Following the amicable resignation of Chris the drum, Chris the bass had arranged for local drummer Ian Bishop to dep this one. As it turned out he had recently finished a long spell in a rock-a-billy band and was available and looking for a local band. We had had a get together on the Thursday and ran through a few numbers. He fitted so well we agreed he should come on board as a full member of the band. But, having said that we already had another dep booked for the gig after on the 21st at the Tyneside Sheringham and thought it best to honour that.
Come the Sunday Ian travelled over to Felixstowe with Chris and I met up with them at the venue at 2pm. We commenced load in and set up at this small pub that Chris and I have played a few times. Ian was using his small Pearl kit with some very expensive cymbals. I helped orientate him into the best spot for playing that would leave him a small gap on Chris's side to get out of. Chris was using just one of his bass cabs but we were using the usual 2 x L1 Bose PA. This gig has some weird resonances so its only when it fills up you can open up the PA. Nevertheless, I reduced the master volumes on the Bose to 4 from their usual 5 so that the mixer could operate at -2dB on its master. That would give me a couple of dB to push up as the gig progressed. Ian does sing but said he would prefer to concentrate on drumming for a while so no drum vocal mic needed. I had collected the bass drum mic from Chris the drum and we set that up and powered up - it all worked ! In the week I had changed the running order to replace some of the songs Chris had sung e.g. "Delilah" was replaced by "Sweet Caroline".
The pub gradually filled up such that by the 4pm showtime it was quite busy. We had all come dressed in black shirt and jeans and it only remained to finish our beers and take to our instruments. We were a couple of minutes late starting 'cos Ian ordered a showtime drink and the barrel needed changing. Chris ended up handing it over as I started "FBI". Put it down to the distraction of the drink handling but I was a bit too slow in tempo and had to take it up a bit as soon as the others came in. But it was fine once we got going. Compared to Chris, Ian's sound is bigger, tighter and drives the band along more. Less easy listening and more dancey. And so it proved - we soon had some ladies dancing as we progressed through the first set. We skipped "Ring of Fire" and "Eyes" but that meant I could finish the set with a slowey: "Wonder of You" to which I got them all singing along and it was a good finisher. Chris had joined in vocally here and there in the set and had sung "Act Naturally" but I felt I had to push a bit harder on vocals to line up with a more driving rhythm section and was feeling somewhat exerted by the end. By now the pub was full enough for me to push the PA to 0dB which I hoped would make it easier in set 2.
We started with "Apache" I was pleased Ian got it going a bit faster than Chris but then I lost my way in the Shads walk amongst the audience in this busy pub. Fortunately a couple of ladies came up and did a proper 'walk' to put me to shame - we had a laugh! We carried on with "Tambourine Man" which went surprisingly well and then quickly into "Daydream Believer and Sweet Caroline" These are good sing-a-long numbers that also had a few up dancing and went down well despite Chris losing his way with some of the chords in the chorus - deep sound blooper is not that noticeable. Played a strong rock'n'roll sequence with Ian driving us through: "Move It - Summertime Blues - Rip It Up". After "Bad Moon", I did a sort of Creedence Clearwater version of "Proud Mary" to replace Chris's Tina Turner version. I have noticed audiences like this number so we will need to keep it in. I had to politely decline a request for "Build Me Up Buttercup" - this is another one that often seems to get asked for so I made a mental note to learn how to busk it. After "Don't Stop" I took us into the Hot Love - East Anglia Girls sequence intending to pad it out a bit. Only trouble was I forgot to do the solo in Hot Love and had to find a way of working it back in. We finished "East Anglia Girls" in good order. I hadn't missed Chris's falsetto too much and Chris the bass did sing the bass line a la Mike Love. In some ways it was clearer vocally, but it would be good to get the falsetto back when we get organised. I elected to finish the set with "American Trilogy". We had run this by Ian in the week and he did a great job considering all the stops and changes that had to be felt. He did an excellent bit of big band drumming to the climax in the final section and we got the desired massive applause result with the audience. Only trouble was, with the band playing louder, I had given it my all vocally and was really glad we were taking a 20 minute break.
