Bure Valley House Aylsham

We had been booked to play a sheltered housing scheme get together in a (smallish by our standards) residents lounge, so Nige and I had agreed a compact gear set up especially for this gig. We would be using just his Behringer PA powering one of his 15” EV cabinets and one of my 12” EV SX300’s; panning the bass hard left thru the 15” and the guitar right thru the 12” and panning the 3 vocal mics into the centre. No synth, so the only other electrical thing needed was my Roland pedalboard. I was a bit slow getting away and immediately ran into local Friday afternoon Bury traffic congestion to get under the railway bridge. I made a bit of time up on the run through Garboldisham and, with a fast run on the A11, I was on the Norwich ring road just before 5pm. So I fared well getting to Aylsham and was parking up at the gig at 5:30pm as we agreed. No sign of Dave, so I waited 5 minutes then rang him - he hadn’t left yet! Then Nige arrived. We talked our way in past the security system to weigh up the lounge. There was a clear corner area for the band so we started to bring the gear in and just then Dave and Jen rolled up. Dave was only using a “jazz” kit with one tom, hi hat, ride, snare and bass drum; and that didn’t take long to get in. We were just setting up when Dorothy, the very nice lady manager, arrived to show us a cupboard to store cases and a dressing room in a large disabled toilet. Set up went OK and it all sounded fine - just the job for this compact gig. The room was filling up rapidly and it was getting warm so I dished out some colas and we retreated to the dressing room to put the white shirts on. By the time we got back the room was packed and we had to compress our set up ‘cos some of the old folk were so close they were beginning to look like they were part of the band! Started off with “Foot Tapper” and played through to the Everlys, which we preceded with the Beverly sisters routine which went well at this gig - they were all singing along to “Sisters” as we minced around in our wigs! We followed up with routines featuring Dave as the ‘Cliff’ of Cromer (he’s always falling down!) and the ‘Shadows’ which also went well with some ladies bravely doing the Shadows walk armed with blow up guitars. We departed from the usual show to do the 50’s and country medleys before wrapping up with “Only You” and an enthusiastic Beatles medley. Then we took a break while they started their supper buffet. As it was to be an early finish we agreed to go back on during the “pudding” to play some background instrumentals – “Flingel Bunt, FBI, Sleepwalk and Theme for Young Lovers”. Then we resumed our easy listening show with “Lady is a Tramp” and “Alice” before picking and mixing suitable pop songs through to our finish with “Unchained”, “Pretty Woman” and a request for “Wonderful Tonight” coming ‘off stage” to a great response. Throughout the night Nige had done an excellent job of fitting in with some unfamiliar repertoire, and the selected music and bantering had gone very well on this gig. In fact it had been a really great night for audience interaction and response and we were particularly pleased at generating several hearty bouts of laughter from our entertainment routines. Dorothy was also well pleased with the way the night had gone and Dave gave out several cards to prospective clients. One lady came up to me to compliment us on our singing and asked if we would be on the radio or TV so she could see the show again! I told her we were on You Tube! Then it was pack up time. This didn’t take very long at all and while Dave did some excellent goodnight bulling, Nige was able to demonstrate his toy cigarette again (I tell you that boy should be on commission!) Then we all stole a quick goodbye kiss from our excellent host Dorothy and hit the road. Nige followed me through to Norwich zooming off onto the A47 whilst I settled in for a good run home, getting in just before midnight. Jacqui was still up watching Children in Need, so we had a drink and stayed up for an hour or so before retiring for the night. With a cancelled gig on Saturday we were able to have a lazy weekend and prepare for the builders who arriving to rebuild the conservatory on the Monday.