Trimingham Caravan Park

I set up the old PA in the morning for a test run. It was a good job I did ‘cos I couldn’t remember the reverb pre-sets and level settings. I hunted around for a bit of reminder paper that I was sure I had written them out on – to no avail. In the end I worked through all the pre-sets until I found the three contenders and played around with the level settings until it worked. I did write them out this time and stuck a version on top of the reverb unit. Panic over I loaded up, deciding to take the Roland synth and old Fender 12 string because I was still in the middle of adjustments to the re-strung PRS. It was a sunny afternoon as I set off just after 5pm. I had an excellent run over arriving at 6:55pm. 5 minutes later Nigel rolled up and few minutes later Dave arrived. We had to while away a few minutes before Andy arrived with the key and then we did some more talking, so it was about 7:20 pm by the time we were loading in. Set up took a bit longer with the conventional gear. Nige had a relatively easy time setting up hs Behringer PA amp with one EV 15 cabinet. The main Makie PA mixer is optimised for Shure mics and I asked the boys to set up with Shure. Once Dave had found his Shure mic, the PA sounded good and eventually we were ready for a soundcheck with “I Feel Fine”. Nigel had a stroll out front and reported a good balance, but maybe a bit loud. Using the Mesa Lonestar with the Roland GT10 FX was interesting. The combination gave quite a bright sound with a subtle middely enhanced harmonic valve sound. I only had to use the low power setting on the amp which demonstrated that the output from the Roland was higher than previous set ups with the Korg (and the Roland); and I think it was this higher output setting that drove the amp nicely to generate the subtle valve sound. I fired up the Roland synth and it definitely has a classy sound, so I was looking forward to a good sounding evening from my side! With set up concluded Dave introduced us to young guitarist Sunny who had brought his family out so see us. Jenny arrived just in time to inspect Nigel’s belly before change time. I reckon there were about 30 in as we got changed into the Kamikazi shirts and ready for a 9pm start. We opened up set 1 with “Flingel Bunt” for a change and following up with “Just One Look” we got the ‘turn it down’ sign from the bar. The next few numbers were relatively quiet anyway and we soon got into a good bantering and playing routine. But somehow we messed up on the start of “How Long” again? I need to find a way of switching guitar sound as I do the announcement so I’m ready for the count in! Dan and Michele arrived as we started “Seasons of Gold” making about 40 in the club (including band and staff!). Despite the moderate audience size, Sunny’s family and Dan and Michele kindly applauded above the call of duty! We soon got Dan up for the “Shadows Walk” which he did very well in spite of me swaying around a bit. As we ploughed on I felt that Dave and Nigel were louder than me on the PA and fiddled a bit with that but I never really got comfortable with the PA balance. I must say I missed the Bose ‘sound field’ effect where you can hear pretty well and very subtly what you and the others are singing. Dave was still suffering a bit with the cough and I thought the voices may have been a bit tired after the previous days singing. We concluded the set just after 10pm with “I Believe”. We had a short break and then did a shortish set 2, starting with the Searchers. I forgot to compensate for the low output from the Fender 12 string and found it hard work playing the guitar hard to fit in the mix. I was pleased to get back to the 6 string after the “Eagles” as we did a well bantered girly backing singer version of “Halfway” in which Nigel developed the gruff voice as his wig fell off in the middle 8! After an uncertain start we played a good “Wonder of You” with some nicely timed group dynamics towards the end. Dave needed a break after a patchy “Shine” so we took 15 minutes off to have a drink and say goodbye to Dan and Michele. Getting back on for set 3 we had about 45 minutes to play and I asked the boys to try something different. We started with an excellent performance of “Let There Be Drums” similar to the Sandy Nelson record. Dave played it really well and Nige and I held it together by looking at each other through the changes. Just needs a bit of a tighten up on the run ups towards the end. We followed this up with “Spencer Davis”. The tempo was right, the vocals were good; only trouble was I had a bit of trouble fiddling with the guitar sound through the first verse and Dave couldn’t find the words to “Keep on Running”; but all in all it was good – a nice change. I asked Nigel to lead us into “Can’t Get Enough” which went well until the end which I miss read, throwing an extra chord in. So far so rocky; we pressed on with the “Bay Cities and a better performance of “Make Those Eyes” than the previous outing. Dave made a good call for “Crazy Little Thing” where we all played the middle 8 perfectly wrong together – amazing group hysteria! But it brought some dancers up and then it was back to the rock with “Johnny B Goode” (got the solo right with the Mesa delivering sustain and compression), “All Right Now” and “Status Quo”. I tried to catch Dave’s eye to stop after “Caroline” but some girls had come up to dance and we all fell into “Rockin all Over” a bit raggedly and wrapped up with “Whatever You Want”. At the end one of the girls requested “Shine” which we duly obliged, turning in a better performance than earlier. Then it was time to wrap up with “Pretty Woman” – we got a surprisingly good reception from the crowd at the bar as we finished so I think the rockier set had been well received. It was a long pack up and I was pretty tired by the time we got loaded up. But once on the road, I livened up and had a good run home getting in by 2:30am and looking forward to picking up Ms J on her return from Bristol at a Sunday lunch meet up at Milton Keynes.