Chamboree bridges out
On Wednesday night Chamboree hosted its first live band, Pegasus Bridge, as its evening entertainment.
Pegasus Bridge is a four piece band, consisting of Edward Turner (guitar/vocals), Callum Roxborough (synth/vocals), Alex Howich (bass) and Tom Lynam (Drums). The band originates from Macclesfield, and cites Damien Rice, Deftones and Skunk Anansie as their influences. The members have known each other since their schooldays, but have only being playing together professionally for one year.
The band received its first major breakthrough playing at BBC Radio 1′s Big Weekend in May this year, as part of the BBC Introducing scheme (for which they are eternally grateful to Rob Adcock from BBC Stoke). You can listen and watch them playing live on the BBC website here.
The evening started, bizarrely enough, with a limbo competition. Scouts of all shapes and sizes stretched their way under an ever lowering bar, with copious amounts of chocolate, until only one remained. The victor was James, 11, from 12th Wallasey.
When the band came on stage, the reception was decidedly lukewarm, as the Scouts sized up the band. The live indie rock was a total contrast to the previous diet the Scouts had been fed, of cheesy pop and chart dance music. However, as the band went through its line up, the crowd warmed to the band and by the time the band finished (“sorry, we’ve run out songs!” confessed the lead singer), the crowd were shouting for more. The band members returned to the stage for an encore – a reprise of their closing song, “Paris”, and a cover of Calvin Harris’ “I’m Not Alone”.
Left to Right: Ed, Callum, Tom, Alex
The perhaps confused initial reaction could be attributed to the fact that for many Scouts, this was their first ever experience of live music. “It’s awesome, but I’ve never seen anything like this – I’ve never seen a live band before,” said Leo from 48th Fife (Donibristle). The positive reception continued when we spoke to Hugo and Ethan from Hillside Scouts – who rated the band as “excellent” and “two thumbs up” respectively.
By the end of their performance, Pegasus Bridge had won the crowd over – they swiftly ran out of signed flyers, having to use spare pieces of wobbleboard from the record attempt on Sunday. Scouts stayed behind to ask the band members who had ventured from the stage about their music. The band were satisfied with the response: lead singer Ed thought they were “weird to begin with” but ultimately an “amazing crowd”.
Pegasus Bridge is a fledgling band – Alex openly admitted that Chamboree was the biggest gig that they’d played since the Big Weekend in May. They have released one single, “Yoko”, via their label Lab Records, and plan to release a second shortly, called “Ribena”. Their first album will be launched on October 25th this year.
