I could leave as late as 6:15pm and still be at the gig for 6:25pm. So this is what I did. I had just parked when Nige rolled up. We went round the front and into the club to meet up with Heather, the guvnor, who showed us the load in entrance and suggested we set up on the floor rather than the stage to create a more intimate setting. We were just loading in when Martin (our dep drummer for the night) arrived. It’s a fairly big room, so as we got set up I found plenty of room to set up and tune my PRS 12 string as well. We did have a bit of trouble with lighting. Although the house lights did illuminate the band, seeing music and set lists on the music stands was tricky – especially for the older member of the band! I tried out my LED PAR light but couldn’t get it placed to do the job, so I tried a clip on music stand light. This did do the job but mains cables were well stretched and creating a heath and safety risk. So, rather than get some more extensions out the car, I decided to abandon the idea of music stand lighting and adopt the ‘peering at it’ method of music reading instead. With all set up and working, I set off home to pick up Ms J for her grand entrance well in time for our 8:30 showtime. Heather gave me a last minute briefing that there were several in from a rock’n’roll dance club and could we do a bit of rock’n’roll? “Yes Please” I said. We got dressed in the back shirts and waistcoats and Nige and I wore white ties. We made a start with “Foot Tapper and Just One Look” All went well and we got a good response from a reasonably full hall. So I did a bit of banter about Sunday night TV preparatory to starting “Heartbeat”. Only trouble was I was moving my pedals round with my feet as I was doing this and must have kicked the volume knob down. We opened up and no guitar sound! It took me a good couple of minutes to get to the bottom of it and Nige had to fill in with his repertoire of ‘ghosty’ jokes. We finally got going again, the dance floor filled and we settled into an enjoyable set with a good sound and great audience response. After the Everly’s, Martin sang “Peaceful Easy Feelin” and Nige and I dropped in to close and hi harmony roles which went very well. I called early on for some rock’n’roll, opening up with “Blue Suede Shoes/ Whole Lotta Shakin” and up came the dancers in force. As we went on Martin fitted in some great harmonies from time to time, so I found I was only using the harmoniser sparingly. Nige did a good “Ferry” as the mid set slowey and we continued to keep the dance floor filled as we also did “Raining in My Heart”. After this it was time to do our Beatles medley.
We bantered away a bit aimlessly but with some good audience interaction then we all got wigged up successfully and ‘powered’ on into it. Surprisingly we got a good crowd of dancers from the off and despite the changing rhythms the dancers kept with it pretty well. We lost a few as we switched to “Nowhere Man”, but the harmonies worked well (with harmoniser adding one above only) and we soon had some more dancers joining in and even more for “She Loves You”. We were delighted with a very good audience reception for this set piece. Time was up so we decided to close with Martin singing “Words” and that filled the dance floor with slow dancers again – a great ending to a great set. We got some good comments in the break and were confident as we returned to open up with a birthday. We started the set proper with “Under the Sun” and on into the “Searchers” with me on the 12 string. I found it quite a challenge to play the 12 string in public again after so many gigs without using it. So I chickened out after the Searchers and changed back to the 6 string to pick up the “Move it – All Shook Up” sequence which just packed the floor. Then Nige pitched in with “Rock Around the Clock” to keep it going (and we all finished together!) Next up we got Martin to sing “Take It Easy”. I took the hi line giving us a good vocal mix which was well appreciated. We followed up with “Love Potion No 9” in which I was so pleased to get the timing right in the middle 8 that I relaxed and lost it after the solo! But the crowd danced through it all without falling over so we must have covered it up OK. After a powerful “Lets Dance – Mony Mony” complete with organ synth, we eased the dancers up for the “Halfway – Wonder – Sweet Caroline” ending sequence with Martin doing the vocal honours on the last two. There was still a few minutes left so we finished the set with “My Girl” with Martin on lead vocal – only slightly let down by my poor timing in the solo. After the raffle we came back on to do another hour starting with more birthdays and then “Do You Wanna Dance” which packed the floor again. We ripped on thru the old “Party Dance” sequence to “Hi Ho” and then “Alright Now” complete with extended drum solo to finish. I called for “Pretty Woman” and we did a goodish version and followed up with a rocking “Hippy Hippy Shake”. We fitted in a slightly ragged “Walk of Life” and a lively “Summer of 69” before easing off for a great rendition of “Unchained” by Martin. Then it was an extended “Johnny B Goode” to finish. Although it went down really well I must have failed to cue the audience that it was the last number, so we had to impose “Walk Alone” on them as an encore. This went well and had the crowd singing along. There were now some shouts for ‘more’, but we were now 5 minutes over time so we gently called it a night. We got a lot of compliments on the band as we packed up and Heather was keen to rebook. So, basking in the warm afterglow of going down good at a well attended gig (becoming a rarity nowadays) we completed pack’n’load and set off home. I had contemplated going home via Thetford to get the fulll experience but in the end, I did enjoy the luxury of a 5 minute drive home. Ms J and I were still wide awake so we has another drink and watched TV for a bit. Summing it all up - a great gig that makes it all worthwhile!
