Sheringham Social Club

A sunny day, and despite a strong East wind, temperatures were mild enough for me to travel without a pullover. I decided to go via Norwich in case there was a lot of traffic heading to Wells. But it was cup final day and traffic was light, so I was the first arrival at the gig at about 6:40pm. I had just unloaded when Dave (with Martin and Laura) showed up and by the time I parked my car and walked back Nigel was also there. Set up went fine on the sizeable stage and, as there was no one there, we ran through a bit of the Beatles medley particularly “Nowhere Man” as a sound check. I had a bit of trouble pitching my harmony to start, but by the time we’d run it through a few times we were all spot on and it sounded good. Dave and Nigel worked the room while I went through Dave’s book. We were determined to give some of the practiced material a go on the night and I wanted Dave to have the latest versions of the arrangements. John and a group from Weybourne had come to see us and he came over to say hello. As it got to 8:15pm there were quite a few in the room; in fact as busy as I have ever seen it and a good mix of ages from family groups through to oldies. We got changed into the red’n’black and took to the stage about 8:45pm to open up with “Foot Tapper”. Dave did a voice over in the last verse which was a good idea but, once again, put too much into it too quickly; so his points about requests and the OSA were lost. We went straight into the short version of “Just One Look” and got a surprisingly warm reception. So we carried on through to the Everlys with banter controls set to medium, and we continued to get a good response from an audience who, at this early stage, were more in the mood for entertainment than dancing. After “Only You” which went well and brought a few up to dance, we introduced Nigel to do a newey with: “Brown Eyed Girl” from Van Morrison. I got off to a dodgy start forgetting that there were 2 guitar phrases to introduce it, but thereafter it ticked along nicely and was a refreshing change. We picked and mixed through the 3 Seasons and “How Long”; and then we gave the new Buddy Holly routine an airing. We make a bit of a thing about each being the best Buddy Holly: ‘cos I have the glasses’; so all three of us end up wearing them! The glasses bit went well, but I got off to a shaky start on the guitar intro to “That’ll be the Day” and shortly after I messed up the solo – I seemed to lose sight of the neck: but I can’t even blame the glasses as they are lens less! However, “Peggy Sue” and “Oh Boy” went well, and I think I played the guitar solo on “Oh Boy” good enough to compensate for the earlier cock ups. Sir Cliff made an appearance and I did a lonely Shadows walk which still earned a great round of applause. Then it was time to do the Beatles and hooray!! – we played it through largely right. Although it was just a teeny bit fast, we got all the transitions right, the harmonies were good and there was even a bit of audience sing-a-long in places. The hour was coming to an end so we elected to follow up with a good rendition of the Hollies and “3 times a Lady” which brought out the dancers in force. During the break Dave continued to work the room hard and it was becoming clear that quite a few people had come out specifically to see the band. Dave went to get changed into the kamikaze shirt as Nigel and I took to the stage. It only took a minute to check tunings so I took a bit of time to introduce Dave to the audience, saying he would be with us shortly - once he had finished his shift at the local Chinese take away! I got the audience worked up to give him a great round of applause as he entered the room and then we got straight on with “Let There Be Drums”. This went so well that Dave called for “Wipe Out” and we obliged by turning it into “Walk Don’t Wipe Out”. I had primed Nigel to follow up the drum display by introducing me to do “Eyes” and he did a fine job. We got a bit of audience sing-a-long response to this and, following the false ending, we got a good round of applause. I changed to my Fender 12 string and we played through the Searchers to the Eagles. All a little bit fast I thought, but we had a few up dancing so maybe it was me and my slow heartbeat! Next we made a poor choice of “Alice”. There were several children in the room and the audience didn’t have the stomach for the rude answer backs - with hindsight it would have been better to do “Halfway”. But, time was marching on, so I called for a skip of “Halfway” and we got on with the “Elvis” routine. Dave is starting “Wonder of You” most oddly at the moment. He is getting the count in right, but then going for the ‘Whoah Oah’ too early and throwing the chords out of sequence. We recovered OK but it is unnerving. So, we played this through a bit raggedly; but we got a great response. Then we played out with “Sweet Caroline” to close the set for the raffle. Martin won some beer and then won again but kindly asked for the ticket to be re-drawn. During the break a cruise ship entertainer: ‘Johnny Golden’ came up to request something fast and then another old boy requested something by “Raymond Frogatt” saying he had heard we were playing here because Roy Waller of Radio Norfolk had announced the gig on his show and suggested we might do a ‘Froggy’ song. To oblige, we took to the stage to do the final 40 minutes, starting with “Somewhere Under the Sun”. I made a mess up of the guitar intro and didn’t hear the ‘play it boy’ intro for the guitar solo; but a large section of the audience clearly loved the song and we got great applause. We got on with “Amarillo” going through “Hey Baby” to the “Twist”. There weren’t too many dancers so we stopped the party dance stuff for a long “Unchained” and “American Trilogy” Despite our playing it with some ragged edges, Trilogy was ecstatically received. At this point we elected to do “Mony Mony” into “Baby Come Back”. Nigel was proved right as the dance floor filled as he had predicted. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the guitar part for the transition but we kept going and eventually I remembered it! After that it just remained for us to wrap up with the “Pretty Woman” outro. At the end we were asked to do one more, so we set off on the “Quo” medley. This got off to a nice slow pace and transitioned well through “Whatever You Want” to “Caroline”; where Nigel called for a rapid close due a signal from the guvnor we were well over time. But I was so engrossed in messing up yet another guitar solo, that I missed the cue and we ground to a halt in a bit of a car crash ending! Despite the problems it had been a good night for the band and we were pleased with ourselves as we packed up. Laura seemed a bit tiddley and needed some fresh air. Gordon kept an eye on her. I was away by 12:45 and home for 2:15am going back via Swaffham.

