Caister Social Club

It had been been very cold and snowing so much of the UK has been bogged down in traffic disruption. A few inches of snow had fallen in parts of Norfolk so I decided to plan for a slow journey and set off at 5pm in the S-Max. Although there wasn’t actually much snow in Suffolk, it was still slow going to Thetford. But once I was on the A11 I could let the car have its head. By Wymondham it was still good going but I was now gaining time so I eased back for the rest of the journey, timing my arrival at the gig at precisely 6:28pm as I had promised the boys! Nige arrived shortly after and we soon got the gear in the hall and the door shut to keep the cold out. They have a very efficient heating system here and we were soon basking in warm conditions as we inspected the stage. It had been tidied up since our last appearance and parked on the right there was a large wooden sub-stage that Nige and I shifted onto the newly refurbished dance floor (hope we didn’t scratch it) to act as an apron for the main stage. Looking around the club it was clear that new carpets had also been laid and the place looked tidy and well lit. So we were beginning to hope for a good evening as we set up. I set up forward on the apron leaving plenty room for Nige and Greg to set up on the main stage. We heard Greg hammering on the door so we let him in (he’d been delayed with credit card problems at a filling station), but he soon got set up. We didn’t sound check as a band, but just by bashing away individually it was clear that the curtains round the back and sides of the stage were highly sound absorbent. This made for a very clean and dry sound, but we had to bring the volume up on the Bose to compensate for sound lost to the curtains. I was still not completely happy so I gave a bit of top and bottom boost to the mic sound as well. We managed another beer and I had a word with PJ the promoter about the playing times. He wanted an 8:40pm start and we were to stop for bingo at 9:30pm. He was optimistic we would have some people in and he briefed me to inform them about the newly refurbished dance floor to get them to use it! Nige came back from a smoke to report that some drunken youths had been evicted from the other bar for being ‘leery’ and they had damaged an invalid scooter on the way out. I quickly nipped out to check our cars were OK – they were! As we went to get changed (into the white shirts) there were still only about 10 people in the room so it didn’t bode well. But we got underway - with “Flingel Bunt for a change. This went well and Greg got the drum breaks pretty darn good in the middle. We had a good on-stage sound and the audience looked like they enjoyed it as we got some good applause from them. That set the pattern for set 1. No dancing but whatever we did we got good applause from this small audience, and we even got some response to our banter. We went on to play a typical bantery set 1. After “Peaceful Easy Feelin” they gave us a big round of applause so I made a note that they like the Eagles. A couple of numbers later I called for “Take It Easy”. Oh dear – we hadn’t done it for a couple of weeks and I got hopelessly lost in verse 3 and ended up doing an ad-lib repeat of verse 1 into the coda. Still the boys followed me very well and the audience gave up a good round of applause! We ran towards an on-time finish with a well received “Beatles Medley” and closed the set with “Words” which did actually get a few up to dance. We came off to rousing applause from an audience of about 12 including PJ the promoter. Surprisingly, folks were keen to compliment us on an entertaining set of music they liked, that was well played and sung. PJ said the Beatles was excellent and his mate said that I sounded like John Lennon - can’t be bad! One wag pointed out that “Words” was actually covered by Boyzone not Westlife but he also said we did a great job! Bingo went on for a while and as we sat through it the subject of band plans for the New Year came up. As 2010 had progressed Nige and I had sub-consciously avoided taking any commitments for 2011 because I think our confidence had been rocked in the Summer when Ray left and, after several years on this circuit, I was getting tired and thought I needed a break. Jacqui’s sister’s illness was the ‘last straw’ for me – Jacqui and I would need to spend some quality time with her next year. Nige and I both agreed that Greg coming into the band had been a breath of fresh air and we were now a lot happier with the musical state of play. But, on the other hand, quite a few of the clubs we were playing weren’t getting the audiences necessary to support a band and the booking prospects for the band next year looked dire. My view was that Greg and Nige would be best served looking for permanent positions in another band/s - although it didn’t look like there was much in the way of opportunity in the current gigging climate? Perversely, there were a few clubs (e.g The British Legion) that really liked our band and would miss the Foot Tappers / Sky High. I left it that, if Greg and Nige hadn’t found regular work by the time I returned from New Zealand in March, then I was up for playing some gigs if that worked for them. We would, of course, recommend Greg if anyone asked for a reference. After this downbeat discussion we then had to psyche ourselves up to play set 2! We opened up with “Under the Sun” then progressed through “Tambourine Man into the Searchers”. We were playing well and the small audience were still responding well. We played for about 40 minutes to finish with our usual set 2 closing sequence of “Halfway to Caister – Wonder of You – Sweet Caroline”. Something weird has been happing in “Sweet Caroline” the last couple of performances. We start to slow and rally just before we go into the guitar solo? This time I forced the pace a bit but it was still a bit messy for that few bars. Anyway, playing quality was now academic because after giving the band a great round of applause, our audience came up to thank us for great performance but they had to leave now. They went to great lengths to explain that it was not our fault, the club had some ‘issues’ to sort out and we were not to blame or take it badly. In the break I asked the bar man if it was worth continuing to play. He said yes – because the bar was reasonably full and they were listening to the band. So we resumed to play to an empty room. We decided to air some rarely played songs starting with “Travel Lodge California”. As it hadn’t been played for a while I was delighted that we got through our cut down version of “Hotel California” so well. Next up was the Everlys “Price of Love”. I thought this went well with a driving beat and we had the vocals pretty well synched even if some parts really tested my ability to sing so high without falsetto (up to Ab). Next Nige did a great “I Can Tell”. After my choice of “Rip It Up” we did Greg’s request of “Uptown Girl”. Nige sang and played it well and Greg obviously knew what he was doing, but I let the side down with some muffed chords in the middle sections. Still overall it was surprisingly good – maybe we should pop it in the show for the last few gigs? “All Right Now” went well and after the guitar solo Nige and I left Greg to play a drum solo for several minutes. While we were sat out front we could hear the quality of drum sound – it was very good, but the bass drum sound (miked up through my Bose) was outstanding. Nige and I came back on to play the final phrase of the solo and the last verse. It was time to wrap up and I volunteered “Alright Mama” to give the guitar solo an airing. So we finished in reasonably good heart to no applause or reaction, but the job was done and we had been paid. We could pack up quickly without dealing with people. Even so I was a bit slow taking the gear down compared to Nige and Greg – blame it on the sciatica! The boys did help me to load and we were soon set to go. It was very cold as I set off. There were some snow flurries on the way home and I took it relatively steady. Even so I got home about 1:30pm - not too bad considering. The snow is much worse North of the A 11 and Nige reported that his journey had been colourful with lots of blue lights attending mishaps.