In the break I knocked some water back and felt a bit better. We resumed set 3 with "Great Balls - Standing There - Dance The Night Away". Chris used to sing the lead on "Standing There" but I found it fairly easy to take that on. Ian did a great job on the drums on "Pretty Woman" up next and, as I took us on through the long party dance sequence through several songs to "Alright Now", he followed just fine. I asked Chris if he was up for "Rockin All Over the World" but he politely declined citing still not sure of words and arrangement. We improvised a version of "Twist Again" to keep the dancers busy. We hadn't been able to do this confidently with Chris on drums 'cos he struggled with the rhythm and tempo, so it was useful to find our feet with it again as Ian drove it along quite nicely. I had had a couple of instances of crowd enthusiastically dancing into band but nothing irrecoverable. I took the opportunity to catch my breath by slowly introducing "Summer of 69" as a new song from the band at the Felsto. This needed to be aired and it went well enough but should get better as we all get familiar with it.. Then we ran into the closing sequence with "Hippy Hippy Shakes - Mustang Sally" and then "Johnny B Goode". We got a lot of shouts for More - so we encored with "Born to be Wild". No problems with strange tempos with Ian; it really rocked and, icing on the cake, we all finished together. We were a few minutes over the 7pm finish time so I declined another encore and we closed down. I was exhausted but had to soldier on with a few meet and greeters as we retrieved the cases. A couple of ladies were disappointed we hadn't done "Penny Arcade" and another chap asked for some "Status Quo" next time - 'no problem' I said 'we can do all these next time'.
Pack up seemed to take ages but load out went well for me mainly because Ian and Chris brought my stuff out. We were on the road before 8pm and I was home at 8:40. I told Ms J I needed a drink so I had a couple of lagers from the fridge but being so tired after the gig I was dozing in my chair by 10pm and settled for an early night - felt better the next day after a long sleep (I suppose a bit similar to a boxer after a fight I needed to sleep). It was only the next day I realised I had forgotten to take any photos of Ian's debut.
Reflecting on the bands development: we are definitely moving on from easy listening and consequently my role playing and singing is becoming more demanding. Spoke to Chris the next day and agreed we would try out a front man who had come to our attention with a view to him coming in and performing some newer numbers as a cabaret feature of the band at the better paid gigs. But actually I am open to this role growing if he fits in. Keep watching this space you blogateers!
Come the Sunday Ian travelled over to Felixstowe with Chris and I met up with them at the venue at 2pm. We commenced load in and set up at this small pub that Chris and I have played a few times. Ian was using his small Pearl kit with some very expensive cymbals. I helped orientate him into the best spot for playing that would leave him a small gap on Chris's side to get out of. Chris was using just one of his bass cabs but we were using the usual 2 x L1 Bose PA. This gig has some weird resonances so its only when it fills up you can open up the PA. Nevertheless, I reduced the master volumes on the Bose to 4 from their usual 5 so that the mixer could operate at -2dB on its master. That would give me a couple of dB to push up as the gig progressed. Ian does sing but said he would prefer to concentrate on drumming for a while so no drum vocal mic needed. I had collected the bass drum mic from Chris the drum and we set that up and powered up - it all worked ! In the week I had changed the running order to replace some of the songs Chris had sung e.g. "Delilah" was replaced by "Sweet Caroline".
The pub gradually filled up such that by the 4pm showtime it was quite busy. We had all come dressed in black shirt and jeans and it only remained to finish our beers and take to our instruments. We were a couple of minutes late starting 'cos Ian ordered a showtime drink and the barrel needed changing. Chris ended up handing it over as I started "FBI". Put it down to the distraction of the drink handling but I was a bit too slow in tempo and had to take it up a bit as soon as the others came in. But it was fine once we got going. Compared to Chris, Ian's sound is bigger, tighter and drives the band along more. Less easy listening and more dancey. And so it proved - we soon had some ladies dancing as we progressed through the first set. We skipped "Ring of Fire" and "Eyes" but that meant I could finish the set with a slowey: "Wonder of You" to which I got them all singing along and it was a good finisher. Chris had joined in vocally here and there in the set and had sung "Act Naturally" but I felt I had to push a bit harder on vocals to line up with a more driving rhythm section and was feeling somewhat exerted by the end. By now the pub was full enough for me to push the PA to 0dB which I hoped would make it easier in set 2.