Band Practice Skeyton

Lovely warm day, but I was a bit held up in Norwich so got to the hall a few minutes late to find Dave and son Martin already set up and with tea brewed. Martin seems fine and is happy with life in Fakenham. As I set up we talked about things we could fix and had a bit of a run through the Beatles medley before Nigel arrived. Once we got going we started with Van Morrisons “Brown Eyed Girl” with Nigel singing a la Van the man. We just needed to sort out understandings on the bass link then it started to work very well; we can see this going in set 1 as a change for “Beautiful Body”. Next Up was the Beatles which was going well by the time we moved onto the Buddy Holly medley. We ran it though and made a few changes = cut down “Peggy Sue” a bit, add a repeat last line to “Oh Boy” ending of “Umm diddle um dum Oh! Boy!” with an abrupt “Oh Boy over Ab A. Then we had a long session working up “Mony Mony into Baby Come Back” with Nigel leading as a 3rd set dance sequence. That was going well so we got him to do Ray Charles “What’d I say” as a Set 1 or 2 mover with Dave and I playing the parts of the Raelets. I used tremolo guitar to simulate a Rhodes piano and that worked well. So well I thought I might try it in “Baby Come Back”. We finished off the session by playing through the Status Quo medley. I think we now know what we have to do – its just a question of putting it into practice and getting live feel. As we packed up we said we would try and give all the songs we had practiced a run on Saturday. For some reason we were all humming "The Monster Mash" as we loaded up. Got away about 10:30 and home for midnight because I was diverted round road repairs near the sugar factory.

Royal British Legion Aylsham Road Norwich

We all arrived about 7pm. Just needed to tidy up things and tune the guitars. We had thought there might be a different audience from the Saturday but many of the faces we saw were from Saturday and some even came up and said how much they enjoyed it and how much they were looking forward to a repeat performance. We changed into the smart white’n’black and emerged for an 8pm on time start opening with “Flingel Bunt” for a change. This was very well received by some Shadows enthusiasts on my left! As we carried on with “Just One Look” once again the floor was full of dancers. We rang a few changes in this set e.g. we did the other two Everly’s songs – interestingly the audience took “Walk Right Back” as a cue for a barn dance, so I put in a guitar solo to help things along. This time we gave “I Believe” an airing as the slowey and the audience were singing along so loud that Dave and I missed our cues for the end. Once again we felt obliged to keep them on the floor so we followed up with “Raining in my Heart”. After Sir Cliff, we brought up a couple of gents to do the Shadows walk. Reading the audience we went early to the rock’n’roll and I slipped in “Be Bop a Lula” to bring us to the 40 minute point. We expected to play an hour so we then embarked on a new concept: A Buddy Holly Medley. We had a bit of banter and then all put on the black rimmed glasses. I opened up with “That’ll Be the Day” and Dave got the pace just right. We stepped through it nicely and the dancers were right on board. Then we made the planned abrupt transition into “Peggy Sue”. With Dave just taking the pace on a little bit everything was going to plan. It was as we transitioned into “Oh Boy” that things went awry. We had embarked on a 1 hour set, but no one had told us bingo was at 8:45pm. As we got through a promising first verse, the house lights came on and the bingo caller made some gestures to cut the music. So we wrapped up in a somewhat dishevelled way - but the bingo man asked the audience to show their appreciation anyway! During the interval one of the locals had requested “Hotel California” and we picked up a couple of birthdays to celebrate. So we returned to open up with “Walk Don’t Wipe Out” and then I followed up with “Travelodge California”. Surprisingly it brought some up to dance and we got a rousing round of applause as we finished it. It is quite difficult to play on the Fender 12 compared to the PRS, but apart from one blip in the solo, we did a good performance. So we carried on with the Searchers and Beach Boys. We skipped the Eagles and went straight to “Alice”. Now this crowd were under strict house rules not to swear and Nigel’s advice to use “Heck” was very well received and they stuck to it! We brought Elvis on to do “Wonder of You”. Just time for “Sweet Caroline” and “Shine” and then it was time to wrap up with “Love is All Around”. We took about 20 minutes off and then resumed with “500 Miles” which got a great reaction and followed that up with the usual party dance up to “Hi Ho”. Then we did a short version of “Unchained” before doing a special request for “American Trilogy” again. I messed up on switching to the flute sound, but we got through fine and it was well received again. Dave did a shortish country barn dance based on "Cheating Heart" which went well. The audience thinned out after that. After “Dance the Night Away” we did the Spencer Davis sequence and Shaking All Over” to vary things a bit before cruising to the usual finish. Another successful night. I was really tired as we packed away, but once in the car I had my rattle to keep me awake; and I was home by 1:15am.

