Grandchild still hadn't arrived on the Friday so drove home in
torrential rain late Friday (good job I didn't go earlier in the day cos A14
was badly flooded). Woke up Saturday to
check out the Line 6 2T that had returned having had its circuit board
replaced. All seemed OK - but we wouldn't
be using it tonight. Chris the bass now
makes a rough assessment of whether the Bose's will fit height wise at gigs and
he had reported this one as 'fit for purpose'.
I got the gear ready for load up and mooched around the house on various
tasks until I got a call from Jacqui to say the new Grandson had arrived about
2pm and all was well. What a
relief! I loaded up in the afternoon
even though we weren't setting off until 7:30pm for a 10pm start. Chris the bass led the convoy and we picked
up Chris the drum at Fornham, then it
was about 30 minutes to Lakenheath. The
pub used to be known as 'The Plough' and had been completely refurbished as a
restaurant, bar and lounge - looked good.
Load in was round the back and more or less straight into the playing area where the Chinese guvnor had organised a move of the pool table. There was not quite enough room to fit the Bose in on Chris's side so we put it the other side of an opened wall forming the alcove we were playing in. The top few speakers would be blocked off by the top of wall but it seemed a good solution. Set up went smoothly and we skipped sound check 'cos it was busy ish. But I left it loud on the PA figuring they were used to live bands. You could hear the feedback suppressors kick in and I am coming round to thinking it is good technique to let them do their work to seek out the resonances at set up rather than avoid feedback and it come as a surprise to the PA later in the evening.
Enjoyed a couple of beers and then got changed into white T's n black waistcoats in the large disabled toilet. We opened up with "FBI" which got a round of applause but the Chinaman came over and indicated too loud. Strange, we thought, they often have rock bands here? Anyway it suited me to take the sound down a bit so we were well below feedback risk and more in tune with our easy listen repertoire. By and large the set went well. We picked and mixed through Sets 1 and 2 to do about 50 minutes which got increasingly sing-a-long. A few errors crept in: I forgot the arrangement for "Ring of Fire" (again), Chris forgot key for "Needles and Pins" (but he did a good "Sugar and Spice" - if a little fast). We dropped in a good paced "Aright Mama" which I was pleased with and we finished off with "Wonder of You" which went very well apart from my forgetting the words to the first line which I had to mumble! We had about 10 minutes off at 10:50pm and looking round I could see some older folk had arrived. The place was by no means full, but it was busy with a mix of ages and they seemed to be enjoying the bar! Back on we went to play a standard set 3. As we got into "Saw Her Standing There" we got some dance action going, so I went straight into "Dance the Night Away" to keep it going. Looking through into the restaurant I could see some more dancing starting up and, incredibly, the inscrutable manager had joined in. From then on it was a good night, lots of applause, banter and sing-a-long and bits of dancing. We were a number short as we ran down to the finish so I called for "All Shook Up" which was a good choice as we managed to get the audience to do the answer back 'all shook up'. I announced Johnny B Goode as the last number hoping to coax an encore out of them and we did. I called for "Wonderful Tonight" but the boys fancied something faster so we settled on "Born to be Wild". This turned out to be a good choice as the audience was getting a bit wild and was still drinking at midnight! The performance was still messy with strange changes in time - Chris the drum must know a different version? We finished to more applause but declined any more encores and wound down. After I got changed one of the village elders came up and said he had really enjoyed the band and he could get us a gig at another local venue - I steered him onto Chris to talk business. Pack up didn't take too long but getting the gear out the back was a tad treacherous it being very dark and the path a bit uneven. But we were loaded and away just after 1am. I got in about 1:40am still buzzing about a good day with arrival of grandson and an OK gig. Went back to Manchester the next day (in more torrential rain from ex hurricane Bertha) to meet the little fella and 'wet 'is head' with several drinks with Phil his dad. I brought Jacqui back Monday morning - this was an agonising trip because the sciatica had flared up again. Ended up at the chiropractor Tuesday and learned some new stretches!
Load in was round the back and more or less straight into the playing area where the Chinese guvnor had organised a move of the pool table. There was not quite enough room to fit the Bose in on Chris's side so we put it the other side of an opened wall forming the alcove we were playing in. The top few speakers would be blocked off by the top of wall but it seemed a good solution. Set up went smoothly and we skipped sound check 'cos it was busy ish. But I left it loud on the PA figuring they were used to live bands. You could hear the feedback suppressors kick in and I am coming round to thinking it is good technique to let them do their work to seek out the resonances at set up rather than avoid feedback and it come as a surprise to the PA later in the evening.
Enjoyed a couple of beers and then got changed into white T's n black waistcoats in the large disabled toilet. We opened up with "FBI" which got a round of applause but the Chinaman came over and indicated too loud. Strange, we thought, they often have rock bands here? Anyway it suited me to take the sound down a bit so we were well below feedback risk and more in tune with our easy listen repertoire. By and large the set went well. We picked and mixed through Sets 1 and 2 to do about 50 minutes which got increasingly sing-a-long. A few errors crept in: I forgot the arrangement for "Ring of Fire" (again), Chris forgot key for "Needles and Pins" (but he did a good "Sugar and Spice" - if a little fast). We dropped in a good paced "Aright Mama" which I was pleased with and we finished off with "Wonder of You" which went very well apart from my forgetting the words to the first line which I had to mumble! We had about 10 minutes off at 10:50pm and looking round I could see some older folk had arrived. The place was by no means full, but it was busy with a mix of ages and they seemed to be enjoying the bar! Back on we went to play a standard set 3. As we got into "Saw Her Standing There" we got some dance action going, so I went straight into "Dance the Night Away" to keep it going. Looking through into the restaurant I could see some more dancing starting up and, incredibly, the inscrutable manager had joined in. From then on it was a good night, lots of applause, banter and sing-a-long and bits of dancing. We were a number short as we ran down to the finish so I called for "All Shook Up" which was a good choice as we managed to get the audience to do the answer back 'all shook up'. I announced Johnny B Goode as the last number hoping to coax an encore out of them and we did. I called for "Wonderful Tonight" but the boys fancied something faster so we settled on "Born to be Wild". This turned out to be a good choice as the audience was getting a bit wild and was still drinking at midnight! The performance was still messy with strange changes in time - Chris the drum must know a different version? We finished to more applause but declined any more encores and wound down. After I got changed one of the village elders came up and said he had really enjoyed the band and he could get us a gig at another local venue - I steered him onto Chris to talk business. Pack up didn't take too long but getting the gear out the back was a tad treacherous it being very dark and the path a bit uneven. But we were loaded and away just after 1am. I got in about 1:40am still buzzing about a good day with arrival of grandson and an OK gig. Went back to Manchester the next day (in more torrential rain from ex hurricane Bertha) to meet the little fella and 'wet 'is head' with several drinks with Phil his dad. I brought Jacqui back Monday morning - this was an agonising trip because the sciatica had flared up again. Ended up at the chiropractor Tuesday and learned some new stretches!
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