Band Practice At My House 3:30pm to 6:30pm

Following a discussion with our agent about livening up for some gigs he was lining up we focussed our agenda on doing just that. We were using my studio set up so no gear to shift! Mick arrived a bit early and we went through the harmonies to the Hollies medley. Once Nige arrived we ran through this agenda:

1. Loosen up with: How Long (ACE Mick Lead)
2. Shortened Beatle Medley: For the time being - Stop after “All My Lovin’”.
3. Review Harmonies – Searchers, Hollies medleys, Do It Again.
4. Peaceful Easy Feeling (Mick Lead) some improvements to the arrangement.

5. Sky High play through a couple of times.

6. Newer Material:
a. Daydream Believer (Mog Lead)
b. How Long (Eagles) (Mick Lead)
c. Mony Mony (Nige Lead)
d. Lonesome Town (Nige)
e. Walk of Life (Nige Lead)
f. Sweet Home Alabama (Mog Lead)

It all went pretty well – so we agreed to give most of these an airing on the Saturday gig.

Kessingland Working Mens Club. Depping for “The Man from Midnight”

Nigel and I had been recruited to dep for Brian (ex Midnight Hour) at this venue. A sunny mild day! Arrived about 6:45pm to find a wedding party in the concert room. They had the room booked ‘til 7pm and wouldn’t serve ‘strangers’ so Nige and I went to the main bar for a beer. Brian and his mate Jamie met up with us there and we whiled away the time until we could get in the concert room. We eventually got access and loaded in and set up. Brian has a massive drum kit and following our advice he set it up well forward to get the benefit of the Bose at the back.

I got my Bose set up and selected a new T1 scene (FooBtap Current) to save the mixer settings for this do. I was taking Brian’s walk off mike (he uses it handheld to go out front - we think it is a Shure SM58) into channel 1. Nigel was taking Brian’s vocal from his drum seat mic into his T1. We fiddled about quite a bit until we got passable sounds and Brian tested to his satisfaction. He doesn’t like reverb so I set the aux send down to 50% on the walk off mic. The acoustics of the boxy stage gave quite a bassy sound on guitar so I backed that off a couple of dB. As the place was filling up we decided not to soundcheck and hope for the best! Nige and I got changed into the black waistcoats, white shirts and black ties in contrast to Brian’s more ‘cheesecloth’ look.

