Great evening but a disasterous result for Film One!
The first heat of the Battle of the Bands at the Pheasant Pluckers too place on Saturday. Marking the second ever Film One gig, Munroman and I were on a crest of a wave after our debut at Questock last weekend. At the Pheasant we played a trucated set and I managed to squeeze my Moog into the car for extra synth brownie points, as there were no resident Italian graphic designers in the car this time. Set went according to plan, aside from the drum machine and sequencer deciding that they'd play in syncopation on one tune - which hopefully made it sound like when we were super-boffin musicians when in reality we were just winging it!
Unfortunately the sight and sound of two miserable blokes buried underneath a wall of obsolete synthesizers didn't exactly go down as well as we anticipated and we finished dead last! Still, seeing as we're the most miserable band ever, it was quite befitting we'd come last! After a fit of hysterical weeping as we drove back down the M61 we managed to see the funny side.
Next on were the last minute super-subs TVM, who were a young three piece band who performed minus a bassist. Despite getting on the bill at last minute they played a belting set of indie pop laced with a couple of interesting covers.
Next up were the eventual winners, Audio Prodject, who I play bass in as well! Set went down great, though dancing around on stage like an idiot on a humid night under a lighting rig that'd make Jean Michel Jarre green with envy was not the wisest move! Still, the classic rock vibe went down a storm - even though my hearing is yet to return!
Final band of the night were post-punk/new wave band The Ascention. Sharing many of Film One's influences such as The Chameleons, Joy DIvision, John Foxx and the Sound, me and Munroman were really looking forward to it and they rewarded us by putting in a blinding set. Absolute 100% commitment (bassist even snapped a string!) and some truly brilliant tunes. I'd recommend anyone to go and see them if you can.
Overall though, it was a fantastic evening and there were some great bands on. And a big thanks to the people at the Pheasant for doing such a cracking job of organising the event and giving us all the chance to play.