The
54th Anniversary Checkmates World Tour continued through Sussex this weekend.
Jacqui and I set off from Bury St Edmunds at 11 am and taking an easy ride
(with a diversion for ladies clothing shopping at Bluewater), we arrived in the Haywards Heath area at
3:30pm. We drove straight round to
Jenny and Miles' house in Lindfield where we were welcomed with a cup of tea
and a slap up feed. Jacqui had elected
to stay with these old friends for the night while I headed off to Hassocks to
meet up with Raye and Graham at 6pm to play the British Legion. It must have been 12 years since we had last
played this gig as The Checkmates, although Raye and Graham had appeared in
other bands there several times over recent years. Quite nostalgic for me however! We got the gear in the back door which leads
straight on to the playing area. It was
still light enough to avoid breaking a leg on the various 'elf n safety'
hazards in the back yard, but I could
see we would definitely carry the gear out the main entrance at the end of the
night! Graham was excused lifting as he
was recovering from a very recent hernia operation - the one he had been
scheduled for about 3 years ago! I
wheeled his single 15" Trace Elliott combo in and set it into position for
the young fella. We got the beers in and
commenced set up. We were using a double
Bose PA and there was plenty of room compared to the pub jobs I had been doing
recently. No surprises in set up and I
soon had a good mic mix going.
In between meeting and greeting various folk arriving early we got the opportunity to run through the new songs I had added to the repertoire: "When My Little Girl is Smiling" (one I had added as representative of Raye's stint with Jimmy Justice and the Exchequers); and "Counting Teardrops" and "You'll Never Know What You're Missing" both done originally by Emile Ford & The Checkmates and pre-requested by a fan named Ron! Raye also asked to play through "Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" and a bit of "Mona Lisa" to remind ourselves of the Checkmates Caribbean rhythmic style! These run throughs went well enough but there is just enough complexity in the arrangements to make me cross my fingers for luck as we put the background muzak on and set about mingling and greeting the fans and acquaintances of the band. The venue seemed very full to me with at least 60 in the small performance room by show time; but Raye was a little disappointed with the turn out until we mentioned it was Friday (not a normal gig night at the venue) and there were no spare seats - standing room only! We had got changed into the green shirts and we took to the 'stage' sensing an air of anticipation from the crowd. We opened with "What do...Eyes at Me For" a bit nervously, in fact we had to restart 'cos Graham had sung the very similar opening 'do do wahs' for "Wonder Who's Kissing" by mistake! We smoothed that over as part of the act and proceeded with the acapella intro to "Eyes" proper. Good sound I thought as we got into our stride. The whole room was singing along from the off - boding well for a good night. We finished to a great round of applause. Continuing with "Stand By Me and Heartbeat"; I usually use these songs to finalise the mix and ended up increasing the top and echo on the mics to compensate for the dry sounding room now it was full. Then we started to get into a familiar Checkmatey groove with added banter to take us through the next few pre-Beatles era numbers. We enjoyed a bit of excitement as we performed "When My Little Girl is Smiling" in public for the first time. A bit nervy, but a very good sound I thought. Graham sang it well (it suits his voice) and when I brought the harmony and strings in to the refrain it sounded quite classy! The solo came and I played the notes in the right place but a little nervously because, although I play this with ReTrio, I still haven't delegated this from brain to fingers! Graham sensed the solo would benefit from some 'aaaahs' in the Bm G refrain and adding them worked well to fill the soundscape. Graham had picked up to do the slide down to the D on the little guitar phrases between verses - well done I nodded. We finished tightly together and this 'nice' song earned a good response from the audience. I adopted a Shadows stagger for the next song "Apache". My lead is still a bit restrictive and I am thinking about a wireless link. I have got a legal one somewhere but it is all the hassle of set up. Maybe I should look into going all wireless on mics with a rack while I'm at it? Still I blundered around to great effect and we got a thunderous reception for it (probably sympathy for the dispraxic)! We moved onto a mini rock'n'roll sequence with "Move It, Summertime Blues and Alright Mama". This had the effect of filling the dance floor and we got a great reception at the end. It was time to slow things down: We started with "Raining In My Heart" - unfortunately the dancers melted away, but we did an ok job of it. Then we followed up as planned with a short version of "I Believe" which got the crowd singing along towards the end. We