We had time of a bit of a chat about running order before we took to the stage at 8:45 pm. Brian started with an interesting introduction of Nige and me as deps and then we opened up with “Flingel Bunt”. It’s a messy sound in the boxy stage; but we earned a round of applause and no one was holding their ears - so I think it sounded OK out front! We carried on with “Just One Look and Heartbeat” with minimal announcements and we had several ladies up and dancing. After “Cathy’s Clown / Bye Bye Love” we were quickly into the rock’n’roll with “Blue Suede” and “Whole Lotta Shakin” I called for a slowey and Brian started to announce Glenn Campbell when we decided to opt for “Words”. This went pretty well and we ended up doing quite a nice three part harmony accapella ‘da da da da...’ section to round it off. Now this had filled the floor well, so Nige called for “Raining in my Heart” which also went well. I set off into “Move It” which got the rock’n’rollers going again and I was thinking of calling “Price of Love but we decided to give the Beatles medley a go. Got off to a good start but soon lost the dancers and although we got through it all without a fatal breakdown, it was fraught with small errors and would have been better terminated after “All My Lovin” rather than soldiering on to the end. However, at the time, I wasn’t confident that I could see Nige through the large drum kit to signal an intention. On the plus side Nige and I are getting quite adept at switching the lead vocal lines around by feel to get the right fit. (In the light of recent experience I think we will revamp the Beatles medley to shorten it for this type of gig) We also fitted in the “Hollies Medley” not bad considering we hadn’t done it for ages. We were getting close to time so we decided to wrap up with “Apache” with added Brian drum solo at the end, with Nige and me coming back in for the last phrase to finish it. I went out front a bit but the lead was a bit tight to do a proper walk. However, I can report the band sounded good and we finished to a good round of applause. For set 2 we started with the “Under the Sun” dedication to Dave and an easy paced “Tambourine Man”. Then it was Brian’s time to go out front. He brought on Jamie G to play the drums and we set off into a sequence of “Walking the Dog, Mustang Sally and Summertime”. I picked the key of A for all of these which was fine for guitar but a bit high for Brian in “Summertime”. But he coped well – quite a crooner really! Brian came back to the kit and we got on with “The Searchers Medley”. This worked well and we filled the floor with dancers. We carried on with “Do It Again” and “Lets Dance” before I called for “Halfway” to slow it down. This suffered an extended delay because I hit the wrong guitar pedal taking me into some weird edit mode so I had to reboot the unit! After that we got Brian to sing “Wonder of You”, I followed up with “Sweet Caroline” and we were finished to a great response. A good entertaining and dancey set! After the break for a somewhat disembodied raffle, I was surprised to see the room still fairly full. We opened with “Moon of Love” which didn’t hit their dancing spots then “Dance the Night Away” which did bring out some line dancing ladies. Oddly “Amarillo” failed to get them dancing, but “Do You Wanna Dance” did. We turned to a slowey trying “Love is All Around” which was a bit messy because we had 3 different versions in mind! But it did fill the floor! I started “Crazy Little Thing”. This brought the dancers out and Nigel kept them there with “Hippy Hippy Shake”. To bring us into a closing sequence we bashed out an extended “Johnny B Goode” complete with drum solo, bass solo and Brian tapping the strings on Nige’s bass. So I called for “Wonderful Tonight “ to close. We got a good response so we encored with “Saw Her Standing There”. We had kept quite a few people on the floor and I thought, that despite a few rough edges, we had turned in a good show. Nige and I had stepped up to the vocal plate a few times and Brian had fitted in surprisingly well at times. As we packed up I overhead Brian talking to John (the concert sec); he was giving Brian a bit of a hard time about our extended “Beatle Medley”, saying it puts off the dancers and that’s what they like to do here. They like rock’n’roll and then he suggested we should have done some country. Brian said his new band “Blitz” would be doing plenty of dancey stuff e.g. Michael Jackson. Well John nearly fell off his chair! “They are all pensioners here” he said - “they don’t want Michael Jackson!!” Actually; with a few adjustments to the show, The Foot Tappers would be perfect for this venue. But, despite probably being right, John is hard work so I decided to keep clear as we loaded up. Fairly cool and showery as we set off. Got in about 2am a bit tired.