Royal British Legion Aylsham Road Norwich

A new gig for the band. I set off about 5:15 pm in very sunny warm weather. A good run to Norwich meant I was approaching the turn for Aylsham Road on the ring road by about 6:15pm. But you can’t turn right there? So I had to go on and look for a right hand turn by Jewsons where I could do a U turn and go back to the Aylsham Road junction to turn left! Having looked it up on Google Streetview before I left, I found the gig easily and parked up round the back. Playing in Norwich after the previous weeks theft I was pleased to see the car park looks nice and secure and there are security cameras in abundance. I found the back way into the hall, dropped off my suit bag and I just came back to the car when Dave’n’Jen arrived; with Nigel following up only a couple of minutes after. It’s a really nice hall. Modern, good sized stage and a high ceiling suited to vocal reverb. With so much room, set up was easy and we soon had everything working.



I put my music on and stepped out into the hall. The room is absorbent of harsh side and ceiling reflections and there is quite a pronounced bass lift around 50-100hz. This is particularly noticeable on the stage, and it resulted in us turning down the bass drum later. But it also gives the music a low volume spread with a full sounding quality out in the hall – ‘loudness’ is the term beat boxes use to beef up the bottom (and top) and it is a similar effect to that. And as I thought, the natural reverb from the high ceiling complements the vocals nicely. Nige got the beers in and we had a bit of a chat about reading audiences and improving the show flow. I suggested that we set it all up in sequences of 2-5 numbers; so we have about 30 sequences in the book rather than lots of individual songs. Daves’ mate Terry and wife arrived. Then Dave spoke to David the concert secretary about times and he said he wanted an 8pm start with a stop at 9pm for bingo. Then he mentioned they had an extension over the bank holiday and he asked us to play on to 12:15am on the night - he would see us alright; nudge, nudge! We got changed into the red’n’black in the TV room on the other side of the building and then we had a long walk back to take to the stage at 8pm as agreed. We had been briefed that this audience liked to dance and they particularly liked a ‘barn dance’ We made the usual start through to the Everlys - with the banter controls set to low. People were up and dancing from the off and the floor filled when we did the first slowey: “Only You”. So much so that we elected to follow up with “Rainin in my Heart” to keep them going. After that Dave led us into a country barn dance sequence starting with “Send MeThe Pillow” and ending with “Crystal Chandeliers” – all improvised in C. The audience responded by dancing round in a circle arm in arm (barn dance style) and we got a great round of applause for doing that. Playing on: we turned the banter controls up a bit, Sir Cliff (with wig and glasses) came and went and we got a couple of ladies up to do the Shadows’ walk and that went down real well. We cruised to the end of the set through some rock’n’roll and ended with “3 Times a Lady” which filled the floor with waltzers. Had a long break while the bingo was on and coming back on for set 2 I got the boys to start with “Let There Be Drums” and “Eyes at Me For” – The drum solo got a great response and we had a lotta sing’a’long with the Checkmates hit. As we struck up with the Searchers I sensed immediately the pace was right, and it must have been because we soon had the floor full of 60’s dancers and that also meant a great reception for “Do It Again” and the Eagles which followed on. Changing back to 6 string we skipped “Alice” and went on to “Halfway”. Dave misread my intention to get Nigel wigged up like a girl in the middle 8 and so we had a very confused middle 8 restart. Next up was Elvis who was welcomed by a enthusiastic crowd clapping him in. “The Wonder of You” went down so well that we had to play “Just Can’t Help Falling in Love” and that filled the floor with slow dancers. We carried on with “Sweet Caroline”, “Shine” and the “Bay Cities” getting a great response all the way. Then we wrapped up with “Love is all Around” to take a break about 10:45pm. The night was young as we resumed at 11pm with the “Hollies” (a bit late in the night to be singing so high!) and then we pressed on through the party dance from “Amarillo” to “All Right Now” (which Nige cleverly introduced by asking if the audience was alright now---!) A group of girls applauded my solo – fantastic! The dance floor was full, the crowd were very appreciative and all was well with our world. We then did “Unchained” and “American Trilogy” to bring the house down. Bringing a change of pace: Terry came up to guest sing “Jambalaya”, “Johnny Be Good” and “Sweet Little 16”. As the night rolled on we picked and mixed from our reserves repertoire; including: “Dance the Night Away”, “Crazy Little Thing”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Hippy Hippy Shakes”, ““You Really Got Me” and a rockin’ improvised version of “Mony Mony” (thanks to Nigel) – that really had the crowd rocking! We ran into the “Pretty Woman” end sequence a bit early ‘cos I got times mixed up, but we had a bit of fun padding the set out with “Great Balls” and “Saw Her Standing There” before finally wrapping up with “Wonderful Tonight”. Overall it had been a great night for the band and many people were effusive in their appreciation. We didn’t have to pack the gear up, just tidied things away on the stage a bit. But I did take my guitars home getting in about 2am.

