The Tyneside Sheringham

I had spent some time with Roy in the “Greyhound” at lunch watching Man U getting beat by Chelsea and then left him in the Bury beer festival with the ladies. I had a good trip over arriving at 6:30pm. I had just got a couple of bits of gear in when Dave A and Rita arrived in their Mercedes Camper. They had spent the day on the area and were going to stop over near Kings Lynn on route to Peterboro’ for Sunday. We got a few more bits in and then Dave and Martin turned up. After a many point turn Dave got parked up and Dave A took his van across the road to park in the main car park. The club room looked a bit more refurbished than when we had last been there, but the club lights are still a rubbish so Dave brought 4 lights in. Only trouble was he had forgotten the leads – so it was back into the van and we had to make the best of the stage lights. We agreed to check the lights out before the next gig! Got set up and soundchecked OK and saw a few people were gathering for the evenings entertainment. Having had a couple of beers in the day, I decided to drink water while the boys had a beer. The audience seemed to be more “our kind” than previously and we had a bit of a following at this gig, so Dave did a bit of public relations while I chatted to Dave and Rita A. For this gig I had written out the set running order and pinned a copy up on the PA speaker near me. At 8:30pm we embarked on the start of set 1 with some confidence. And it worked very well. We knew what was coming next and bantered away happily as we played for an hour without departing from the order. I started a lonely Shadows Walk but one of the girls in the audience came up and had a go with me and we got a good reaction. The slowies and quickies were well appreciated by the dancers and we got a good round of applause as we did the big finish with “I Believe”. Had another glass of water in the interval then we got on and did set 2 as listed through to “Blue Suede Shoes”. Eagles and Beachboys went well and we did a good happy birthday for Mary who wore the hat. Dave did a great Elvis coming in from the dressing room and acknowledging the crowd before taking to the drums. I messed up a bit with “Crazy Little Thing”, I think because we hadn’t done it a lot recently. Anyway not fatal and we did a good “Shake Rattle and Roll” to make up. Finished off the set with “Love is all Around” which went very well. Dave A had a bit of trouble with the timing on the bass run down between verses, but we followed it OK so no harm done. Another glass of water and off we went into a dancey set 3 following the running order through to “Hi Ho Silver” which I sang from memory. The audience was thinning a little and getting younger. Apparently some had come from over the road at the Social Club where Midnight Hour were having a bad night? We did a good take of “Unchained”, which Dave A had to improvise because somehow the music hadn’t arrived in the book – my fault! Also did a loud sing-a-long version of American Trilogy (I played guitar for the flute bits) and then it was into the closing sequence. Dave said goodnight from the band over the end of “Pretty Woman” and we did a couple of verses of “Wonderful Tonight as an encore. It was as we came off stage that I realised that Dave’s ex-wife and daughters must have arrived towards the end of the set. Although all was quiet while we packed up an atmosphere was brewing!!! We had had a good night, done a good job and the management were well pleased; they were looking to book us for some possible Sunday lunches in the Summer season. I got away about 12:30am with some good help from Martin. Things were still quiet with Dave then, but apparently there was a bit of a row developing. Later in the week Dave said there had been a row and he was having to be careful now they had moved into the area temporarily and were disrupting life in North Walsham. Got in about 2am after a good run back on a clear night through “Market Shipborough”.