ReTrio on the Southern Comfort Paddle Boat from Horning

We had been booked for some time to play Beryl and Bryan's Golden Wedding Anniversary on a boat cruising the broads and the day had finally arrived. This gig would be out of the ordinary in several ways:

Firstly, Beryl and Bryan had requested:  "Albatross,  Don't Stop,  Take 5 and Anniversary Waltz".   We had had plenty of time to work up the Fleetwood Mac songs and Anniversary was no problem but,  despite a couple of goes at it,  we were unable to get a convincing version of Take 5 working.  So I cheated and put this into the background music playlist.  

Secondly, we were going to provide band backing for Michele Summers on a couple of songs:  "Brown Eyes Blue" and "Grandma's Feather Bed".  I had taken time to arrange these and run them by Michele before practicing them with ReTrio.  The practice had gone well so I was confident these would be alright on the night. I had also agreed to provide Michele with guitar on the night. 

Thirdly, another complexity was that we had been asked to provide backing for Beryl's granddaughter Gabriella on Queen's "Somebody to Love".  I had arranged it but it was quite complex to play as songs go.  Also I wasn't sure what key she wanted and how experienced she would be working with a band that might be a bit imprecise.  In the end I had suggested she use the backing track she was familiar with rather than risk the band!  

Finally,  we knew small gear would be necessary and the Bose would be too tall for the cabin.  So we had elected to use the Phil Jones Bass Suitcase for bass and half the PA,  a small Marshall AS50R acoustic amp for Michele's guitar and the other half of the PA. We used a Bose T1 to mix 3 mics and the MP3 player into the two amps being used for PA.  For my guitar I would be using a very small Vox Valvetronix 30 without pedal board -  making use of 3 stored sounds for instrumental, clean and dirty numbers.  Chris B would cut out a cymbal and large tom from his kit.

 

 

Come the day,  the two Chris's came round my place in the afternoon and we loaded all into the back of my S-Max (just).  We set off for the gig about 3:30pm on a sunny mild day.  Traffic was a bit busy in Thetford and Norwich,  but it was Friday afternoon. We still got to Horning as planned just before 5pm - delighted to find the boat berthed and available for our load in without guests in the way!  We had just started set up when Michele,  Beryl and Bryan arrived.  I asked Michele to try out my Godin nylon strung Multiac and she was pretty happy with it.  We completed set up; the PA sounded good,  the PJB gave the vocals more bass than was needed but we could easily adjust that with the on-board equaliser.  (Chris the drum's mic also needed a little bit more bass roll off on the T1 mixer)  I had fitted the Multiac with the little tuner Nige had given me and this was invaluable in getting Michele set up ready to plug in the Marshall. We were also able to test the upper deck cabin mic which ran the band sound down into the ships pa in the cabin below. It was still well before 6pm (when guests would start arriving) so we took the opportunity to do an extended sound check playing both of Michele's numbers,  "Anniversary Waltz" with Michele singing and a couple of verses of "Just One Look" to check the harmoniser was working.  We actually had the luxury of enough time to be able to make a couple of adjustments to Michele's song arrangements with: band in on second verse for "Brown Eyes Blue" and a reminder to play the intro bit after each chorus in "Grandma's Bed".  Satisfied we declared ourselves ready to rock and headed off to the nearby pub, the Swan, for a beer!

 

 