Sheringham Social Club

Set off in plenty of time and had a slow run over, rolling up at the club at 6:20pm to find Mick and Nigel already in and setting up. Mick had his son Michael roadying for him and was soon set up. By the time I was set up Nige was ready to make a local visit to see a friend so I undertook to go through some music issues with Mick. We had a look at Anna Marie and found there was a Dm in there somewhere. Then we ran through some of the vocal arrangements for the Beatles and Searchers medleys. I played around with “Green Green Grass of Home” and we decided to give it a run on the night. When Nige got back there still wasn't anyone in the room so we continued a little, but then broke for a beer. People started coming in about 8pm and we went to get get changed – black shirt, black waistcoat and new red tie's. Got back in the concert room and there were about 30 in. More of a Foot Tappery audience than Sky High so I started to think about a more easy listening show. We started with Foot Tapper, Just One Look, Heartbeat, Do You Wanna Dance” to warm us into it. The on stage sound was good but I thought Mick's vocal (using his head set) was a bit down in the mix. We had a bash a “Peaceful Easy Feeling”. The harmonies show good potential but, although it didn't fall apart, there are some clear misunderstandings on the arrangement – so I will write it out. Next up was “Cathy's Clown-Bye Bye Love” apart from my forgetting the beginning this went well. By now we were getting some ladies up to dance and a good round of applause at the end of each number. The rock'n'roll sequence worked well through to "Thats Alright", complete with a together key change. We overeached ourselves by going on into "All Shook Up" without slowing down. It's a great number though and we are close to nailing the vocals. We did a reasonable “Beatles” with a good bit of intro banter and stronger vocal performance for “Nowhere Man” - but I let the side down by forgetting some of the words in “She Loves You”. Nige did “Phoenix” as the mid set slowey as we played on through trying to maintain continuity and dance interest - The “Green Green Grass of Home” made its debut following my taking the 'mick' about Mick's Welsh background – a couple of chords to find there, but otherwise it went well and will be a slowey crowd pleaser. We bought some raffle tickets in the break; Nige and I were a bit concerned about the relatively low turn out, but I was told that plenty of tickets had been sold and maybe it was the cold weather that had put some people off. We were invited to partake in the buffet and I had a sandwich and sausage roll. We started set 2 on the 12 string with a Happy Birthday and then our dedication of “Under the Sun” to Dave. A bit sad because, of course, Nige and I remembered this club as Dave's last gig with the band. We carried straight on with “Tambourine Man, Searchers, Do It Again” and then the long version of “Lying Eyes” before I changed guitar for “The Moon of Love” sequence. Then Nige called for “Lets Dance”. We had been gradually building up the dancing and by now they looked in need of a rest, so I called for “Ferry Cross the Mersey” - we played this well and it was well received. I put a hint of strings into it as it builds and it is becoming a highlight of the new band line up. Then we ran up through the “Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline, Hi Ho” sequence before I called for “Crazy Little Thing”. We hadn't done this before with Mick. He played it well and the strong rhythm got the dancers going again. Need to work on the supporting vocals though, as these were absent. I think we finished the set with “Words” and got a good reception. The raffle took some time to complete so we only had about 35 minutes for the final set. We played a typical dancey set with a bit of added Johnny B Goode type rock. I was pleased with the solo's in “Hippy Hippy Shake” - I am getting most the way through the rehearsed 12 bars now before I have to improvise. Of course the highlight of the night was our performance of REM's "Everybody Hurts" = the Haiti appeal song. I had written an arrangement out before the gig and we played it pretty much to that. Nige took the lead vocal and I brought in bits of strings and Mick and I sang a few supporting lines. The audience caught the mood and joined in and the whole thing worked brilliantly and got a great response. After a couple more songs we finished off with “Walk Alone” with the audience joining in and shouting for more. We encored with “Saw Her Standing There”. Despite some inconsistency we had done a good job and everyone was pleased. Took a bit of time to pack and load up but I was home for just after 2am on a very chilly night.

Seacroft Hemsby

Appearing as Sky High. Left at 11am and had a pleasant enough run over on a sunny but chilly day. Arrived to find Mick already parked up and had most of my gear in the building before Nigel arrived. Gave Nige a hand in with his EV15” and Behringer PA Amp which he was going to use to reinforce the bass sound. As we were bringing the gear in some folks from Norwich British Legion came up to say hello and how surprised they were to see us. We explained we were operating as Sky High at this venue and Bob said “You're on this evening - this afternoon its the 'For Everlys'!” Well, Mick had a word with Lee (the entertainments manager) and discovered that despite the contract being written as Sky High Afternoon and Evening, the cub had promoted it as Everlys in the afternoon and Sky High in the evening and that's what he wanted. I said to Mick I didn't mind however he wanted to sort it. So Mick says to Nigel – can you do the Everlys spot? Nige has to decline because he hasn't had a run through and no book and no guitar. So Mick confers with Lee and gets his mate Steve to turn out for the evening. So its 'Sky High' in the Avo and 'For Everly's' in the Evo. Then one more bombshell: Lee says you're on at 2pm not 3pm; so its all rush and bash to set up. Meanwhile the PA roadie for the Thunderbirds had arrived and wanted to start setting up. But we managed to get set up by 1:45 and went to get changed. Nigel had got his bass reinforcement working by taking the pre-amp output from the bass channel on the T1 and routing into a normal channel input on the Behringer (it seems the pre-amp is needed). Then I dished out some red ties for the boys; but we decided to go white shirts and black ties to give the British Legion coach party a change of view. We opened up with “Flingel Bunt”, it seemed an OK balance and we got a good round of applause. I took a minute to introduce the band and acknowledge the coach trippers from the British Legion and then we got on with “Just One Look”. The vocal balance seemed well down, so Nige and I made attempts to get that right so that by the end it was OK. Then we got signalled to turn the whole volume down as we got into “Heartbeat”. We eased back on the instruments a bit and from then on the sound was fine on stage and seemed to be OK out front as well. After “Do You Wanna Dance” we continued with a mixed set: some Jim Reeves, some rock'n'roll, Searchers, “Ferry Cross the Mersey Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline, Hi Ho, Amarillo, Hey Baby etc”. It all got a good reception; particularly “Wonder of You” where we had the two sides of the room trying to outconduct each other on the “Whoa oh oh's”. It was soon time to call the last number: “Walk Alone”. This went well and we got enough shouts for 'more' for the entertainments guy to ask us to do an encore, which we obliged with “Johnny B Goode” complete with drum and bass solos. Then it was a quick change, gear off the stage, pack and load up. Mick went off to get himself organised for the evening and Nige and I drove off in the sun homewards. I got in about 5pm and was able to have a relaxing evening at home – Claire and I had fish'n'chips 'cos Ms J had been lunching with the ladies.

