Seacroft Hemsby

We were lined up for an afternoon performance starting at 3pm. I had a slow run over to meet up with Mick who had just arrived at 1:30pm. The weather promised to be cold, windy and wet and I was pleased to find the hall well warmed up as we got the gear in. Nige arrived with his extra EV15 bass rig and we got set up in our usual forward position in fairly quick time. Mick tried the headset mic, but it wasn’t working (turned out to be switched to the wrong radio channel) so he implemented plan B setting up a SM58 on a stand. We instantly got a good sound with that and as there were now a few people arriving we elected to omit a sound check and took off to the bar. We got changed into the back shirts, white ties and white waistcoats for the afternoon show arriving on stage for a prompt 3pm start with “Foot Tapper”. Good on stage sound. This went down well and I introduced the band. Then we carried on with a more easy listening biased set climaxing with “Wonder of You”, Sweet Caroline” and finishing with “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. This got a great response, so we encored with “Johnny B Goode” We played some good solos in this and generally the set had gone really well. A few people came up to say how they liked the band and the sound. So we were pretty pleased as we thought what to do with the rest of the afternoon to while away. I messed around with my Sony Laptop to try and install Windows 7 but it wouldn’t do it. I think this was because I couldn’t get a fast enough internet connection? Next I set up my Korg recorder to record the next set. Keeping it simple with master outs form each Bose T1 and a single SM58 over the kit. By the time we finished that we were ready for our free dinner in the restaurant. Took a few minutes to walk over in the wind but it was ncie and warm in there too! We were allocated spaces on a table with some holiday makers from Norwich who entertained us as we munched though celery soup and lamb hot pot. I declined pudding but the others tucked in while I slurped down a couple of cups of tea – very welcome! Then it was back to the concert room to sit through the bingo before our next set. We changed into the white shirts, black ties and black waistcoats for this set and started up at 8:30pm with “Flingel Bunt”. Again we got a good reception. I took us straight on to “Runaround Sue” which we got through better than the last time. Then it was “Summertime Blues, Rock Around the Clock” and then into the Everlys “Cathys Clown Bye Bye Love” medley. We had agreed Mick would take on the lead line so Nige and I re arranged so I could do the high line and he would look for a low line. It took us a verse to get it right but by the end it was sounding good. “Bye Bye Love” we left as was. During dinner we had been asked to do some country: so I teed up Nige to do “Crystal Chandelier Rambling Rose” while we coaxed the crowd to do a barn dance. This worked quite well but the floor emptied as we ended, so I took the opportunity to slip in “Ferry Cross the Mersey” which went down well but we only had a few dancers. We carried on with the “Searchers, Do It Again and Moon of Love” which did fill the floor. With 40 minutes under our belt I called for “Unchained” as the closer. This really filled the floor and we got a good reception for it. But the concert sec was over at the bar chatting rather than signing us off. So I thought it prudent to encore with “Pretty Woman” which we did passably. This was followed by a weak sign off. All a bit of an anti-climax really. We got changed and set about clearing the stage for the Richardson’s Red Coats Show. This is hard work – we work fast to get the gear off stage and close to the exit where we can put covers on etc. After 15 minutes Mick was really red and hot from his exertions, but we had done it. We loaded up and were able to watch the 3 girl and 3 boy show for a while before I set off home for an early night getting in about 11:30pm.

