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.
