Norwich British Legion

Back from the US on Monday into British weather at 2 degrees and a snowstorm on the M25 to contend with. In theory I shouldn't be jet lagged, but I keep dozing off – must be old age! By Saturday I had noodled a bit on the guitar, set out some thoughts for repertoire and felt up to speed for the gig at Norwich British Legion. I conferred with the boys in the day and we concluded Mick would be best served trying out his Roland TD3V electronic kit and his new Behringer headset mic. Set off for Norwich about 5:20 pm and arrived about 6:30pm after a quiet run to find the place locked up. Nige's car was already there but he had gone round the front of the club to wait for the doors to open. Mick arrived and we surveyed the building and looking through the window we saw Nige strolling around in the concert room – but it took him a few minutes to find the man with a key! Mick had brought his RCF12's along in case any extra monitor sound was needed; but I outlined plan A which was to take left and right feeds from the kit brain into each Bose input 4. Nige suggested we start with Utility Flat settings and we quickly knocked off most of the bass and boosted the highs to get a rough live mix for the kit. It sounded loud on stage but didn't project as well, so we fiddled a bit, but eventually we stuck at a variation that seemed to work. Nige tried to set up Mick's headse mic, but there was a big problem getting volume and tone out of it, so Mick reverted to a mic stand and trusty Shure SM58. By then there was only time for a quick beer and change before were on at 8pm. Started off with Foot Tapper and the drums sounded fine. We followed up with “Just One Look” and you could hear the vocals much more clearly than normal. I put this down to the electronic kit not competing as much in the mids as an acoustic kit. The other advantage is that when we were asked to turn it down a bit, we just had to pull the master volumes down a notch. The downside is its slightly more difficult to feel the beat and from time to time I had a bit of trouble getting out of time; all the more so because playing at such a low volume there is not much 'give' in the guitar sound. After “Heartbeat” Cathys Clown/Bye Bye Love and Beautiful Body”, we played quite an easy listening lightweight first set which included Mick's rendition of a Jim Reeves: “Hell Have to Go – Anna Marie” medley, Mick doing the “Lady Is a Tramp” (which suffered from a clash of understanding between me and Mick on the arrangement) and Nigel's Country session with added Mick on “Rambling Rose”. There was also room for some rock'n'roll. By and large I must say we had quite a bit of success in getting dancers up, some of this was down to the choice of material, but a lot seemed to be down to the easier pace at which we took things than previous outings here. The audience kindly overlooked or forgave a slight lack of continuity and consistency and we were very well received. The set finished with a curtailed Beatles medley as the guvnor turned on the lights for bingo. In the break we met up with another Mick doing a solo singer spell in the bar and Nige and I quaffed another beer. After bingo we resumed with “Under the Sun”, Tambourine Man, Searchers, Do It Again and Lying Eyes” all on the Fender 12 string. This kept pretty good tune and the band managed pretty good continuity and gradually filled the floor with the crowd naturally dropping into a barn dance as we opened up with Mick doing “Lying Eyes”. Mick and Nige cunningly called for the full 6 minute version which fully exercised all the permutations of the barn dance. We slipped in “How Sweet It Is” then dropped the pace with “Halfway” (fumbled the start) and “Wonder of You” before picking it up with “Sweet Caroline, “HI Ho”, “Do You Wanna Dance” sequence to a finale with “Words”. All very well received. In the break Nige had attracted the attention of one of the audience who thought we were very good and passed on her 0800 number! After a short break we resumed with “Price of Love” which I was keen to air. We got a good rhythm going but I need to work on the harmonies a bit. Also I think it would benefit from being partnered with a similar driving number? We carried on with “Dance the Night Away” and then into “Amarillo, Hey Baby, The Twist” before trying “Ferry Cross Mersey”. Mick did a great job with the vocal and the band got a good feel; and the audience sang along and gave it a good round of applause. Feeling confident we risked an airing of a completely unrehearsed “Runaround Sue” - not bad for a first attempt! We did few more numbers and then finished off with “Walk Alone” which got a sufficiently good reception that we obliged the shouts for 'more' with “Johnny B Goode”at 11:50pm. Although it had been a long night it was an easy pack up because we only took guitars home. I was soon on the road and home for 1:20am.