Band Practice at Plug Norwich

I’d been feeling a bit rough and got away a bit late, so I had to hurry to get there for 4:45 as I planned. Met up with the boys and got set up in room 5 which is a bit smaller than the room we had played in before but fine for our purpose. The guitar amp was an Ibanez solid state but it was well voiced to cut through and gave a great sound with the Roland pedal set to Fender Twin. (I was using my more expensive original Godin on the ‘dark’ output which may have contributed to the sound). After warming up with “Hotel California” we sorted out some timing issues with “Love Potion”. Then we tried Greg out on hi harmony vocal on some Eagles pieces. He would need to be more familiar with the harmony lines but his voice certainly does have the potential for hi lines. Greg then had a go at lead vocal on “Under the Moon of Love” and “Walk of Life” and we agreed he should take those on and work on them for the next gig. Next we tried playing along to backing tracks for “Dance the Night Away, Wonderful Tonight and Walk of Life”. This worked better than I expected and we discussed how we might augment the band’s sound for selected numbers using this approach. The debate is really about the practicability of using recorded MP3 files with a click / cue track on a separate monitor channel or setting it all up in midi with a decent midi synth. We finished off running through “How Long” by the Eagles to test if I can swap to the lead line and fill out the hi line with the harmoniser. This went OK but I’d need to do it regularly for a while to get used to not singing the harmony! Got away about 8:20 on a warm evening and was home for 9:30 ish. Ms J is away on a quilting fair so all was quiet and I had a beer or two to while away the rest of the evening.

Toftwood Social

I’ve had a busy time and I write this blog a week after the gig with hazy memories faded even further into the mists – so apologies to you blogateers for lack of detail on this one. Cloudy and not particularly warm as I set off relatively late but aiming for a 6:45 arrival. I managed to spot the right hand turning to the club first time on this occasion and entered the car park a few minutes early, to find Greg already parked up. He’d been there some time because he came over straight from an event in Norwich he’d been attending. The doors opened shortly after and about then Nige arrived. It is an easy load in here and we put bags and cases back in the cars to keep things neatish on stage. It is an awkward shaped stage and Nige and I swapped sides to generate even more unfamiliarity; but with the aid of a beer, eventually we all got set up OK. We got changed into the white’n’black for an 8:30 start in front of a small audience of about 25. We played safe with the usual start and earned a good response from the small crowd, so I set about bantering our way through an easy listening rock’n’rolly sort of set. I offered the audience some country - but no takers? The country barn dancers must have been on holiday! The rock’n’roll went well and we had a few up to dance and several came up for a dance to Words as the finishing slowey. In the break a chap (John?) came up to ask for a Johnny Kidd number that wasn’t “Shakin All Over”. We said “We’d have had a go at “I Can Tell” if we had the words but...” There were a few more in at the start of set 2 making it about 30 in the room. We opened up with “Under the Sun” which brought up a few dancers, so I carried straight on with “Tambourine Man” to try and keep it going. The Searchers did bring several up to dance and we followed up with a string of dancey tunes like “Move It, All Shook Up and Love Potion No 9, Lets Dance and Mony Mony” which developed a good atmosphere, we kept that going with the “Halfway, Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline” sequence to wrap the set up on a high. During the break a chap came over to say how good it was! And could he have a card to promote us at Pentney Bowls. After the members draw and ‘Take Your Pick’ it thinned out a bit. Then John? Came over with the words he’d written out for “I Can Tell”! We were flabbergasted .... and now committed to doing it! So we set about Set 3 with gusto starting with “Do You Wanna Dance” and Ace’s “How Long” which both got the dancers going. Much to ‘John’s” delight we warmed up with “Shakin All Over” and then played “I Can Tell”. Nige called for a key change after the first verse and I think we ended up doing it in E. John was delighted, Nige was pleased and the rest of the audience causght the mood - great fun! We went on to put together a good mix of audience participation songs like “Hi Ho and Hey Baby”, with rockers like “Hippy Hippy Shake” and slowies like “Unchained” to keep a good atmosphere going with this small audience. We brought things to a head with “Johnny B Goode” with added drum’n’bass breaks and finished up with “Wonderful Tonight”. This went well enough for us to encore with “Saw Her Standing There”. A good night for the band; but small audiences are bad news for the club. Got packed and loaded and away in good time, but the Bury road was blocked at Thetford with the police dealing with a crash, so I had to divert round adding an extra 20 minutes or so to the journey.

