Chris the bass's son in law Nathan is a teacher and he'd booked us for a Xmas charity fund raising event his school was putting on. There would be a casino thing going on as well, so the band sets would be relatively short. I distilled workable set lists from the usual and asked the boys to be prepared to operate "out of the box" if we found the audience needed something special on the night. The event would start at 6:45pm and the band would start its first set at a relatively early 7pm. Now, Chris the drum couldn't get time off work. So there were some 'interesting' logistics preceding the gig. Chris the bass and I met up on the Wednesday to go through "The James Bond Theme" song we would be playing as a link on the night. So at the same time he dropped one of his bass cabs off with me to take to the gig. That freed enough room in his car for him to go round to Chris the drum's on Thursday and pick up his kit. Come Friday we had all the band gear aboard both cars and I followed Chris the bass down to the hall arriving at 4:15pm This was the same hall we met up in for a first time try out two years previously. We'd certainly come on since then and we both had a sense of nostalgia as Chris opened the door. That happy glow was immediately dispelled by the fire alarm continuing a high pitched noise. Couldn't switch it off what ever we did. The main hall was relatively quiet so we set about getting the gear in and setting up while the hall guvnor made his way over to sort it out. A related problem soon emerged: no power on stage? I fiddled about with that for a bit but when the governor arrived he explained that the fire alarm automatically switched off power to the stage! It took him about 20 minutes to identify a problem with a sensor in the kitchen then it was all systems go. Meanwhile, Chris the bass had set up the drums. A couple of issues here and there but he seemed to know what to do. One of the rare occasions I set up a music stand nowadays - just to see the set list really. Although Chris the drum had yet to arrive, we had about an hour to event opening time, so I conducted a sound check with the two of us. After sorting out PA headroom, which seemed quite high, we ran through a verse of "Smiling" and I recorded 20 secs of what went through the PA. Then I played it back on a continuous loop. Chris played along and I wandered out into the hall to have a listen. It was surprisingly clear and loud all round the hall; and well balanced with vocals sitting clearly above the backing. The harmoniser was understated but that suited, as were the strings. I kind of wish I'd taken the time to perform the 20 secs a bit tidier, but you could still judge the sound quality and it was good. An amazing coincidental confirmation came in the shape of a chap who came into the hall at this point. He said he was passing by, heard the band and was interested. He immediately commented on the great hi-tech sound - so its not our biased hearing! We explained the gig we were doing and he asked for a card. Then Chris and I swapped positions. I played the bass and he went out front to listen. He was similarly impressed. He had asked me to play the bass with a plectrum and it was a bit like a Jazz bass sound with the toppy pick click sitting on top of a full bass thump. Sounded good to me. I can get a similar effect with fingers by striking the string harder, but the toppier pick sound does help fill the overall band mix of a 3 piece. We implemented my judgement that we needed to pull the overall volume down a bit and tidied some of the wiring up - we were all set apart from a drummer! Chris the drum arrived shortly after, so we did a final sound check of "Smilin" with him and then tested out our rendition of the "James Bond" theme phrase.
The hall was open now and the organisers were organising. It seemed everything would be put back half an hour 'cos the Casino was running late. I put on the background muzak and we went for a beer. On this night I elected to have Becks bottled lager to avoid being first out the pumps! The hall filled with a mix of teachers, families and teens from the school. 3 of the boys had been shifting chairs from the back of the stage to make a lounge area at the back of the hall. Spotting it as a risk, I had managed to keep them from affecting our mains lead which ran through that area of the stage and I was glad that was over. Bridget and Jacqui arrived looking good for a casino - we were all set. But still no casino.
Nathan said we should get started - so we got changed into our smart gear in a cold committee room and came on to open up with the usual first few. All went well, it sounded good, people applauded. I had just got to the start of "Rock Around the Clock" when the power went! My first thought was fire alarm; but no, it was the young fellows shifting chairs again to accommodate a fuller house than predicted. They were most apologetic, we laughed it off and I reset the kicked power breaker! We were soon going and played through a good set 1 of about 50 minutes. There were bits of dancing and applause but we could also see people were really engaged with the band and we were doing well. The casino people came in about 8pm and created some mild disruption shifting their tables in while we kept playing. We finished our set and handed over to the Casino by playing our "James Bond Theme". This went better than rehearsed and was very well received by the younger chaps of the audience who were all smartly dressed - I was right to refer to them as James Bond types!
