We had Marty from the Peppermint Men depping on drums. Jacqui and I had been staying with Steve and Alison at East Runton and after a nice lunch at the Village Inn at West Runton I had lost track of time. So I had driven over from East Runton to drop Jacqui off with about half an hour to spare before I set off for Norwich. Then as I approached Norwich I had to divert down the Watton road 'cos of a crash on the Newmarket Road. I eventually arrived to find Nigel and Marty already there - with Marty being attended to by the RAC because of a key stuck in the lock. As usual it was a bit of a struggle getting the gear up St Gregory's Alley especially 'cos Marty had a massive wheeled flight case that needed all three of us to hump it up the stairs. Set up went fine, we could get the Bose well back and we were delighted when Marty unveiled his bass drum showing three pictures on the front: a 'foot', a 'tap' and a 'purse'! This puzzle was to be an endless source of amusement to the audience who delighted in explaining it to one another. This club had been one of Dave's favourite gigs. He knew so many people here and, heart wrenchingly, several of the audience had turned out this evening wearing the badges of Dave from the funeral. With Phil the guvnor being on holiday, I sought out a responsible looking lady to confirm the start and end times (8:30 -11:30); but forgot to ask when the bingo was!! We were running tight on time as we got changed into the black with white ties and despite best efforts were a few minutes late striking up with “Foot Tapper”. Marty settled into a great groove from the off and the on-stage sound was very good. All must have been good out front as well, because we immediately had several dancers up and, as we finished, we had to pause to take some applause before continuing with “Just One Look” which also went well. Marty joined in singing some nice falsetto harmonies and the band sounded just great on-stage. Nige and I did a band intro, thanking Marty for standing in and we said a few words to mark Dave's passing and explained how he loved playing Norwich WMC and how much we missed him here. We resumed with “Heartbeat” and Beautiful Body” and carried on with the usual flow getting a good dancing and applause response all the way. I called for the 50's medley at one point and it got a bit of sing-a-long going but I sensed it's time to review this. I've been doing it for about 15 years as a stop-gap for audiences of a certain age and never had time to arrange it properly – so that will go on my 'to do' list. What was really working on this evening was the 60's stuff: Marty was really comfortable with it and some pieces gelled really well. We did a very good Beatles routine, but the one that I remember as being truly excellent was the Searchers medley. Timing and accents were just great, the harmonies with Marty joining in were full and tuneful and the band sounded in great form. The audience also seemed to sense this was a watershed moment for the band as they filled the dance floor and gave us a massive round of applause as we finished it. By 'watershed' I mean the moment Nige and I stopped 'fire fighting' the loss of Dave and began to move on in our own right. The successful evening continued: Nige did a wonderfully jazzy “By the time I get to Phoenix” as a slowey, I came up with “Move It” again and we did the country session with Nigel coaxing the audience up to do a barn dance worthy of the 'Legion'. In fact as the evening wore on it was clear that Nige had stepped up nicely to role of leader for this gig – he was reading the audience well and filling any banter gaps that needed filling and he looked like he was enjoying singing and playing. We did a good 'I want girly harmonies' routine on “Halfway” with Nige ending up wearing the blonde wig – very attractive he looked too. I'll have to look for something less fetching!Towards the end I went out for a bit of a Shadows walk with the audience to “Flingel Bunt”. Although the dance was a bit uncoordinated, out there with the crowd I could hear how good the band sounded and what a great groove we had struck. We finished off with “Wonderful Tonight” at 11:30 and although we did one planned encore “Saw Her Standing There”, the audience was so truly enthusiastic that we switched the amps back on and wrapped up with “What I Say” to round off an excellent night. Marty had done really well. He is a fine personality and he was just great to work with. He certainly helped Nige and I to raise our game on the night. Packing up was the usual struggle but finally we loaded Marty's big flight case and I took my leave of the guys to head off home – tired; but very happy with the way things had gone recently. I felt I was now able to move on from the loss of Dave and start thinking about my banding future. I got in touch with Nigel the next day and we agreed we were ready to commit and get 'our' band going later in the year. We know Dave is irreplaceable but we truly believe we can get the next evolution of the band functioning in a way that Dave can look down and say 'those boys done me proud when I was with 'em, and they haven't let me down as they continue the fight to entertain the good folk of East Anglia!'. Only off-note from the weekend was the news that Marty had got a parking ticket while we were loading – sooo unfair I hope he appeals!
