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MEET
THE BAND:
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Roquphane
are: Carolyne Nailer (vocals), Rob Hobson (guitar), Ant
Webber (bass) and Phil Prime (drums).
Rob
and Phil moved in next door to each other in Oxford and,
realising they were both musos, decided to form a band.
Carolyne,
newly returned to Oxford after uni in London, joined as
singer and lyricist.
Ant
appeared and completed the line-up - although he has no
recall of ever having placed or answered an ad!
After
one jam, the band was formed.
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LINKS:
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More
info on Roquphane: click
here
(The BBC is not responsible for the
content of external websites)
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It's one thing
to do well at a local level, getting headline gigs and building
a loyal fanbase. But
to reach a wider audience, as Oxford's Roquphane have discovered,
there's still only one place to go - and that's London.
Here, in a first-person
account, the band's vocalist Carolyne Nailer reveals just how they
pulled off their first gig in the capital - and where the band goes
from here...
Step
one:
"Oxford's
Nightshift magazine describe us as 'local jazz rockers',
which is just as well because we don't sound like Radiohead or Supergrass!
We're new and unsigned and we're looking beyond to the broader tastes
of London where there's a niche for everyone and every sound - and
if there isn't, then there's the room to create one.
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The
demo that unlocked the door: our EP 'Welcome To Our Club'
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Having spent the
past nine months together writing, rehearsing and recording, we
have an EP - 'Welcome To Our Club' - to send out as a demo.
The ONLY way to
get a gig in London is through delivering those demos to the right
people. But how and when?
Fortunately, I
get made redundant from my publishing job and this presents a perfect
opportunity to do something constructive...a trip to London to personally
hand out demos to venues.
Step
two:
"The
first thing we have to get sorted is a stack of demos to give out.
Money is very tight. So, the night before our trip we sit in a bedroom
and forge our stack. Our production line goes like this: burning
CDs, sticking labels, cutting out covers - and admiring our handiwork.
The demos are loaded
into a backpack - so rock and roll - and guitarist Rob and I arrange
to meet at 10am the next morning.
Step
three:
"We
hop on the Oxford bus to London, making a vague plan to move from
west to east and cover as many venues as possible. After no less
than 8 hours of pavement-beating, we use our last burst of energy
to drop off a demo at 93 Feet East in Brick Lane.
It feels like being
an opportunist cat-burgler to extract the name of the promoter and
then creep warily up the stairs to the offices to hand the 'delivery'
over. We arrive back in Oxford at midnight, completely exhausted."
Part
two of Roquphane's story continues here>>
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AUDIO
Listen live
Click
through amazing shots of London from high up in a helicopter!