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.
