Wensum Community Centre

Got away at about 5:45pm and had an uneventful run over to Norwich on a dark, cold night. Sufficiently cold for me to get my Winter anorak out! Arrived about 6:45 pm and a few minutes Nigel rolled up (in just his shirt?) just as Richard the entertainments manager appeared to open up. We had just started to get the gear in when Martin arrived to dep for the night. I took the trouble to set up the Fender 12 string but both guitars needed a bit of tuning – probably the cold weather! We did a bit of a soundcheck with “How Long Has This Been Going On” which went surprisingly well. But by about 7:50pm we were all set up and ready for a beer – thanks Martin! Some folks from Norwich WMC came to support, but noted that Mark James was on at the WMC so quite a few of the ladies were staying there! We opened up at 8:20pm to do about an hour of our usual sort of stuff and, although it wasn't crowded, there were enough in the concert room paying attention to keep us on our toes. Generally our lightweight set 1 wigging and banter went well, but there weren't many takers for dancing. After about 50 minutes we wrapped up with “Words” and took a break for another beer – thanks Nigel! Resuming set 2 we started with “Travelodge California”. I muffed a bit of the early part of the solo, but that aside we played it pretty well. The surprise 'accented' ending must have confused the audience who only started applauding as we shaped up for the next song. A number of people had been talking to us about Dave (and the tribute) so we did “Somewhere Under the Sun” as a dedication. I stuck on the 12 string through the “Hollies” and “Searchers” medleys but I think I changed back for “Do It Again”. Played on to an old Foot Tappery type climatic end through “Sweet Caroline”, “Wonder of You”, “Crazy Little Thing”, Johnny B Goode to finish with “Love is All Around”. I had a bit of trouble remembering this one but got there in the end. In the break I asked Martin to have a go at “Let There Be Drums” to open Set 3. That got a great round of applause and we got a few up dancing as we did “Dance the Night Away”, “Do You Wanna Dance” and “Amarillo”. As things were going well I called for Ace's “How Long”. By using a pick Nige got a great bass sound just like the record and we got the vocals so well we couldn't resist repeating the chorus several times at the end. And it went down real good with the audience, so we continued to pick and mix to another climatic end with “Unchained” and then “Walk Alone”. This went down a bomb as usual. I had primed Nigel for “Hippy Hippy Shake” as the encore so we tore into that and then Nige threw in “Saw her Standing There” for good measure. A great ending to a good performance. We had some fine complimentary remarks as we packed up – 'a class act' seemed to sum it up! Richard was apologetic that he couldn't get more people in from the bar to the concert room, but said that the sound had carried well into the bar and people there really enjoyed the band. Packed up and loaded by about 12:40am and home by 1:30am well satisfied with the night.