Chris had set this gig up with Lee Derbyshire, the Entertainment Manager
at the park, to demonstrate our potential for the various performance stages
across the whole site. We wouldn't get
paid as such, but In return we would
receive 3 big caravans for the Friday and Saturday and we could bring family /
friends to enjoy the facilities for the weekend. As it happened I had a party in Bristol to go
to on the Saturday, so I donated my
share of the caravans to the two Chris's to invite family. This particular gig would be in the owners
lounge on a 'World Cup Special' evening with a mix of quiz, comedy and band. Moreover,
we were asked to come prepared to play the "Match of the Day" theme to introduce the compere and other
performers. We had had a couple of
practice sessions prior to the gig where we ran this through and tightened up
some of the show to be able to play a slick 60 minutes on the night. The only snag was, nearly 2 months after the
cold I had, I was still suffering a low
grade infection around my voice box and low fitness - but I was confident I
could do an hour before my voice gave out.
On the day it was sunny and warm and Ms J decided to enjoy a spell at
the seaside and accompany me. We set off
at 2:20pm aiming for a 4pm arrival. It
was a good trip and, even though I took a wrong turn ending up at Great
Yarmouth and having to head South to Hopton, it was just a few minutes after
4pm as we rolled up at reception. I rang
Chris the bass and he came round to escort me to the gig. Good job too 'cos its a big park! The two Chris's gave me a lift in with the
gear; we had to carry it around a
bowling green into the Owners Club and upstairs to the lounge. Chris did find a lift to shift the bulk of
it. It was a nice surprise to see that Chris had picked up the 2 Ashdown 4x10
cabinets he had ordered (trading in the Harkte stack) - it looked gorgeous with
a slight blue sheen to it. It does add a
little something (a bit more toppy jazz bass click) to the already excellent
bass sound but the main thing is that it really looks the part with its retro
badges and dials. With the boys already
set up it only took me an hour to get things working and we were doing a sound
check with "Smiling" at 5:30pm.
All sounded good and everything worked so we retired for some free tea
and coffee courtesy of the Owners Club.
Jacqui and I went off for a walk round the site while the boys retired
to their caravans. We were well limbered
up by the time we got back for a final relax and sandwich before our briefing
meet up at 7pm. Chris the bass led the
discussion with Lee as to what we were to do and I appointed him stage director
for the night. Then we went downstairs
to the unisex toilets and changing room and got changed into red, white and blue patriotic colour tees for the
World Cup Event starting at 8pm. As we took our places the band had at least 10
family and friends in the audience and the rest of the upstairs lounge was filling
to capacity. At 8pm we opened up with
the "Match of the Day" theme to bring Lee on to start the show. He made a brief intro of the event and then
asked the band to play a couple of songs.
We obliged with "FBI" which went well enough (if a little
nervy). We finished to good applause and
I briefly acknowledged how delighted we were to be playing to them on this
special night. Then I quipped about the band that was riding high in the charts
last time England won the World Cup in 1966;
this linked us into a wig up for a little Beatle medley of "8 Days
a Week into Can't Buy Me Love". All
in all this was a bit nervy but we got a very good response from an audience clearly
out to enjoy themselves. Finally it was
"Match of the Day" theme to hand back to Lee. The event got underway proper and it was a
mix of facts and comedy: every time Lee
brought someone up we played the theme music and Chris the drum finished it
with a loud 'goa a l'! The show finished
with an anarchic 'French?' pizza making demo - we were prepared for some dough
to fly our way but it was all ok - with just a sprinkling of flour on the floor
in front of us! Lee put some muzak on
for an artistes 10 minute break and we got changed. We put on black shirts, white ties matching the white belts on our
black trousers and returned for a 50 minute set.
We started off with "Apache" with a bit of a Shadows walk in
the flour sprinkles on the floor in front of us. The guitar sounded good and the boys were
nicely balanced. (later Jacqui told it
was a really good band sound in that hall)
Nice applause from an experienced audience. We linked Sir Cliff's backing band into
"Do You Wanna Dance" and then did a bit of country with Chris the
drum singing "Ring of Fire". I
could see that was going well by the tapping along and we did get a big round
of applause for it. Next was some rock n
roll with "Rock Around the Clock".
I got off too fast on this, but
there had been no dancing, so we played
it through at this pace - I managed the solo somehow! However, it was well received and I carried
on to do my bit about "Is Sue in the room?" to link us into
"Runaround Sue" Nerves had
settled somewhat and we did a good performance.
I had been working on the boys to join in on a 'do wap' vocal arrangement
- no harmonies as such but with the 50s echo the unison vocal backing helps
build the atmosphere. I was pleased with
the response and we progressed into the 60's with "Happy
Together". Chris the drum and I had
agreed an 8 bar intro at the previous practice,
but on the night he carried it on too long - I think he has trouble getting
his first vocal phrase teed up in his mind?
But, once in the song proper it
was a creditable performance with the harmoniser doing sterling service to
create a good illusion of Turtles harmonies. Again very well received. Next we did our little Searchers medley of
"Needles Pins into Walk in Room".
As the audience applauded, Chris
the bass called for "Delilah" I signalled 'soon' and introduced
"Daydream Believer". Now this
got the crowd singing along nicely - but
then I messed up the arrangement finishing the song a bit early. Nothing the audience would notice and they
clearly loved singing along. So now it
was time for "Delilah". I am pleased
to report that, after many performances,
we finally played this through as arranged with no muffed chords or words and
all the strings and echo effects in the right places. Chris the drum sang it really well on the
night and, of course, the audience
joined in and we got a massive round of applause as we finished! I skipped "Saturday Night" and took
us into "Sweet Caroline" to keep the atmos going. It was the right song choice and the audience
joined in enthusiastically; but it was
in this song that my voice started to gum up. I had trouble getting the low and
high notes. However, being aware of the problem I could back off
at the right places and the audience would fill in - so not too noticeable and
very well received! I made my mind up to
tackle American Trilogy" while I still had some voice. I got into a difficulty getting it started as
I tried to clear my throat and then forgot the opening words. But once that was through I sang it OK. I had to delay the flute solo a bar because
of poor hand co-ordination switching sounds at the bottom of the Godin, then It was into the big finale which I was
delighted the audience were singing 'cos my voice was getting quite
croaky. I needn't have worried because
we got a fantastic response - as good as I get with any band and most
rewarding! We were on the homeward
straight now with a dancey sequence starting with "Pretty Woman thru Hey
Baby, Hi Ho and All Right Now" As
it happened we didn't get any dancing but we continued to go down really well
as we approached the end of the set. Lee
signalled last number so we finished with "Johnny B Goode". My voice was really croaky now but we had a
good rhythm. We did our outro's with
each of us getting big applause and we got another big response from one table
when I mentioned we were from Bury St Eds.
I skipped the final guitar solo and we ran through to the end getting a massive
roar of approval and shouts for more as we finished. Lee the compere took over and got us to
encore with a final "Match of the Day" and we were done.
I left Chris the bass to manage the post performance meet and greet
while I took a few minutes to recover in the dressing room. Chris reported that the management were most
impressed and were keen to book us back and he had given a lot of cards out! They boys very helpfully pitched in to tear
down and load up my gear (they were
leaving theirs overnight) and Jacqui and I were on our way before
midnight. It was a smooth ride home and
we were in bed with cocoa by 1:30am. Bit
of a lie in the next morning before we set off to Bristol.
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