finished the set with "Wipe Out". Raye was on top form and it was pretty tight. He got a great roar of approval as we finished. In the break we mingled - I met up with Pat the bassist from "Music Box" who, I think not having heard us before, was very impressed with the big and classy sound from a three piece. Harvey, the concert secretary for the club in the 90s, looked just the same except he's now in his mid 70s: still smoking and drinking and looking very fit and well. We agreed it was a time warp experience, but he kindly said the band seemed better than he remembered and we were good then! Raye's missus Val and her sister Marilyn had arrived early in the set and were also complimentary on the band. We got changed into the blue and struck out to start set 2 with a Checkmates hits sequence starting with: "Slow Boat, Wonder Who's Kissing and Red Sails". These all went well and I am pleased to report Graham and I expected the solo in "Red Sails" at the same point and I played it well - its only taken us 20 years to get in synch! Next up was a requested newie: "You'll Never Know What You're Missing". I counted us in and we got the rhythm and 'bop bop ba da das' going well. Graham struck up with the vocal. Its fine but a tad down in the mix I thought. We are doing it in the same key as Emile Ford (A) but it is quite low for a band lead singer nowadays, I wonder if it would benefit from being a bit higher say B or C? Still it was great to get it performed in public after I did the arrangement way back in 1993 - we never managed to launch it until tonight! "Counting Teardrops" was next. We had played this many times in the mid-90's but it had fallen out of the play list. It is relatively complex with little riffs, lots of stops and me doing girly answer backs. On this night we found our feet with the basic song OK but it is hard to get all the little nuances in. We finished the sequence with "Them There Eyes" (a little untogether?) and "Mona Lisa" (swang nicely). The audience had been polite rather than ecstatic during the whole Checkmates sequence, which was strange, but these songs can sound a little dated if you are not a real aficionado. I took the boys into a short rock'n'roll sequence with "Rip It Up, All Shook Up and Runaround Sue" which livened things up. Then we did "Only Make Believe" - a big number with big vocals, big strings and a big audience response with singing along and applause aplenty. So now we were set for "Let There Be Drums" as a high point of the night. Raye got into a strong rhythm (amazing for a young chap in his 80s). Usually Raye counts us in, but tonight he seemed to be concentrating on bashing out a great Gene Krupa beat so he looked to me to count in which I obliged. Because the onstage sound was so clear we had no trouble co-ordinating the various changes and we relaxed into yet another version of our well honed routine. As usual it brought the house down and there was a real buzz about the place as we took our break, Coming back on for the last set we opened with "Great Balls". Graham was enjoying the band groove so much he called for an extra solo and verse. As we finished I took us straight into the riff for "Wanderer" and the dance floor started get busy again. Although I hadn't played the solo to this for a year, I rattled out an acceptable version on the night; keeping to a more authentic cleanish sound rather than the gritty sustain I used to use. As soon as this ended I counted us into "Saw Her Standing There" which kept the dance floor full. No problem with the solo and Graham and I sang the very high harmony lines as the end of the chorus like 'angels'. We skipped and mixed to "Route 66" next to keep the crowd bopping and get the dedication to Val in. The band was really cooking as we came to the solo which is always improvised and I got a good solo in on the night. As we ended we all came to the same conclusion: "American Trilogy" would be up next! I introduced it as one of our oldest songs, actually from the 19th Century. On the night this was only an OK performance as we struggled to remember the nuances; but I did get the flute solo in as intended and that made folk in the audience and the band sit up - it sounded really good through the double Bose! We built the big crescendo to the end well - I was mighty impressed by Graham's ability to hold that last high note through eight bars (I had to take two breaths doing the harmony)! We got a fantastic reception for this. We gave the voices a rest as I took on FBI next. I did a little bit of Shadows posturing but no walk as such. I thought we played it well but I was truly surprised by the great reception we got. I opened another little dance sequence with "Shakin All Over" - the boys followed the old arrangement we used to do and I fitted in (I normally do this closer to the record nowadays). Again a great reception and we nodded each other into "Jailhouse Rock" to follow and keep the dancers busy. Raye and Graham always get a great beat going for this and it helps with solo building; in fact it was going so well at the end that Graham kept it