The guvnor (Robbie) at the Felsto had liked our set a few weeks previously and made room in their schedule for us to play a late Sunday afternoon slot. On the day, the weather was still very nice for the time of year and I was looking forward to a relaxed drive over for a 2pm arrive and 4pm performance start. But things conspired to slow me down - my sister was staying over to visit my mum, I lost track of time and nearly forgot I needed a big feed before I set off, and finally, when I did get going, I realised I had left my phone behind and had to double back home from Thurston. I grabbed the phone and texted the boys that I was in delay and got going again. I did the 40 mile run to Felixstowe in 30 minutes, but it took another ten minutes to drive through the afternoon seaside traffic to the pub, so it was about 2:40pm by the time I parked up. The boys came out to give me a hand getting the gear in and I was tied up doing stuff for about 30 minutes before I got my first pint of lager in. I had concluded from the previous visit we could do the double Bose configuration at this venue and this time I also decided to use my guitar synth - setting the rack up in its usual place under the mixer. I finished set up and, testing things out, found the mains lead to the graphic EQ had come adrift in the rack. I was able to fix that and my perception was that the overall sound was brighter and stronger - even though it was meant to be 'hard' bypassed with mains on or off. The PA sound and headroom before feedback was good and I was happy with the existing levels, just dropping Chris the drum's mic a tad and pushing Chris the bass's mic up a tad to correct imbalances that had built up last time out. Just time to start a second pint as we started to think about showtime at 4pm. We had arrived in jeans and black shirts as directed by our wardrobe mistress Chris the drum. So all we needed to do was put on our white ties and hats. The pub was getting busier and there were quite a few of Chris the drum's relatives in support so it was quite full as we took to our instruments. In fact Chris the bass was nearly lost in a bunch of folk standing all around him!
We opened set 1 with "Flingel Bunt" for a change. It got polite applause but as we got going with the usual set and interacted with the audience, particularly a couple on my left, they started to respond well. We dropped in a special request for "Penny Arcade" after 30 minutes which went well and got some ladies dancing in the limited space in front of the band and the next number "Halfway to Paradise" they were singing along. Then a few more came up came up to dance as we did "Runaround Sue - All Shook Up". I chose to finish the set with "Wonder of You" and about halfway through an Elvis tribute singer started to join in on Chris the bass's mic. OK enough I thought so I let him do the rest of the song and, of course, that entertained the crowd enormously. He did take on the high line at the ending and focussing his voice did a good job of it! In the break we tanked up with water and our guest singer revealed he was in the business - having a night off!
We came on for set 2 opening with a special request for "Apache" and continued to play a standard sequence to about the 30 minute point when I called for "Wicked Games". We had a bit of trouble getting started and I have since resolved to play a couple of chord sequences prior to the guitar opening (as per the record). This will allow the boys to settle into the correct rhythm before I start the lead guitar parts. As it was, the nice guitar bits were lost in the confused start. But it went well enough after that even though my voice was also a tad froggy on the high parts on this night. We ended in good enough order but we didn't get much reaction - I think because it was a slowey and being a 'modern' song from the 80s they didn't know it well enough to sing along. We soon got back on track with an ending sequence of "Hot Love" into "East Anglia Girls". The latter is still a little confused and rushed: but I have a cunning idea for the start of this that I will try out next time! We finished with "American Trilogy" assisted by our Elvis tribute singer who was a little looser from a beer or two this time! Nevertheless it went down a storm.
We set off into set 3 with "Great Balls" and then played a fairly continuous sing-a-long / dance - a - long sequence through "Saw Her Standin There - Pretty Woman - Sweet Caroline - Saturday Night (Accompanied by Elvis doing a good job on the hi bits) - Come on Over to My Place - Hey Baby - Hi Ho - All Right Now". At the last practice I had encouraged the boys to morph into "Another Brick In The Wall" at this point and with a bit flailing of arms and encouragement we did indeed get underway with the drum beat. The two Chris's sing this, but on the night it was only Chris the drum as Chris the bass was clearly concentrating on the prominent bass riff in this song. Actually it went not too bad: Chris the bass and I both forgot the accapella all join in vocals on the second verse but Chris the drum soldiered on and soon we were approaching the solo. On the night I made a decision to use a sustain chorused sound for this; but it was a bit over the top I think and I need to try and do it cleaner going forward. Apart from the first few notes I hadn't prepared anything and just improvised the character of the Dave Gilmore 80's solo. I looked round to the boys to indicate the end and we did finish quite tight. It received a good response and I think it will work well in this sequence. Chris bass called for "Hippy Hippy Shake to follow: we were good and tight and it went down very well. Next up it was 'all the ladies' sing (and Elvis) as we did "Mustang Sally". It was now time for "Johnny B Goode" to bring us to the 7pm finish time and, announcing it as our last number, off we went. I was pleased that we got our outroductions a bit tighter on this night and the audience gave us all a big hand and there were enough shouts for more at the end to send us into another ball of confusion with our encore "Born to be Wild". By now I know that Chris the drum will slow it down on the 'Born to be wild' bits and I decided to follow him this time rather than try and force him to follow the record. By not fighting each other tempowise we definitely got a better overall feel, but it just sounds wrong to me. Still the crowd loved it and we had to work hard in our final sign off to avoid being sucked into more encores. We got a lot of praise at the end from all sections of the crowd and Robbie asked Chris to call him back so he could fix some slots for 2015. Pack up was difficult in this crowded pub but somehow it all came together. I found an armoured lead had been trod on bad enough to bend the jack and I misplaced my interval muzak player (it turned up in the guitar FX bag the next day). We got on the road about 8pm. I had a reasonable run as far as Stowmarket before the sciatica kicked in hard but then it was only 15 minutes of pain before I got home about 8:45 pm to spend the rest of the evo with Ms J and my sister watching playbacks from 'Strictly Dancing'. The sciatica is definitely on the mend but still quite debilitating if I have to sit for more than 30 minutes.
