Checkmates at King Edward Hall Lindfield

After our jaunt to the Bluebell we proceeded through the Sussex countryside to Jenny and Miles house in Lindfield where we were treated to a nice lunch and drink!  We managed a little walk round the village in the afternoon then I set off for the gig while Jacqui watched Strictly with Jenny.  I found a good parking spot straight away and (recently arrived) Graham and Raye gave me a hand in with the gear.  Its a high stage here and we had to take care heaving Graham's Trace Elliot combo onto the stage.  We had about 30 minutes to check some things out.  Graham wanted to correct a difference between us on the riffs on "Counting Teardrops".  What I thought was a harmony on guitar wasn't really working - so we agreed to play the same unison run from E in the verses.  We gave the newies a run through.  As per last year I wonder if "Never Know What Your Missing" would benefit from a raise in key. Then we agreed the main arrangement for "Drums" which had got a bit too improvised of late.  All this practice revealed a stage resonance around A which rattled the drums but nothing we could do about that other than drop the volume a bit.  Graham wanted to check out the echo levels which he thought were too high on the ballads.  We had a difference of opinion there that we needed to solve by objective listening.  I went out front while he sang "Make Believe" over bass and drums and had to admit he had a point.  When I checked the ballad echo level in the FX unit it was about 60 and I had to reduce it to 50 to get it sounding good out front.  The levels on the slap back and the general vocal were fine at around 50 and the whole level was adjustable on the FX return on the mixer,  so we were all a lot happier after this discussion.  Jacqui arrived at 8pm; and Val arrived about the same time along with Val's sister Marilyn accompanied by Graham from the band 'Music Box'.   

We struck up with our fist set shortly after and of course as soon as we got going this wonderful crowd were dancing applauding and responding to our banter.  As we got going into "Walk Right Back" the dance floor really filled,  so I indicated to Graham we would run on into "When Will I Be loved" and the transition went really well despite my not playing it for best part of a year.  Sensing the crowd were up for it,  I dropped in "Rainin in My Heart" as a mid set slowey and that filled the floor as well.  After that we did the set as written and that took us to 9pm where we would have a 45 minute break for the buffet.  Jacqui insisted I had a something to eat and I found myself on the receiving end of a couple of sandwiches - very nice.  That called for another beer,  but I had to settle for a shandy as I had had rather a boozy lunch earlier in the day!  We went back on to play the Checkmates hits and then "Drums".  This was much tighter than the previous night but Graham surprised me when we doing our bit round the tom.  We pushed Raye away as planned so he could go and get his illuminated sticks,  but then Graham said 'en guard!'  Next thing we were fencing with the sticks in a mock sword fight.  He was getting the better of me so I was glad when Raye reappeared,  the lights dimmed and he got going with the flashing sticks.  The crowd loved it!

We took a short break,  changed shirts and resumed for 30 minutes dancing.  By the time we did our usual "Lucky Old Sun - Early in the Morning ending and got through a few encores it was 11:45 and we called a halt.  Very pleased with the end result.  We got packed and loaded in good form and said our goodbyes.  Raye asked me to plan a half hour set for our next appearance at a vintage Brit Rock n Roll weekend at the Borderline Club in Soho early in the New Year.    Jacqui and I crept back into Jenny and Miles house at about 12:45 tired but pleased with the night.

Next day we set off after breakfast on the long trip home - the sciatica not too bad so only two stops en route!