We had been booked to play a caravan rally social night; they were parked in the grounds of the Sugar
Factory Social Club. I drove the quarter
of a mile or so over to the club at just after 6pm to find Chris's the drum
& bass already there with the side load in doors open. I surprised to see a stage there and even
more surprised to see a hi-tech back drop behind the stage. It is a big room and there were lots of
tables set out either side slightly swept back and leaving a big area in the
middle for dancing. Setting up the gear
up was straightforward physically, but
it took me a while to get the Mackie mixer back to my normal settings after
Nicks foray the previous week. Set up also took a bit longer 'cos Nick had
kindly unplugged many of the leads I normally leave plugged into the devices to
save time - but 'hey ho' it exercises the connections (and the brain). I had decided to stick to my Shure Beta 58
for this gig, and I had put all the mic
heads through the dishwasher in the week to freshen them up after GlastonBury
St Edmunds. Once running I decided to
stick to centre panning as we had not suffered any strange effects so far, but I also retained Nick's concept of added
top presence which I think suits the Mackie - although the equalisers don't
handle the high frequencies as smoothly as the Bose or Line 6 mixers? Tonight I was using my birthday Godin XTSA
Koa for the first time. It looks
gorgeous, plays great and sounds very similar to the old red one i.e. just what
I like. Everything else sound checked
OK, so I nipped home to pick up Jacqui
and, with others arriving, we soon had a table of band relatives and supporters
filled up! With everything in place and background music on, I was soon nursing a beer on a warm and
pleasant evening. We had the luxury of a big changing room and
put on our white shirts with waistcoats to start. The place was surprisingly full as we took to
the stage at 8:30pm and opened with the usual sequence.
It sounded good, we were getting applause from the off, but no dancing and the band seemed a little nervy - maybe being that bit distant from the audience? We soldiered on through a standard first set. I couldn't work out why they weren't dancing as we tried rock'n'roll, pop, country even some slowies. But they seemed attentive and were applauding everything so I knew we were connecting with them. As we came to the end of the set, I brought Chris out to sing "Delilah". He was able to take the mic onto the floor. Amazingly, some people came up to dance to this waltz! We also had quite a few singing along and we got a great reception as we finished. Telling the audience we now had the measure of them I announced "Green Green Grass of Home" as the last number of the set and we got a similar response with dancing and applause. We had a 20 minute break, changed into the red shirts and then ReTrio resumed with a little 60's sequence with "Eight Days a Week, Walk in the Room and Mr Tambourine Man". These all went down well but we didn't get much dancing again.
Now it was time to bring Abbie up. She had decided to drop "Pontoon" from her set but we opened with the usual "Good Girls Gonna Go Bad". This went well and she got a good round of applause and same for the next number "Blanket on the Ground" although weirdly the band (including myself) seemed to be struggling to remember the arrangements? Abbie continued with "Valerie" which I thought went well, but no dancing. We followed up with "Sober" a slowie which I announced and got some good banter going with some wags in the crowd - played it well enough and got a good response! And then we finished with "Country Roads". Abbie got a good reception for this but was a little subdued as she left. We carried on pick 'n' mixing through the second set repertoire; couldn't evoke any dancing but continued to get a good response. We seemed to tire and lose our way a bit so I was pleased to approach the finish of this set. I asked Chris to do "Help Me Make it Through Your Tights" Strangely for this number they all got up and danced and gave it a great reception! So much so I decided to throw in "Wonderful Tonight" as the set finisher, which got the same response - they clearly liked slowies on this hot night. Off for another 20 minute break, we got changed into tee shirts and waistcoats for the last set which would be about an hour long. We opened with "Great Balls" and threw ourselves into this set much more energetically: playing a sequence of dancey songs which started to get them going at last. And then we did "American Trilogy" which brought the house down - at last we had struck gold in audience response. From then 'til I indicated "HI Ho Silver" as our last number we were doing fine - although my voice started to fail towards the end. There were enough shouts for 'more' for me to call for "Johnny B Goode" as an encore (I had asked Abbie if she wanted to come up and join in with Johnny B Goode but she declined on this night). It was a bit of a ragged ending but were some shouts for 'more'. We were spent so we eased the background musak on and wound down. I was just about to leave the stage when the secretary of the caravanning club came up to say how much he liked the show and could he have a card for a future booking - so all must have been better than we thought. I was pretty tired as we packed up, but couldn't grumble about a 5 minute run home! In retrospect it was a demanding gig. We were high up and a bit distant from the audience (the first time on a high stage for Abbie who had found it hard going to connect); it was a relatively hot night, our audience weren't in the mood for dancing and, physically, I personally was a bit run down from the cold I was about to have and couldn't give it my best shot vocally or energywise. But we had won them over and are well placed to develop the caravanning entertainment market segment. As Nigel said: Why not give our old friend Willy McCaravan a call?"