going with a soul like repeat of the last phrase 'Going to the Jailhouse' which Raye and I supported tightly until we rounded off neatly with me adding a burst of Scotty Moore guitar to end it. It was time to do the closing sequence. Graham introduced "Lucky Old Sun" as the song we have closed the show with for 'maaany' years. In the meantime Raye had come out front with his spare mini snare and cymbal. Despite playing this song as the closer for at least twenty years, we got off to a slightly ragged start and I was well out of kilter as we negotiated the early chord switch into the bridge; so I missed the harmonies on the first line. Just general unfamiliarity on my part I think - but that's one I need to run thru or listen to before we re-unite! However, the rest of it was OK and we didn't miss Raye's bass drum too much. Towards the end; Graham said his 'goodnights from Adrian and Raye' and I said 'goodnight from Graham' and we ran through to the end. As the audience gave it up for the 'last song', we transitioned into "Early in the Morning" as per usual. Raye is a master of getting a big sound out of the minimum kit and it sounded fine (if a little skiffley) as we got underway with this fast song. We got a magnificent roar from the audience as we finished and they were shouting for more; so we got on with our planned encore of "Eyes". Still more shouts for more at the end so I called for "Johnny B Goode" and we bashed that out - I sang it to give Graham a break and we still had Raye playing just on snare and cymbal; but it sounded and swang fine. As we finished Graham gave 'em one more as we bashed straight on into "Hound Dog". I hadn't played the solo for more than a couple of years but remembered enough of it to improvise it well enough. We finally came to a halt about 11:40pm, a little over time but the crowd had stayed (bless 'em) and we did a bit of glad handing as several 'fans' came over to congratulate us on a great night. Then it was time to get changed. My shirt was pretty sweaty, but Graham kindly offered to wash both my shirts to be ready for Saturday's performance. Packing up was hard work and there were still a few folk around wishing us well which slowed us down a bit, but Graham did find a volunteer to help shift his amp (Raz?). Barry from the club gave Raye and me a hand to shift stuff out but it was about 12:30am as we completed load. Actually Raye looked knackered and his breathing was quite shallow as we loaded the last few bits into his car. Graham and I were becoming concerned for his well being but he assured us he would be OK and we finally hit the road about 12:45 am. For me it was a quick run to Haywards Heath straight through Burgess Hill (rather than the bypass). But I ran into road works near Haywards Heath station, then I took a wrong turn and had to go round the one-way again to get on the road to Lindfield. So it was well after 1 am as I crept into Jenny and Miles' house where everyone was asleep. As I settled into sleep I felt good about the night's work. Despite some ragged edges, we had had several moments in the night where the band seems to take on its own improvising identity beyond that of the 3 individuals - these are very rewarding for the musicians and don't happen in every band.
In between meeting and greeting various folk arriving early we got the opportunity to run through the new songs I had added to the repertoire: "When My Little Girl is Smiling" (one I had added as representative of Raye's stint with Jimmy Justice and the Exchequers); and "Counting Teardrops" and "You'll Never Know What You're Missing" both done originally by Emile Ford & The Checkmates and pre-requested by a fan named Ron! Raye also asked to play through "Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" and a bit of "Mona Lisa" to remind ourselves of the Checkmates Caribbean rhythmic style! These run throughs went well enough but there is just enough complexity in the arrangements to make me cross my fingers for luck as we put the background muzak on and set about mingling and greeting the fans and acquaintances of the band. The venue seemed very full to me with at least 60 in the small performance room by show time; but Raye was a little disappointed with the turn out until we mentioned it was Friday (not a normal gig night at the venue) and there were no spare seats - standing room only! We had got changed into the green shirts and we took to the 'stage' sensing an air of anticipation from the crowd. We opened with "What do...Eyes at Me For" a bit nervously, in fact we had to restart 'cos Graham had sung the very similar opening 'do do wahs' for "Wonder Who's Kissing" by mistake! We smoothed that over as part of the act and proceeded with the acapella intro to "Eyes" proper. Good sound I thought as we got into our stride. The whole room was singing along from the off - boding well for a good night. We finished to a great round of applause. Continuing with "Stand By Me and Heartbeat"; I usually use these songs to finalise the mix and ended up increasing the top and echo on the mics to compensate for the dry