Brought my new PRS Hollowbody 1 along for a band test. It has a much deeper sound than the Godin and cuts thru the live mix really well. I need to think about how it might be used in the show – I can only justify it on the gigs with big stages, ‘cos I still need the Godin for synth effects. We settled down to the usual sort of practice warm up with Hotel California, then Shine a few times. Dave’s sore throat is still affecting what pitch he sings this; so we are just going to put it in the show and perfect it on the road. Did “Dance the Night Away” just checked out some timings. Followed up with “Crazy Little Thing” and “Spencer Davis” run throughs. Then we had a good go at a new addition to the repertoire: “What Do You Wanna Make Those Eyes” by Emile Ford & Checkmates, we agreed it was road ready and I would probably introduce it in Set 2 close to “Halfway”. Then we ran through 4 slowies:
Nights in White Satin - we ran thru in case we were asked to do this at Littleport (Dave Whistled Flute Solo)
No Matter - I played a string solo to replace flute and it felt like an easy win.
Something – Nige has the bass line about right, there appears to be the odd dischord but I’m sure we can sort that off line.
Wonderful Tonight - introducing accents and a stronger end
We did enough of “Hippie Hippie Shake” to up the confidence for road play. During the night we departed from the agenda from time to time to play some rock on my new guitar. “Born to be Wild” sounded promising and we did a passable performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock’n’Roll” with Nigel belting the vocals out. We finished off with a few bars of “Stairway to Heaven”. After the practice I wrote out an updated set listing for Dave to organise his book.