Dinner Dance at Barn Ruche Near Watton

Carl elected to drive me over in the Galaxy on a cold, foggy evening. The fog was bad enough to keep speed down after Thetford so it took us a full 50 minutes to get to the gig, but I’d allowed a bit of contingency so we were still there just before 6:00 pm. I walked in but apart from the kitchen there wasn’t anyone around. However, I could see a poster confirming the gig so we went into the concert room to get things started. The concert room was dark and we couldn’t find the light switches but I got the concert room door open and had just started to load in when Nige arrived. He set up a portable light over the porch so we could at least see to load in. As we started load in. the manager (Sean) arrived and switched on the lights for us. There is no stage here and looking at the size of the dance floor we decided to set up compactly in the corner to give a bit more room for dancing. We soon got all the gear in and set up nicely making good use of the acoustic foam to damp down corner resonances. It was after 7pm when Nige and I looked up and then at each other to voice the question: “Where is Greg?” Nige got on the phone and eventually got hold of him in Dereham. He was delayed in the fog and feeling sick. Nige talked him back onto the route and he arrived about 7:30pm but still feeling rough. We got his gear in before the dinner started and then we had to exit to the bar for a couple of hours. After a while Greg started to feel better and I sneaked him through to the hall to quietly set up his kit as the diners hit the pudding. So apart from some minor drum adjustments we were set up ready to go. We finished our beers and went to get changed. The big changing room upstairs is used for brass band practice and there are many bits of memorabilia (e.g. old drums) there. We got changed into our white shirts, black ties, waistcoats and trousers so we were ready to perform when called. The dinner finished about 9:20pm and Greg got the message ‘the floor was ours’ so we took off to do our bit. We made the usual start with “Foot Tapper, Just One Look, Heartbeat” and then the ‘Heavily’ Brothers with “Walk Right Back – When Will I Be Loved” The on-stage sound wasn’t great but manageable. However, we were getting warm applause from our audience of about 50. No takers for dancing early on, so we bantered our way through to the obligatory waltz with “Around The World” which I thought would fill the floor – but still no dancers? “Blue Suede Shoes – Whole Lotta Shakin” was well appreciated but still no one came up for a dance? Ploughing on with my intro about the ascent of man into the Monkees “Daydream Believer” we were surprised to see people coming up to dance en masse and they stayed there dancing though the Beatles and our finisher: “Ferry Cross the Mersey”. A good first set I thought! We took a ten minute break and resumed with Ace’s “How Long”. This got people up’n dancing and we kept them there as we progressed through “The Searchers Medley and Do It Again” with Nige stepping in to do very brief introductions as we kept things going. We had great response to “Move It and All Shook Up”. Nige took us on into “Lets Dance and Mony Mony”. At this point I called for “Words” as the slowey at the right place and time. This filled the floor so well we did the extended version. We carried on with “The Twist” then I called for “Hey Baby”. Nige and I got at cross purposes on the key and we ended up in the key of A which is no longer familiar to me! As I thumbed through my crib sheets to find the chords for the second middle eight we carried on with some mistakes on my part as I transposed the key of G to A. However, the crowd were in a party dance mode and we got them to sing the refrain: ladies first, then the men and then all together. I called for “Amarillo” as we finished. There was something odd about the beat on this. I’m sure Greg would be doing the authentic version but it’s not that dancey – might need to settle for something more disco beat there? We we did a short “Unchained Medley” to fill the floor with romantics, then we called Johnny B Goode as the last number to ‘rock them to bed’. We finished to a great round of applause and encored with a short “Wonderful Tonight” to close slightly over time at 11:35pm. It had been a successful night and quite a few came up to thank us. Greg was looking a lot better after his groggy start. I was pleased to have Carl assisting as we packed up ‘cos my sciatic leg was hurting a bit. It was still cold and foggy outside as we loaded up. We got underway about 12:30am and there were some dense patches of fog on the way home slowing us down to 20 mph in places. We finally got back about 1:30am – earlier than a trip from the Norfolk coast though! Next day Carl took the Galaxy to Manchester ‘til Xmas so I’ll be using the S-Max or Focus for the next few gigs.