Caxton Club Beccles

Some good news - In the week Nige had spoken with Greg who has taken the drum stool position with the band on a permanent basis. Greg immediately cocked up by diarying this gig as Sunday and it was only my spotting of a "see you on Sunday" line in an email that allowed us to get him out to the gig on time! I made good time in stormy, humid conditions and arrived to find Nige just parking up. And then Greg arrived to create a traffic jam on Gaol Lane. The snag was there were no more parking spaces, so Greg and I ended up parking in the club delivery yard. We got loaded in and, without thinking, we set up on the stage in the ‘old’ formation with me on the left, Greg in the middle and Nige on the right. This was to prove problematic later as Nige found it tricky to ‘conduct’ Greg ‘cos, as a right handed drummer, his natural inclination is to lean to his left. There was no one around so for a few minutes we messed around with bits and pieces of songs including a spirited rendition of Black Sabbath’s “Black Night”! One of the girls from the bar showed me how to switch on the stage lights – unfortunately a bulb was out on my side which made it difficult to read my crib sheets as it got darker outside. We changed into the white’n’black and took to the stage for an on-time 8:30 start with “Foot Tapper”. Good sound from the off and Greg carried us along briskly and rhythmically making it relatively easy for me to play the guitar part. We got a good round of applause from a three quarter’s full room and then carried on with a typical vintage set aimed at the majority of over 50’s in the room. We wrapped up with “The Beatles and Words” and took a 15 minute break. It had got increasingly hot’n’humid during the set so Nige and Greg took some air while I talked to a chap from the crowd. He used to be a guitarist in the Midlands and he complimented us on our sound for a 3 piece and said we did a really great job of the Beatles medley – nice to hear that from a muso. We resumed in even hotter conditions for set 2 with “Under the Sun” dedicated to Dave. Blaming it on the heat and lack of light, I lost my way in running the show and remembering words in this set. Nothing the audience would pick up on much but annoying just the same. I suppose it would be worse if I didn’t know I was forgetting words! We got a bit of dancing going with “All Shook Up and Move It” and carried the set through to a strong conclusion with “Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline” and “Wonderful Tonight” which filled the floor with romantics. The audience had changed a bit for our third set. Some of the oldies had gone and some younger folk had arrived. We opened with “Dance the Night Way and Do You Wanna Dance” which filled the floor pretty well. We followed on with a rocky “Hippy Shake” with Greg in fine flowing form and then we carried on rocking with “Summer of 69” and “All Right Now” before we took a breather with the mid-set slowey “Unchained”. We carried on with “Walk of Life” and more rocking with “Johnny B Goode” complete with drum breaks; before the final number “Walk Alone”. Although this was most enthusiastically sungalong by the crowd, it only elicited a couple of shouts for ‘more’! But we obliged anyway, encoring with “Saw Her Standing There” which did generate a lotta shouts for 'more' - but we were now well over time so we made our exit as best we could and set about the long change’n’packup on a still hot’n’humid night. The drive home was fine and I was back for 1:15am feeling in better form than the previous week. The next day we met up with Nige at Jenny’s at a bit of a garden do to remember Dave a year after he passed away. A lot of people there and it was good to hear the younger ones such as Steve’n’Emma and Pete’n’Laura doing well and planning their futures. Mog - signing off as the 'apostrophe kid'

