Chris the bass and I agreed to travel in convoy. I left at 5:45pm to arrive at his house at 5:49pm and he would pull out in front of me at 5:50pm to lead the way. Kinda worked like that but with an unplanned stop of 30 seconds for me to wait for his car to appear! Stormy but mild night, we had a good drive over to Felixstowe despite the rather heavy Friday late afternoon traffic, but Chris too a strange route into the town centre and then back out rather than take the road to the docks which leads directly to the gig. We parked up on the pavement outside the pub and walked in to inspect. What I thought would be the playing area was a small stage in the pool room. But no (thankfully) Karen was organising to clear some space at the door end of the main bar = ideal! We were well advanced on set up when Chris the drum arrived and we had everything up and running by 7:30pm. Shortly after the landlord (John a Liverpudlian) swept in and asked us to shift the cars off the pavement to the pub car park - apparently the pavement is a taxi drop off point! No problem we said and as we did that a squall passed over and we got a bit wet. We had come prepared in jeans and black shirts so only needed to put on ties and hats and we were ready to rock. John asked for a 9pm start and an 11:30 finish so Chris worked out set times with a couple of 10 minute breaks, then another beer before show time!
We played a fairly conventional set 1 and, a few numbers in, the bantering started to get some response. No dancing as such but good applause and answers to my questions such as: what was the name of the 60's Liverpool group I'm 'searching' my mind to remember. 'The Searchers' they shouted back! The bantering took some time up so we finished with "All Shook Up" to good applause.
In the break the landlord, John, said he really liked the band but he had to admit it made little difference to the pub's takings. Sadly, he revealed he was selling out of it at the end of the current year and it was unclear if the pub's new management would continue the tradition of it as a live music venue.
We came back on with a Shads Walk to "Apache". I made a point of getting as far forward as I could to judge the band sound and it was pretty good - nothing I could take issue with. Unlike my dancing which was dire! We don't mention 'Sir Cliff' at the moment so I simply ask the audience "Do You Wanna Dance?" to introduce the next song. By and large they don't and they didn't at this venue; but they did applaud and take interest. As we continued I have to say the band was playing quite well together and a generally good atmosphere settled over the whole pub. We morphed into "East Anglia Girls as we approached the end of the set and on this night it went well enough; but still plenty to tighten up there. We finished with "American Trilogy" which went well and brought the house down.
A couple came up in the break to say they had really enjoyed it - they hadn't expected to stay out as late as this; but the band was so entertaining they had done but they had to go and relieve the babysitter at the caravan park across the road. I had spotted them taking an interest and it was gratifying to hear they had enjoyed it.
So, as we started set 3 we were down to about 25 in the 'concert room'. There were bits of dancing now and then and we fulfilled a request for a Status Quo song with "Caroline". Not too bad considering we hadn't played it for ages. We got a lot of shouts for more after "Johnny B Goode" so we did do "Born to be Wild" with me following Chris's slow downed chorus. All in all a very good night. We packed and loaded efficiently and I made a fast run home to minimise sciatica - it still kicked in though and I had a rough night ending up taking Nurafen to get to sleep.
We played a fairly conventional set 1 and, a few numbers in, the bantering started to get some response. No dancing as such but good applause and answers to my questions such as: what was the name of the 60's Liverpool group I'm 'searching' my mind to remember. 'The Searchers' they shouted back! The bantering took some time up so we finished with "All Shook Up" to good applause.
In the break the landlord, John, said he really liked the band but he had to admit it made little difference to the pub's takings. Sadly, he revealed he was selling out of it at the end of the current year and it was unclear if the pub's new management would continue the tradition of it as a live music venue.
We came back on with a Shads Walk to "Apache". I made a point of getting as far forward as I could to judge the band sound and it was pretty good - nothing I could take issue with. Unlike my dancing which was dire! We don't mention 'Sir Cliff' at the moment so I simply ask the audience "Do You Wanna Dance?" to introduce the next song. By and large they don't and they didn't at this venue; but they did applaud and take interest. As we continued I have to say the band was playing quite well together and a generally good atmosphere settled over the whole pub. We morphed into "East Anglia Girls as we approached the end of the set and on this night it went well enough; but still plenty to tighten up there. We finished with "American Trilogy" which went well and brought the house down.
A couple came up in the break to say they had really enjoyed it - they hadn't expected to stay out as late as this; but the band was so entertaining they had done but they had to go and relieve the babysitter at the caravan park across the road. I had spotted them taking an interest and it was gratifying to hear they had enjoyed it.
So, as we started set 3 we were down to about 25 in the 'concert room'. There were bits of dancing now and then and we fulfilled a request for a Status Quo song with "Caroline". Not too bad considering we hadn't played it for ages. We got a lot of shouts for more after "Johnny B Goode" so we did do "Born to be Wild" with me following Chris's slow downed chorus. All in all a very good night. We packed and loaded efficiently and I made a fast run home to minimise sciatica - it still kicked in though and I had a rough night ending up taking Nurafen to get to sleep.
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