Sheringham Social Club

Set off in plenty of time and had a slow run over, rolling up at the club at 6:20pm to find Mick and Nigel already in and setting up. Mick had his son Michael roadying for him and was soon set up. By the time I was set up Nige was ready to make a local visit to see a friend so I undertook to go through some music issues with Mick. We had a look at Anna Marie and found there was a Dm in there somewhere. Then we ran through some of the vocal arrangements for the Beatles and Searchers medleys. I played around with “Green Green Grass of Home” and we decided to give it a run on the night. When Nige got back there still wasn't anyone in the room so we continued a little, but then broke for a beer. People started coming in about 8pm and we went to get get changed – black shirt, black waistcoat and new red tie's. Got back in the concert room and there were about 30 in. More of a Foot Tappery audience than Sky High so I started to think about a more easy listening show. We started with Foot Tapper, Just One Look, Heartbeat, Do You Wanna Dance” to warm us into it. The on stage sound was good but I thought Mick's vocal (using his head set) was a bit down in the mix. We had a bash a “Peaceful Easy Feeling”. The harmonies show good potential but, although it didn't fall apart, there are some clear misunderstandings on the arrangement – so I will write it out. Next up was “Cathy's Clown-Bye Bye Love” apart from my forgetting the beginning this went well. By now we were getting some ladies up to dance and a good round of applause at the end of each number. The rock'n'roll sequence worked well through to "Thats Alright", complete with a together key change. We overeached ourselves by going on into "All Shook Up" without slowing down. It's a great number though and we are close to nailing the vocals. We did a reasonable “Beatles” with a good bit of intro banter and stronger vocal performance for “Nowhere Man” - but I let the side down by forgetting some of the words in “She Loves You”. Nige did “Phoenix” as the mid set slowey as we played on through trying to maintain continuity and dance interest - The “Green Green Grass of Home” made its debut following my taking the 'mick' about Mick's Welsh background – a couple of chords to find there, but otherwise it went well and will be a slowey crowd pleaser. We bought some raffle tickets in the break; Nige and I were a bit concerned about the relatively low turn out, but I was told that plenty of tickets had been sold and maybe it was the cold weather that had put some people off. We were invited to partake in the buffet and I had a sandwich and sausage roll. We started set 2 on the 12 string with a Happy Birthday and then our dedication of “Under the Sun” to Dave. A bit sad because, of course, Nige and I remembered this club as Dave's last gig with the band. We carried straight on with “Tambourine Man, Searchers, Do It Again” and then the long version of “Lying Eyes” before I changed guitar for “The Moon of Love” sequence. Then Nige called for “Lets Dance”. We had been gradually building up the dancing and by now they looked in need of a rest, so I called for “Ferry Cross the Mersey” - we played this well and it was well received. I put a hint of strings into it as it builds and it is becoming a highlight of the new band line up. Then we ran up through the “Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline, Hi Ho” sequence before I called for “Crazy Little Thing”. We hadn't done this before with Mick. He played it well and the strong rhythm got the dancers going again. Need to work on the supporting vocals though, as these were absent. I think we finished the set with “Words” and got a good reception. The raffle took some time to complete so we only had about 35 minutes for the final set. We played a typical dancey set with a bit of added Johnny B Goode type rock. I was pleased with the solo's in “Hippy Hippy Shake” - I am getting most the way through the rehearsed 12 bars now before I have to improvise. Of course the highlight of the night was our performance of REM's "Everybody Hurts" = the Haiti appeal song. I had written an arrangement out before the gig and we played it pretty much to that. Nige took the lead vocal and I brought in bits of strings and Mick and I sang a few supporting lines. The audience caught the mood and joined in and the whole thing worked brilliantly and got a great response. After a couple more songs we finished off with “Walk Alone” with the audience joining in and shouting for more. We encored with “Saw Her Standing There”. Despite some inconsistency we had done a good job and everyone was pleased. Took a bit of time to pack and load up but I was home for just after 2am on a very chilly night.