ReTrio at the Shepherd and Dog Onehouse Stowmarket

Chris the bass (accompanied by Bridget) swang round so we could form a 2 car convoy at 6:15 pm.  Jacqui was letting me out on my own tonight!  It had been another marvellous Indian Summer day sunny,  still and warm; and it was still warm as we headed East towards Stowmarket.  Chris took a strange left at Woolpit and then it was across country towards the South of Stowmarket where the pub was situated in a rural idyl opposite a campsite in a farmer's field (potential audience?).  We reversed onto the drive right in front of the load in door and strode into the pub.  First impression was it was very small and questions came to mind like where are we playing? and how did the soul band advertised the previous month fit in?  Chris had a word with the landlady who said they would shift the pool table after the next game.  So we got some beers in.  Chris the drum arrived with Trudy about 7pm and we started to get the gear in.  The only way we could see of fitting in was to block off the door to the gents - people would be able to access it via a short diversion outside!  It turned out the landlady expected that anyway and now I could see a workable space.  We soon had things set up and I checked the PA.  The room was prone to high frequency feedback - I tried priming the feedback suppressors but the frequencies kept changing so I had to take the levels down a bit.  Even so it was still ringing and the suppressors were working hard.  It was quite a bassy room and I didn't want to lose any more top so I left it and hoped for the best from a fuller room.

 

A big enough gents to 'comfortably' get changed into our black shirts, white tie smart outfit.  Tonight would be the first outing for our white hats (with black band).  It seemed to take ages for the last 10 minutes before show time to tick by,   but it was warm enough to sit outside and contemplate the nice evening.  Finally we entered a busy performance room with maybe 30 people across a wide age range in attendance.  I tried to get the boys to join in our 'We are ReTrio' shout to open things but it was only me!  We got underway with "FBI" and it sounded OK if a little bass boomy at about 70Hz.  More down to the Bose than Chris's bass rig I think.  We got a smattering of applause for "FBI" and carried on with the usual show.  I was bracing myself for a disinterested audience,  but we soon got a connection going with relatively slick banter and applause started to increase as we completed the rock and roll phase of the set and introduced the band.  We did "Act Naturally and Ring of Fire" to introduce the two Chris's and these were very well received -  there were some country folk in the bar (in both senses of the word).  I decided to skip "Eyes" and we abandoned hats and wigged up for the short "Beatles Sequence".  This went pretty well and we got a great reception for it and even better as we completed the "Searchers Medley" in relatively good order.  (Note: I still need to get the Chris's to synch their accents at the start of "Needles and Pins").  We were still being plagued with bits of feedback as the resonant frequencies of the room kept changing,  but I didn't think it would be too noticeable out front and I didn't spot any adverse audience reaction to it.  We ploughed on to the end finishing with "Wonder of You" to warm applause from a crowd we had clearly won over.

In the break Trudy mentioned she had heard the feedback so I lowered levels for our return for set 2.  I went out front for the Shads Apache Limp (sciatica is on the mend but any excuse!).  The band sound wasn't as bassy out there and it was quite a good mix - we could afford to drop the bass and guitar levels a tad,  but I settled for as we were as I returned to the mic to do "Do You Wanna Dance".  We don't mention 'Sir Cliff' nowadays - not unplayable like Gary Glitter yet,  best wait and see events progress before we mention Cliff's name I think! After a fair performance of "Happy Together" we continued to win this audience over as we got them singing along to "Daydream Believer" and "Delilah".  One of the 'country' boys had had a few more drinks and kept asking for a Johnny Cash song so we obliged with "Folsom Prison" - it went pretty well considering we haven't done it for a while - just a bit of finger trouble in the first solo!  We carried on through the usual numbers and I was pleased with a more relaxed "East Anglia Girls" and surprised at how many in the crowd immediately got the joke - especially when I sand about the 'Stowmarket farmers daughters'.  We finished the set with "American Trilogy" which really brought out the ultimate in audience response at this gig - they were most loud and appreciative!  The Chris's wives set off home in the break as did a few of the older ones in the audience.

I opened set 3 with "Dance the Night Away" and that did indeed bring up a few dancing.   By now the audience had dwindled to about 20 in the 20 - 40 something age range,  but they danced and sang their way through our long 7 song sequence from "Pretty Woman" to "All Right Now".  At the end of that a rather inebriated young man came over and asked if we could do something from the eighties - like Spandau Ballet?  Don't know that I said but, thinking quickly of something simple the band could busk I replied:  I can do "Wicked Games" by Chris Isaac - a number one on the eighties!  I do know this quite well so I just told Chris the bass the three chords: Bm A E and Chris the drum to follow me on a slowey and away we went.  Actually I took a bit of license with the words,  but the guitar parts were accurate and, to his credit, the young fellow got a few girls up to dance it with him and they all sang along in the chorus so no one noticed my verse errors.  Well -  it got a fantastic response; even the landlady came out from behind the bar and danced and sang and applauded.  Chris the drum said 'keep that one in the set Adrian!'  It was approaching show close time so we set off into "Johnny B Goode" doing a good set of outro's where the audience gave it up big for each of us.  I milked my outroduction a bit holding Chris the bass on the E until the applause died down a little and then took them into the opening riff again - it all worked most professionally and I was very pleased.  Well! there was a lot of shouts for more and the boys were in a wild mood - so we set off into a another venture of varied pace and timing with "Born to be Wild" - to my ears it is really messy;  we must have a conversation about this sometime!  Despite a few more shouts for more,  we were done and so we took our final bows and set off to the gents.  It had been another good night for the band and we were all up beat about it.  As we packed up Chris the bass was called over to see the landlady who said it was excellent.  They only have a few bands a year (usually in the Summer),  but they would love to have us back.   Pack and load didn't take too long and I was on the road by 12:40am getting in for a cocoa at 1am ish.   The gamey leg was sore but not as bad as it had been so I had a good nights sleep.