Ingleside Hotel, Cromer Rd Mundlesey

Dave’s BIG 50 Party. Drove over to Dave’s meeting up at 5pm. Had a cup of tea and drove over in convoy to the gig. Backed the Galaxy up to the Function Room entrance and Steve and Dave gave me a lift in with the gear. Apparently the heating was broken and it was a bit chilly. I had a few changes to the usual gear to deal with. In the week I had changed out the PA mixer to a Mackie VLZ and power amp to a QSC 1104 600 watt; and I was using my Vox amp to give two inputs for other band configurations. Also I was setting up another stage mic and my Beatle bass for other band configs. Because I had disconnected the snake, this had to be wired up manually. Not a big deal but I needed a bit of light to see the numbers. Dave sorted that out for me and Steve helped me check the connexions. Playing around with the PA, I couldn’t hear the Behringer Enhancer adding much to the sound, but in the end I decided to use it mainly to increase bass. Dan arrived with a very bad cold, but he soon got set up and we did a bit of a soundcheck. The PA sounded quite clear on the run through and everything was working OK. Had a couple of beers and noticed there was a power cut in the main part of the hotel; kept my fingers crossed that it didn’t spread out way. Dave met and greeted his friends and relatives and I sorted out a work-a-round to get Gordon’s PA going for his 9:30 set using our speakers. We went on without changing about 8:20pm and did an hour of mainly first set stuff. It all sounded fine to me and we did a good Shadows walk which got a great round of applause. We got Martin to come up and sing “Peaceful Easy Feeling”, a bit of work needed there, but it’s the thought that counts! Met up with Ken Grover, a potential dep for Dan. He seemed pleasant enough and enthusiastic so we arranged a practice session for a week or so later. Dave had two cakes presented. After us various band configurations played before we got back on for the final set. Dave was well oiled by then but we bashed out an acceptable set. Got off home after a long pack up getting home for 2:45am.