Raye had booked us up for this gig in the knowledge that Graham would be
having a big operation to remove a tumour in the chest. The operation was a big success but it was
understood it would be several months before he was fully fit again. So what was agreed was that another band “The
Trojans” would be booked as well as “The Checkmates” for a big Lindfield Charity Bash. We would borrow the Trojans gear and each
band would do 2 sets. We were positioned
as headlining so we would be on second and finish the night with the final
set. The minimum I would need is just a
guitar!
On the day I packed a Bose in (just in case!) and decided to take my
Roland GT10 FX, DIgitech harmoniser and
Roland GR33 synth; oh and my Audix OM5
Mic and stand (just in case). So the car
was quite full as Jacqui and I set off about 3pm on a beautifully sunny day for
Sussex. We arrived about 5:45pm
and, ‘cos we had agreed to meet the
others at 6:30pm, Jacqui and I had a
drink in the White Horse. Its been ‘done
up’ but it was a bit nostalgic ‘cos I used to take my dad in there in the
90’s. As we came out the pub we saw
Raye arrive and had just said our greetings when Graham and his missus Janice
rolled up. Superficially he looked
fine, but Janice said he had spent most
of the previous day at hospital with shortness of breath. Graham admitted he wasn’t in best shape but
as a trouper he wanted to do the gig!
We wandered into the hall and met up with the Trojans. They seemed to be led by Amanda and it was
her well used Carlsbro PA that was set up for vocals. Rick the roadie showed me
his Fender Chorus which he had kindly brought along specially for me to use
(their guitarist and his AC30 would be heading off back to Somerset immediately
after their second set). Graham had the
use of the bassists Laney stack with a 4 x 12 cab on each side of the
drums. After they had sound checked, we plugged our gear and mics in and had a run
through. Even though I have a Fender
Chorus at home, I had trouble getting a good sound out of Rick’s. This turned out to be due to a mismatch of output
settings on the GT10 and once I fixed that and pushed up the middle on the amp quite
a bit, it sounded fine. The basic mic sound was OK and I had my own
control over it from tone controls on the harmoniser. As the stage was very busy with leads guitars
mics etc, I decided to abandon the idea
of using the synth in the first set. We
sound checked with bits of “Wonder, Blue
Suede, Summertime Blues and Apache” and retired happy enough to have a
beer, a sit down and a chat with the
other band. I showed Amanda a list of
songs we were going to do. There were
only a couple that were also in their set (Apache and Blue Suede Shoes) and she
agreed they would avoid them. After a beer it was show time. The gig had sold out and the hall was
full! The Trojans opened their set with
a bunch of Shadows instrumentals.
Good
lead sound with an old Fender strat through a new AC30. Then Amanda came on and they did a few female
rocking pieces starting with Stupid Cupid. Towards the end she went on the
drums and her father came out to sing a couple of classics like “Jezabel”. We Checkmateers slinked off to the dressing
room to get our outfits ready and get motivated. We left the shirt change so we could come on
the stage to re-arrange the gear. Raye
and Graham were soon ready but coming back onto the dark stage amidst a sea of
wires it was a bit hit and miss for me and it took me a few minutes to get
sorted. We quickly popped back to the
dressing room to don our green shirts and returned to open with “Eyes”. The sound was a bit weak initially but we got
it right towards the end of of the song.
The audience didn’t mind – they were singing along loudly and gave us a
wonderful welcome! We carried on with
“Cathy’s Clown – Bye Bye Love”. By now I
had made some further adjustments to the vocal sound so we were able to carry
on through the set with a tight performance,
strong vocals, good relaxed
banter and no noticeable mistakes! Next
up was “Blue Suede” which went very well and was well received. Then we did “I Believe and Raining in My
Heart” as two short slowies to get the romantics our on the dance floor. As we came to Apache I signalled to Raye and
Graham that I would be doing the Shadows walk.
I put the guitar on the edge of the stage and jumped off, jarring my knees a little! I put the guitar on and off we went.
This was quite amusing for the audience, but I was also able to judge the sound while
I was out there – definitely brighter than on stage, but about the right volume and mix. As I finished I got a fantastic reception – a
wonderful round of applause that made me forget about the knees. I resumed with the boys reminding the
audience that the Shads were Sir Cliffs backing band and setting off into “Move
It”. This immediately filled the floor
and carrying on with “Summertime Blues” continued the dancey atmosphere. We did “Red Sails – Them There Eyes” as two
of the Checkmates hits from the 60’s and then gave Raye a drum display
opportunity with “Wipe Out” I had chosen
“Make Believe” as the finisher for the set.
I checked Graham was up for it and we gave a strong closing performance
of it with the audience singing along lustily.
I did miss the synth strings in this one but I don’t think anyone else
was bothered. Our finish timing was perfect
for the start of the buffet and the Trojans had the great idea of playing a set
of Shadows numbers as a wonderful backdrop to the meal. After a while Amanda came on to do her bit
and we retired to the dressing room to take stock. Graham was still suffering a bit but said he
would carry on - he felt worse sitting around but felt better on stage! The Trojans finished their set and then they cleared
a lot of their gear from the stage. For
this set I had to set up my mic stand
and untangling my FX pedals from the mess on stage did disrupt settings
‘cos I couldn’t get the guitar or mic to work initially. I eventually traced the problem of the mic to
the harmoniser knob which had been fully twisted clockwise to cut out the mic
thru signal. In the dark and confusion of
wires I couldn’t find why the guitar was so weak, so I turned the amp up and we
opened up with “Walk Don’t Run”. We
carried on with “Slow Boat” and looking around the floor I spotted the problem. Oddly enough it was the opposite problem with
the guitar – the GT10 volume had been twisted fully anti-clockwise to minimise
the guitar signal. These things happen
as gear is moved around on a busy stage.
There was nothing I could do until the end of the number, but then I was able to fix it. So “Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” went
better. Now it was time for an abridged
version of “Let There Be Drums”. We
didn’t go on the floor, but Raye was
able to satisfy some audience expectations by playing Graham’s Bass
on-stage. I messed up the count in and
run up to the final section but we covered up OK and basked in the well earned
applause at the end. “Halfway to
Paradise” went surprisingly well. This was a number I had been rehearsing at
home and I was pleased with my vocal performance even though the audience was singing
along nearly as loud as the band! We
rattled through “Saw Her Standing There” and “Shakin All Over” and then
dedicated “Route 66” to Raye’s missus Val.
Coincidently it was her 66th
birthday the next day so we did it as “Route 36”. Next up was “American Trilogy”. The band was a bit loose on timings but we
got through it in good order with the audience singing along. I missed the synth again but substituted a strong
guitar solo for the flute bit. We were
beginning to tire a little, but we pressed
on to the big finale with “Lucky Old Sun” and Raye came out front for the big
finish with “Early in the Morning”. I
set off speeding the end up a bit earlier than normal and as we got to the
final beats we were racing at top speed = much faster than normal - oddly
enough the audience loved it!
We
encored with “Eyes” earning more applause and shouts for more; but we were concerned for Graham and decided
to stop at 11:45pm leaving them wanting more!
All in all a great night considering the circumstances. Pack up was easy and we did our goodbyes and
got Graham off by about 12:15am. Raye
and I got off shortly after and Jacqui and I settled in for the long run home
to Suffolk, it was about 2:45 am when we
got back and it took a good couple of days to recover!
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