6 inches of snow in the week had paralysed UK transport. The weather still wasn't good with sub-zero temperatures and more snow forecast. I decided to allow 2 hours and set off via Swaffham. The journey to Thetford was OK but once I turned off the A11 there was frozen snow on the road and speeds dropped. I was stuck in a queue of slow moving traffic down to about 20 mph for most of the run to Swaffham. Then, losing most of the traffic, I expected a faster run to Fakenham, bit no; I was slipping and sliding, so it was only a steady 30 mph. That was the pattern on to Holt when things improved a lot and I could get up to 50mph; arriving at the gig at 6:45 to find Nigel and Alex already there with a similar tale to tell. We were using a mix of gear, using my Bose L1 with Nige's T1 as the PA. Guitar through the Mesa Lonestar and Bass through Nige's Behringer PA into a single 15 EV cabinet. We put the Bose right at the back, but it took quite a bit of equalisation to get a good sound. The guitar sound was OK, if a bit thin because I took some more bass off it to counter the boom in the corner. Nige wasn't happy with the bass guitar sound and we eventually concluded that we would go back to all Bose next time, but pay particular attention to using the parametric EQ to filter out the low-mid boomyness. There were only a few in by 8pm but duty called so we got changed into the all black with red Xmas ties ready for an 8:30pm start. Just as we went on I could see snow coming down again outside. We played a usual sort of set to the small audience, I dropped in “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” and we did a bit more rock'n'roll than usual. The sound wasn't good on stage and we were a bit untogether, but going down well enough with the 20 or so in the room. As we got stuck into the Beatles, I could see out the window the snow coming down heavily outside but also the arrival of the Salvation Army. As they came in we stopped the medley expecting them to do a tune: but no they were going to have some sausage rolls, mince pies and coffee first, so we resumed playing through to the end of our set ending with “Words”. Then the very good 'Sally Ann' band did their bit and the club did their raffle, giving us quite a break before set 2. One couple took a liking to the band and we aimed our set at keeping them amused and dancing. Then we had a short break before the final half hour set. After we closed, our little fan club came over and said how much they enjoyed the band and when would we be playing again. We got packed up quickly conscious of the continuing snowfall; actually it eased off as we loaded up. The guvnor told Nige he had enjoyed the band, not our fault there weren't many there and he'd see us in the new year. We got ready for the off. I decided to go back through Norwich. I got away first and by keeping going I was able to get up the hill out of Sheringham coming to a skiddy halt across the A149 at the top. I turned left and headed off toward Cromer, turning right onto the minor Felbrigg road to avoid Cromer. The snow was falling again and was quite thick down this lane. It was difficult to see the road boundary and there was some traffic coming the other way to avoid. Doing a maximum of 20 mph I eventually arrived on the main A140 to Norwich, to find it was snowed up much the same. So it was a slow old drive to Norwich where it finally stopped snowing and the roads were relatively OK. Once I got through Norwich onto the A11 it was steady single lane going at about 40 mph. Then as I got to Thetford it became a lot clearer and I could do the last few miles at normal pace. I was pretty tired as I arrived home at nearly 3 am – normally this journey would take an hour and half it had taken about 2 and half hours on this night. Nigel and Alex had had an equally difficult journey home concluding in Nige slewing his car across the road whilst trying to park the car on the drive - he had to dig it out and apart from being blue with cold the air was a bit blue with expletives!