Tyneside Sheringham

Good run over under cloudy skies. Hardly any traffic so arrived at 6:30pm to find Nigel’s car already parked up. But it was a bit like the ‘Marie Celeste’ in the club; there was Nigel’s computer and electronic cigarette – but no Nigel? I got the bar man to unlock the load in door and then I was just getting busy bringing in my suit and prop bags; when up bounds Nige – he had been in the other bar speaking to the Dave who used to book us! Next thing our drummer for the night, Greg, rolls up. We do our introductions and then load in. Greg’s Premier kit is small but sounds big enough; ideal for this club. Nige and I are operating on swapped sides for the present and for reasons unknown it took some time to get set up. Although a few people had arrived for a fancy dress party in the bar at the far end of the concert room, we decided to do a soundcheck by playing “Flingel Bunt”. It all worked well and sounded good so then it was time for me and Nige to down a beer. Greg declined ‘cos he had a bit of a stomach upset. It turned out Greg had spent some time with ‘Lou and the Diamonds’ and had done some ‘oldie’ cruises so, although he is only 31, he came across as familiar with our kind of music. The club was quite full and a bit hot’n’humid by 8:15 when we got changed and we decided on casual black – no ties or waistcoats. We opened up with the usual and all went well. Nige was conducting Greg and I was running the show. The on stage sound is not great at this club, but I’m confident the balance out front was good. Greg fitted in well but there wasn’t much audience reaction to the first few numbers. I ploughed on with some banter (a bit nervy for no reason I could identify) and we eventually started to get some applause. A few came up to slow dance “Ferry Cross the Mersey” but it wasn’t yet a dancey evening. We managed the “Beatles medley” with Greg well cued by Nige for the breaks and rhythm changes - and finished off the set with “Words”. As we came off Jen and Laura arrived for a wild night on Sheringham town! We opened Set 2 dedicating “Under the Sun” to Dave then sashaying into “Tambourine Man”. Carrying on with “The Searchers Medley”, we got off a bit fast into “Sugar and Spice”, but settled down in “Needles and Pins”. I did an early Shadows walk to “Apache” with Helen and was able to check the front of house balance which was actually very good. We followed up with “How Long (Ace)” then the short version of “Lying Eyes” and “Moon of Love”. These opening numbers got good applause but it was only as we turned to “All Shook Up” and “Do You Wanna Dance” that we started to get some dancers up. We followed up with a sequence of “Lets Dance – Mony Mony – Amarillo – Hey Baby – Twist Again – Hi Ho” which exhausted the dancers, so we played out with “Halfway – Wonder of You – Sweet Caroline” to finish to a good singalong reaction. While we were off we got requests for “Love Potion No 9 and Born to be Wild” – so I said we’d give them a go! We took to the stage a bit late and then had to take a few minutes calling the raffle. When we got underway, I called for “Love Potion No 9” to open. This went quite well in Em and filled the floor with the ladies who had requested it. We followed it up with “Move It - Hippy Hippy Shake – Pretty Woman” which kept the dancers going, I got Nige to do “Everybody Hurts” as the mid set slowey; he did a great job singing in this high key and it got a very good reaction. Then I called for the requested “Born to be Wild”. This swung along quite nicely and I remembered most the words – not bad considering I haven’t played it in front of an audience for 30 years! We were a bit over time as we closed with “Walk Alone”. The audience had thinned out and were a little subdued so, although we hesitated, we didn’t have to do an encore on this occasion. Pack and load seemed to take a long time. Jen and a ‘tipsy’ Laura stayed chatting right through to the load up. Then they set off to lots of waving goodbye, only to re-appear 5 minutes later looking for Laura’s phone which was in her bag anyway! I would say it was an average night for the band at this club, but the club itself had done a roaring trade in drinks. Greg said he’d enjoyed his night with the band and Nige asked him to play next weeks gig. I made good time but was quite tired on the way home and have been so since – probably viral again!

