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.