In the break we played a bit of casino and managed to lose most of the 'free' chips issued on black jack and roulette. I left mine on the band table as I went bock to play a 30 minute set 2. This we started with the "James Bond Theme" then "Apache". We went straight from that to "Happy Together" and that did sound good and full vocally. We had a lotta folks singing along to "Daydream Believer and Delilah" I had asked Chris to listen to the Alex Harvey version and he has taken to playing the drums on this number recently - it gives it more bite. We did follow with a dancey "Bad Moon Rising, Move It and Summertime Blues" before moving to our closing sequence with "Hot Love into East Anglia Girls". I recall that these went OK. We even had enough time to do a relaxed "American Trilogy" and this went down exceptionally well - we got massive applause and came off after a final flourish of "James Bond"
Next up was the raffle. I won a bottle of Prosecco! Then a bit more gambling and the announcement of the winners. By now it was after 11pm and we went on to play the event out. But with the casino packing up and people starting to leave, Chris the bass suggested we start with "Johnny B Goode" and introduce the band as the opener - so we did, and it went very well = good call! But after that people were on their way home so we left it at "Dance the Night Away", "Saw Her Standing There" and with only the organisers left we finished off with "Honkey Tonk Women". Chris had to be prompted to find his cow bell but once we got going it was a fine rendition. Pack and load didn't take long - because we had some helpers to shift the gear. Jacqui and I were home just after midnight I celebrated a good night banding with some toast and cocoa!
The hall was open now and the organisers were organising. It seemed everything would be put back half an hour 'cos the Casino was running late. I put on the background muzak and we went for a beer. On this night I elected to have Becks bottled lager to avoid being first out the pumps! The hall filled with a mix of teachers, families and teens from the school. 3 of the boys had been shifting chairs from the back of the stage to make a lounge area at the back of the hall. Spotting it as a risk, I had managed to keep them from affecting our mains lead which ran through that area of the stage and I was glad that was over. Bridget and Jacqui arrived looking good for a casino - we were all set. But still no casino.
Nathan said we should get started - so we got changed into our smart gear in a cold committee room and came on to open up with the usual first few. All went well, it sounded good, people applauded. I had just got to the start of "Rock Around the Clock" when the power went! My first thought was fire alarm; but no, it was the young fellows shifting chairs again to accommodate a fuller house than predicted. They were most apologetic, we laughed it off and I reset the kicked power breaker! We were soon going and played through a good set 1 of about 50 minutes. There were bits of dancing and applause but we could also see people were really engaged with the band and we were doing well. The casino people came in about 8pm and created some mild disruption shifting their tables in while we kept playing. We finished our set and handed over to the Casino by playing our "James Bond Theme". This went better than rehearsed and was very well received by the younger chaps of the audience who were all smartly dressed - I was right to refer to them as James Bond types!
In the break we played a bit of casino and managed to lose most of the 'free' chips issued on black jack and roulette. I left mine on the band table as I went bock to play a 30 minute set 2. This we started with the "James Bond Theme" then "Apache". We went straight from that to "Happy Together" and that did sound good and full vocally. We had a lotta folks singing along to "Daydream Believer and Delilah" I had asked Chris to listen to the Alex Harvey version and he has taken to playing the drums on this number recently - it gives it more bite. We did follow with a dancey "Bad Moon Rising, Move It and Summertime Blues" before moving to our closing sequence with "Hot Love into East Anglia Girls". I recall that these went OK. We even had enough time to do a relaxed "American Trilogy" and this went down exceptionally well - we got massive applause and came off after a final flourish of "James Bond"
Next up was the raffle. I won a bottle of Prosecco! Then a bit more gambling and the announcement of the winners. By now it was after 11pm and we went on to play the event out. But with the casino packing up and people starting to leave, Chris the bass suggested we start with "Johnny B Goode" and introduce the band as the opener - so we did, and it went very well = good call! But after that people were on their way home so we left it at "Dance the Night Away", "Saw Her Standing There" and with only the organisers left we finished off with "Honkey Tonk Women". Chris had to be prompted to find his cow bell but once we got going it was a fine rendition. Pack and load didn't take long - because we had some helpers to shift the gear. Jacqui and I were home just after midnight I celebrated a good night banding with some toast and cocoa!
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