Cult Portsmouth band The Dawn Chorus return for one night only to celebrate 20 years

The Portsmouth-based indie-folk-rock troupe had released two albums and several EPs, which earnt them great acclaim, if not the accompanying sales.

The seven-piece had toured the UK relentlessly, playing alongside acts such as The Walkmen, Frank Turner and George Ezra.

But come 2012, and several years of hard graft, their hearts were no longer in it and they decided to walk away.

Now though, they’re back for one night only, to celebrate 20 years of the band.

Frontman Kyle Evans, recalls the band’s end: “It felt like a long time at the time, we were going for about eight years, which is, as you get older, you realise is absolutely nothing, but it felt like a long time at the time, and then we've stayed mates. “We were friends before the band. We stayed friends afterwards.”

The idea of a reunion was hatched – as many of the best ones are – over beers and a curry between the old bandmates.

“Someone just suggested about a year ago, should we give it another go? Someone realised that it was 20 years since we formed the band.

"Then the next thing you know, someone had phoned Ian Binnington (legendary Portsmouth promoter), and it was all under way. There was no going back!”

Explaining why they called time on the band, Kyle says: “There just wasn't a particular forward momentum at that point.

"A couple of the guys had started families by then, which obviously just doesn't really lend itself to the lifestyle. I think it's a young man's game.

"We were sort of knocking around, trying to make the step up to the next level, get some big tours or whatnot, and we didn't quite get that step. It's a lot of work doing the toilet venues time and time again.

"I think we just decided, again, because we were all mates first and foremost, that people's hearts weren't entirely in it.

“I think it was the right thing to do, really, because that was better than flogging it to death and losing the friendships out of it.

“It's easy with the rose-tinted specs on, to go, ‘Oh yeah, it was all great. Why don't we just keep it going for one more album?’ But actually, if you could put yourself back there, driving back from Dundee after playing to 12 people or something, you have to put yourself back into those times as well."

Back in the rehearsal room, though, the guys have slipped back into their old roles.

Much of the original lineup will be playing The Wedge gig, with Neil Elliott on guitar, Matt Simpson on drums, Paul Butler on keys and trumpet, Ben Coulson on mandolin, Ben Ottesen on bass and Wit on “everything else”.

Kyle’s brother Keith, their original bassist no longer plays, but is hoping to join “for a song or two”.

“It's actually worked out perfectly. It's been so nice to play music with the boys again and click more or less right back into where we were. There's a certain joy in just doing it one more time, but not doing any new music.

"Don't get me wrong if someone were to say: ‘Yeah, that was really good. Do you want to do Glastonbury?’ but I think realistically, it's going to be a one-off – to celebrate the band.

“A lot of us have kids that are big enough to come now, or there are people that got into the band since, or didn't really think that we were going to be knocking it on the head last time so didn’t get to say goodbye.”

Their two albums, The Big Adventure and The Carnival Leaves Town are now available on streaming services, but back in their heyday, it was the TV news service Teletext and its music news pages that helped spread word of the band.

“Honestly, I was gutted when Teletext went down,” says Kyle. “That did have some sway, people used to come to our gigs because of it. If we were playing in London and there'd be people that we didn't recognise, we'd go and ask them why they're here? And quite often, it was Teletext, actually!

“Ah, Planet Sound on Teletext, I used to read it religiously,” he says wistfully. “It was so exciting when we got a nine out of 10 album review, and then we were one of their top albums of the year. It was like: ‘This is it, lads, this is the start. We're big on Teletext, tomorrow the world!” he laughs.

"And then Teletext got discontinued just before our second album came out.

"That was the end of the band. If you really want to know where it ended, that was it when Teletext went down, we lost our fanbase,” he jokes.

After The Dawn Chorus split, several of the band went on to form Retrospective Soundtrack Players.

"About half of us did that,” says Kyle, “the ones that were interested in carrying on after the Dawn Chorus.”

They put out three albums before also splitting. Since then Kyle says he did “a little bit of solo stuff”, and has “dabbled in stand-up and family entertainment stuff, I’ve done the Edinburgh Fringe, so I've kept performing up to a couple of years ago.

"I've not done music explicitly for 10 years or so, so it's been nice to flex that muscle again.”

However others from the band have continued in music one way or another.

"A lot of the band play all the time because they are now professional musicians. So they’re playing in session bands and wedding bands, whatever it'll be, recording people, doing all sorts.

“It's the other half of us that have struggled, getting the ring rust out!”

Where, when, and how to get tickets

The Dawn Chorus 20 Year anniversary Show is at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, on Saturday, July 19.

Doors open 7.30pm. Tickets £10. All ages welcome, but under-14s must be accompanied by an adult.

Support is from The Pursuit of Pleasure and Kat Meredith.

For tickets go to: wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.

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