King Edward Hall Lindfield Sussex

Another reunion night with the Checkmates. Jacqui and I ran down early Saturday so we could spend some time with old friends and neighbours Jenny and Miles. They were kind enough to treat us to lunch and drink so the afternoon soon whizzed by. We checked in the Birch Hotel at 4pm and had a little doze before I set off for the gig at 5 ish. Met up with Raye at the hall and he had already set his kit up earlier in the day. I was using the old Checkmates PA with the EVSX300s and my Mesa Lonestar (heavier gear than the Foot Tapper’s Bose’s) and I was in the middle of unloading when Graham rolled up with his boy Adam who was assisting as road / stage manager for the night. Got set up without incident and I was pleased to see everything worked except Raye’s mic which needed a bit of attention to the connector. I adjusted the PA a bit to bring down some of the boomy bottom, the usual story - boomy on stage but fine out front. Then we did a bit of a sound check / rehearsal for half an hour. We remembered most of the Checkmates songs quite well, but a few of the more complex other songs (e.g. FBI, American Trilogy) needed a bit of discussion. Adam thought the balance was a bit vocal heavy, but I had already decided to use the Mesa on its high voltage setting when the hall filled up and I knew that would take care of the guitar sound. Graham had plenty of “uuumph “ left in his Trace Elliot – so we were set to go. Richard (Raye’s biographer) arrived and we all had time for brief chat before the ladies arrived in a taxi about 7:30pm. Then it was get the beers in and get ready for the show. Got on to play about 8:30pm and things went generally smoothly musically - the odd forgotten arrangement or wrong tempo but nothing fatal! But we got a great response for just about everything we did but especially Apache (with the Shadows walk) and “Wipe Out” for which Raye brought up one of his jazz drummer mates to ably assist - it brought the house down. In the break Adam advised that the sound was good and the reaction we got from many folks we knew was also great. Going back on we did the most of the Checkmates hits and “Let There Be Drums” which finished with Carol (one of the organisers) who was dressed up as a nurse with a massive syringe, reviving. Raye after his exertions! Well he got a hell of a response to that with a long standing ovation. When we got going again we did a bit of dancey stuff and finished off the night with “Lucky Old Sun” to another standing ovation, so we encored with “Early in the Morning” with Raye coming out front and just playing snare drum and cymbal. We could have played on, but the hall had to be closed by 1am, so we took a final bow and left the stage happy but exhausted. Took a while to get packed up and Raye was well tired out. Adam did sterling work helping to pack up and move the gear. I was very impressed with Adam’s help throughout the night and I wasn’t surprised to hear that he was planning to do a course on sound engineering and he had had quite a bit of experience stage managing the local Battle of the Bands competitions. We were out the hall by 12:30am. It was raining hard by the time we had a farewell group hug. Jacqui and I were soon back at the hotel so we had a drink before turning in. I think it was the last drink which didn’t agree with J ‘cos she was a bit off colour the next day. Drove back to Bury in rain most the way.