Video Test

Just wanted to test upload of movie files from the Omaha rally in September. Heres my guitar solo to "Whole Lotta Shakin"


Keep your comments clean!

Sheringham Tyneside

Ms J has gone to Bristol for a family celebration so I was on the ‘sausage in a bun’ at lunch. Decided to use the S-Max ‘cos the Galaxy was all set up to take over to Bristol on the Sunday. Uneventful drive over to park up next to Nige who was already loaded in. In fact when I got in the club everyone (Nige included) was watching Norwich beating Reading 3-1 in real time on Sky. A wag said “Shut that door” and from that moment all seemed to go wrong for Norwich who were suddenly a man down, the manager was sent from the touchline and Norwich were heading for a 3-3 draw! I quietly got set up hoping I wouldn’t get the blame. Nige and I used our bits of acoustic tiling to successfully reduce the resonant corner. Greg arrived with a bit of a sniffy cold and almost had a JD and coke to relieve the symptoms - but settled for iced water instead. As we completed set up I gave the boys a demo of the sounds available on the guitar synth - I made a mental note to set up an organ patch an octave higher so I can play organ parts low on the neck. There were probably 25 in the concert room and adjacent bar as we kicked off in our black’n’whites with the usual start. The on stage sound wasn’t that great and there wasn’t much reaction as we finished “Foot Tapper”. We carried on with a slightly low key set not getting much response from what I would describe as a world weary audience. Some supporters did arrive in the shape of some people Nige knew, and that livened things up a tad. After the break we resumed with “Take It Easy” but still not much reaction. We continued with “Under the Sun and Tambourine Man” and surprisingly we started to get some warm applause – maybe the drink was taking effect? We continued to play a typical set 2 to a reasonable response and even a bit of dancing to “Move It and Lets Dance”, but they faded away exhausted in “Mony Mony”. So I called for a slowey in the shape of “Wonderful Tonight”: this filled the floor and they looked so cuddly I asked Nige to continue with “My Girl”. We did a pretty good job of that but I need to tighten up the guitar on the stop beats at the end of the verses: e.g verse 1: dit dit - da da da da. As we were in sight of the finishing line I took us into the “Halfway to Paradise, Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline” ending sequence to wrap up a fair second set. After the members draw the crowd had halved to an uninspiring 15-20. We opened the third set with “Flingel Bunt” and I had a walk out front. As always I was surprised by the quality of the sound out there; much better than on stage! Without much in the way of audience reaction we went through the motions for the last 50 minutes. I quite enjoyed doing our “Spencer Davis” mini medley for a change, but the final half of the set became a bit of a chore and we were all glad to finish with Johnny B Goode at 11:30pm There were only a few left in the room and I was quite surprised to hear a couple grumbling about ‘an early finish’! But Nige put the muzak on and we set about changing and packing up. It was chilly out and I was glad to get on the road for the trip back. Despite a bit of fog I made it back in about 90 minutes via Swaffham; getting to bed about 2am. Next day I was up early to drive to Bristol in the Galaxy for my nieces big 30 lunch.

