Nige and I had been concerned about this gig. It would be our first with Alex (ex Bad Manners) who was depping on drums. Although we had arranged to bring a spare mic and stand along, it was understood Alex was unlikely to sing much. But our main concern was being able to play a show without Dave that would suit this more elderly crowd. So, during the week, I had agreed with Nige some changes to the running order to include some country (always one of Dave's specialities) and a bit more of Sir Cliff. Like the previous few gigs I had brought along a couple of tennis rackets to serve as guitars - but I expected to use them at this gig! Set up went well on the decent sized stage apart from Alex forgetting the legs to his large tom, but he set it up on the floor and it sounded fine. I had discussed with Nige in the week whether to use the harmoniser or not and we had agreed to give it a try. This meant a bit of fiddling setting levels on the T1 because the output from the harmoniser is much higher than a normal mic. We had a bit of a chat about running order over a beer and then went to get changed in the TV room where we met up with a rockabilly band (called TJ and the ?) who were getting changed for their show in the bar. We got changed into the white'n'black and took to the stage to open up with our usual start playing to a fairly full room. Alex hit a tight beat that was easy to play along with and I thought the on stage balance was good, maybe a tad loud on the drums but Alex soon settled into a groove. We got a good response as we finished “Just One Look”. We introduced the band and said a few words for Dave and then we were off with our old time biased sets featuring: “Around the World”, “Lady is a Tramp”, my 50's sing'a'long medley, “By The Time I get to Phoenix”, “Move It”, “Easily Fall In Love” and the country barn dance medley as well as many of the usual 'favourites'. We were surprised at how well it all worked considering we were a voice down. I used the harmoniser sparingly on some of the 60's stuff (e.g the Beatles medley where Nige covered most of Daves lead parts). The vocals and the band sounded good. Only snag was we were asked to lower the volume a couple of times and although we took it down quite a bit they were still asking for more? But we could now hear TJ's band booming through the dividing wall to the bar and we wondered if it was their band that was creating our noise problem? We did get a couple of ladies up to play the tennis rackets on “Apache” and it earned a great reception. Nige dedicated “Under the Sun” to Dave. As we played on through the long night we dug deep for material and pulled out another barn dance as I busked “Travelling Light – Livin Doll” and a couple of country quicksteps with “Fulsom Prison” and Nige's Jambalaya. The crowd had thinned a bit as we approached midnight and we finished with some rock in the form of “Johnny B Goode” and then “Wonderful Tonight” as the slowey sign off. Leaving the gear set up was a bit of a wrench but it made for an earlier arrival home. On the way home I reflected on the fact that: sure we missed Dave's star quality personality and vocals; but what a good solid job Alex had done and how well Nige and I had worked together to produce a competent professional show.
Sunday was more of the same except we had the sound completely sorted and Nige and I were more confident. The voices held up well despite it being the third night in a row. We varied the show a bit and did a couple of requests including “Lying Eyes” which I sang lead (and used the harmoniser in the chorus) which went really well considering it was one of Dave's specialities. And I think we got a generally better reception than the Saturday. In fact one of the guvnor's tried to book us for another night (we were already booked) but that in itself proved we had done the job well. So we finished with mixed emotions: still a bit down about Dave but quite up because we had completed the weekend successfully; emotionally and physically tired but burning with post-show energy as well. I felt pretty good as I drove home - the decision Nige and I had made to honour these commitments had been the right one.
