I was geared up to use the Line 6 mixer with one Bose with two B1 bin + a
Line 6 L2M on a speaker stand on Chris's side.
Arrived and found the two Chris's mainly set up. We squeezed my gear
in. Chris set the speaker stand legs
flat on the floor - I didn't spot this in time so we proceeded to set up with
those legs well splayed out. It was very
tight on my side; I had to operate the
pa effects by threading my right foot through the drum stands to press
footswitches - but amazingly it all worked.
By the time I came to check to mics out properly I was a bit concerned
at the low power from the Line 6, we had
to turn the master up to max to get close to feedback. I thought it would do and left it for a bit. Then Chris the bass reported a popping sound
from it. I powered it down and back
up, that often cures problems - still
there! I asked Chris to disconnect the signal lead from the mixer and it was
still popping away, so we had diagnosed
a faulty unit. Thought about it for a
minute and took the decision to pull it down and bring in the spare Bose. The
boys helped with the gear shift and it only took a few minutes to get the Bose
with 1 B1 set up. Actually, it didn't take up much more room than the
splayed leg Line 6 so no major band re-arrangement necessary. The PA all checked out ok and there was
plenty of volume so we retired for a beer.
Chris the bass had quite a few friends and relatives arriving -
including a family from San Diego and, with some of our usual supporters coming
in, the pub was getting quite
crowded. Jacqui arrived having made the
long 10 minute journey from home on foot!
We completed change into white tees n black trousers in the gents. Actually I had arrived in mine so it was just
waistcoat for me. When we got back out I
was pleasantly surprised to see how busy it was. In fact I found it easiest to
get to the band area by exiting the pub at the back, walking round the outside
to the front door, and then inside and to the left to the playing area! We took our places and opened up with
"FBI". Sounded good and some
folks were definitely jiggling around to it;
and we got a good round of applause as we finished. Followed up with
"Heartbeat and Smiling" as pa system testers and all seemed ok soundwise. I was finding it hard to stand and reach the
various pedals and eventually settled on a workable position by turning to my
right to face the bass. We carried on with the usual flow for a few
numbers. Chris the bass asked to defer
"Act Naturally" 'til set 2 when there would be a bit of bandaoki (i.e.
karaoke with backing by a band). The
audience was well on our side and we got a good response to everything. I chose to finish with "All Shook
Up" as we reached the 45 minute point.
We came back on for a rocking set 3 and it was a blast. Everything we did went well with singing
along, bits of crowded dancing and a raucous
applause. We signed off with Johnny B
Goode, got the call for an encore and
bashed out "Born to be Wild" to finish a great but wild night. We heard later that the pub had had to send
out for an emergency drink replenishment to keep the crowd supplied!!!
Set 2 was interesting - we got off to the usual start with "Apache,
Do You Wanna Dance, Happy Together, Daydream Believer, Delilah" all very
well received. It was so crowded round
the band that there were only little spots of dance action. Then we had a strange session where Brian, the
original 81 year old singer from their first band 'The Mustangs' came up to do a couple of songs accompanied
by the band and his son, Malcolm, on acoustic guitar. We made a bit of space
for them in front of the drums. I had
set up the spare SM58 for Brian and it just needed unmuting on the mixer. Malcolm didn't need any amplification. We were all set to start with "Crystal
Chandelier" in C. Brian's voice was
a bit short of power as he tested the mic so I gave it a final boost and off we
went. In truth it wasn't a great musical
performance, but it was massively
nostalgic for those doing it and many of the crowd. Brian called for a solo and I obliged with
something country chordy. He got a big
roar of approval as we finished, so we
asked him to do another. He chose a
similar song: " Wedding Bells" also in C. Chris called for "Act Naturally"
with Brian singing along and of course that got a major reaction from the home
crowd. I think Brian and Malcolm were a
bit overwhelmed by crowd and the emotion and Brian wisely chose to stop. Next up was Lewis (Chris the bass's partner, Bridget's son) He had done "Achy Breaky Heart"
before with us last year and chose to repeat the performance. He sings it well but the arrangement is all
over the place - anyway it went down a bomb!
Then they persuaded his sister,
Abbie, who had sang with us for
several gigs in 2013, to come up and do "Pontoon". She was a bit well oiled and unsteady but gave
it a good shot while I tried to remember the chords. Chris seemed to remember
the bass ok as we improved out way through. I can't recall the number but Lewis came back
to do something else; then it was over
to the band to finish with a normal run through to the end of set 2.
Pack up was very difficult as the crowd slowly dispersed, but eventually I got it all in the car and
set off home. I was really tired and
achy the next couple of days, but no virus
thank god! The Line 6 L2M tested out faulty and has to go back to the supplier - more work finding the packaging and filling in forms.
No comments:
Post a Comment