As I suspected the previous week, a compromise with Ray was not possible, so he decided to leave the band amicably. Nige secured the services of Mike (Marty from the Peppermint Men’s elder brother) as a dep for this gig – the 7th drummer we had played with since Dave passed away! Good journey over in pleasant warm conditions and I arrived at the gig in good time to find the club already open. I had just managed to use the facilities when Nige arrived and we just got the first bits of gear in when Mike arrived at the front of the club. So we directed him round the back and carried on loading in and setting up. I had a bit of trouble with nasty feedback as I was setting up the mic and Nige gave me a hand to sort it out. It turned out to be the mic gain on the harmoniser set a bit high (the knob must have moved in previous pack up). Not so high as to bring in the red led and distort; but high enough to boost feedbacky mids. We did a sound check with “Flingel Bunt” and all was well. The club room is not that big and Mike fitted in very well to our club balance – if anything Nige and I were a bit loud so we took our volumes down a tad before showtime. We got changed into our white’n’blacks and opened up with “Foot Tapper” to about 20 in at the start – more over 50’s than our previous appearance there. Good response! After “Just One Look” I made a successful intro based on Sunday night tele theme tunes by linking “Heart Beat to Somebody Help Me” (The Royal). Nige was managing the rhythm section (Mike) and I was running the show and the audience soon warmed to our laid back bantery style as we ploughed though a selection of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s material. Mike got it right most of the time and even stayed with us through the “Beatles Medley” We finished off with “My Girl” as a change ballad and this worked well; I am a bit more familiar with the solo now and the harmonised ‘aahs’ filled out the bridge. After the break we opened up set 2 with “Flingel Bunt and The Searchers” Mike has that knack of playing a dancey rhythm to 60’s stuff and we soon had a few up and dancing, so we continued with “Do It Again”. “How Long” went very well with Mike picking up a 16’s beat that fitted really well. I gave “Lying Eyes” an airing, filling out the chorus with the harmoniser. Next up I did an cameo start to “All Shook Up” by shaking violently and telling the boys in the band I was practising the Watusi! Actually the song went well filling the dance floor and good audience answer backs on the ‘all shook ups’. It was a warm night so we rested the dancers and took the audience thru a bantery -singalonga sequence of “Halfway, Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline”. This caught the mood very well and the ladies came up to dance en mass to “Sweet Caroline” as well! Nige took us on through “Lets Dance – Mony Mony – Amarillo – Hey Baby (with corrected middle 8) – The Twist” and we wrapped the set up with “Words” A very good set for the band that was well appreciated by the audience which had now grown to about 40 in a 70% full room. We came on for a final 55 minute set to open up with some Sir Cliff with: “Move It and into Do You Wanna Dance” This filled the dance floor from the off and we kept going through a fairly continuous dancey sequence for most of the set. We wrapped up with “Wonderful Tonight” and encored with Johnny B Goode to a great response. It had been a very good night for the band. Mike had fitted in really well as a dep and the governor was well impressed. It turned out the usual manager (Robin) was on holiday, but the couple in charge said they were very impressed with the band and hoped we‘d be back! Meanwhile Nige got a text from someone at Sheringham Social to say the “Peppermint Men” playing there were good but not as good as us – Nige said he’d keep that one to show Marty! It was Mike’s first full gig in many years and he was staying nearbye so he got off as Nige and I loaded up the last few things. We cadged a welcome slice of pizza from the governor and then hit the road. Nige was first away and I got stuck in a little flurry of traffic but I caught up with Nige near Fakenham and followed him through to Swaffham. The final leg home was quiet and I made good time getting in abour 2:20am Suffering a bit of viral tiredness the next day!
