Still cold. I set off about 2:30pm and arrived at Hemsby just after 4pm to find Mick loading gear into his van. Mick had been on with his mate doing a 'For Everly' set in the afternoon and had set his whole PA up, but he was breaking down the mixer which we wouldn't be using. I got my gear in and met up with Nigel to discuss wiring up the Bose to Mick's PA. Each stack consists of self-powered Yamaha Bass Bins, 1 x RCF12” + horn and 1 x RCF 10” + horn. It is a big room and we decided to stick to 'Plan A' with each Bose feeding each RCF to give stereo separation. After trying out returning the reverb to the T1, I decided it was prudent and good enough to rely on the Bose for reverb and send just a dry master out mix to the RCF. Nige and I set the T1 master outs to post-master source so we could reduce the whole volume as necessary from the T1's. Lee the entertainment manager introduced himself and asked us to set up on the smaller stage at the front. This allowed us to put the Bose in a commanding high position on the main stage. Just as we finished setting up Joe Brown's Bruvvers arrived to set up their gear. They set up on the main stage but would be bringing some of their gear forward as we cleared the stage after our set. When we were ready for a sound check Nigel went out front with my long lead as we ran through “Sky High”. He said it was a very good, hi fi sound but we would need to reduce volume a bit. Lee also said it was “too loud” in passing! Nige and Mick set about adjusting the RCF's down and that seemed to do the trick. This left us running the Bose at about 12 o'clock on the masters with the Yamaha bass bins set to about half and the RCF 10” and 12” set to about a quarter. It didn't sound that loud on stage but the Bose are surprisingly effective at filling even a big room like this. We then had a couple of hours to kill before our set at 9pm. Nige and I looked for a bar selling chips but to no avail, so we returned to join Mick and watched the Bruvvers complete their set up of mainly old gear. The guitarist was finger picking an old Strat through a Fender Blues De Ville; he was very good and got a great sound as well. Eventually the bar opened and we had a beer and Nobby's Nuts, munched our pack ups and watched the audience gather for Bingo. I think there were about 150 in as the bingo started. Amusingly they put on a 'grumpy' bingo caller – that got a few laughs. Soon it was time to get changed into our Sky High gear: black shirts, black ties, black trousers, black shoes, black socks and white waistcoats. Then it was onto the stage for a 9pm start for our 45 minute spot. Lee introduced the band and off we went into “Sky High” doing an energetic performance. Despite a bit of nerves I thought we played this well. The on-stage sound was OK if a bit distant; but we got a significant round of applause as we finished and entered the drum beat for “Don't Worry Baby”. Nige was able to get a quick “thanks” out before we started the introductory “Aahs” a bit raggedly. Again this performance was a bit nervy, but vocals were generally together and we finished beautifully on the 3 part harmony earning a warm round of applause. We took a couple of minutes bantering to introduce the band. This was also nervy and the banter timing wasn't good with me forgetting to get myself introduced. But we did get applause for each band member and set off into “Heartbeat” confidently. This time we got a few people up to dance and as we got going with “Do You Wanna Dance”; the dance floor got quite busy. Mick got the 'hallelujahs' timed right to follow Nige's intro of a number from 'Cliff Richard'; but my timing and harmony on the 'hallelujahs' was a bit untogether – but I think the idea worked and we should make the effort to make this a running band theme / joke. Although “How Sweet” seems a good song for dancing; we lost most of our dancers as we got into that. It was a slightly nervy, tad fast performance but again the final vocal harmony was spot on and it too garnered a good round of applause. We lost them with Ace's “How Long”; in retrospect it is too sophisticated and modern for this audience. Nige wisely decided to pass on the Eagles “How Long” and we got underway with the Beatles. The banter was a bit off but the wigs did raise a titter. We performed this OK and the harmony on “Nowhere Man” was very good with Mick blending well. However, those dancers who came out for the start of the medley had melted away by the end. As I introduced the “Searchers” I invited the audience to dance and (lo and behold) they came out and filled the floor nicely as we played this medley adequately. “Merry Xmas Everybody” was a bit messy and didn't keep the dancers too well. But “Sweet Caroline” did the business with dancing, sing-a-long and arms waving. Noting it was coming up to 9:42, we called “Never Walk Alone” as our last number. This went well, and filled the dance floor. By now we were getting used to the sound, Mick gave a strong vocal performance and we were rewarded with strong round of applause at the end. The grumpy bingo caller, manning the DJ desk signed us off and then he asked the crowd if they wanted some more? 'Yesss” they roared (or whimpered?) so it was guitars back on to encore with “Johnny B Goode” which I must say went pretty well and kept the dance floor busy. In retrospect, if we had our time again, I would have put in another slowey and maybe a couple of Everly's for this audience. I do think “Sky High” was the right high impact opener to make people take notice and the follow up mellow contrast with “Don't Worry Baby” worked well, but we would have been better replacing the sophisticated “How Long and How Sweet” with something older, sing-a-long and better known. We quickly changed and threw ourselves into clearing the stage. Getting the gear off the stage took only about 10 minutes. Then packing it up took another 15 minutes, not bad for a bunch of old crocks! Nige got a report from some people he knew in the audience that we were way too loud – oh dear! We carried on loading into vehicles, Micks van was jam packed at the end and he could hardly shut the door! By 10:30pm The Bruvvers were now ready to go and they played about an hour of rock'n'roll standards. Very competent, professional performance but I'd have liked to have seen some of the old Joe Brown hits. Towards the end of their set I decided to head off home for an early night - but it was still midnight before I got in. Mick had a word with Lee the manager who was very keen on his 'For Everly's' tribute duo – the finest tribute he'd seen all year! But it turned out he was less keen on 'Sky High', we think mainly because of the volume. Mick explained we had been trying out a new PA and had learned from the experience. In the end he left him to take some soundings from the audience; but we remain hopeful.