Sheringham Social Club

Pretty tired all day – I had played squash and done a gig the day before and was now paying for it. I set off about 5:15pm and parked up on the pavement at the club at 6:40pm. Parking was a bit tricky because there were road works on the roundabout with traffic controlled by lights set up on the road in front of the club. Nige had managed to park up on the other side of the road. We entered the club together and he got the beers in while I had a ‘jimmy’ and then opened the stage door. We had all the gear in by the time Greg arrived and, with perfect timing as I moved off to head to the car park, he came into the spot I vacated on the pavement. Nige and I decided to revert to the ‘old’ stage placements so he could conduct the ‘drunken choir’ in the alcove on his right. We had a bit of free time after set up to practice timings on “Blue Suede Shoes” and adjust the harmoniser to come up in the mix. After another beer we took a long walk to the very cold junk (or committee) room at the back of the club to get changed into our black shirts with white ties. On our return I made a donation to get 3 poppies to complete a smart appearance. There were about 25 in the room at 8:45 pm as we took to the stage to open up with “Foot Tapper” and then the usual opening sequence. We had an immediate good on-stage sound and good response from this small crowd. We adopted banter mode from the beginning as we carried on with our usual opening sequence and, by and large, we got a good response and even a few laughs. After “Peaceful Easy Feelin” we tried “Around the World” as the slow waltz to test out the dancing: no takers - so we kept it short. Keeping a ‘strictly dancing’ theme going we carried on with “Lady is a Tramp” as a quickstep – well received but still no dancing. “Blue Suede Shoes” went well with Greg and the band spot on with the stops – but no dancing; so we upped the bantering. In the end we did so much banter that I could see we would be running out of time, so I ran us into set closure with “The Beatles”. Coming back on for set 2 we opened with “Take It Easy” and got through it without any significant mistakes. We carried on with “Under the Sun” which was very well received; and then the Searchers which also went down well. We finally got some dancing going with “Move It” but we wore them out as we continued into “Lets Dance” I had a bit of problem getting the organ sound right in this and I was well put off my stride – sorry boys! We entered the closure sequence with “Halfway, Wonder and Sweet Caroline”. In the break we popped across the road to the Tyneside to catch Alan’s band ‘Shake Rattle and Roll’ finishing their set with “Honey Don’t”. It was warmer and probably a bit more crowded there. Met up with Jen, Hilly etc and said hello to Alan and the band before we had to head back for our final set. As we came back in a chap in the audience came up to request “American Trilogy”. We had had to turn down his first request because we didn’t know it, so I said I’d give “American Trilogy” a go if he got the audience to sing along. We took to the stage and opened up with “Flingel Bunt” and then “”Do You Wanna Dance”. I was thinking about American Trilogy and made a few small mistakes; so after these finished I thought it best to get the request out of the way and go for it. So off we went. I led the way with guitar and vocal and Nige was conducting Greg on military drumming. Actually it went quite well. In the heat of the moment I couldn’t risk the change from strings to flute for the solo without Greg doing the covering drum roll, so I did it on strings and guitar. And I chickened out of doing the final high vocal line full chest voice as I settled for a head voice and backed away from the mic. but having had the experience, if I was to do it again, I would try the flute sound (worse case there would be a quiet couple of bars lead into the solo) and the full bore chest vocal high line. However, as it was, we got a rip roaring applause for it and I felt good about meeting the challenge. Nige followed up with “Brown Eyed Girl” then we fitted in “Rip It Up” which got some dancing going. After this our audience started to thin out a bit, so we threw in some change numbers with “All Right Now, Midnight Hour, What I Say, You Really Got Me”. Jen had come over from the Tyneside as we started to wrap up with “Johnny B Goode” - complete with cracking drum and bass breaks. This was very well received with some shouts for more. So I called on Nige to encore with “Walk Alone”. I made a bit of a hash of this ‘cos I was distracted getting the string sound right. But it went down well with the few remaining and Nige had to put the muzak on to distract from further shouts for more. I was tired as we packed up and had to cadge a sip of Greg’s water to relieve a hoarse throat. Reflecting on things, although I made a few mistakes, I thought the band had been quite a bit tighter over this weekend and we were working well as a unit. However, the low audience turnouts were a cause for concern and probably a warning sign of the times for clubs like the Social Club. It was cold outside and I was pleased to be loaded and on the road with the heating on. I drove back via Swaffham and the temperature sank to -2 C as I passed through Thetford Forest. I got in about 2:20am very tired the next day.

