Earlier in the day Greg had intrigued me by email announcing there would be a surprise at the gig? Carl elected to accompany me after I told him it was free beer (in the shape of cans of Carsberg). We set off in good time in very misty conditions and made slow progress to Attleborough on the A 11. There we took the Diss road southbound. It was very hard to see road signs in the dark and mist and I missed the turn for Abbey Road at Old Buckenham. Unwisely I decided to take the next turn left and see if it brought me back – it didn’t! We ended up in a dead end and we had to turn back. Finally got into the school and found my way through to the main hall where I met up with Willy the promoter. A couple of burly fellows volunteered to help us in with the gear so we set off back to the entrance and had just started to get organised when Nigel arrived followed a few minutes later by Greg. Greg revealed the ‘surprise’ by handing me a packet of Werthers Originals as the prize for being first to arrive. The gear was got in very quickly. It is a very big high stage in an echoey main school hall but no significant resonances. We were able to set up in great comfort toward the front of the stage with me reverting to my old position on the left. I set up a mic and agreed times with Willy and he showed us a large disabled toilet which we could use as a dressing room. We had a few minutes to relax in the canteen and, after a can of beer, one of the ladies there offered to make me a cup of tea – just the job. A chap called Colin came over to say how he enjoyed the band last year and could he request a country song. I agreed we’d do “Crystal Chandeliers” for him and started to glad hand another well wisher. This delayed me setting off to get changed with the boys. A few minutes later I found my way to our luxury disabled toilet dressing room to find Nigel and Greg already there with Colin the country requestor who had decided to pop in for a wee (he admitted not knowing there were several other toilets down the hall). So we stood around and bantered a bit while he relieved himself! Then we got changed into the black shirts and white ties and took to the stage a few minutes after 8pm to open up with our usual “Foot Tapper, Just One Look, Heartbeat” opening sequence.
The onstage sound on my side was just perfect. I could hear lots of musical subtleties from the Bose and it made for a better performance. The audience were very obliging giving us a good reception and, by the time we did the Everly’s “Walk Right Back – When Will I Be Loved”, we got some dancers going. We donned the red hats for “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” and that got a very good response so we did a bit of rock’n’roll with “Blue Suede – Whole Lotta Shakin”. At this point we did our country request with Nige doing the false beginning a few times: starting with “Lilly the Pink” then “Sundarise” and some more obscure ones before we finally got underway with “Crystal Chandeliers”. The floor filled nicely with dancers and Nige took us on into “Cheating Heart” to give ‘em a run for their money! We gave them some slowies in the shape of “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and the Monkeys “Daydream Believer”. We donned the wigs for a well received “Beatles Medley”. It was all going down very well and we were confidently bantering and performing. I announced “Take It Easy” and took it into a slightly slower start. The slight easing in tempo gave me a few extra milli-seconds to make the harmoniser and guitar changes more confidently and resulted in the best we have played it. We got a warm reception from the audience which was most pleasing. We finished the set with “Words” and took a break while Willy did the raffle. Carl confirmed that the good on stage sound also producing a really great sound in the hall. Then that nice lady in the canteen offered me a coffee and I took a request from another lady for a Rolling Stones number. Some more ladies came over to ask if we could do a tango and even showed us some steps! We returned to the stage to open set 2 with Ace’s “How Long”. We hadn’t done this for a few weeks and it took me a while to get into it. But Nige was confident and in fine voice, Greg had a nice 16 beat rhythm going, the guitar solo went well enough and our performance must have sounded good in the hall ‘cos’ we got some ‘whoops’ of appreciation as we finished. We carried on with the Searchers which got the dancers going again and then I did “Jumping Jack Flash” as the Rolling Stones request. This was pretty good rhythmically but Nige and I were feeling our way through the chords for the first verse. As we came to the second verse I forgot the words and had to make something up not unlike the first verse again. I didn’t play a solo as such but we did a funky rhythm build up back to a repeat of that verse I couldn’t remember! It got a surprisingly good reception. Willy asked us to ease off on the volume and as it happened I was planning to do a strictly session with "Around the World - Lady is a Tramp" so that allowed a perfect lowering of volume while we did the waltz and quickstep. Next up was “White Xmas” so we donned the red hats and the slow dancers came up to do their bit.
Actually Nige and I finally got the vocals much as intended and it worked very well. We continued with “Raining in my Heart” to keep the slow dancers going and that went down really well as well. I took the boys on into “Move It – All Shook Up” and we started to get a lot up and dancing, so Nige took them on through “Lets Dance – Mony Mony”. We concluded the set with our usual “Halfway – Wonder – Sweet Caroline” sequence which was perfect sing’a’long for this audience. As we came off for the break a younger chap came over to tell me the band was tremendously good – he hadn’t expected anything like that and he was amazed at our versatility. We had a few minutes off and came back on to open the third set with a request for “Summertime Blues”. This got them dancing from the off and we followed up with the “Amarillo – Hey Baby – Twist” sequence to get the crowd in party mood. I warned the crowd we would be rehearsing New Years Eve at 11pm. So we got them all set up in a circle for a countdown at a minute to 11. Then we wished them a ‘Happy New Year’ and set them off singing and dancing to “Old Lang Syne” in key of G and then on into the “Hokey Cokey” in key of C. Nige started the Hokey Cokey an octave low but soon got it right; otherwise it all went very well and we carried on playing mainly dancey stuff up to 11:30pm when I announced “Johnny B Goode” as the last number. We rocked that to a conclusion getting enthusiastic applause and shouts for ‘more’; so I called for “Merry Xmas” as the encore. We played that pretty good and finished to more wild applause. Willy came up to talk the evening down and we made our way off stage to a heroic reception from well wishers from the audience. Despite the uncertainty over the band’s future I was asked for cards by several people including a fellow musician who thought we would be great for the holiday parks at Hemsby (he took all my spare cards). Willy was keen to book us for next New Years Eve, but I explained the price would be very high and, with uncertainty over the bands future, it would be best to think about it for a couple of months. Pack up went OK with Carl helping on some bits, then the brawny fellows from the club helped us out with the gear. We loaded the vehicles, I passed round the Werther’s originals, we shook hands and we hit the road. It was very misty as we set off. I chose to head back via Diss. This turned out to be a ‘long and winding road’ so we made fairly slow time in the mist only getting home at about 1:30am. On reflection I thought we had played and performed really well at this gig and the sound was obviously spot on. One of our best efforts in the year I thought – it’s strangely all coming good at the end of the band’s life cycle!
