The worst band I have ever seen...an abomination

Is the first review I saw of the Chapman Family after I had booked them to play last Saturday. More about that in a min....

This had me worried, considering the organisational nightmare that had led up to the night. The Lost Levels had to pull out due to illness on the day which was a bugger but unavoidable. Plus I had another cancel the day before. Ugh, matters were getting desperate. I ended up asking my mate Sam the night before if she knew anyone. Luckily she came up with the goods in the form of Darkroom Project, which is nothing to do with Dark Room Notes who are a favourite of mine. They were brilliant as it turned out.

Spent the day trying to get hold of DAT's and DV's. Luckily I made it just in time and had to make my way straight to the venue. No time for rest, just running around like a madman.

Once I got the cameras and DAT deck there everything started to feel a bit better. There were a fair few people there and I wasn't too stressed.

Matt Fisher opened the evening with a wonderfully uplifting set. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the guy who was playing piano for him who was also excellent. Many thanks to Stewart at Emsar for bring them along.

The Chapman Family were perfect. They were really supportive of what I try to achieve with my nights at TF's. It's great when I meet an easy-going band rather than a bunch of premadonnas. Kingsly is one of the most engaging frontmen I have seen in ages. I actually forgot what I was doing as did my backup camera person towards the end of the set. Chalky scrambled over the bar to shout in my ear "Of all the bollocks you normally film why aren't you filming this!!?!" By the time I got my camera sorted the moment had passed and they ended their set leaving the crowd completely spent. "It was just like history in the making or something" was a comment I heard from one of the punters. Slightly over-dramatic for me but then I am an A&R t**t who doesn't like anything too much. I actually thought they were going to go back on for an encore, they would have got it had they tried. Which is funny as they were second support.

Totally rough around the edges and there's nothing mindblowing recorded to speak of yet. So you will have to see them live sometime soon. Make sure you see them in a smaller venue.

Third slot saw the return of King Hermit who I didn't envy having to follow the atomic set of the Chapmans. Luckily they squared up to the crowd and showed what hard work in rehearsals does for this three piece from Coventry. Home Cooked Cookin is one of my favourites of theirs and I got some great footage of their set. Another thankyou to Stewart at Emsar for sorting this one out too.

Headlining the night were Darkroom Project, the complete wildcard of the bill but on listening to the myspace and chatting with the band I thought it would be good to punt them as the headline. Fan-fookin-tastic. Was like Rage Against the Machine fronted by more feminine Linda Perry (in vocal style, not tattoos). Check out Strong Enough, Intervention. I will be booking them again at some point soon as I want to get them promoted properly and playing to a bigger crowd.

I've got the footage to go through still, but not before I get through the acts from the last one. Which I will be doing today. I've got one happening this Saturday also and I had a few messages asking about playing could you send them again as it's really difficult to search/filter messages in Vox.

Will try and get a video up tomorrow for you to watch.

Let me know what is happening out there. Hope all is well with you.

IB