Good run over under cloudy skies. Hardly any traffic so arrived at 6:30pm to find Nigel’s car already parked up. But it was a bit like the ‘Marie Celeste’ in the club; there was Nigel’s computer and electronic cigarette – but no Nigel? I got the bar man to unlock the load in door and then I was just getting busy bringing in my suit and prop bags; when up bounds Nige – he had been in the other bar speaking to the Dave who used to book us! Next thing our drummer for the night, Greg, rolls up. We do our introductions and then load in. Greg’s Premier kit is small but sounds big enough; ideal for this club. Nige and I are operating on swapped sides for the present and for reasons unknown it took some time to get set up. Although a few people had arrived for a fancy dress party in the bar at the far end of the concert room, we decided to do a soundcheck by playing “Flingel Bunt”. It all worked well and sounded good so then it was time for me and Nige to down a beer. Greg declined ‘cos he had a bit of a stomach upset. It turned out Greg had spent some time with ‘Lou and the Diamonds’ and had done some ‘oldie’ cruises so, although he is only 31, he came across as familiar with our kind of music. The club was quite full and a bit hot’n’humid by 8:15 when we got changed and we decided on casual black – no ties or waistcoats. We opened up with the usual and all went well. Nige was conducting Greg and I was running the show. The on stage sound is not great at this club, but I’m confident the balance out front was good. Greg fitted in well but there wasn’t much audience reaction to the first few numbers. I ploughed on with some banter (a bit nervy for no reason I could identify) and we eventually started to get some applause. A few came up to slow dance “Ferry Cross the Mersey” but it wasn’t yet a dancey evening. We managed the “Beatles medley” with Greg well cued by Nige for the breaks and rhythm changes - and finished off the set with “Words”. As we came off Jen and Laura arrived for a wild night on Sheringham town! We opened Set 2 dedicating “Under the Sun” to Dave then sashaying into “Tambourine Man”. Carrying on with “The Searchers Medley”, we got off a bit fast into “Sugar and Spice”, but settled down in “Needles and Pins”. I did an early Shadows walk to “Apache” with Helen and was able to check the front of house balance which was actually very good. We followed up with “How Long (Ace)” then the short version of “Lying Eyes” and “Moon of Love”. These opening numbers got good applause but it was only as we turned to “All Shook Up” and “Do You Wanna Dance” that we started to get some dancers up. We followed up with a sequence of “Lets Dance – Mony Mony – Amarillo – Hey Baby – Twist Again – Hi Ho” which exhausted the dancers, so we played out with “Halfway – Wonder of You – Sweet Caroline” to finish to a good singalong reaction. While we were off we got requests for “Love Potion No 9 and Born to be Wild” – so I said we’d give them a go! We took to the stage a bit late and then had to take a few minutes calling the raffle. When we got underway, I called for “Love Potion No 9” to open. This went quite well in Em and filled the floor with the ladies who had requested it. We followed it up with “Move It - Hippy Hippy Shake – Pretty Woman” which kept the dancers going, I got Nige to do “Everybody Hurts” as the mid set slowey; he did a great job singing in this high key and it got a very good reaction. Then I called for the requested “Born to be Wild”. This swung along quite nicely and I remembered most the words – not bad considering I haven’t played it in front of an audience for 30 years! We were a bit over time as we closed with “Walk Alone”. The audience had thinned out and were a little subdued so, although we hesitated, we didn’t have to do an encore on this occasion. Pack and load seemed to take a long time. Jen and a ‘tipsy’ Laura stayed chatting right through to the load up. Then they set off to lots of waving goodbye, only to re-appear 5 minutes later looking for Laura’s phone which was in her bag anyway! I would say it was an average night for the band at this club, but the club itself had done a roaring trade in drinks. Greg said he’d enjoyed his night with the band and Nige asked him to play next weeks gig. I made good time but was quite tired on the way home and have been so since – probably viral again!
