The band resumed touring the pub circuit with a gig at the
Greengage. Chris the bass had had some
reservations about playing this one, so
a few weeks previously we had been on a band outing for a beer with the manager
to inspect the place. It was lively but
had recently been refurbished and Krin (the manager) had explained there would
be a bouncer on the door. No trouble on
that night so we decided to give it a go and here we were! As I drove off from the house a car came up
behind flashing its lights. After a
scary thought about police, I realised it was Chris the bass - we were well met
and en route to the gig in convoy by accident!
5 minutes later we pulled into the busy car park. I reversed in towards the smoking area where
the door to the playing area was. Chris
the drum was already there setting up.
After moving the smokers table a few yards, I guided Chris the bass into
a tight squeeze behind me - worth doing because we would now be parked up for
the night.
There was just enough room for both Bose but had to place the right hand side 2nd B1 bin on its side to squeeze in next to the bass stack. Chris tried out his repaired Harkte amp - worked OK but hasn't the depth of sound or punch of the Ashdown. However, when he got the Ashdown going I had to advise turning down the sub-bass a tad because it was just too loud and floor was vibrating. To demonstrate what I meant, I played the bass while he moved round the room. We eventually settled on a workable compromise to reflect the fact we would be generally at our "rockiest" on this night. The rest of set up went OK and we ran through "Just One Look" to test it out. I had a bit of trouble with toppy feedback which we ironed out using the graphic on the Mackie Mixer.
The pub was fairly busy as we got underway at 8:30 with 'Flingel Bunt'. After
a quietish drum opening there was a good quality band sound if a little loud
(apparently Nick in front of us resorted to ear plugs). Most of our supporters were far enough away
over in the alcove on the left not to be bothered by volume and later reported
a good tight sound! As we finished there
was a reasonable ripple of applause and I took the opportunity to introduce the
band telling the audience that 'the Hitch Hikers Guide stated that the meaning
of life is 42 and strangely it was 42 years to the night since the two Chris's
played their first gig at this very venue - making their debut in The Ghost
Riders. We carried on with the usual
flow: "Just One Look, Heartbeat,
Smiling, Groovy Kind of Love". I
dedicated "When My Little Girl is Smiling" to Claire and she loved
it! Next up was "Ring of Fire"
featuring Chris the drum. He got a good
reception from the supporters before we even started. Once underway I had to bring his mic up a bit
- I had set it down because he has a very powerful voice at times. We played it well and finished tight together
to a loud round of applause. After
"Blue Suede" (in which Chris the bass again forgot the key change in
the second solo) we were lined up to do a new song for the band (but an old
song for me). Chris the bass introduced
me and my notoriety with the Checkmates and we set off with the band debut of
"Eyes". The harmony intro was
pretty ropey, so I motioned them to go
round again and then we got underway with the song proper. Actually it went ok apart from the backing
singing which was mostly absent or not as rehearsed - nothing the audience
would notice however. Next was a sixties
session starting with "Ferry Cross Mersey" to set the Merseybeat
theme. We have played this every gig so
far and it sounds together and big with the strings filling the sound out
nicely and the vocal on a big 450 mS echo floating above. Trying a bit of banter I introduced "8
Days A Week" from the Beatles by telling the audience that Chris the bass
worked very hard. One of his workmates
came up shortly after to tell us that Chris was more of a 2 day a week
man! "Tambourine Man and Walk in
the Room" continued the sixties theme and went down well as usual. We rattled through "Runaround Sue and
All Shook Up" confidently - we were a little surprised at the lack of
dance and sing-a-long action so far but we seemed to be doing ok. Chris the drum suggested "Nights in
White Satin" to finish as most appropriate for this gig. So off we went. It went pretty good apart from Chris the bass
losing his way a little in the solo (which I had to also 'da da da da' to as
there was no flute); and we went for the
big finish with full strings and voices crescendoing to tease out a good audience
reception. Throughout the set there had
been a few ordinary pub goers in front of us who seemed really into our show
and applauded everything strongly; but
as the break arrived it seemed they had to go - a couple waving goodbye as they
left.
After the break we embarked on set 2 with "Apache". As I went out front to do a stroll the guitar lead caught on the Roland FX pedal and switched the sound - I calmly danced back and reset it, but this happened again so I had to keep the moves quite lightweight. While I was out front I could judge the guitar sound - and I was very pleased with it! We were getting good applause from our supporters but the pub itself remained a bit semi-detached? We followed up with: "Do You Wanna Dance" and on this night I can say I played the solo as I intended without any glitches, Chris the drum sang a good harmony and we got a good response for it. Another number that has come together well!
After "Delilah" which went very well as usual we did some rock
'n' roll and then embarked on a new number for the band: "Get Back". This did swing quite well and it turned out
to be one of the few numbers we did on the night that brought people up to
dance. The two Chris's need to nail that
low 'Get Back' harmony though! Next we
set off on a seventies sequence of "Dont Stop, Yellow River, Hot Love and
Amarillo" The last 3 were debut
performances for the band. "Yellow
River" worked well with Chris the drum singing the lead and just me on the
high harmony - it must be in our DNA to play this confidently 'cos it hadn't
had much rehearsal! "Hot Love"
is a straightforward number which we had improvised well at practice but I had
subsequently insisted on learning it like the record and on the night we all
got a bit confused with the breaks and arrangement - again nothing the audience
would notice and easily fixed. Similar
story with "Amarillo", playing it like the record was too challenging
on the night and there were several mistakes.