Woodlands Bodham Nr Holt

As I suspected the previous week, a compromise with Ray was not possible, so he decided to leave the band amicably. Nige secured the services of Mike (Marty from the Peppermint Men’s elder brother) as a dep for this gig – the 7th drummer we had played with since Dave passed away! Good journey over in pleasant warm conditions and I arrived at the gig in good time to find the club already open. I had just managed to use the facilities when Nige arrived and we just got the first bits of gear in when Mike arrived at the front of the club. So we directed him round the back and carried on loading in and setting up. I had a bit of trouble with nasty feedback as I was setting up the mic and Nige gave me a hand to sort it out. It turned out to be the mic gain on the harmoniser set a bit high (the knob must have moved in previous pack up). Not so high as to bring in the red led and distort; but high enough to boost feedbacky mids. We did a sound check with “Flingel Bunt” and all was well. The club room is not that big and Mike fitted in very well to our club balance – if anything Nige and I were a bit loud so we took our volumes down a tad before showtime. We got changed into our white’n’blacks and opened up with “Foot Tapper” to about 20 in at the start – more over 50’s than our previous appearance there. Good response! After “Just One Look” I made a successful intro based on Sunday night tele theme tunes by linking “Heart Beat to Somebody Help Me” (The Royal). Nige was managing the rhythm section (Mike) and I was running the show and the audience soon warmed to our laid back bantery style as we ploughed though a selection of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s material. Mike got it right most of the time and even stayed with us through the “Beatles Medley” We finished off with “My Girl” as a change ballad and this worked well; I am a bit more familiar with the solo now and the harmonised ‘aahs’ filled out the bridge. After the break we opened up set 2 with “Flingel Bunt and The Searchers” Mike has that knack of playing a dancey rhythm to 60’s stuff and we soon had a few up and dancing, so we continued with “Do It Again”. “How Long” went very well with Mike picking up a 16’s beat that fitted really well. I gave “Lying Eyes” an airing, filling out the chorus with the harmoniser. Next up I did an cameo start to “All Shook Up” by shaking violently and telling the boys in the band I was practising the Watusi! Actually the song went well filling the dance floor and good audience answer backs on the ‘all shook ups’. It was a warm night so we rested the dancers and took the audience thru a bantery -singalonga sequence of “Halfway, Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline”. This caught the mood very well and the ladies came up to dance en mass to “Sweet Caroline” as well! Nige took us on through “Lets Dance – Mony Mony – Amarillo – Hey Baby (with corrected middle 8) – The Twist” and we wrapped the set up with “Words” A very good set for the band that was well appreciated by the audience which had now grown to about 40 in a 70% full room. We came on for a final 55 minute set to open up with some Sir Cliff with: “Move It and into Do You Wanna Dance” This filled the dance floor from the off and we kept going through a fairly continuous dancey sequence for most of the set. We wrapped up with “Wonderful Tonight” and encored with Johnny B Goode to a great response. It had been a very good night for the band. Mike had fitted in really well as a dep and the governor was well impressed. It turned out the usual manager (Robin) was on holiday, but the couple in charge said they were very impressed with the band and hoped we‘d be back! Meanwhile Nige got a text from someone at Sheringham Social to say the “Peppermint Men” playing there were good but not as good as us – Nige said he’d keep that one to show Marty! It was Mike’s first full gig in many years and he was staying nearbye so he got off as Nige and I loaded up the last few things. We cadged a welcome slice of pizza from the governor and then hit the road. Nige was first away and I got stuck in a little flurry of traffic but I caught up with Nige near Fakenham and followed him through to Swaffham. The final leg home was quiet and I made good time getting in abour 2:20am Suffering a bit of viral tiredness the next day!

Sheringham Social Club

Sunny and hot again. Ms J offered to accompany me on this one. We got away a bit late but had a very good run, so we were at the club at about 6:45pm to meet up with Nige and Ray. I set up the harmoniser and talked to Nige about parts in “Nowhere Man”. It turns out we both thought each other was singing Mick’s part. So we agreed I would drop from the high line to sing Mick’s old lead line. Not being that familiar with the lead line and, as there was no one in the club and also to set the harmoniser, I casually tried it out a few times. The voice was still a bit tight after the previous night but I soon got the gist of the line. Apparently Ray wasn’t that impressed but I think he missed the points that a) we were addressing his criticism of the previous night by dropping my line and letting the harmoniser do the high line b) you are bound to be a bit tight before you warm up and c) the hot and humid conditions do leave your vocal chords a bit dry. People started to arrive after 8pm and by showtime at 8:45 the room was about quarter full. We got off to a good start with a typical set 1 repertoire and it was well received by ‘our kind of audience’. The on stage sound was fine, the bantering was working well (Ms J reported later that people were listening and were amused by the band repartee), and the continuity was good. We kept close to time finishing the set at 9:30 with “Ferry” and a bigger audience than when we started = about 70% full. Nige knew quite a few people including a lady he hadn’t seen for decades. After a short break we came back on for the second set. Again continuity and banter and audience response was good and we started to see a few dancers on the sloweys. We stopped at 10:30pm for the raffle - but it turned out to be not on! Nige worked the crowd well in the break and we resumed at about 10:55pm for the third set. This was a lot more dancey and we picked and mixed our way through with good continuity to keep the dance floor full. Nige took on “Unchained” and it filled the floor and then we cruised into the finish with “Hippy Hippy Shake” and closed with “Wonderful Tonight”. Following some shouts for more we encored with “Johnny B Goode” It was 11:45pm and this got a rousing response with lots of shouts for more. Nige and I were about to oblige when Ray left the stage, so we had to mumble an apology and switch off. Nige and I were not happy about this. It’s not just the ‘glory’ of being appreciated, but some of these clubs like the band to respond to cement a ‘good night out’ atmosphere. We accept that there are some venues that don’t like you to carry on; but this isn’t one of them! So that was a bit of a downer on an otherwise excellent night. In fact as we worked the crowd and packed up, several people commented on how good the band had been. Nige undertook to discuss the encore issue with Ray and once loaded we all parted amicably enough. We had a good run home getting in about 2:30am. I was not as tired as the previous night, but a little disillusioned with the encore issue nevertheless. Despite our band values of mutual respect and tolerance, I sense there won’t be an easy compromise.

