Set off about 5pm expecting traffic delays. But I had a very smooth run over in fine weather and arrived at the gig about 6:20pm to find Dav’n’Jen already there. So I parked up near the load in door and Dave and I went to find some one to let us in. We soon had the OK. Basically we have to shift a seat from in front of the load in door, remove two bolts and “hey presto” we open the door to see Nigel chatting to Jen. (Nige had also had an easy drive over and arriving about 30 minutes early had been for a walk round the broad). I delivered the bolts to the lady in charge as requested and we began the load in. The club is redolent of the 1970’s and it is quite gloomy - until I found a spot light to light up the stage. The ceiling above the stage is quite low and I quickly offered up my Bose and concluded that we would be able to just fit them in. Bad mistake – ‘cos when I came to assemble the system for real it wouldn’t go. I did manage to get the top half on by assembling it into a light socket from which we had removed a bulb, but couldn’t move it from there to position it on the stage. In the end Nige and I set the system up off stage and carefully edged it up and onto the stage where I could slide it into position with about 5 mm clearance from the ceiling. We had to do the same with Nige’s but after that set up went fine. I remembered to reset the Roland FX output back to ‘line’ from ‘combo’ which I had used at the previous gig; and I also remembered to re-load the ‘FootTapper Current’ mixer settings to replace the ‘Practice’ settings we had used at Palgrave House.
So we were soon enjoying a beer watching the room begin to fill. The clientele is holiday families so there is a broad mix of ages from tots through to grandparents. Dave’s mate Bobby Graham and missus Ann arrived. For some reason I started to call him Graham and continued this throughout the evening, I only thought about it on the way home - what a nit (someone should have told me!). Dave got dressed good and early into the smart red’n’black. Nige and I were soon also suitably attired and we were ready for a prompt 8:30 start playing to about 60 in the club. Only trouble was Dave and I got at cross purposes about starting – he thought I meant start with “Just One Look” and I thought I said ‘we’ll do some introductions at the end of “Foot Tapper”’. So Nige and I started “Foot Tapper” and Dave started “Just One Look”. Nige and I quickly got behind “Just One Look” and after I hurriedly reset the guitar and PA FX we breathed a sigh of relief. Despite the poor start we got a good round of applause for it, so I took a bit of time out to do a: ‘Hello--- Broad Farm’ and introduce the band. The audience responded well and we got on with a typical set 1 with added bantering. This suited a holiday crowd who were generally more up for entertainment than dancing. But we did eventually have a couple of girls come up to dance to Sir Cliff of North Walsham doing “The Young Ones”. Although Dave was playing the drums really well and singing good, he seemed a bit nervy with speaking and bit too quick to get things over with He got his scripted Shadows Walk intro a bit cocked up but then he compensated by doing a great ad-lib to coax some young lads up to play the rubber guitars. They did a fine job – the audience loved it and gave the routine a hearty round of applause at the end. We moved on through the various medleys and sequences getting a good response every time. I was just winding up for a big finish with a ballad after an hour when Dave called an abrupt set end as we finished “Rock Around the Clock” (I’m not sure why?). After a short break we opened up set 2 with “Let There Be Drums”; this went down really well, so well that Bobby Graham called out for more drumming with “Wipe Out” - so we did a bit of that as well! Then we resumed operations with the Searchers: I cocked up the first transition and later on I discovered I was playing a wrong chord in the bridge of “Don’t Throw Your Love” (so I vowed to put some extra practice time in on that medley!) We played on; largely following the normal set 2 list right through to Elvis and “Sweet Caroline”, getting a good response and even a few up and dancing. Then we announced the “Bay Cities” as a time to rediscover your tartan youth, and the dance floor filled nicely. After that it was time to finish off with a slowey and we did a creditable version of “Love is All Around” It was 10:30pm and we had just got off stage and were sorting out some ‘tap water’s’ when the governess came up and said: You’re gonna lose the audience – don’t you know we finish at 11pm tonight?” Oh dear – we had relied on the contract which indicated a midnight finish. So Dave mollified her and we got straight back on opening up with a request for “Shine”. This was the best yet in terms of backing harmonies – but still a way to go; anyway the audience loved it. We got some dancers up as we played straight through the party dance sequence from “500 Miles” to “Hi Ho”; then we did a short version of “Unchained“ as a prelude to wrapping up with “Pretty Woman”. Somehow we didn’t do the sign off right so I called for one more to finish with “Wonderful Tonight” to take us to an 11:15 pm finish and deliver a bit of extra value for money. Dave did a bit of glad handing and reported that the late stayers were pleased with entertainment - one old boy saying it was great to hear the 'old songs'. Despite the mess up on times, the governors seemed well pleased with the band and we got packed up in good humour and away by midnight. After a good run home I was in bed by 1:30am. Footnote: well I have had some feedback from some of you blogateers and blogettes out there that I am generally a bit negative with the blog. The truth is the band has been steadily improving over the Winter. Dave has worked hard on improving the drumming to capture the right rhythms and tempo of our vintage material. Nige has quietly sorted out some interesting Maccaesque bass lines and fitted in some quality harmonies around Dave and myself. Even I have learnt a few guitar parts better and taken on and improved the role of compere for the band. I think (Dave’s coughing nights excepted) we are all singing better than last year and the band is much more confident in dealing with audiences and entertaining them. But I remain hypercritical because I want us to reach our full potential by learning from problems and correcting errors wherever we can. I know Dave and Nigel feel similarly. The perfect gig for the Foot Tappers is waiting out there somewhere.