We opened set 1 with "Flingel Bunt" for a change. It got polite applause but as we got going with the usual set and interacted with the audience, particularly a couple on my left, they started to respond well. We dropped in a special request for "Penny Arcade" after 30 minutes which went well and got some ladies dancing in the limited space in front of the band and the next number "Halfway to Paradise" they were singing along. Then a few more came up came up to dance as we did "Runaround Sue - All Shook Up". I chose to finish the set with "Wonder of You" and about halfway through an Elvis tribute singer started to join in on Chris the bass's mic. OK enough I thought so I let him do the rest of the song and, of course, that entertained the crowd enormously. He did take on the high line at the ending and focussing his voice did a good job of it! In the break we tanked up with water and our guest singer revealed he was in the business - having a night off!
We came on for set 2 opening with a special request for "Apache" and continued to play a standard sequence to about the 30 minute point when I called for "Wicked Games". We had a bit of trouble getting started and I have since resolved to play a couple of chord sequences prior to the guitar opening (as per the record). This will allow the boys to settle into the correct rhythm before I start the lead guitar parts. As it was, the nice guitar bits were lost in the confused start. But it went well enough after that even though my voice was also a tad froggy on the high parts on this night. We ended in good enough order but we didn't get much reaction - I think because it was a slowey and being a 'modern' song from the 80s they didn't know it well enough to sing along. We soon got back on track with an ending sequence of "Hot Love" into "East Anglia Girls". The latter is still a little confused and rushed: but I have a cunning idea for the start of this that I will try out next time! We finished with "American Trilogy" assisted by our Elvis tribute singer who was a little looser from a beer or two this time! Nevertheless it went down a storm.
We set off into set 3 with "Great Balls" and then played a fairly continuous sing-a-long / dance - a - long sequence through "Saw Her Standin There - Pretty Woman - Sweet Caroline - Saturday Night (Accompanied by Elvis doing a good job on the hi bits) - Come on Over to My Place - Hey Baby - Hi Ho - All Right Now". At the last practice I had encouraged the boys to morph into "Another Brick In The Wall" at this point and with a bit flailing of arms and encouragement we did indeed get underway with the drum beat. The two Chris's sing this, but on the night it was only Chris the drum as Chris the bass was clearly concentrating on the prominent bass riff in this song. Actually it went not too bad: Chris the bass and I both forgot the accapella all join in vocals on the second verse but Chris the drum soldiered on and soon we were approaching the solo. On the night I made a decision to use a sustain chorused sound for this; but it was a bit over the top I think and I need to try and do it cleaner going forward. Apart from the first few notes I hadn't prepared anything and just improvised the character of the Dave Gilmore 80's solo. I looked round to the boys to indicate the end and we did finish quite tight. It received a good response and I think it will work well in this sequence. Chris bass called for "Hippy Hippy Shake to follow: we were good and tight and it went down very well. Next up it was 'all the ladies' sing (and Elvis) as we did "Mustang Sally". It was now time for "Johnny B Goode" to bring us to the 7pm finish time and, announcing it as our last number, off we went. I was pleased that we got our outroductions a bit tighter on this night and the audience gave us all a big hand and there were enough shouts for more at the end to send us into another ball of confusion with our encore "Born to be Wild". By now I know that Chris the drum will slow it down on the 'Born to be wild' bits and I decided to follow him this time rather than try and force him to follow the record. By not fighting each other tempowise we definitely got a better overall feel, but it just sounds wrong to me. Still the crowd loved it and we had to work hard in our final sign off to avoid being sucked into more encores. We got a lot of praise at the end from all sections of the crowd and Robbie asked Chris to call him back so he could fix some slots for 2015. Pack up was difficult in this crowded pub but somehow it all came together. I found an armoured lead had been trod on bad enough to bend the jack and I misplaced my interval muzak player (it turned up in the guitar FX bag the next day). We got on the road about 8pm. I had a reasonable run as far as Stowmarket before the sciatica kicked in hard but then it was only 15 minutes of pain before I got home about 8:45 pm to spend the rest of the evo with Ms J and my sister watching playbacks from 'Strictly Dancing'. The sciatica is definitely on the mend but still quite debilitating if I have to sit for more than 30 minutes.
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