Woke up with bad leg pain, but it loosened up in time for an early departure for this gig. Chris the bass had the impression it was a 7:30pm start and a small venue so we geared up accordingly. Chris was taking Chris the drum and I said I'd meet them there about 6pm. A very good run over on another fine day.
Parking looked difficult but Chris had arranged for me to pull into a small yard behind the pub. It meant a slightly longer gear lug than on the street but it was out the way of traffic.
The boys had found it would be an 8pm start and the landlady would clear the playing area by 6:30pm. It was a small but workable room provided the door to the patio was locked which it now was! I would set up in front of that with a Bose and after a bit of consideration we decided to put up a Line 6 speaker on its stand in the bay window on Chris the bass's side. We worked quickly on set up. Chris the drum would have to enter and exit his kit on Chris's side, which gave me quite a good sized performance area, so I set up all the foot pedals but missed the synth/graphic EQ rack out. No sound check but I ran the PA into feedback and rolled it back. I have found the Line 6 speakers need quite a hot line level signal from the mixer so at some point I am going to have to sort that out on the mixer, but for now we just turn the speaker up close to max ( I most have a poke around and see if there is a pad switched in somewhere?). We had come prepared to play in jeans and open necked black shirts so we were well ready for the 8pm start.
The pub was busy but not as crowded as we had been led to believe it would be. We tried a new start with me announcing "We are ReTrio---!" then I got going with FBI - think I might ask the boys to join in next time? We were soon into "Heartbeat" where I took the PA level down a little to lose some bits of feedback. With a Bose right behind me the sound was very good; and on Chris's side he claimed to have enough fold back to get a good balance. Not sure how much Chris the drum heard in his corner but he just ploughed on. People were quite close to the band and you could see they were engaged by the live music and we got a more than polite round of applause at the end of each song. I found interacting with this responsive crowd easy going but I kept the banter tight as we progressed through a well appreciated first set. Once again the rock n roll energised people (even though we didn't play it quite as well together as the previous night). We ran out of time to do a slowey to finish so, once again, it was "All Shook Up" and they did!
We did quite a bit of meet 'n' greet in the break. For set 2 I simply removed my black shirt to reveal a white T underneath and donned my waistcoat for a 'Status Quo' look. We opened with "Apache" and I strode forward to do the Shadows sciatic stagger. To my amazement several people lined up to do it as well. After the first verse I turned to face the band and, apparently, it was like a scene from 'Saturday Night Fever' with a V of dancers behind me all following my moves - fantastic fun that got a great response from the pub as we finished! In the break we'd had a request for a Stones song so we did that next - "Honkey Tonk Women". It went really well considering we only air it occasionally. The boys now feel confident enough to join in the vocal on the chorus and the 'crowd' sound gives it a better feel. We went on to play most of our set 2 songs with the landlady filtering through requests such as 'anything from Eddie Cochrane? - Certainly madam Summertime Blues fit the bill?' and 'Happy Birthday' three times. Of course we were well buoyed up with all this and confidence was high as we set off into the set closer "American Trilogy". No strings to fill it out but judicious use of echo on the guitar created enough effect in this small room. Quite a few in the audience were singing along which took the pressure off my vocal. Unfortunately I ran into a bit of finger trouble in the flute solo (played on guitar this night). Possibly due to two successive nights gigging the fingers just wouldn't slide up the neck as usual and a couple of bum notes emerged. I kept a straight face and played out the end of the solo as though nothing had happened, but I was beating myself up inside. The song continued, reached its climax and we ended to a roof raising roar of approval.
Set 3 ran its usual course but my voice was tiring in the last 15 minutes. With the voices croaking a bit as we ended with Johnny B Goode we got great applause and shouts for more. We encored with "Mustang Sally" to complete a great night by our standards. Pack up was slow as we did a lot of glad handing to a truly appreciative crowd. Eventually we were all aboard and I set off home slightly ahead of the boys who were still discussing the idea of another booking there. Apparently it was a low turn out in the night but next time they reckon the word would have got around and it will be packed. Once clear of Felixstowe I finished my sandwich and pushed the car quite fast along the A14 to try and get home before the sciatica kicked in. But by Stowmarket the pain in the backside was agony. I struggled on through the next 12 miles or so and was pleased to be home so I could take a dose of Nurafen before bed. Exhausted but happy with the weekend's performances - the band has come on a lot in the last few weeks.
