Littleport Ex-Services Club

Good run over to meet up with Dave and Jen who were enjoying a coffee having arrived early. I got Dave to get the side door opened while I parked for the unload. A few minutes later Nigel emerged from the fens and we all started a long load in down the side of the building. It is a good sized stage an hall and we soon had the gear set up and, with no one around, we had the luxury of a sound check with a few bars of “Let There Be Drums” and all of “How Long”. I managed to position the guitar FX pedal so I could see it for a change – now it was just a question of remembering the changes! Jen had a wander round to listen and gave us the nod. It was certainly a good on stage sound and I could tell when I put on background music and had a wander round that it would be a good band sound out in the hall. We only had about 20 in by the time we got changed into the red’n’black and maybe 30 by 8:30pm when we took to the stage for a one hour set 1. We made a good start with the first few songs sounding good and the emergence of a good bantering relationship with the small audience sitting beyond the dance floor. The new flow worked well, I was pleased to fit in “Beautiful Body” early on and despite no takers for a “Shadows Walk”, the strictly dancing routine still went down very well. We did a fair “How Long” and an energetic “Peggy Sue” and wrapped up with “3 Times a Lady” getting a good round of applause. Dave had had the occasional coughing fit but we just worked round it with Nigel taking on the lead line where necessary. In the break we talked about putting together a Buddy Holly Sequence with shortened versions of “Peggy Sue, “That’ll Be the Day” and “Oh Boy”. Came back on for set 2 and I declined to do “Hotel California” mainly because I thought it would be too strong for the crowd, but also we had rehearsed on the 6 string and I was a bit worried about playing the solo on the 12 string – so I must get over that! Anyway, we got on with the Searchers and I cocked up the guitar sound again - it took me ‘til the beginning of “Needles and Pins” to get it right. We went straight into “Do It Again” getting a great round of applause at the end. Similar for the Eagles. We did an entertaining “Halfway” and we actually got a couple of ladies up and dancing to Alice, then it was into Elvis and Neil Diamond and "Shine". After a tartan reminisence, we filled the dance floor with the “Bay City Rollers” running into the “Moon of Love” sequence. Finished with a well appreciated “Love is All Around” and took a break. Coming back on for set 3 I wore the kilt for “500 Miles” (we agreed this number needs shortening now) and then we packed the dance floor with the Amarillo sequence. They tired after “Locomotion” and we lost them with “All Right Now” so I shortened it to one verse and solo. After “Unchained” we did “Crazy Little Thing” to get them up and dancing again and followed up with “Johnny B Goode”. In the confusion to change the guitar sound for a dirtier sustain, I messed up the guitar solo a bit, but the dancers didn’t notice and it went down very well. We did the usual finish to close at midnight and then it was the long pack and load. We agreed we had done a great job of entertaining the small crowd and this was born out by the management who were well pleased with the show and apologetic that there were so few attending. Dave and I formed a convoy to go home via the A14 and I was in relatively early at 1:30am. (In before Claire, who was out on the town with Rocky, for a change)