Broad Farm Caravan Site Club House Fleggburgh

Set off on a sunny afternoon about 5pm. I had a good run to the A11 via Garbolisham. Then the radio piped up ‘delays on the A47 East of Norwich’. But traffic looked fine, so I continued to “pootle on” thinking it would have cleared by the time I got there. And yes, as I approached Cringleford (East of Norwich) I ran into the holiday traffic tailback of about half a mile. It didn’t delay me much and I was parked up near the club load in door by 6:20pm. As I started to walk round to get the door unlocked Dave’n’Jen’n’Laura rolled up and so I waited for Dave to come in with me to unlock. We soon had the seat shifted from in front of the load in door and opening it up we could meet and greet Nige who had just rolled up. Load in went fine and we set about dealing with the assembly of the Bose under the low ceiling. I set my system up off stage and edged it up and onto the stage and slid it into position. Nige discovered an ingenious way of setting his up at the front of the stage on an angle then as he carefully brought it to the vertical, there was just enough clearance to get it upright; and then we all helped to slide into position. The room begin to fill early and (once again) Dave’s old ‘Mississippi Delta’ band mate Graham (stage name Bobby Graham) and his missus Ann arrived. Apparently it was Ann’s birthday – so Dave got the birthday hat prepared. I dished out a new KAM Starlight Mini (clip on) music stand LED light to Dave; it runs on batteries or an adapter. Graham was so impressed he asked me to organise one for him! We got dressed into the smart red’n’black and made a prompt 8:30pm start playing to about 50 in the club. After ‘Foot Tapper” and the short version of “Just One Look”, I did a: ‘Hello--- Broad Farm’ introduction of the band. Then we got on with a typical set 1. I wasn’t on top bantering form myself, probably due to playing 3 squash matches in the week? But Dave and Nigel seemed to handle the audience interaction well. This audience weren’t quite as instantly appreciative as the previous gig, but they seemed to enjoy it more as we bashed on. We got a couple of girls up to do the Shadows Walk - they did a fine job and the camera phones were out capturing the event for history! Towards the end of the set, I got the boys to do the Beatles medley. Dave came up with a good ad-lib about picking up small furry animals from Banham zoo for wigs! We were all a bit nervy as we set off on this. I recall it was a tad fast and once again the transitions were a bit rough. I managed to miss a bar or two of the link from “I Feel Fine” to “She Loves You” which meant I had to mouth the early drum link to Dave who was a bit confused at this point. But we got through it and learned from the experience I think. The hour was soon over and, as per last time, we finished with rock’n’roll (was it Peggy Sue?) rather than the big ballad finish. After a short break I intended that we open up set 2 with “Let There Be Drums”; but Dave started with “Wipe Out” by mistake, so Nige and I got behind that and we ended up doing a good performance of “Walk Don’t Wipe Out”. Next up was “Eyes at Me For” which went well and then we got onto a typical set 2 routine with the Searchers. The timing on this was good and it brought a few up to dance. Only trouble was I sang the second verse of “Needles and Pins” first which brought us to the middle 8 very early - but the boys followed me with barely a beat lost! A fairly standard set 2 from then on: “Shine” went well and the “Bay Cities” got ‘em on the floor in force. I had a good look round the room as we ploughed on through this set and I could see that quite a few family groups were singing along. We wrapped up with “Love is All Around”. For Set 3 we got several dancers up as we played through the party dance sequence from “Amarillo” to “Hi Ho”; then we did a long version of “Unchained“ as a prelude to wrapping up with “Pretty Woman”. Then there were sufficient shouts for ‘more’ for us to do “I saw Her Standing There” and “Wonderful Tonight” as an encore. Nigel and I are counting bars differently for the solo in “Saw Her Standing There”; he is getting to the middle 8 about two bars ahead of me! Might be a one off ‘cos I’m sure we got it together last time we played it. We got packed up away by midnight. Despite an annoying rattle in the car disturbing my drive home I had a good run and was tucked up in bed by 1:45am.

Norwich WMC

Left at 5:30 and was in Norwich by 6:15pm. I was still looking for a legal way to make the turn to the club, so I carried on round the inner ring road to Duke St only to find it was one way = the wrong way and then I remembered I found this out last year!!! So I took a side road into the centre and after various duckings, divings, false drives up cul de sacs and one-way streets, I arrived on a road looking to make a promising crossing of the river. But no! The bridge was closed for repairs and I was diverted back under the inner ring road and out into the suburbs. Now lost I followed the sun to try and get back to the ring road and eventually came out near Oak St. I gave in at this point and drove the usual way to the club doing the dodgy right turn to find Dave’n’Jen parked up already unloading and stacking their gear outside a locked club. It wasn’t long before the club opened and Nige arrived, so we hauled the gear in and up to the concert room. Nige and I set off to park. He got a place on the street but I ended up going round the back to the Pottergate car park. Back in the club I remembered from previous experience that the stage curtains absorb a lot of the bands sound projection into the room; so I took a few minutes to hang the stage curtains away from the band as much as possible. Set up went like a well oiled machine and we were soon drinking lager courtesy of Nige who sets up after Dave so he knows where he can go. We got changed into the red’n’black and took to the stage a few minutes late to start a typical set 1. The sound on stage was fine, the banter was going down well and our continuity was good. There was a good rhythmic feel to the band and even a few up and dancing! Playing for an hour, we avoided the Beatles and the Shadows walk on the night but turned in a good Hollies performance and gave “Raining in my Heart” an airing. Nige dressed up in glasses and a wig to do Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” and we followed up with some rock’n’roll to give the dancers a good run. We finished with one, two, three Foot Tapper ladies doing “3 times a Lady”. Then there was a long break for bingo which was slowed by technical problems. Eventually we resumed to start a typical set 2 with the Searchers. Again Dave had the timing pegged back to pretty well perfect for dancing and the floor filled accordingly. We fitted in "Let There Be Drums" (it went better with a 3 bar break between chords, but I messed up the run ups) and "Eyes at Me For", which also went well (but I couldn't get the audience to sing-a-long?). We rattled on nicely to Elvis and I was just going to announce it as Phil (the concert sec) came over to announce a competition winner. After that short break we resumed unusually with "Walk Don't Wipe Out" to exercise Dave's muscles. After Elvis and Neil Diamond to finish the set 2 stuff we got going with “Amarillo” through the party dance sequence to “Locomotion”. We toned it down for “Unchained”. Now, here I was searching for an announcement about toilet chains and Nigel completed it brilliantly saying “low flush handle toilet modernisation in the 1970’s resulted in a lot of toilets being unchained!” After this we gave the Spencer Davis sequence an airing – a bit fast and out of practice and Dave suffering with his throat. It was close to time so we wrapped up with “Pretty Woman” and encored with “Wonderful Tonight”. We had gone down very well throughout the night and we were in a relatively good mood as we packed away. I went to get the car and, to my horror, I found it had been broken into. The offside passenger window was smashed and the green spares bag had been taken. But, thank goodness, my spare Godin and Fender 12 string were still there; as was Nige’s Who CD, my MP3 player, the camera and my mobile phone. Phew!!! a lesson learned for the future! I drove round to the club and the band, Gordon and the twins and Phil and Mickey from the club all rallied round to help. Most of the broken window fell out or was knocked out by Phil who then kindly went to get the police on the phone. I reported the problem and elected to drive home rather than hang around. So I fixed up a bit of my old packing curtain to cover the window and set off home in (fortunately) dry conditions. I kept to a steady 60 on the A11 so it was just after 2am when I got in and unloaded the gear. Next day Autoglass put in a Perspex sheet cut to size and hoovered the glass out; saying the replacement window would be here on Monday. I had lost a Roland DR3 drum machine, the JTS radio mic, an old AKG guitar bug radio system and my spare Korg AX10 foot pedal. I don’t hold out much hope of recovering the stuff and some of it I won’t replace. But I will cut down on the spares I carry and bring everything into the venue for the future.

