Seacroft Caravan Park East Runton

Although I got away in good time, there was a some slow moving traffic holding me up ‘til I got past Swaffham. However, I picked up most the lost time over the next leg to Holt and arrived at the gig at 6:45 as planned. Mick was already there and well unloaded. He had sussed out the stage set up to allow access to the switches for the lighting and when Nige arrived they were able to work out some lighting combinations. Nige had popped in to the Links at West Runton to see Charie who was putting on his band for a do; I had toyed with the same idea but when it turned out I was a bit short of time I ended up going straight to our gig. Set up went well, and needed to because it turned out show time was at 8:15 on a Friday not the 8:30 we expected as per paperwork. I checked finish time with Sarah and she said call last orders at 10:45pm and the band to wrap up shortly after. The room was filling up well and as we took to the stage on time in the black waistcoats, white shirts and black ties there were about 40 in the club room. We opened up with the usual suspects (Foot Tapper et al) and were rewarded with a good on-stage sound and warm applause from the off. A few numbers in, it was clear that they were not there to dance much. But they were very attentive, so we switched into entertainment mode with the three of us interacting nicely to create a good, slightly self-deprecatory ambience. Wisely, we had kept the volume down from the off and, if anything, edged it down a bit more as we played through a versatile set 1 with good performances of some of the harmony numbers e.g. the Eagles “Peaceful Easy Feelin” & “How Long”. I selected “Ferry Cross Mersey” early on as a romantic number and a couple came up to dance a rumba to it. They did it well and at the end the band gave ‘them’ a round of applause. Building on that we developed a bit of ‘strictly come dancing’ banter and invited the dancers to do a quickstep to “Lady is a Tramp”. This all went well with the crowd and we finished wigged up with our “Beatles” medley to enthusiastic applause. We opened set 2 with the “Searchers” medley but, not finding much dance interest, we ventured back to the ‘strictly dance’ theme with the Jim Reeves waltz sequence. The harmonies on Anna Marie are much improved nowadays and this earned a big round of applause. As there wasn’t any real interest in dancing, I called for “Halfway” and Nige and I carried out the old ‘girly vocal’ routine very successfully. Basically I announce the number inviting Nige to sing girly backings and he lets out a particularly gruff answer back in the middle 8. So I stop the band and make him wear a blonde girl wig to sing the rest of the song. All a bit slapstick but it gets a laugh and this audience did enjoy it. We followed up with the “Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline, Hi Ho” sing-a-longa sequence and then it was time to finish with “Words”. I’m still working on my high line in this, but I will get there very soon. We had a short break during which Mick and I experienced the full force of the air conditioning as we tried to sit away from the draughty door. We resumed for set 3 with “How Sweet It Is” and Ace’s “How Long” both of which went well and were warmly applauded. We tried out “Unchained” as the mid set slowey and finally got a few up and dancing. After a few more numbers it was time to wrap up, so I called for “Wonderful Tonight” as a change from our usual closing sequence. I did a talk over sign off of each of the band which went well. Actually we got a very good reception with shouts for ‘more’ so we did “Saw Her Standing There” as an encore. Then it was pack’n’load. I got off on my long journey home via Swafham and made really good time getting in at 1:30am. Overall a good night for the band that we could take some pride in,