Trimingham Caravan Site

I had had a sense of impending doom all day, but it was only when Rocky and Claire called in about 4pm and asked if I knew the Galaxy had a flat tyre that things started to go wrong. Started to change the wheel with Rocky’s help but it was complex, so we ended up calling out the RAC to change the Galaxy wheel whilst I unloaded the gear into the Focus as my plan B. There was a surprising amount of room in the Focus, but I had to sacrifice a couple of things, including the 12 string. Got away at 5pm (the RAC came 10 minutes later apparently) and had a good run over to Trimingham arriving about 6:50 to find Nigel already there. Dave and Martin arrived a few minutes later and then we spotted Andy heading to the club and got the card key to get in the gates. It was a bit of a parking nightmare at the club and eventually Dave persuaded me to park on the paved area in front of the club, but it was very tight. We got the gear in OK, then ran into the next problem – the Bose towers were too tall to be on stage. So after a bit of a look at the problem we put them on the dance floor, one to each side surrounded by protective layers of drum cases etc. Couldn’t immediately power them up to test them because the next problem was the circuit breaker - which wasn’t working. Finally got it all going and decided to keep things minimalist = no strings, no switched reverb, no harmoniser. Despite the less than optimal placings of the Bose towers the sound was quite good. Of course it is very dry there and “what you hear is what you play”, so you have a big incentive to play it right! Surprisingly, by 8:30pm the place was getting quite busy and some of Dave’s mates arrived, including Sunny the talented guitarist with Mark James; so no pressure there then :-) Started set 1 as usual and all was fine with the banter and the on stage sound; although the guitar started to sound a bit brittle as the place filled up taking some of the top away and also I was behind the tower enough to hear more of the lo end frequencies from the guitar. Still the bantering was fine and we were confident enough to do the Hollies “Bus Stop – I’m Alive” which got a good response, but also a request from Andy at the bar to drop the volume. So we did back the Bose masters down a bit and that seemed to do the trick – but it does demonstrate how well the Bose were throwing the sound even when not optimally placed. We carried on right through most of the set to finish with “I Believe” which was OK despite no harmoniser or strings. It was in the break that a chap called Ben reminded me to play his request of “Sleepwalk” so I got the boys to open with that and we got through it fine. and straight into “Seasons of Gold” both going well and getting a good reception and a few people up and dancing as we went on. We played through to “Crazy Little Thing” and then did the Bay City sequence of “Shang – a – Lang and Bye Bye Baby” and finished off with a stringless “Love is All Around” Had a break. Sunny was on the way home but came over and said “he loved what we were doing” – he’s a nice boy! Started set 3 with “Travelodge California then I think we did “Walk Don’t Wipe Out”. Then it was 500 miles and a few dancy pieces to the end with “Unchained” at 5 past midnight. Despite all the doom problems we had had a good night and acquitted ourselves well. Then it was pack up, extricate the car and a rapid exit for me ‘cos I had Alicias’ wedding to go to in Sussex next morning. Got home suitably tired at 2:30am and, yes we had a great time at the wedding the next day!