Kingfisher Bar Burgh Castle ‘Help for Heroes’ Fundraiser

Mick had set this up and we were going to play 40 minutes in a packed programme with several bands. I was pleased Ms J had decided to accompany me. As I only had to bring a guitar and suit bag we decised to use the Focus; but at the last minute I decided to take the old Checkmates PA to give to Mick’s son Michael which did fill the car up. Anyway we set off in the Focus on a wild, windy, rainy evening and eventually arrived at the bar just before 7pm to find set up was still in progress. Although it looked chaotic it was, in fact, coming together. I got the use of Stevey’s (from the UK Beach Boys) Session Amp and Nige was going to plug in a big Fender bass amp; all miked up through Mick’s big PA: RCF12s and Yamaha Bass Bins. Actually the bar looks a nice gig to play: Nige and I sampled the lager and Ms J had a very good (and large) dry white whilst we waited for things to start. First up was Mick’s brother Steve: a larger than life character with a long list of jokes. He started with a song by the ‘Real Thing’ Nige thought we could do; kind of similar to a Barry White song I was going to suggest so we could do a ‘whale of love’ routine. Next up were the ‘Strangers’ playing mainly R&B standards. The sound was good but a few numbers in reverb was added which introduced feedback and mud to an otherwise good mix. Nige liked the guitar sound: a Steinberg played through a Polytone amp. It delivered a middly sound and certainly cut through the mix and he was a pretty good player combining jazz and blues elements to deliver a classy performance. Mick’s other brother, David, was playing guitar in the next band ‘Skiffle It’ who unexpectedly started with a Searchers number before carrying on with a repertoire more associated with the band name. With acoustic guitar and banjo tones they had a good pallet to play with and put on a good show despite continuing problems with the PA. We got our Sky High slot after the raffle, so we went to get changed. The raffle completed and then it was plug in time. I couldn’t get a clear sound out of the Session amp at volume so had to settle for a breaking up middly sound better suited to blues. Ah Well – the show must go on. We opened with “Flingel Bunt” and got a surprisingly good response. We carried on with “Just One look” and “Heartbeat” to settle in. The on stage sound was terrible but we seemed to be going down well with warm applause after each number so we slogged on with “All Shook Up” which got a bit of dancing going. We carried on with the Eagles “How Long” which was going OK until Mick’s headset mic packed up in the second verse. I took over on lead vocal but wasn’t sure whether Mick was coming back or not, so the harmonies were compromised as I tried to sing a mix of lead and the high line. As it finished Mick called for a battery and installed that while I announced “Sky High”. We finally bashed that out and headed into the closing sequence of “Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline” and then finished with “You’ll Never Walk Alone” dedicated to the Heroes. We got a good reaction for that so I called for “Saw Her Standing There” to encore. Then we were off. I got changed and packed ready to go, but I saw a couple of numbers by the re-union band as I collected Ms J for a swift exit. It was still raining outside and the car was a bit blocked in so I had to negotiate some tight bollards to get out the car park. We had a slowish run home in the wind and rain getting in just after midnight.

Caxton Club Beccles

Had a good run over in pleasant enough weather and arrived about 10 minutes earlier than planned to find Mick and Nigel already there unloading. The little car park at the back was full so after I unloaded, Nige and I shuffled round so I could park in the club’s yard. Got the gear set up and we immediately ran into trouble with Mick’s headset mic. Running it through Nigel’s Bose there was a big boomyness pitched at a low A. Eventually we concluded this was emanating from the corner near Nige’s Bose; so we switched it to my Bose. I saved a new scene as FooMikTap and set up the T1 Tonematch for a SM58 and swept through the low frequency spectrum with the parametric equaliser to find the offending frequency. It turned out to be a low A (about 85Hz) and I filtered out a tight band to remove it without upsetting the basic mic sound too much. Time was marching on and people were starting to come in, so we abandoned the idea of a full band sound check, pulled the volumes down a bit, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best! Got changed into the white shirts, black ties and black waistcoats for our start at 8:30pm. Despite there being a club outing to a country gig the room was fairly full as we opened up with “Foot Tapper”. A good on stage sound and the audience also looked happy with the volume. We got a good round of applause so I introduced the band and each of us got a little round of applause. Already – this is my kind of club! We carried on with the usual “Just One Look Heartbeat” and vocally things also sounded OK, although I did push Mick’s volume up a bit in the mix (just a tad) and we carried on with the following set list:

WALK RIGHT BACK – WHEN WILL I BE LOVED
PEACEFUL EASY FEELIN Mick started How Long by mistake but somehow we recovered without stopping.
HOW LONG
ALL SHOOK UP
BLUE SUEDE SHOES
FERRY CROSS MERSEY
RAINING IN MY HEART
MOVE IT
BEATLES MEDLEY Shortened and wigged up with Nige wearing the blonde wig
WORDS

Nige and I had discussed livening up the sets for this gig so Sets 2 and 3 went like this:
UNDER THE SUN Dedicated to Dave
DAYDREAM BELIEVER Went well for a first outing and got people up dancing
HOLLIES MEDLEY Also went well for a first outing with Mick
SEARCHERS MEDLEY
CRAZY LITTLE THING Again it got the dancers up, but needs the backing vocals!
MOON OF LOVE – BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY - YELLOW RIVER
HALFWAY TO PARADISE
GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME
WONDER OF YOU
SWEET CAROLINE
HI HO SILVER LINING
MONY MONY

DANCE NIGHT AWAY
DO YOU WANNA DANCE
HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE
WALK OF LIFE
SWEET HOME ALABAMA Not bad for a first time but improvised guitar parts need a bit of work!
ALL RIGHT NOW Shortened the solo a few bars
UNCHAINED MELODY Packed the floor
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE They all sang along.
JONNY B GOODE with extra drum, bass and guitar solos, lots of shouts for more so we encored with:
CAN'T GET ENOUGH Mick hadn’t played this before with us but he knew it and we did a great job.

Although it had been a bit of a ragged performance in places, the audience were very enthusiastic and we got a number of compliments on the vocals, the sound and how smart we looked. All in all a very good night for the band. Got home at 1:30 on a moonlit night.

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.