So we were soon enjoying a beer watching the room begin to fill. The clientele is holiday families so there is a broad mix of ages from tots through to grandparents. Dave’s mate Bobby Graham and missus Ann arrived. For some reason I started to call him Graham and continued this throughout the evening, I only thought about it on the way home - what a nit (someone should have told me!). Dave got dressed good and early into the smart red’n’black. Nige and I were soon also suitably attired and we were ready for a prompt 8:30 start playing to about 60 in the club. Only trouble was Dave and I got at cross purposes about starting – he thought I meant start with “Just One Look” and I thought I said ‘we’ll do some introductions at the end of “Foot Tapper”’. So Nige and I started “Foot Tapper” and Dave started “Just One Look”. Nige and I quickly got behind “Just One Look” and after I hurriedly reset the guitar and PA FX we breathed a sigh of relief. Despite the poor start we got a good round of applause for it, so I took a bit of time out to do a: ‘Hello--- Broad Farm’ and introduce the band. The audience responded well and we got on with a typical set 1 with added bantering. This suited a holiday crowd who were generally more up for entertainment than dancing. But we did eventually have a couple of girls come up to dance to Sir Cliff of North Walsham doing “The Young Ones”. Although Dave was playing the drums really well and singing good, he seemed a bit nervy with speaking and bit too quick to get things over with He got his scripted Shadows Walk intro a bit cocked up but then he compensated by doing a great ad-lib to coax some young lads up to play the rubber guitars. They did a fine job – the audience loved it and gave the routine a hearty round of applause at the end. We moved on through the various medleys and sequences getting a good response every time. I was just winding up for a big finish with a ballad after an hour when Dave called an abrupt set end as we finished “Rock Around the Clock” (I’m not sure why?). After a short break we opened up set 2 with “Let There Be Drums”; this went down really well, so well that Bobby Graham called out for more drumming with “Wipe Out” - so we did a bit of that as well! Then we resumed operations with the Searchers: I cocked up the first transition and later on I discovered I was playing a wrong chord in the bridge of “Don’t Throw Your Love” (so I vowed to put some extra practice time in on that medley!) We played on; largely following the normal set 2 list right through to Elvis and “Sweet Caroline”, getting a good response and even a few up and dancing. Then we announced the “Bay Cities” as a time to rediscover your tartan youth, and the dance floor filled nicely. After that it was time to finish off with a slowey and we did a creditable version of “Love is All Around” It was 10:30pm and we had just got off stage and were sorting out some ‘tap water’s’ when the governess came up and said: You’re gonna lose the audience – don’t you know we finish at 11pm tonight?” Oh dear – we had relied on the contract which indicated a midnight finish. So Dave mollified her and we got straight back on opening up with a request for “Shine”. This was the best yet in terms of backing harmonies – but still a way to go; anyway the audience loved it. We got some dancers up as we played straight through the party dance sequence from “500 Miles” to “Hi Ho”; then we did a short version of “Unchained“ as a prelude to wrapping up with “Pretty Woman”. Somehow we didn’t do the sign off right so I called for one more to finish with “Wonderful Tonight” to take us to an 11:15 pm finish and deliver a bit of extra value for money. Dave did a bit of glad handing and reported that the late stayers were pleased with entertainment - one old boy saying it was great to hear the 'old songs'. Despite the mess up on times, the governors seemed well pleased with the band and we got packed up in good humour and away by midnight. After a good run home I was in bed by 1:30am. Footnote: well I have had some feedback from some of you blogateers and blogettes out there that I am generally a bit negative with the blog. The truth is the band has been steadily improving over the Winter. Dave has worked hard on improving the drumming to capture the right rhythms and tempo of our vintage material. Nige has quietly sorted out some interesting Maccaesque bass lines and fitted in some quality harmonies around Dave and myself. Even I have learnt a few guitar parts better and taken on and improved the role of compere for the band. I think (Dave’s coughing nights excepted) we are all singing better than last year and the band is much more confident in dealing with audiences and entertaining them. But I remain hypercritical because I want us to reach our full potential by learning from problems and correcting errors wherever we can. I know Dave and Nigel feel similarly. The perfect gig for the Foot Tappers is waiting out there somewhere.