Norwich Oaklands Hotel Dinner Dance

We had been briefed to arrive early to set up before the meal, so I got underway just after 5pm. I thought I would avoid Thetford and set off down the A143, but soon ran into a slow moving tailback after Great Barton. I decided to divert back to Thetford taking a route West heading to Fornham. This day I got lucky ‘cos just then on the radio they announced a crash blocking the Thetford road just North of Bury; and the route I had taken actually bypassed the incident! Thereafter I made good progress to the gig arriving at 6:20ish. I had just got the door opened when up rolled Dave; on his own today. He didn’t look too well. He was breathless and weak finding it a real struggle getting the gear up the stairs. I was quite concerned but he thought it was only asthma aggravated by the high pollen count . Nige arrived about the same time as Gerri Kersey (one of the organisers). She met up with me and explained the overall plan for the night. I followed up later to sort out a bit more detail with Ian (the other organiser) and then I drew up a plan: start with muzak through the reception and main course, then the band doing quiet instrumentals, evolving from ‘old’ time spot waltz’s etc into pop, a break for the raffle and a final dance set with carriages at midnight. Apart from my use of the word ‘old’ Gerri thought it was great! In the meantime we started to set up in front of the dance floor. It was a bit of a push to get the Bose back behind the drums. My Bose ended up in a corner and Nige’s was quite far away on the other side.

We set volumes down a bit, put the musak on and retired to the bar – first round courtesy of Gerri! Dave always knows someone at a gig and tonight he knew the young man behind the bar. He had been a drummer (and guitarist) but he was now a whiz in juggling glasses and bottles as he ran the bar brilliantly. We suspect he was also rather gifted in doing cocktails, ‘cos after the lagers, he sorted us out some interesting and very rare fruit juice based energy drinks. I had a word with reception and secured the use of room 1 to get changed. It was very plush – even had a 4 poster bed! We put on white’n’black – me and Nige smart and Dave still suffering from strictly ‘ting tong’ as he struggled into the dragon shirt! We crept on stage just after 9pm as the puddings were being served and started very quietly with a jazzy 12 bar. This went well and we all got loosened up playing solos for about 5 minutes or so. From then we played about 30 minutes of instrumentals; some good, some not so good, some even got a round of applause. I enjoyed a bluesy improvisation that turned into something like “Albatross” – think I might learn that one day. We also did an interesting “Chatanooga Choo Choo” and “Diamonds” amongst several Shadows numbers. I thought the band had done really well to play so quietly and with such versatility. Ian came up as the coffee was served to ask us to liven things up, so we started up with the full version of “Just One Look” The sound where I stood was not good – I couldn’t hear Dave and Nige singing too well at all; I think Nige pushed up their volume a bit as it progressed but my Bose was very prominent in the mix I was hearing (possibly because of its location in the corner which funnelled the sound into my ear). But most of the audience were up and dancing as we carried on through the normal flow to the Everly’s. Dave and I sensibly read that the situation demanded minimum banter and that’s what they got! After the Everlys we did “Moon River” as the first spot waltz. Not a bad performance considering it hadn’t been rehearsed. After the first solo we stopped for the first spot prize. Rather than leave a short gap while we selected the best couple dancing. Dave rushed my plan by also doing the intended 3rd prize announcement about bringing up a hankie (or a shoe).which just confused things - so we just got on and resumed the song. Next up was my party piece bossa nova “Girl From Ipanema”. I had rehearsed this at home but we had never played it together before. Dave set a fine, strong Latin beat and Nige gave it his best Brazillian bass passion as I tried to croon it through in a soft smooth jazz voice. We played it nicely to the spot where we awarded the prize for the most glamorous bossa nova couple. Then we resumed to finish off with another verse and bridge. The crowd danced really well to this and I was pleased with the overall performance of the song. I thought we came across as a bit of a ‘lounge lizard Locarno dance band’ and it shows that if we work on this kind of thing we can easily have the function set sorted. Next up was a Jim Reeves waltz: “He’ll Have to Go”. In the middle I got Dave to stop for the final spot which we awarded to a lady in green for the most striking dress. Having completed the spot prizes, we resumed the dancey ‘Foot Tappers” music, picking and mixing a bit up to The Shadows walk. Dave wasn’t sure about doing this, but I pushed it and in the event it went down real well. We had a line of 5 up and doing the walk playing rubber guitars, tambourine and just dancing. On the whole I must say they didn’t do a disciplined walk but they did enjoy themselves and there was a lot of photo’s taken – always a good sign! Because we were operating ‘off piste’ a lot, and Dave was not too well, I had to spend quite a bit of time finding the songs in his book. Thankfully, Nigel was very good at spotting delays and filling in with some impromptu banter to keep things going. We eventually finished off the set with “3 Times a Lady” which I though we played and sang very well and it filled the floor! Resuming after the raffle, I called for the party dance sequence and we played that through from “Amarillo” to “Hi Ho” filling the dance floor all the way. After “Unchained” we reverted to set 2 material, starting with ”Sweet Caroline” and sort of playing roughly backwards through the set with “Halfway”, The Eagles and the Searchers before it was time to wrap up with “Pretty Woman” - which brought out shouts for ‘more’. So we encored with “Wonderful Tonight”. Although there were still some cries for ‘more’ we announced we had to stop as it was after midnight and we didn’t want to disturb the residents. Ian came over and congratulated the band on helping to make their night a success and then it was the long pack up. Dave was a bit lost without Jen and it took us quite a while to get all the gear in the cars. We left about 12:50am and I was home about 2 am.