Norwich British Legion

Got away a bit later than planned because I couldn't find my spare black shirt straight away. Arrived about 7:20pm to find Mick and Nige already there. Mick had brought the manual for his headset mic and they soon got to grips with it and got a good sound going. I was occupied tuning up and I also tried to set up a recorder to take feeds direct from the Bose to record the band. Ran out of time to test it out as we had to get changed. The white waistcoats are getting a bit grubby – don't know if we can wash them? Also I think we would still benefit from some red ties. We opened up at 8pm with “Flingel Bunt, Just One Look and Heartbeat” then ran some changes with the repertoire including fairly good improvisations of “Peaceful Easy Feelin”, “There Goes My Every Thing” and “Folsom Prison”. Nige popped in “You're My Best Friend” as a country barn dance number. All went down well - we either amused the audience or got them dancing. About two thirds through Nige started to suffer from a committee man who was sat near his speaker asking him to 'turn it down'. As he complied the mix went out of kilter leaving us with low bass and vocals. I eventually twigged this was happening and dropped my volume to match but then the crowd on my side said 'turn it up'! Fortunately time was up. We wrapped up with “Apache” and took a break. In the bar we met up with Mickey Bream who was visiting the club; he confirmed it was too low in volume and we resolved to push it up on our return. After the bingo some folks had left but we still had a fair sized audience to play at as we opened up with “Under The Sun, The Searchers, Do It Again and Take It Easy” on the 12 string. All went well and we had a full dance floor so we got into the “Moon of Love” sequence. As we got to “Yellow River” Micky B gestured his goodbyes and I lost the chords - grrr can't stop the hands playing it in C! As it was an early finish on the Sunday we decided to play through to the end without another break. We played on with quite a variety on the repertoire to avoid lots of repetition from Saturday. Mick needs to pick up the drum break in “Shakin All Over”, but to compensate he made a good attempt at “Shang-a-Lang”. We said our goodnights with Mick singing “Wonderful Tonight” and then did a good rendition of “Hippy Hippy Shake” before the final “Walk Alone”. Mick's voice was a bit shredded by then so I pitched in as a half track unison on the final verse to fill it out and we finished to a great response from the now slightly depleted crowd. As we packed up I reflected that the weekend had gone well. We had coped with the tech issues of electronic drums and headset mic. We had given measured performances at low volume and entertained the crowd. And we had been pretty relaxed ourselves about it all. Sure; we have some problems remembering songs, and with general consistency and continuity; but not so bad that an audience notices that much. In fact I noticed that at this gig the dancers took advantage of our short moments between songs to have a little chat and get their breath back. We got packed up in good time and I had a fair run home getting in at 1:15am. Ps Tried to listen to the recording the next day. It hadn't worked – I must have failed to hit the record button correctly!!! Next time I try I must allow more time to set it up.