sounding room now it was full. Then we started to get into a familiar Checkmatey groove with added banter to take us through the next few pre-Beatles era numbers. We enjoyed a bit of excitement as we performed "When My Little Girl is Smiling" in public for the first time. A bit nervy, but a very good sound I thought. Graham sang it well (it suits his voice) and when I brought the harmony and strings in to the refrain it sounded quite classy! The solo came and I played the notes in the right place but a little nervously because, although I play this with ReTrio, I still haven't delegated this from brain to fingers! Graham sensed the solo would benefit from some 'aaaahs' in the Bm G refrain and adding them worked well to fill the soundscape. Graham had picked up to do the slide down to the D on the little guitar phrases between verses - well done I nodded. We finished tightly together and this 'nice' song earned a good response from the audience. I adopted a Shadows stagger for the next song "Apache". My lead is still a bit restrictive and I am thinking about a wireless link. I have got a legal one somewhere but it is all the hassle of set up. Maybe I should look into going all wireless on mics with a rack while I'm at it? Still I blundered around to great effect and we got a thunderous reception for it (probably sympathy for the dispraxic)! We moved onto a mini rock'n'roll sequence with "Move It, Summertime Blues and Alright Mama". This had the effect of filling the dance floor and we got a great reception at the end. It was time to slow things down: We started with "Raining In My Heart" - unfortunately the dancers melted away, but we did an ok job of it. Then we followed up as planned with a short version of "I Believe" which got the crowd singing along towards the end. We finished the set with "Wipe Out". Raye was on top form and it was pretty tight. He got a great roar of approval as we finished. In the break we mingled - I met up with Pat the bassist from "Music Box" who, I think not having heard us before, was very impressed with the big and classy sound from a three piece. Harvey, the concert secretary for the club in the 90s, looked just the same except he's now in his mid 70s: still smoking and drinking and looking very fit and well. We agreed it was a time warp experience, but he kindly said the band seemed better than he remembered and we were good then! Raye's missus Val and her sister Marilyn had arrived early in the set and were also complimentary on the band. We got changed into the blue and struck out to start set 2 with a Checkmates hits sequence starting with: "Slow Boat, Wonder Who's Kissing and Red Sails". These all went well and I am pleased to report Graham and I expected the solo in "Red Sails" at the same point and I played it well - its only taken us 20 years to get in synch! Next up was a requested newie: "You'll Never Know What You're Missing". I counted us in and we got the rhythm and 'bop bop ba da das' going well. Graham struck up with the vocal. Its fine but a tad down in the mix I thought. We are doing it in the same key as Emile Ford (A) but it is quite low for a band lead singer nowadays, I wonder if it would benefit from being a bit higher say B or C? Still it was great to get it performed in public after I did the arrangement way back in 1993 - we never managed to launch it until tonight! "Counting Teardrops" was next. We had played this many times in the mid-90's but it had fallen out of the play list. It is relatively complex with little riffs, lots of stops and me doing girly answer backs. On this night we found our feet with the basic song OK but it is hard to get all the little nuances in. We finished the sequence with "Them There Eyes" (a little untogether?) and "Mona Lisa" (swang nicely). The audience had been polite rather than ecstatic during the whole Checkmates sequence, which was strange, but these songs can sound a little dated if you are not a real aficionado. I took the boys into a short rock'n'roll sequence with "Rip It Up, All Shook Up and Runaround Sue" which livened things up. Then we did "Only Make Believe" - a big number with big vocals, big strings and a big audience response with singing along and applause aplenty. So now we were set for "Let There Be Drums" as a high point of the night. Raye got into a strong rhythm (amazing for a young chap in his 80s). Usually Raye counts us in, but tonight he seemed to be concentrating on bashing out a great Gene Krupa beat so he looked to me to count in which I obliged. Because the onstage sound was so clear we had no trouble co-ordinating the various changes and we relaxed into yet another version of our well honed routine. As usual it brought the house down and there was a real buzz about the place as we took our break, Coming back on for the last set we opened with "Great Balls". Graham was enjoying the band groove so much he called for an extra solo and verse. As we finished I took us straight into the riff for "Wanderer" and the dance floor started get busy again. Although I hadn't played the solo to this for a year, I rattled out an acceptable