Lowestoft Ex Services

Had a good run over and arrived about 6:25pm even though I had a bit of diversion through town because of encroaching pedestrianisation in the run up to the back of the club. I got all my gear in before Nige arrived and parked up behind me. We set the Bose up well to the back on the small stage but I had to mount the FX rack on its side and piggy back my bass bins to fit in. No room for the 12 string.

Dave’n’Jen arrived as I was testing and we took a break to sort out Dave’s front of stage position and get the beers in. Resuming the tests I was puzzled by the lack of FX on vocals so out came the torch and I delved into the back of the FX rack. Eventually I found both output leads had came adrift. One routes the processed signal to Nigel’s Bose and the other to mine - the problem was replacing them the right way round. I reasoned it out from the mixer pan settings, but the bingo was being called and I wasn’t able to test properly. So I had another beer and relaxed to the sounds of the bingo. No dressing room so we got changed in the lobby at the back. Nige and I got changed into the smart white’n’black and Dave put on his Chinese waiter dragon shirt. We got the go ahead at 9pm and started off with “Foot Tapper”. All went well until we transitioned into “Just one Look” when some high pitched feedback started. I tried to fiddle with the settings as we carried on through a typical set 1, but in the end we just had to lower the volumes and even then we would get feedback on some notes. Fortunately, the audience wasn’t too bothered and we had a few up and dancing, so we just soldiered on. We had a couple of ladies doing the Shadows walk. One must have had a few because she got her lefts and rights mixed up and kept walking into me! But this gave me the inspiration to fix the feedback problem; I reasoned that I must have replaced the left / right leads the wrong way round feeding the same additive vocal to each Bose rather than feeding each others signal to the other Bose! But the change would have to wait for the break. Along the way we did an interesting “Eyes at Me For” with added audience sing-a-long and we filled the floor with “I Believe” as a mid-set slowey for a change. As we ran up to an hour we ran to a finish with a well paced “Rock Around The Clock, Summertime Blues, Be Bop A Lula” sequence. This brought the dancers out in force, but they were out of breath and sitting down towards the end so we did the big finish with “3 Times a Lady” which brought the romantics out on the floor again! In the interval I fixed the PA problem by swapping the mixer L R settings. A lady rightly commented I was too young to be in the Checkmates in 1959 so I told her it was ‘dog years’ in my case and I was into my 5th incarnation as Rover! We came back on to do Set 2 starting with the “Searchers” and running right through to “Sweet Caroline”. The sound was back to normal thank goodness and, once again, the harmonies sounded very good. The audience joined in enthusiastically for “Alice and Halfway” and gave Elvis a rousing reception. But time was getting on, the last bus seemed to be at 11pm and the audience started to thin out. We tried “Amarillo”, Crazy Little Thing and Johnny B Good” to keep an atmosphere going, but then I made a poor call to end the set with “Love Is all Around”. Only then did we realise we only had about 30 minutes to go – we should have just carried on!. So we just had a quick break and resumed with a short set playing to about 20 and starting with “Shine”. This went down quite well with the small crowd and I must say it was the best we had played it. Dave and I are finally getting our backings in order and it chugs along quite nicely. We picked and mixed our way through a selection including a well felt “Unchained” and nicely paced “American Trilogy” only marred by Dave not waiting for the guitar cue into the ‘sing it fellas’ section and me getting the Synth switch the wrong way to get an organ sound instead of the flute for the solo. We played out with a request for “Dance the Night Away” and I must say, considering it rarely gets an airing, we did it real well; it was well paced, it sounded good, there were no errors and we all finished together – well done to all concerned! Although there only a few left by then, they gave it up with a rousing applause! So we encored with “Pretty Woman” – I got Dave to kick off with the drums under the opening announcements and we did a goodbye from all the band at the end. We packed and loaded efficiently, Jen and Nige once again helped me out with all my bits and pieces while Dave did the glad handing. After a bit of manoeuvring in the tight space at the back we were on the road for 12:30am and I was home for about 1:40am on a full moonlit and chilly night.