Mind you this number brought up some very drunken dancers: including a couple of blokes that had to be
led away by their other halves after swaying dangerously close to the
band. We finished the set with
"Wonder of You". This went pretty
well until the very last vocal line where I chickened out of the high G and
dropped it an octave. I will have to
work on this because it is a problem every time we play it.
We opened set 3 with "Great Balls" as usual. This time we followed up without stopping by
going straight into '1 2 3 4' "Saw Her Standing There" with Chris the
drum singing lead and me on the high harmony.
I must say this swang as well as the Foot Tappers or Checkmates ever did
and we seemed to get a bit of audience reaction for it (probably Chris's supporters!). We played on though a standard set 3 listing through
to "American Trilogy" which went down really well (Claire later
complimented me on the vocal for this difficult song). Next up I set a crunchy guitar sound and we
set off on a soft rock sequence with "Hi Ho, Alright Now, You Really Got Me". The latter was a debut for the band and,
despite a few ragged edges, I thought we did a good job - I was particularly
happy with the solo. It also went down well
with the locals with several up to dance at last. We finished with "Hippy Hippy Shake and
Johnny B Goode" squeezing in the
little solo pieces as we signed off - these still needs to be tighter though.
There were enough shouts for 'more' to justify an encore so I set off into
"Born to be Wild". For some
reason this didn't go as well as it had done at previous gigs. I looked round and Chris the drum was dripping
with sweat - I think the pace and the volume of the last few numbers had taken
its toll! The solo swang ok but after
that we seemed to lose track of the arrangement and timing. Ah well I'll call it jazz I thought as I brought
us to a messy but well applauded ending.
Nick helped us pack up so we were loaded in double quick time. Trudy had been at a wedding but had made it for the last set and said she was concerned that the band might be bothered by the low level of audience reaction. She said the locals weren't used to quality entertainment and it was probably over their head. Oddly enough Krin said he had had a good night and thanked us profusely. There was a bit of a glitch getting paid as a lot of detail needed to be supplied on the band's receipt but it got sorted in the end. Nick came back with me as Jacqui, Claire and Holly had shared a taxi and we were back home by about 12:15am. I had had a good night personally: particularly on the guitar and my voice had held up well. Reflecting on gigs generally I wonder what we can do to get a better audience reaction? Maybe we need some more dancey material? On the other hand, on the night we visited the Greengage there was an 80's disco playing dancey stuff to no reaction? Looking at other bands set lists on the net indicates our repertoire is typical of the genre - maybe it's just the places we are playing?
There was just enough room for both Bose but had to place the right hand side 2nd B1 bin on its side to squeeze in next to the bass stack. Chris tried out his repaired Harkte amp - worked OK but hasn't the depth of sound or punch of the Ashdown. However, when he got the Ashdown going I had to advise turning down the sub-bass a tad because it was just too loud and floor was vibrating. To demonstrate what I meant, I played the bass while he moved round the room. We eventually settled on a workable compromise to reflect the fact we would be generally at our "rockiest" on this night. The rest of set up went OK and we ran through "Just One Look" to test it out. I had a bit of trouble with toppy feedback which we ironed out using the graphic on the Mackie Mixer.
Chris the bass had phoned his missus to bring his forgotten music stand
and she arrived as we were getting the beers in. A bunch of the 2 Chris's relatives and
friends drifted in, followed shortly after by Jacqui, Claire, Nick and Claire's
friend Holly - so we had a good home crowd to cheer us on!
After the break we embarked on set 2 with "Apache". As I went out front to do a stroll the guitar lead caught on the Roland FX pedal and switched the sound - I calmly danced back and reset it, but this happened again so I had to keep the moves quite lightweight. While I was out front I could judge the guitar sound - and I was very pleased with it! We were getting good applause from our supporters but the pub itself remained a bit semi-detached? We followed up with: "Do You Wanna Dance" and on this night I can say I played the solo as I intended without any glitches, Chris the drum sang a good harmony and we got a good response for it. Another number that has come together well!
Nick helped us pack up so we were loaded in double quick time. Trudy had been at a wedding but had made it for the last set and said she was concerned that the band might be bothered by the low level of audience reaction. She said the locals weren't used to quality entertainment and it was probably over their head. Oddly enough Krin said he had had a good night and thanked us profusely. There was a bit of a glitch getting paid as a lot of detail needed to be supplied on the band's receipt but it got sorted in the end. Nick came back with me as Jacqui, Claire and Holly had shared a taxi and we were back home by about 12:15am. I had had a good night personally: particularly on the guitar and my voice had held up well. Reflecting on gigs generally I wonder what we can do to get a better audience reaction? Maybe we need some more dancey material? On the other hand, on the night we visited the Greengage there was an 80's disco playing dancey stuff to no reaction? Looking at other bands set lists on the net indicates our repertoire is typical of the genre - maybe it's just the places we are playing?
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