The boys had found it would be an 8pm start and the landlady would clear the playing area by 6:30pm. It was a small but workable room provided the door to the patio was locked which it now was! I would set up in front of that with a Bose and after a bit of consideration we decided to put up a Line 6 speaker on its stand in the bay window on Chris the bass's side. We worked quickly on set up. Chris the drum would have to enter and exit his kit on Chris's side, which gave me quite a good sized performance area, so I set up all the foot pedals but missed the synth/graphic EQ rack out. No sound check but I ran the PA into feedback and rolled it back. I have found the Line 6 speakers need quite a hot line level signal from the mixer so at some point I am going to have to sort that out on the mixer, but for now we just turn the speaker up close to max ( I most have a poke around and see if there is a pad switched in somewhere?). We had come prepared to play in jeans and open necked black shirts so we were well ready for the 8pm start.
The pub was busy but not as crowded as we had been led to believe it would be. We tried a new start with me announcing "We are ReTrio---!" then I got going with FBI - think I might ask the boys to join in next time? We were soon into "Heartbeat" where I took the PA level down a little to lose some bits of feedback. With a Bose right behind me the sound was very good; and on Chris's side he claimed to have enough fold back to get a good balance. Not sure how much Chris the drum heard in his corner but he just ploughed on. People were quite close to the band and you could see they were engaged by the live music and we got a more than polite round of applause at the end of each song. I found interacting with this responsive crowd easy going but I kept the banter tight as we progressed through a well appreciated first set. Once again the rock n roll energised people (even though we didn't play it quite as well together as the previous night). We ran out of time to do a slowey to finish so, once again, it was "All Shook Up" and they did!
We did quite a bit of meet 'n' greet in the break. For set 2 I simply removed my black shirt to reveal a white T underneath and donned my waistcoat for a 'Status Quo' look. We opened with "Apache" and I strode forward to do the Shadows sciatic stagger. To my amazement several people lined up to do it as well. After the first verse I turned to face the band and, apparently, it was like a scene from 'Saturday Night Fever' with a V of dancers behind me all following my moves - fantastic fun that got a great response from the pub as we finished! In the break we'd had a request for a Stones song so we did that next - "Honkey Tonk Women". It went really well considering we only air it occasionally. The boys now feel confident enough to join in the vocal on the chorus and the 'crowd' sound gives it a better feel. We went on to play most of our set 2 songs with the landlady filtering through requests such as 'anything from Eddie Cochrane? - Certainly madam Summertime Blues fit the bill?' and 'Happy Birthday' three times. Of course we were well buoyed up with all this and confidence was high as we set off into the set closer "American Trilogy". No strings to fill it out but judicious use of echo on the guitar created enough effect in this small room. Quite a few in the audience were singing along which took the pressure off my vocal. Unfortunately I ran into a bit of finger trouble in the flute solo (played on guitar this night). Possibly due to two successive nights gigging the fingers just wouldn't slide up the neck as usual and a couple of bum notes emerged. I kept a straight face and played out the end of the solo as though nothing had happened, but I was beating myself up inside. The song continued, reached its climax and we ended to a roof raising roar of approval.
Set 3 ran its usual course but my voice was tiring in the last 15 minutes. With the voices croaking a bit as we ended with Johnny B Goode we got great applause and shouts for more. We encored with "Mustang Sally" to complete a great night by our standards. Pack up was slow as we did a lot of glad handing to a truly appreciative crowd. Eventually we were all aboard and I set off home slightly ahead of the boys who were still discussing the idea of another booking there. Apparently it was a low turn out in the night but next time they reckon the word would have got around and it will be packed. Once clear of Felixstowe I finished my sandwich and pushed the car quite fast along the A14 to try and get home before the sciatica kicked in. But by Stowmarket the pain in the backside was agony. I struggled on through the next 12 miles or so and was pleased to be home so I could take a dose of Nurafen before bed. Exhausted but happy with the weekend's performances - the band has come on a lot in the last few weeks.
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