Seacroft - East Runton

A wet dark Friday, so I set off ten minutes early anticipating a slow drive over with added fireworks. And it was. I arrived at the gig at 6:30 just after Nige who had got the key fob and kindly stood in the rain and wind without a coat to let me through the barrier. Hardy folks these Norfolkmen – he doesn’t usually wear a coat ‘til Christmas. We got loaded in quick because of the rain and we had just started set up when Greg appeared. Nige set up on the left and I fed the power from my side because the power sockets on Nige’s side weren’t working. I took a look at the light mixer while I was down amongst the electrics and set up a gentle purpley wash for the stage. Set up went well and we went to get changed. Shock horror – one of my black shoes was missing! I concluded I must have left it at Lowestoft and decided to play in my casual browns but they really didn’t match our smart black’n’white look. After a beer, we got fired up for an 8:15 start playing to about 25 people. After we opened up with “Foot Tapper”, we wound down the volume a little and we got a very good on-stage sound. The audience was quite responsive so we switched immediately into bantering mode and set about a typical entertainy set. We did give “Around the World” a go to test the dance potential but no takers for a waltz or slow dance. In fact we only got one couple up to dance in this whole set they did a long jive to “Blue Suede – Great Balls”; so we gave them a round of applause! But, despite the low numbers, we were gradually winning this audience over with our lightweight banter and easy listening song selection. We had talked about some timing improvements to “She Loves You” before we started and we put them into practice with a well received “Beatles Medley”. After that we finished the 47 minute set with “Words”. After a 12 minute break, I hurried the boys back on for Set 2 at 9:20pm. We started with “Take it Easy”. It seemed to be going alright when I lost the brain cell containing the words to the second verse and had to improvise a rehash of verse 1. Still it went down really well and we got a rousing round of applause. We carried on with “Under the Sun” and the “Searchers” continuing to receive a great response. I continued a bantery theme about ‘shaking’ as we continued with “All Shook Up” – trouble was the brain cell I lost also contained the first middle 8 of this song so I had to sing the second middle instead. But the audience joined in well enough with the ‘all shook up’ punch lines so we were happy with the outcome. While I was set up for rock’n’roll we did a request for “Be Bop A Lula” which went quite well considering we hadn’t done it with Greg before. As the Eagles song had proved popular, I called for “Peaceful Easy Feeling” explaining that Nigel was a ‘twitcher’ and had assured me that the Eagles group were named after the famous Norfolk Eagle – he obliged with an impersonation (of a chicken)? We ran through the “Halfway- Wonder – Sweet Caroline” sequence to a great response. Still a bit short on the 45 minutes so I called for “Wonderful Tonight” as the set closer. There were a few dancing to this, but the small crowd had thinned a little more, so I only allowed the boys a few minutes break, resuming at just before 10:15pm with a well received “Ace - How Long”. I slipped in “Shaking All Over” to keep the ‘shaking’ banter going. People still weren’t dancing but remained quite attentive and appreciative so next we did an entertaining strictly dancing Shadows Walk demonstration. Nigel drew attention to the unsuitability of my brown suede shoes for such a demo and we had to explain about the missing shoes. We started the number and I was unhinged to realise I had accidentally selected a rock’n’roll solo setting on the guitar FX rather than my usual echoey Shadows setting. Still there was no way to change it so I had to plough on as best I could. The audience didn’t really notice and gave up a rousing round of applause as we finished. We carried on bantering our way through a varied repertoire selection for about another 15 minutes including: “Move It, Hippy Hippy Shake, Midnight Hour”. We began the closure process by dedicating “Pretty Woman” to the ladies. Nige asked if there was a song we could dedicate to the men? I quipped that he might be a men’s man and Greg was either a boy’s man or a man’s boy but I was definitely a ladies’ man so it would be “Pretty Woman”. This banter actually got quite a laugh and we performed the song probably the best we had done to date. I announced we would them rock them to bed in their centrally heated caravans with our closing song “Johnny B Goode”. This rocked through very well and Greg did an impressive mix of light and shade on the drum breaks. We finished to a great round of applause from the 15 or so people left. But it was late and we didn’t have the heart for an encore, so Nige switched on the muzak and we departed to get changed. As we left to get changed a few people took the time to say how much they had enjoyed the show and one couple picked out Greg’s solo break towards the end as one of the highlights – well done Greg! And actually it was a good night for the band all round. We got changed and packed quickly and set off about 11:30 pm. I came back through Cromer and Norwich and had a good run home getting in at just before 1 am.