Mick had set this up and we were going to play 40 minutes in a packed programme with several bands. I was pleased Ms J had decided to accompany me. As I only had to bring a guitar and suit bag we decised to use the Focus; but at the last minute I decided to take the old Checkmates PA to give to Mick’s son Michael which did fill the car up. Anyway we set off in the Focus on a wild, windy, rainy evening and eventually arrived at the bar just before 7pm to find set up was still in progress. Although it looked chaotic it was, in fact, coming together. I got the use of Stevey’s (from the UK Beach Boys) Session Amp and Nige was going to plug in a big Fender bass amp; all miked up through Mick’s big PA: RCF12s and Yamaha Bass Bins. Actually the bar looks a nice gig to play: Nige and I sampled the lager and Ms J had a very good (and large) dry white whilst we waited for things to start. First up was Mick’s brother Steve: a larger than life character with a long list of jokes. He started with a song by the ‘Real Thing’ Nige thought we could do; kind of similar to a Barry White song I was going to suggest so we could do a ‘whale of love’ routine. Next up were the ‘Strangers’ playing mainly R&B standards. The sound was good but a few numbers in reverb was added which introduced feedback and mud to an otherwise good mix. Nige liked the guitar sound: a Steinberg played through a Polytone amp. It delivered a middly sound and certainly cut through the mix and he was a pretty good player combining jazz and blues elements to deliver a classy performance. Mick’s other brother, David, was playing guitar in the next band ‘Skiffle It’ who unexpectedly started with a Searchers number before carrying on with a repertoire more associated with the band name. With acoustic guitar and banjo tones they had a good pallet to play with and put on a good show despite continuing problems with the PA. We got our Sky High slot after the raffle, so we went to get changed. The raffle completed and then it was plug in time. I couldn’t get a clear sound out of the Session amp at volume so had to settle for a breaking up middly sound better suited to blues. Ah Well – the show must go on. We opened with “Flingel Bunt” and got a surprisingly good response. We carried on with “Just One look” and “Heartbeat” to settle in. The on stage sound was terrible but we seemed to be going down well with warm applause after each number so we slogged on with “All Shook Up” which got a bit of dancing going. We carried on with the Eagles “How Long” which was going OK until Mick’s headset mic packed up in the second verse. I took over on lead vocal but wasn’t sure whether Mick was coming back or not, so the harmonies were compromised as I tried to sing a mix of lead and the high line. As it finished Mick called for a battery and installed that while I announced “Sky High”. We finally bashed that out and headed into the closing sequence of “Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline” and then finished with “You’ll Never Walk Alone” dedicated to the Heroes. We got a good reaction for that so I called for “Saw Her Standing There” to encore. Then we were off. I got changed and packed ready to go, but I saw a couple of numbers by the re-union band as I collected Ms J for a swift exit. It was still raining outside and the car was a bit blocked in so I had to negotiate some tight bollards to get out the car park. We had a slowish run home in the wind and rain getting in just after midnight.