version on the night; keeping to a more authentic cleanish sound rather than the gritty sustain I used to use. As soon as this ended I counted us into "Saw Her Standing There" which kept the dance floor full. No problem with the solo and Graham and I sang the very high harmony lines as the end of the chorus like 'angels'. We skipped and mixed to "Route 66" next to keep the crowd bopping and get the dedication to Val in. The band was really cooking as we came to the solo which is always improvised and I got a good solo in on the night. As we ended we all came to the same conclusion: "American Trilogy" would be up next! I introduced it as one of our oldest songs, actually from the 19th Century. On the night this was only an OK performance as we struggled to remember the nuances; but I did get the flute solo in as intended and that made folk in the audience and the band sit up - it sounded really good through the double Bose! We built the big crescendo to the end well - I was mighty impressed by Graham's ability to hold that last high note through eight bars (I had to take two breaths doing the harmony)! We got a fantastic reception for this. We gave the voices a rest as I took on FBI next. I did a little bit of Shadows posturing but no walk as such. I thought we played it well but I was truly surprised by the great reception we got. I opened another little dance sequence with "Shakin All Over" - the boys followed the old arrangement we used to do and I fitted in (I normally do this closer to the record nowadays). Again a great reception and we nodded each other into "Jailhouse Rock" to follow and keep the dancers busy. Raye and Graham always get a great beat going for this and it helps with solo building; in fact it was going so well at the end that Graham kept it going with a soul like repeat of the last phrase 'Going to the Jailhouse' which Raye and I supported tightly until we rounded off neatly with me adding a burst of Scotty Moore guitar to end it. It was time to do the closing sequence. Graham introduced "Lucky Old Sun" as the song we have closed the show with for 'maaany' years. In the meantime Raye had come out front with his spare mini snare and cymbal. Despite playing this song as the closer for at least twenty years, we got off to a slightly ragged start and I was well out of kilter as we negotiated the early chord switch into the bridge; so I missed the harmonies on the first line. Just general unfamiliarity on my part I think - but that's one I need to run thru or listen to before we re-unite! However, the rest of it was OK and we didn't miss Raye's bass drum too much. Towards the end; Graham said his 'goodnights from Adrian and Raye' and I said 'goodnight from Graham' and we ran through to the end. As the audience gave it up for the 'last song', we transitioned into "Early in the Morning" as per usual. Raye is a master of getting a big sound out of the minimum kit and it sounded fine (if a little skiffley) as we got underway with this fast song. We got a magnificent roar from the audience as we finished and they were shouting for more; so we got on with our planned encore of "Eyes". Still more shouts for more at the end so I called for "Johnny B Goode" and we bashed that out - I sang it to give Graham a break and we still had Raye playing just on snare and cymbal; but it sounded and swang fine. As we finished Graham gave 'em one more as we bashed straight on into "Hound Dog". I hadn't played the solo for more than a couple of years but remembered enough of it to improvise it well enough. We finally came to a halt about 11:40pm, a little over time but the crowd had stayed (bless 'em) and we did a bit of glad handing as several 'fans' came over to congratulate us on a great night. Then it was time to get changed. My shirt was pretty sweaty, but Graham kindly offered to wash both my shirts to be ready for Saturday's performance. Packing up was hard work and there were still a few folk around wishing us well which slowed us down a bit, but Graham did find a volunteer to help shift his amp (Raz?). Barry from the club gave Raye and me a hand to shift stuff out but it was about 12:30am as we completed load. Actually Raye looked knackered and his breathing was quite shallow as we loaded the last few bits into his car. Graham and I were becoming concerned for his well being but he assured us he would be OK and we finally hit the road about 12:45 am. For me it was a quick run to Haywards Heath straight through Burgess Hill (rather than the bypass). But I ran into road works near Haywards Heath station, then I took a wrong turn and had to go round the one-way again to get on the road to Lindfield. So it was well after 1 am as I crept into Jenny and Miles' house where everyone was asleep. As I settled into sleep I felt good about the night's work. Despite some ragged edges, we had had several moments in the night where the band seems to take on its own improvising identity beyond that of the 3 individuals - these are very rewarding for the musicians and don't happen in every band.
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