as a set opener when Warren introduced it to the group, but we do like opening with Rollin' Road... I'm sure every time we play it gets faster and faster. It's a fun bouncy song to play though and people were dancing along to it, and as its' instrumental gave Russ a little break (I still think he could join in with a Triangle though).
It was also fleetingly designed so that it could run straight into Gone, but the genius touch of the siren/radio intro that Tom introduced on the recording supplanted that idea - and thanks to Ellie's whizzy pedal board we could incorporate the sample into the live show too, and gosh darn it I think it worked rather well! Gone is a real banger, if I do say so myself.
Jim, Jamie and I get a break for Teenage Years, another rarity in terms of live outings - and I think adds a really nice dynamic to the set list being sandwiched between two heavier songs as it is, it has a lovely lilting melody and full of whimsical nostalgia particularly for anyone who grew up around where Russ did, and showcases Warren's finger-picky wizardry.
Martin Borrett Photography in full effect!
Borderline is another regular live song, and was sounding HUGE. I normally like to go for a wander to Jamie's side of the stage for this one, but there just wasn't the room sadly. It's one of my favourites to play! Then it's Ellie's turn to take centrestage for the seldom-heard-live Valkyrie's Lament - again, I love the change in dynamic for the sound and really love this song.
It feels at this point like we're rattling through the set, but actually timing it just about perfectly somehow! Roadbound Sailor is another I'd classify as a comfortable track - bouncy and fun before the darker undertones of Tunnel Vision lead us into Come Take a Drink to finish off the album tracks. The crowd singing back, the phone torches, the dancing, okay... the kazoos (you're in trouble Russ and Michelle!) - it was so incredibly moving and quite emotional, for me at least!
We'd half considered doing the whole leave stage and come back thing, but it wasn't really a conducive layout so we stayed but teased before running through Broken Nation in its' much different Pendulum-like guise, then traditional gig closer Bumblebee. We were still perfecly on time - so were able to close off the set with a cheeky cover- we do have a couple more of our own songs in our back pocket, but we wanted to finish with a rousing song to get the crowd going, and boy did One Way by Levellers deliver - there was an actual moshpit! It was a nice nod to our past as a covers-heavy band too!
And just like that, the months of song-writing, recording, practicing, recording some more, organising, anticipating and everything else was done with the crashes of Jim's drums. A hasty call to get folk to linger for a photo of us from behind the stage was choreographed expertly by Martin, then we had at least a moment to take a breath, have a natter with folk that didn't feel long enough as people started to head out into the night - hopefully having had as great a night as we did!
Then it's packing down, I took the opportunity to quickly at least change out of my horribly sweaty stage shirt before returning to get my stuff packed away and clear of the stage. Meanwhile the merch was being ably repacked by Ella and Michelle, and eventually we were able to load the drums and merch into Jim's retrieved van. At this point I remembered my audio recorder so grabbed that, initial listen-back is probably not something that will ever see the light of day but a nice memento for me if nothing else!
Then slowly but surely we were able to wend our way back to wherever we needed to be and get some well earned rest! I for one was exhausted but still buzzing, and a little bit sad that something we'd been building up to for so long was over. A heady cocktail of endorphins and emotion that did eventually let me get some sleep.
All that remains is to thank everyone involved - our invaluable support crew who made sure folk could get in, heard about what we're doing, designed our merch and sold it to people. To the team at Rough Trade - the bar staff, security, booking team and Matt on sound, your work was hugely appreciated. To our wonderful friends Shanks' Pony, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect support act.
To Martin for taking on the challenging light (or lack of) in the room and capturing some magical photos (and super speedy edits for the first batch), to Tom for enabling us to have an album to launch - he was gigging with Headsticks the same night so couldn't join us (then again, he's probably just getting over having nightmares with our album as a soundtrack.
But most importantly, to everyone who came to sing, dance and watch - without you, there'd be nobody else to thank as there'd be no events!
We hope you love Unnatural Selection as much as we do - we'd love to know what you think about it, the launch party - and well, anything else really.
Big love, and a heartfelt thank you from everyone at Darwin's HQ.
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