Seacroft - East Runton

Had a tough week at work, but the weather was sunny and warm and I set off in reasonable spirits allowing 2 hours for the Friday night run. I made the right decision to take the Swaffham route ‘cos I heard on the radio that the A140 was closed by a serious crash near Alby and ‘A shed load of offal had closed the Thickthorn roundabout!’ With the temperature over 30 degrees you can imagine the whiff. Although it was a slow run I was well on time at the gig arriving at 6:20pm; I had all my gear in by the time Nige and Ray arrived. Set up went well, but to reduce complexity so I could give more attention to audience interaction, I elected not to use the harmoniser on this gig. While it was quiet Nige and I took the opportunity to check arrangements on “Lets Have a Party” and “My Girl”. We had a welcome cold beer and changed into the white shirts and took to the stage at 8:15pm opening with “Foot Tapper”. We had set volumes down a bit but the on-stage sound was plenty loud enough. The room was pretty full and we got a really good round of applause as we finished it so I think the sound and balance out in the room was spot on. We took a bit of time over the intro and we got a good reception from this attentive audience. So we carried on with the usual bantery type show. Lots of applause, some good ad libs and the band going down really well. I tried out “All Shook Up” to some success – we did a funny intro based on me shaking which I called practicing the Watusi and we got good audience response on the “All Shook Ups”. Ray did his millionaire joke to some appreciation and then we rattled out “Living Doll and Apache” to which I did a demo of the Shads walk! This got a great response and so did the Beatles wigging up following. Despite a slight sea breeze, the humid hot conditions caused a couple of problems; Nige and I both had trouble with constricted throats which made singing tricky at times and my guitar needed a lot of attention to keep in tune. I’m sure it was fiddling with guitar tuning that caused me to lose track of the time and we ended up doing an hour rather than the 45 minutes planned. We finished off with a good “Ferry Cross the Mersey” in which I called for an extension ‘cos I thought we were slightly short of the 45 minutes (when we were actually slightly short of the hour!). Nige and I tried pints of water in the break to loosen up voices and we went back on to open set 2 with “How Long” by Ace. Apart from voices still a bit stiff this went well and got a good round of applause. We carried on with the Searchers, which I got Nige and myself wigged up for as a joke. Unfortunately this distracted me form setting the guitar so I was caught short on the start! With it being hot we hadn’t expected any dancing, but some ladies came up to dance to the Searchers so we concentrated on more dancey stuff for a while – “Do You Wanna Dance, Do It Again, Crazy Little Thing, Beautiful Sunday, Moon of Love, Hi Ho, and Lets Dance - Mony Mony.. I got in muddle with Beautiful Sunday ‘cos Nige picked key of C and threw in a solo – so I need to brush up on that. In fact I think we are better to run them as a permanent glued together 70’s medley with shortish versions of: Moon of Love, Beaut Sunday, Yellow River. The dancers looked bit hot after that so I slowed it down for “Halfway and Sweet Caroline then we rounded off with “Hippy Hippy Shake”. Set 3 would only be about 25 minutes ‘cos I’d run over time earlier. We opened up with “Dance the Night Away” followed by “Flingel Bunt” where I took a trip out front again. There were a few up and dancing so we kept it going with: “Amarillo, Hey Baby, Twist Again” and filled the dance floor. I took us into the closing sequence with “Johnny B Goode” (we must tidy up the solos in that) and then Nige did a great “Walk Alone” to finish at bang on 11pm. The audience gave us a rousing reception and several came up at the end to say how much they had enjoyed it. One chap said he was a Shadows fan and he was really impressed by our versions which sounded just great and really full without a rhythm guitar – nice to hear that! So, despite our own reservations on quality, we had got the ‘holy grail’ band outcome here: with an attentive audience who we entertained successfully and who filled the dance floor. We were packed, loaded and on the road by just before midnight and I was home for 1:30am tired and strangely a bit out of sorts?