We started with "Apache" I was pleased Ian got it going a bit faster than Chris but then I lost my way in the Shads walk amongst the audience in this busy pub. Fortunately a couple of ladies came up and did a proper 'walk' to put me to shame - we had a laugh! We carried on with "Tambourine Man" which went surprisingly well and then quickly into "Daydream Believer and Sweet Caroline" These are good sing-a-long numbers that also had a few up dancing and went down well despite Chris losing his way with some of the chords in the chorus - deep sound blooper is not that noticeable. Played a strong rock'n'roll sequence with Ian driving us through: "Move It - Summertime Blues - Rip It Up". After "Bad Moon", I did a sort of Creedence Clearwater version of "Proud Mary" to replace Chris's Tina Turner version. I have noticed audiences like this number so we will need to keep it in. I had to politely decline a request for "Build Me Up Buttercup" - this is another one that often seems to get asked for so I made a mental note to learn how to busk it. After "Don't Stop" I took us into the Hot Love - East Anglia Girls sequence intending to pad it out a bit. Only trouble was I forgot to do the solo in Hot Love and had to find a way of working it back in. We finished "East Anglia Girls" in good order. I hadn't missed Chris's falsetto too much and Chris the bass did sing the bass line a la Mike Love. In some ways it was clearer vocally, but it would be good to get the falsetto back when we get organised. I elected to finish the set with "American Trilogy". We had run this by Ian in the week and he did a great job considering all the stops and changes that had to be felt. He did an excellent bit of big band drumming to the climax in the final section and we got the desired massive applause result with the audience. Only trouble was, with the band playing louder, I had given it my all vocally and was really glad we were taking a 20 minute break.
In the break I knocked some water back and felt a bit better. We resumed set 3 with "Great Balls - Standing There - Dance The Night Away". Chris used to sing the lead on "Standing There" but I found it fairly easy to take that on. Ian did a great job on the drums on "Pretty Woman" up next and, as I took us on through the long party dance sequence through several songs to "Alright Now", he followed just fine. I asked Chris if he was up for "Rockin All Over the World" but he politely declined citing still not sure of words and arrangement. We improvised a version of "Twist Again" to keep the dancers busy. We hadn't been able to do this confidently with Chris on drums 'cos he struggled with the rhythm and tempo, so it was useful to find our feet with it again as Ian drove it along quite nicely. I had had a couple of instances of crowd enthusiastically dancing into band but nothing irrecoverable. I took the opportunity to catch my breath by slowly introducing "Summer of 69" as a new song from the band at the Felsto. This needed to be aired and it went well enough but should get better as we all get familiar with it.. Then we ran into the closing sequence with "Hippy Hippy Shakes - Mustang Sally" and then "Johnny B Goode". We got a lot of shouts for More - so we encored with "Born to be Wild". No problems with strange tempos with Ian; it really rocked and, icing on the cake, we all finished together. We were a few minutes over the 7pm finish time so I declined another encore and we closed down. I was exhausted but had to soldier on with a few meet and greeters as we retrieved the cases. A couple of ladies were disappointed we hadn't done "Penny Arcade" and another chap asked for some "Status Quo" next time - 'no problem' I said 'we can do all these next time'.
Pack up seemed to take ages but load out went well for me mainly because Ian and Chris brought my stuff out. We were on the road before 8pm and I was home at 8:40. I told Ms J I needed a drink so I had a couple of lagers from the fridge but being so tired after the gig I was dozing in my chair by 10pm and settled for an early night - felt better the next day after a long sleep (I suppose a bit similar to a boxer after a fight I needed to sleep). It was only the next day I realised I had forgotten to take any photos of Ian's debut.
Reflecting on the bands development: we are definitely moving on from easy listening and consequently my role playing and singing is becoming more demanding. Spoke to Chris the next day and agreed we would try out a front man who had come to our attention with a view to him coming in and performing some newer numbers as a cabaret feature of the band at the better paid gigs. But actually I am open to this role growing if he fits in. Keep watching this space you blogateers!
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