It sounded good, we were getting applause from the off, but no dancing and the band seemed a little nervy - maybe being that bit distant from the audience? We soldiered on through a standard first set. I couldn't work out why they weren't dancing as we tried rock'n'roll, pop, country even some slowies. But they seemed attentive and were applauding everything so I knew we were connecting with them. As we came to the end of the set, I brought Chris out to sing "Delilah". He was able to take the mic onto the floor. Amazingly, some people came up to dance to this waltz! We also had quite a few singing along and we got a great reception as we finished. Telling the audience we now had the measure of them I announced "Green Green Grass of Home" as the last number of the set and we got a similar response with dancing and applause. We had a 20 minute break, changed into the red shirts and then ReTrio resumed with a little 60's sequence with "Eight Days a Week, Walk in the Room and Mr Tambourine Man". These all went down well but we didn't get much dancing again.
Now it was time to bring Abbie up. She had decided to drop "Pontoon" from her set but we opened with the usual "Good Girls Gonna Go Bad". This went well and she got a good round of applause and same for the next number "Blanket on the Ground" although weirdly the band (including myself) seemed to be struggling to remember the arrangements? Abbie continued with "Valerie" which I thought went well, but no dancing. We followed up with "Sober" a slowie which I announced and got some good banter going with some wags in the crowd - played it well enough and got a good response! And then we finished with "Country Roads". Abbie got a good reception for this but was a little subdued as she left. We carried on pick 'n' mixing through the second set repertoire; couldn't evoke any dancing but continued to get a good response. We seemed to tire and lose our way a bit so I was pleased to approach the finish of this set. I asked Chris to do "Help Me Make it Through Your Tights" Strangely for this number they all got up and danced and gave it a great reception! So much so I decided to throw in "Wonderful Tonight" as the set finisher, which got the same response - they clearly liked slowies on this hot night. Off for another 20 minute break, we got changed into tee shirts and waistcoats for the last set which would be about an hour long. We opened with "Great Balls" and threw ourselves into this set much more energetically: playing a sequence of dancey songs which started to get them going at last. And then we did "American Trilogy" which brought the house down - at last we had struck gold in audience response. From then 'til I indicated "HI Ho Silver" as our last number we were doing fine - although my voice started to fail towards the end. There were enough shouts for 'more' for me to call for "Johnny B Goode" as an encore (I had asked Abbie if she wanted to come up and join in with Johnny B Goode but she declined on this night). It was a bit of a ragged ending but were some shouts for 'more'. We were spent so we eased the background musak on and wound down. I was just about to leave the stage when the secretary of the caravanning club came up to say how much he liked the show and could he have a card for a future booking - so all must have been better than we thought. I was pretty tired as we packed up, but couldn't grumble about a 5 minute run home! In retrospect it was a demanding gig. We were high up and a bit distant from the audience (the first time on a high stage for Abbie who had found it hard going to connect); it was a relatively hot night, our audience weren't in the mood for dancing and, physically, I personally was a bit run down from the cold I was about to have and couldn't give it my best shot vocally or energywise. But we had won them over and are well placed to develop the caravanning entertainment market segment. As Nigel said: Why not give our old friend Willy McCaravan a call?"
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