Oasis California Sands Scratby

Confidence was high after the previous weekend’s success, but none of us expected a full house at this gig. Decided to avoid traffic at Thetford by taking the A143 out of Bury, then up through Garboldisham to join the A11; but traffic was a bit thick on this route and it was slow going to the A11. However, from then on it was a fast run through to Acle and with thin traffic therafter I was at the gig by 6:25 to find Dav’n’Jen already parked up there. It was a bit chilly for May and Angela, the lady guvnor, asked us to bring the gear into the kitchen first and then we could open the doors into the concert room to take it on through to the stage. Nige arrived as we started setting up.

We like this stage. There’s enough room to set up properly and with a slightly damped backdrop, carpeted floor and high ceiling over the dance floor, the acoustics have an airy reverb that suits and projects vocals nicely. We were soon set up, pitching the master volumes slightly up on normal (heading for 1pm). I was using my Fender 12 string and I set the guitar channel volume up a notch to build on recent experience to have some volume in reserve by backing down the guitar master volume a quarter turn. This also takes some of the top off which does work well with the Fender 12. Dave’s stage light was faulty and gave him a bit of a shock as he tried to set it up, so I condemned it on the spot and made him use the battery powered LED light. We will sort out a safe replacement. We declined a sound check and the DJ got on with bingo and we got on with a beer. We only had two 45 minute sets to do and there were only about 25 in the room, so we thought we’d do a normal set 1 and see how it went. Anticipating next weekend’s dinner dance, I dished out Function Music Folders to the boys and we briefly talked through the concept. Then we got changed into the red’n’black’n’whiteties for a 9 pm start introduced very professionally by the DJ. Started “Foot Tapper” and transitioned neatly into the shortened version of “Just One Look”. Straight away we experienced a great on-stage sound and the band had an energy that helped us produce a good show – the only downside being I felt we were hurrying through both the music and banter just a tad fast for a small audience not in the mood for dancing. However, the band sounded fine, harmonies sounded great, mistakes were rare, the high energy meant we were coming across as ‘professional’ entertainers and the reaction from the small audience was good. So we were in generally good spirits as we completed the mid-point of the set with a successful appearance by Sir Cliff of North Walsham with Dave wearing black glasses and followed by a good Shadows walk with a couple of ladies joining me out front for the dance. After the “3 Seasons” we followed up with a mixed Beatles experience. The medley started off a bit too fast which prevented the band gelling and swinging through the rest of it. On the other hand we got the transitions between numbers right and the wig routines went well - I shook mine off on the “ooh” for “She Loves You”! The harmonies for the start of “Nowhere Man” were a bit off. I thought it was me, but Dave said he thought he was too blame? The problem was duplicated parts (not singing out of tune) and I don’t think it was too noticeable out front. I am minded to shorten this sequence a bit more to increase the impact e.g only one verse and middle 8 of each song – I’ll sleep on it! The DJ came back for the close; we were all surprised to find 45 minutes had passed and it was time to wrap up. We chose to end the set with “Rock Around The Clock” which brought a couple up to dance and we finished to a good round of applause. During the long interval the DJ ran a team A and B name that tune competition which went well despite the small audience. We started set 2 about 10:45pm with the Searchers and ran right through to the Eagles on the 12 string. The harmonies started good and just got better as this sequence went on. In fact we were all taken aback by the sound of our own voices coming in on the chorus of “Take It Easy” - it just sounded great and we got a good response to it even from people behind the Perspex screen in front of the bar. So the sound must have carried well in the hall. Although the audience was starting to thin, the stragglers remained enthusiastic as we soldiered on through “Alice”, “Halfway” and Elvis. After that we skipped the “Bay Cities” and just had time to get out a very short version of “500 Miles” (well called Dave'n'Nige!) followed by “Amarillo” before it was time to close with a short version of “Unchained”. We got a surprisingly good response to this from the about 15 people left with some shouts for more so we did an encore with “Pretty Woman”. The audience was still enthusiastic after this but the DJ kindly took over and we exited stage left to get changed. Despite the small audience it had been a very good night for the band. We agreed it was odd that we had only played the one slowey through the night and noted that we may have missed an opportunity to get a few up and dancing as a result – but ‘c’est la vie’! We were packed up and away by 12:30 and I was home at 1:30 am.