Norwich British Legion

Back from the US on Monday into British weather at 2 degrees and a snowstorm on the M25 to contend with. In theory I shouldn't be jet lagged, but I keep dozing off – must be old age! By Saturday I had noodled a bit on the guitar, set out some thoughts for repertoire and felt up to speed for the gig at Norwich British Legion. I conferred with the boys in the day and we concluded Mick would be best served trying out his Roland TD3V electronic kit and his new Behringer headset mic. Set off for Norwich about 5:20 pm and arrived about 6:30pm after a quiet run to find the place locked up. Nige's car was already there but he had gone round the front of the club to wait for the doors to open. Mick arrived and we surveyed the building and looking through the window we saw Nige strolling around in the concert room – but it took him a few minutes to find the man with a key! Mick had brought his RCF12's along in case any extra monitor sound was needed; but I outlined plan A which was to take left and right feeds from the kit brain into each Bose input 4. Nige suggested we start with Utility Flat settings and we quickly knocked off most of the bass and boosted the highs to get a rough live mix for the kit. It sounded loud on stage but didn't project as well, so we fiddled a bit, but eventually we stuck at a variation that seemed to work. Nige tried to set up Mick's headse mic, but there was a big problem getting volume and tone out of it, so Mick reverted to a mic stand and trusty Shure SM58. By then there was only time for a quick beer and change before were on at 8pm. Started off with Foot Tapper and the drums sounded fine. We followed up with “Just One Look” and you could hear the vocals much more clearly than normal. I put this down to the electronic kit not competing as much in the mids as an acoustic kit. The other advantage is that when we were asked to turn it down a bit, we just had to pull the master volumes down a notch. The downside is its slightly more difficult to feel the beat and from time to time I had a bit of trouble getting out of time; all the more so because playing at such a low volume there is not much 'give' in the guitar sound. After “Heartbeat” Cathys Clown/Bye Bye Love and Beautiful Body”, we played quite an easy listening lightweight first set which included Mick's rendition of a Jim Reeves: “Hell Have to Go – Anna Marie” medley, Mick doing the “Lady Is a Tramp” (which suffered from a clash of understanding between me and Mick on the arrangement) and Nigel's Country session with added Mick on “Rambling Rose”. There was also room for some rock'n'roll. By and large I must say we had quite a bit of success in getting dancers up, some of this was down to the choice of material, but a lot seemed to be down to the easier pace at which we took things than previous outings here. The audience kindly overlooked or forgave a slight lack of continuity and consistency and we were very well received. The set finished with a curtailed Beatles medley as the guvnor turned on the lights for bingo. In the break we met up with another Mick doing a solo singer spell in the bar and Nige and I quaffed another beer. After bingo we resumed with “Under the Sun”, Tambourine Man, Searchers, Do It Again and Lying Eyes” all on the Fender 12 string. This kept pretty good tune and the band managed pretty good continuity and gradually filled the floor with the crowd naturally dropping into a barn dance as we opened up with Mick doing “Lying Eyes”. Mick and Nige cunningly called for the full 6 minute version which fully exercised all the permutations of the barn dance. We slipped in “How Sweet It Is” then dropped the pace with “Halfway” (fumbled the start) and “Wonder of You” before picking it up with “Sweet Caroline, “HI Ho”, “Do You Wanna Dance” sequence to a finale with “Words”. All very well received. In the break Nige had attracted the attention of one of the audience who thought we were very good and passed on her 0800 number! After a short break we resumed with “Price of Love” which I was keen to air. We got a good rhythm going but I need to work on the harmonies a bit. Also I think it would benefit from being partnered with a similar driving number? We carried on with “Dance the Night Away” and then into “Amarillo, Hey Baby, The Twist” before trying “Ferry Cross Mersey”. Mick did a great job with the vocal and the band got a good feel; and the audience sang along and gave it a good round of applause. Feeling confident we risked an airing of a completely unrehearsed “Runaround Sue” - not bad for a first attempt! We did few more numbers and then finished off with “Walk Alone” which got a sufficiently good reception that we obliged the shouts for 'more' with “Johnny B Goode”at 11:50pm. Although it had been a long night it was an easy pack up because we only took guitars home. I was soon on the road and home for 1:20am.

