Whitehouse Community Centre Ipswich

Despite the roadworks at Stowmarket, I made very good time and was at the gig by 6:10. It was all locked up but it was a nice afternoon so I had a look round in the sun. The club was opened at 6:30 just as the Dave, Jen and Nige arrived in convoy. It is a rough area, but parking and access are good – in through the South side fire escape doors and the stage is on the left just inside. Took quite a time to get set up by the time I had wired in the Reverb and Roland synth; and quite a few members of the audience had bagged their seats by the time we came to do a the briefest of soundchecks with “I Feel Fine”. Then it was a quick change and we were on for an 8pm start to set 1. The set started OK, but I was having trouble from the off with the reverb and guitar foot pedal work. However, all went well and we were getting a good reception up to the Hollies medley. Dave seemed a bit flustered and couldn’t remember the beginning, but we got through it quite well I thought; I was pleased with my own vocal on “I’m Alive” where I hit the non-falsetto high lines with less effort than at practice. Changing guitar was a pain; I got caught up in the wiring and guitar stand. Cliff and the Shadows routines went well and the rock’n’roll got a few people up and dancing. We finished with the Beatles and Searchers medleys after about 55 minutes. I had wanted to finish with a slowey but Dave had already announced the Searchers as the last number. Had a brief break during which I adjusted the master mix on the reverb to lower the unprocessed vocal sound we were getting in the opposite Bose’s. I really need that mixer! Started up set 2 with an OK version of the Eagles “How Long”. I couldn’t fault the individual playing or singing but the band felt slightly detached and that was the pattern for the rest of the night. We weren’t getting much dance interest but looking at the audience they were obviously enjoying it. Dave cut “Yellow River” and we ran out of time to play the “Bay City” sequence so we finished with “Love is All Around”. Another brief break for the raffle and then we were on for set 3. Began with “Travel Lodge Calfornia” which went OK apart from a missed couple of notes in the solo as I brushed up against the mic stand. Then we got on with the cut down partydance sequence. Some went well some didn’t but when we switched to the slowies: “Unchained” and “American Trilogy” we got a good response. After that we only had time for “Pretty Woman” encoring with “Wonderful Tonight”. The governor came up and got the audience to show their appreciation. Actually despite us thinking it was a lacklustre night we got a lot of good comments at the end e.g. “Great Sound”, “Nice to be able to hear a band at normal volume”, “Don’t usually like 60’s bands but you were great” The governor was well pleased and apologised for the low turnout; he was keen to book the band back and also said what a great sound we had. So there you have it – we thought it was less than average but it seems we did the job well. Easy run home after a long pack up – I was in for 1am.