Caister Community Centre

This was a new gig for us and Dave had briefed us that the guvnor liked the band PR and looked forward to seeing the entertainment / dressing up bit. Set off at 5pm. A fast run to Acle meant I was in the vicinity of the club by 6:20pm. But I was wrongly looking for the Social Club, so I drove by the Community Centre and all the way down to the beach before turning back when I saw Nigel pull into the Community Centre! We parked up round the back next to Dave’s van and entered the club room through the fire door. It’s a small room with a small stage, but looked to be ‘our kind of club’. Dav’n’Jen were setting up and Nige and I soon pitched in to get Dave placed well forward so we could set up the Bose’s and Nigel behind Dave. That left me out front on a small stage extension about a foot lower than the main stage. The extension was made up of two felt covered boxes that tended to slip apart when moving around or treading the pedal board. We met up with PJ the guvnor and he sorted out set times (2 sets), lighting and dressing room for us. Then he asked us to do a soundcheck so we did a bit of “Just One Look” – it was a bit loud so we had another bash and he gave us the OK. We settled down to a beer then had a few words with some of the early arrivals for the night - 60 somethings and they were looking for jivable rock’n’roll. I noted a request for “Johnny B Goode”. Dave struggled into his red shirt with white tie and black waistcoat then Nigel and I got dressed similarly. Nige’s finger looks OK but he says it easily pops out again. It doesn’t affect his bass playing - in fact he had depped for Midnight Hour the night before! There were about 25 in the room but also quite a few in the bar at the back as PJ introduced us and we opened up for an hour’s set with “Foot Tapper”. Dave did a good band intro voiceover the last verse and we got a good round of applause as we ended it and swang straight into “Just One Look”. Dave made a good decision to shorten this to one middle 8 (I think we should do that as standard - it allows us to give a taster of the band and take applause while they are still attentive). We took a few seconds to receive the applause but I already had the vibes from Dave that he was nervous so I started the banter for “Heartbeat” a bit less relaxed than usual. We got on smartly with “Heartbeat” and “Good Luck Charm” and earned a great early response from the small crowd. The Everlys intro went well with good Mog – Dave banter and we got going with “Cathy’s Clown” OK (I think we could do with Nigel and Dave doubling up on the high line to give it more presence?). The transition into “Bye Bye Love” went very well and brought the 2 couples we spoke to earlier onto the dance floor to do a bit of jiving. Here Dave’s and my thinking fell apart. Dave seemed to read it as ‘they like the Everley’s’ and I read it as ‘they want some mild rock’n’roll’. Anyway Dave took us into “Walk Right Back” at quite a pace; the dancers sat down and I decided to terminate it early to get back on track (got Dave a bit peeved – sorry!!). So I made the call for “Blue Suede Shoes” and we soon had the place rocking and the 4 dancers jiving again. To change the mood I called for “Only You” as the early slowie after that and then we introduced Nigel’s “Beautiful Body”. I decided “How Long” would be lost on this audience so we passed on that and got straight on with “Seasons of Gold” which went down really well with loads of appreciative applause. We did Cliff and the Shadows getting the Tour of the OSA (Other Side of Aylsham) banter timed much better. Then Dave got all the right responses to his Shadows banter from a tuned in audience and we got the 2 ladies from the dancing group up to do the Shadows walk which (once again) earned ‘a highlight of the night’ audience response! We passed on the Beatles but tightened our trusses to do the Hollies. For me this was a bit hurried, and I made quite a mess of the solo at the end of “Bus Stop” which threw me out for the rest of the medley. But I don’t think the audience noticed – they gave it a great round of applause. With time running out I called for “Rock Around the Clock”. Dave needed a cough at the end of this so Nigel and I transitioned into “Summertime Blues” with Nige doing a good voiceover introduction on our riff while Dave had a gargle. At the end I was going to call for a slowie to finish, but Nige and Dave made a great call for the requested “Johnny B Goode” which we duly obliged with for a ‘floor filling’ (well 4 dancing), rock the house finish to a great audience response. PJ came over and said how much he enjoyed it: great harmonies, loved the banter, wonderful medleys etc. Taking up a suggestion from Ms J, Dave got changed into his Kimono shirt while Nige and I put on our smart black’n’white outfits. So we looked like 3 waiters, 2 from a posh English restaurant and one from Chinese takeaway! After bingo we opened up set 2 with the Searchers which went down really well. I had already briefed the boys we would do “Let There Be Drums” next so I quickly set about introducing Dave and got in the remark about ‘he had to nip out to do a shift at a Chinese takeaway in the interval’ Another great audience response so Dave returned the compliment introducing me as an ex Checkmate to do “Eyes at Me For”. We played it well and straight but, with hindsight, I should have spotted that this audience were up for a sing song and put some audience singing bits in. Next up was the “Beatles”. I thought we got this much better than last time but, despite a lot of home practice, it was me that got the harmony wrong in “Nowhere Man” - sorry boys! Then we did the “Eagles”. This was too fast for me on the night and I had a bit of trouble playing the guitar bits in it (we had only had one weekend off?) After that we did the Alice - Halfway – Elvis – Sweet Caroline entertainment sequence. This all went very well and was much appreciated. Nige did a good intro for the “Bay Cities” but we were a little disappointed with their response to “Shang-a-Lang" so we cut that short and picked up some set 3 repertoire with “Amarillo" into "Hey Baby”. This got them singing along nicely. Time was marching on so we started “Unchained” and announced that as the last song. This filled the dance floor, but we rightly cut it short so we could take the applause and do an encore. Well the audience gave it up for us with lots of shouts for more. So I called for “Pretty Woman”. Dave was a bit manic talking over PJ who was asking us to do an encore and then trying to introduce me to introduce this piece. In my mind I was going to do two songs as encores to deliver good value for money - but Dave shut it down very quickly at the end. I feel there would have been no harm in doing one more, PJ and the crowd looked up for it and many bands encores last a few songs nowadays. Still PJ was effusive in his appreciation of the band saying it was the best they’d had in a long time. We got packed and loaded OK – thank goodness Dave spotted I had left the mains extensions on the stage. I had a good run home to Thetford, but I was held up there by a police roadblock on the A134. After trying unsuccessfully to navigate past it through a maze of a housing estate, I found an alternative route via Elvedon. Got in at 1:40am. Early for me - Claire was still out on the town!