Toftwood Social Centre

Our first gig back after New Years Eve, and our first gig with Mick as a full time member (not dep). During January I had been on a worldwide holiday to Vietnam and New Zealand. I had flown in from Auckland NZ on Monday after a 36 hour journey and was still a bit out of sorts, but looking forward to playing again and having a beer with the boys! I had an uneventful run over to Toftwood in misty, relatively mild conditions but, as usual, I missed the turning for the club and had to turn round and come back. I found Nigel had just arrived and was waiting for the doors to open. Mick arrived a few minutes later and we just had chance to meet and greet before the door opened. Load in is easy here and set up went well considering we might have forgotten how it all works. Having seen a band in NZ that suffered from excessive bass frequencies on the guitar, I reduced the bass on the T1 to learn from that experience. This would give Nige a bit more space to play in the soundscape. Initially I had a bit of feedback on the mic; but I found by toeing in the Bose a little bit, I was able to clear it. Mick set up a Audio Technica radio mic to reduce wiring clutter. He was saying he might use a headset mic to get rid of the large mic stand he has. He understands the drawback being unable to back off the mic, but thinks he can control volume using his voice. Awareness is the key! Looking round there were quite a few in compared to our last couple of outings there, which was encouraging. Got changed into the black shirt, black tie and white waistcoat for an 8:30pm start. Must organise some red ties for variety. We set off with “Foot Tapper” this was OK until the end which didn't happen? Mick was set up a fair way forward and had trouble seeing Nige and me indicating the finish so he just carried on! After we finally finished it, we did some intro's and got on with an easy paced Foot Tappery start. Quite a good on stage sound. We did get a few takers for Mick's waltzy rendition of “He'll Have to Go” and generally we were going down well. We were pleasantly surprised to see Jenny and Hilda arrive. At the same time Nige wanted to take the show on a pace, so we did “Lady is a Tramp” and then I announced “Rock Around the Clock”. For some reason this got off to an incredibly fast start and what normally takes 3 minutes to play thru took about 2! After that I made a more relaxed start on “Blue Suede Shoes” and that got a couple of dancers up. Pursuing the rock'n'roll theme I opened up with “Move It”. Mick and I got at cross pieces on the beat but I just had to go for it. Once we got going it filled the dance floor nicely. We played on somewhat inconsistently with a mix of rock'n'roll and country and finished the set with “Words” Had a word with Jen and Hilly in the break; Jen is doing better and was delighted to have just got a Ford Ka to replace her big old Vauxhall. The ladies would only be staying for half an hour or so. We resumed with “Somewhere Under the Sun”. This got a good reception despite my fumbled guitar solo and we ploughed on through a more dancey set 2 than usual. The band was still a bit untogether at times and we overcame some unforced errors but, on the whole, the audience were liking what we were doing and quite a few were dancing. We reached a peak with an improvised version of “Lets Dance” and then as the dancers took a rest, I took the opportunity to have a bash at “Take It Easy”. My voice was well out of practice but I think with a few tweaks we can make this a strong part of our repertoire. More of the same for the third set with lots of dancing and a few rockier songs like “Alright Now” and a requested “Shakin All Over” which took a toll on my voice. We went for a wrap up with Mick doing a good “Never Walk Alone”; but we got shouts for more, so we encored with “Saw Her Standing There”. They still wanted more so we closed off with an enthusiastic rendition of the Spencer Davis sequence. I was dead tired packing up but, strangely, got more lively as we completed. It was cold outside but we had a bit of an inquest on why we had been a tad untogether, concluding it was down to Mick being too far forward to see what Nige and I were up to and general rustiness from being off the road for a month. Despite this we had gone down well and the guvnor was pleased. During the discussion I sensed we have some differences between us as to how best to improve band repertoire and performance; but I believe a bit of tension in opinions is healthy and we should be able to bridge those differences to improve our standing as a flexible, versatile band suitable for most types of gig. Driving home wasn't too bad, I was actually more awake then than I was in the third set. Got in about 1:30am and slept through to 10 am. Unfortunately I seemed to have gone down with a sniffy cold.