As Darkroom

Dragon's Ball

n10383681973_6198
Held at The Green Dragon, Croydon, as one of the weekly Dragon's Ball nights. A "burningshed special" evening, as we were playing with The Resonance Association.

We were joined by Andrew Booker on electronic drums.
|

Norwich Loopfest

Held at the Norwich Arts Centre.

2047858030_7c43c5a042
Photos here.
|

Y2K6 Kyberjam

Over-the-internet performance with Per Boysen and Jim Goodin, as part of the Y2K6 International Live Looping Festival.

http://www.y2kloopfest.com/y2k6/ninjam.html
|

Norwich Fringe Festival 2005

Held at the Old Bata Shoe Factory, Norwich.
|

1st International Loopfestival Zürich


Official site: http://www.loopfestival.com/

Photos here and here.
|

Zaum @ The Michaelhouse Café

Supporting Zaum at The Michaelhouse Café, Cambridge.

Joined by Peter Chilvers on keyboards, including the café's own piano, which was in a separate room from the gig itself.
|

The First International Cambridge Festival of Looping

Held at the Michaelhouse Café, Cambridge.

Official site: http://www.collective.co.uk/loopfest/archive2003.html
|

Self Assembly

LEAPS ran this concert in the Kettle's Yard New Music Mornings series. Held at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2003.html
|

Burning Shed Evening One

Held at The Assembly House Restaurant Room, Theatre Street, Norwich.
|

Bleepfest

Held at the Unitarian Church, Cambridge.

Organised by Adrian Newton, aka Nemeton, who went on to remix Darkroom for the DAC Mixes album.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2002.html#bleepfest
|

ACEMS - An evening of new music

Part of the LEAPS section of this concert organised by the Anglia Contemporary and Experimental Music Society, held at APU's Mumford Theatre, Cambridge.

From the programme:

Darkroom are the combined and limitlessly creative talents of keyboardist/rhythmatist Andrew 'Os' Ostler and guitarist/loopologist Mike Bearpark, who is replaced tonight by Peter Chilvers.With their "composite of pounding drum'n'bass-ish rhythms, spiralling ambient backdrops and netherworldly atmospheres", Darkroom have quickly attracted a large and dedicated following, as well as interest from independent record labels.


Official site: http://www.acems.20m.com/archive_oct17.html
|

Plastic3

Held at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.

Peter Chilvers joined us, on bass.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2001.html
|

Plastic2

Billed as "Os from Darkroom".

This was an Os solo performance, and one of the few times Os played clarinet.

Held at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2001.html#plastic2
|

Digital Analogue Cambridge

"Darkroom - Keeping Ambience Live"

Extended performance/installation. Held in the Cambridge Museum of Technology.

Festival site no longer operational, but you can see it here thanks to archive.org.
|

Digital Analogue Cambridge

Billed as Os (Darkroom). Held in the Portland Arms, Cambridge.

Festival site no longer operational, but you can see it here thanks to archive.org.
|

Genome3

Held at CC's, Cambridge.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2001.html#genome3
|

Genome2

Held at CC's, Cambridge.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2001.html#genome2
|

Rough Edge II

Held at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2000.html
|

Rough Edge

Held at CC's, Cambridge.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2000.html#roughedge
|

Hybrid Machine

Held at the Cambridge Drama Centre.

See http://www.collective.co.uk/leaps/leapsevents2000.html#hybridmachine
|

The Moon

Held at The Moon, Cambridge.

To date, the only occasion on which Mike has played bass at a Darkroom gig.
|

The Scala

To date, the only Os/Tim duet. Held at The Scala, London.

We were providing a live soundtrack to the Roswell Alien Autopsy film - revisiting the first ever Darkroom (then Collective) appearance back in 1996.
|

Real Music

Held at the Portland Arms, Cambridge.
|

Cambridge Darkroom Gallery

Held at the Cambridge Darkroom Gallery.
2478685566_b3ab9d1da8_m
|

CB2

Held at CB2, Cambridge.
|

CB2

Held at CB2, Cambridge.
|

The Club Room

Held at The Queens Arms, Penton St., London N1.

From the programme:

Haunting and arresting, "Darkroom" are an improvising group (more "Starsailor" than Machine Gun) of shifting and unsettling atmospheres. The two instrumentalists construct an environment of mutating loops - while Tim Bowness (of No Man) uses his extraordinary and evocative voice to add an emotional centre to the music.


This was the infamous gig during which several things of note happened
- the promoter left before the end of the gig, apparently not in a great mood
- Mike threw his watch at Os to try to make him stop playing (we were way over time) (Os didn't notice)
- the phrase "rich hippy" was levelled at Mike, apparently because he had more than two guitar pedals.

We played two sets, and I remember it being a good gig. Sadly, it was one of the few that we didn't record.
|

Glastonbury Festival 1997

We were booked to play as part of The Halloween Society's line-up.

Unfortunately 1997 was "the year of the mud" and the stage we were booked to play on sank into the mire. We were bumped to the Wise Crone Cafe tent, and eventually managed to play for 5 minutes sometime in the small hours of the following morning (shortly after the sound man went home for the night, so we were left to engineer the gig too).

All in all, a terrible experience. We didn't record it. I can honestly say I remember nothing about how it sounded - at the time I was simply grateful to be making any sound at all.
|