Runton Village Hall Richard’s Cheese and Wine Bash

Cool clear day, met up with Dan at the hall at 5pm, so I could get the gear in and rebalance the PA. Michele had set up a white stage curtain round the back and sides of the stage, this turned out to be very good in damping down the boxy reflections we had had previously at this venue. I got set up OK and started fiddling with the PA when Dave arrived with Stephen as roady. I tried reducing some of the harmonic excitation on the hi frequencies and that seemed to give a more natural sound. Put Dave back on his SM58Beta and we soundchecked at fairly low volume. It seemed like a good balance and there was no hint of distortion during the sound check. Stephen had a listen and got Dan to adopt a deeper bassier sound which also sounded much better on stage.  Replacing the twangy sound of the bass with a punchier bassy sound has the effect of reducing competition for the mid-range which is naturally dominated by guitar and drums – in this case less is certainly more! Ran through several pieces including a bit of “Bye Bye Baby” which sounded do-able for the night. By then we had a fair few in the hall setting up wine cheese and cakes, so we relaxed and had some orange juice while we waited for Michele to bring the beer! 

Met up briefly with Steve and Alison, Steve looking suitable relaxed after giving up commuting and the MD role as the first stage of his retirement plan. Got off to an extended hour and a bit set 1 at lowish volume which went quite well. Only problem was the lights failed early on in the set – Dan got Steve to reset the circuit breaker a but a couple of lights had blown. Waved to Gill and shook hands with Peter Brooker mid-set as we ploughed on. Finished with a well appreciated version of “I Believe”. After a short break we did an extended Set 2 for another hour, going on beyond the Elvis routine through the rock’n’roll to finish with “Love is All Around”. 

After a break for some cake and the opening of a very large bottle of vintage port strained thourgh a lady’s stocking we got on to set 3 which, with encores, was another one hour and a bit. Richard did another fine speech and got the local councillor to agree to an unplanned extension of the hall opening hours so we could finish with encores of “Wonderful Tonight” and “Great Balls of Fire”. Having played around three and half hours we were a bit tired. Michele looked very happy having quaffed a couple of glasses of the vintage port and she wisely accepted help to get the stage curtain down. With Stephens help we got the gear out quickly and I was on the road for 1am getting in about 2:30am on a chilly night (-4 degrees in Swaffham).