Lowestoft Ex Srvicemans Club

I still have the use of the Galaxy until Carl picks it up, so I thought I might as well get some more use out of it. Set off about 5:25pm aiming for a 6:40 arrival. It was relatively slow going though and I let the sat nav take me through Lowestoft. It took me West to join the A12 North of the town before turning to head South. It (or I) missed the turning for Alexandra Road and I ended up coming up my usual way via the pedestrianized zone off Gordon Road. I arrived to find Nige already there and we set about getting the gear in on a dark blustery night. Because of the small stage we decided to go back to old positions with me on the lef so Nige could use the pool table for his computer prompter. I set my Bose up well into the back corner. We needed to be set up by 7:30pm so they could start the Bingo and by 6:50pm No Greg? Nige called him to see where he was. It turned out he had been well lost in Lowestoft for half an hour but was just arriving. By the time he got his gear in we were trying to soundcheck. I was suffering high pitched feedback from my Bose in the corner position. The lack of space and Greg setting up made it very difficult to deal with the sound issue; and they wanted to get Bingo underway so we decided to abandon setting up until a break in the Bingo. Part of the problem was the resonant stage feeding vibrations up the mic stand which kicked off feedback. I tried to move the mic stand off stage, but the wiring was so tight I couldn’t do it without starting wiring afresh so I decided to put up with it and reduce the top on the mic mix. This helped but delivered a slightly ‘honky’ vocal tone - good enough for rock’n’roll I consoled myself! We got changed into our black gear, white shirts and black ties in the corridor and we were walking in line through the concert hall heading to the bar, when the Bingo caller saw us. Bearing in mind it was Halloween weekend and the place was done out ghoulishly he quipped: ‘watch out - the morticians are here’. We bowed and continued to the bar for a much needed beer. Here we met up with Graham the singing taxi driver. He was pretty good at Elvis in the bar so we jokingly suggested he have a sing with us later. Then it was showtime. We took our places for our opening with “Foot Tapper”. It was very cramped and I wasn’t looking at my guitar neck as Greg counted us in. Consequently I started in the wrong key and had to quickly slide my hand down the neck to get into C as we played the first few notes. The sound wasn’t great but we got a good response from a half full room of people over a certain age. After the first few songs, we settled down. There wasn’t much dancing going on until I called for “Around the World”. This waltz filled the floor. Vocally it sounded better than previous outings so I extended it a bit. As we ended I was looking for another waltz to follow up but the dancers started to disperse. We finally got going with a smooth version of “Phoenix” and some of the dancers came back. We carried on with some gorilla talk to introduce “Daydream Believer” and then some rock’n’roll in the shape of “Blue Suede - Great Balls” which went well enough but only got a couple up dancing. We went back to sloweys with “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and only got a few dancers up this time so I called for the “Beatles” as entertainment to close the set. This got a good response and we took a welcome break on what was proving to be a difficult night. After the break we resumed with “How Long” by Ace which we played well. Next up I took the boys into “Tambourine Man” which went down well. Carrying on with the “Searchers” we got a bit more passionate and were rewarded with a good round of applause. I slipped in “Move It” and “All Shook Up” to get some dancing and audience interaction going. It was hard going because, although it was only about 10:20pm, many of the ‘old uns’ were getting their coats on to get the last bus. “Raining in My Heart” filled the floor, so we extended that. After a well received “Folsom Prison” country ‘request’ (debuting Greg’s train drums), I announced “Halfway” I was only halfway through it when I spied Graham the taximan, so I invited him over to sing it. This livened up the audience quite a bit so we kept him at it while we did “Wonder of You” to finish the set. As we came off Graham asked if he could do another: ideally “My Way”? Not knowing the chords we negotiated “Green Grass of Home” for the resumption. In the meantime a different Graham had come up to request “Hotel California” – ‘no problem’ I said. So we took to the stage for the last set opening with “Travel Lodge California” so named to reflect our minimalist arrangement which misses a couple of verses. Graham gave us a good reception for that. We fitted in a good "Brown Eyed Girl" then we brought up the other Graham to do “Green Grass” – it was a bit disjointed, but entertaining nevertheless and he got a good round of applause. So now he called our bluff by insisting on doing “My Way”. I worked out his key was D and Nige and I set off on a busking session with extremely avant guarde jazzy chords from me! Mercifully it was soon over and we were able to continue with “Crazy Little Thing” as called by Nige. Looking round I could see it was time to finish, so we set off into an extended “Johnny B Goode” to close. Greg surprised us with a very fast drum break and we finished to good applause; but thankfully no encores because Greg had to be away quick to get to a party! We got changed and I couldn’t find my shoes. It turned out some wag had put them on top of a cupboard – I knew no none would pinch them! As we packed up I reflected on how well we had done to turn what was looking like a poorly attended chore into a poorly attended success. The management were well content. It turned out a bus load of the usual audience had been away to a Halloween event and that accounted for the poor turn out. We spotted some of them in fancy dress as they were dropped off nearby. We got Greg off in double quick time – but Nige had to chase after him with the suit bag he nearly forgot! We got loaded and away just before 12:30am. I had a quiet run home getting in just after 1:30am.