Oasis Club California Sands Scratby

Set off in good time but soon started to run into Friday afternoon traffic, which slowed me down getting to the A11, but once on it I made good time to Acle. Here I made the mistake of taking the A47 to Yarmouth rather than the Caister cut. Bad mistake ‘cos after a couple of miles I ran into a 8 mile tailback into Great Yarmouth (due to bridge work and an accident on the A12). It took about 40 minutes to get into Yarmouth and get on the Caister road. I had been in touch with Dave and warned them I wouldn’t be there ‘til 7pm. Although I made good progress through Caister and, you can see the lights of the Oasis club from miles away, I missed the California Road turn and had to come back. So it was just before 7 when I actually arrived. Nigel kindly gave me a lift in with the gear and working at it diligently I was all set up by 8pm – just in time to watch the large screen presentation of a death scene in Coronation Street. Andy the DJ said he would keep thing’s going ‘til 9pm so we had a bit of a sit down with a beer. It was a cold night and not many in and Dave was still a bit croaky. We elected to wear the black shirts and red ties which gave me a bit of warmth. Went on to do set 1, pretty much as written to finish with the Beatles. It was a bit of nervy start, but by the time we got to The Everleys, we were generating a solid sound. I thought the on-stage sound was very good, but there was a hint of hi feedback from my Bose. I eventually fixed it in Set 2. Surprisingly, we got a good response from the 30 or so people in this big hall, but I was a bit nervy on guitar and Dave was a bit nervy on announcements. Nevertheless we agreed it was a good performance overall and the banter had been good for this venue. We came off for 40 minutes or so while Andy did a quiz. Then we went back on starting with the usual set 2 listing, opening with the Searchers. I was taken by surprise at the count in and it took me a few bars to get into it but we got a good response from the dwindling audience. Dave wisely cut out the Moon of Love Medley and we had a good, entertaining “Halfway – Elvis – Neil Diamond” sequence. The Bay City medley was next and although it went down well, we remain a bit confused on it. (Nige suggests we shorten it and pad out with some Sweet songs). I called “500 Miles” next and we followed up with Amarillo which had them dancing in their seats and “Hey Baby” which we eventually got them to sing along to. Andy asked us to help him out by doing “Nelly the Elephant” as a special request for a some folks who had stayed all night so we busked a verse or two. Then we did a good rendition of “Love is All Around” before finishing with “Pretty Woman”. Overall a nervey night but I thought the sound and vocals was good, and so it proved. Everyone complimented us on the sound, the great harmonies and the way we had thrown ourselves into entertaining such a small audience. Sandra (the promoter) was very keen on booking us back. So we packed up feeling good about the gig. It was cold but not freezing as we loaded up. I made a quick departure for my run back through the Acle cut and made good time home – in bed by 1:30am