We returned in good order and good time and Michele introduced us to Gabriella who had brought a cd with the "Somebody to Love" backing track on.  Shock horror!  We hadn't got a cd player - I had assumed she would have had an MP3 backing on her phone or something?  After a bit of thinking we ended up with a workaround where the track would be played on the ships cd player / pa and we would put a mic in front of the pa to run it into our PA.  Michele also advised that grandson Zak had agreed to do a duet of "Remember September" with her at some point. With speeches and cake cutting, it looked like the band would be doing a couple of spots of about 45 minutes each.   We in ReTrio were ready to go dressed smartly in our white shirts,  black ties and our waistcoats and a few minutes later the boat pulled away.  We struck up with our opening sequence of "Flingel Bunt, Just One Look and Heartbeat".  We had bits of applause and our captive audience seemed to be enjoying it, and no one was covering ears - always a good sign!  For me the PA sounded OK but I couldn't hear the guitar too well (probably 'cos I was standing over it?)  Chris the bass a bit further down the cabin said it was a good band sound where he was so we ploughed on playing a selection of easy listening songs from our usual set 1.  I couldn't resist the opportunity to change "Mersey" to "Bure" for "Ferry Cross the Bure".  Despite the confined space we had a few dancers up to "Rock Around The Clock" so I extended that a bit and the boys followed nicely.  We finished off the set with "Delilah" and "Green Grass of Home" to good applause and some of the crowd singing-a-long - a good enough start I thought.  There were about 100 on the boat and it was tricky moving around,  but we managed to get some shandies in the break.  We resumed with Michele's set which she sang and played great.  I thought we backed her well - it certainly all went down well with the crowd.  Then Gabriella came up to do her bit. Chris the bass held a mic to the ships pa and we got enough sound coming through to give it a go.  She has a very strong voice for a 13 year old and she sang this tricky song well under the difficult circumstances and got a deservedly great response from the crowd.   Next it was time for the buffet so we had a bit more time off to grab a bite to eat and banter with the crowd.  It was getting colder and darker as we approached the turning point at South Walsham and so the cabin was even more full as people took shelter.  We resumed with "Anniversary Waltz"  which Michele kindly sung (giving me a break!) and Beryl and Bryan led the dancing.  I took the opportunity to rattle out the two requests "Albatross and Don't Stop".  These went really well and Bryan was well pleased, congratulating us on a good performance with just 3 of us doing what it had taken 6 to do with Fleetwood Mac when he saw them in Australia.  We were pleased too and announced they would be staying in our play list.  We took another break for speeches and then commenced the final set as we cruised home.  We only had about 30 minutes to play so we were able to pick a good selection of sing-a-long dance-a-long songs to keep the increasingly jolly atmosphere going.  e.g. Halfway to Paradise, Saturday Night at Movies,  Sweet Caroline,  Pretty Woman.  As we sailed back into Horning we embarked on "Johnny B Goode" with added solos to see us into port.  A well timed ending for which we got a great reception.  

It took about half an hour to pack up as the guests left and so we had a free run to off load the gear and load up the car - setting off home about 10:45pm.  We had a good run home, getting back about midnight.  We declared ourselves well pleased with the nights work as we unloaded the car.  The boys got off home and I went in the house to find Ms J had stayed up and made me a cup of cocoa - a fine ending to our second gig. 

ReTrio at Home Guard Club Abbot Road Bury St Edmunds

Knowing that our debut gig was coming up, we had had a "dress" rehearsal on the Wednesday at the Pot Black club.  Actually we didn't dress up but I took time to set the PA up carefully.  I was using a Mackie ProFX12 analogue mixer for the band and my Bose T1 for my own vocals and guitar (and bass drum).  I took a direct out from my T1 vocal channel 1 into the harmoniser and returned it to channel 3 on the T1  so I had separate control over my main vocal and harmonised parts.  Then I used the Aux send to route to a Digitech Vocal 300 set for 3 echo effects:  slap back for rock'n'roll,  a 300 msec delay for general use and a 450 msec delay for ballads.  Taking a tip from Nigel's book of how to set up a band,  we omitted reverb which can mush up a band sound in a live situation - i.e. hall reverb gives enough space anyway.  I had also stumbled on a fortunate benefit from previous use of the Vocal 300 in that you can set it to add some 'shine' through tube pre-amp simulation and when the delayed part is mixed with the dry (unshined) signal it sounds smoother overall with a slickness (maybe a bit of doubling) to the top end in particular - I like it very much!  The others arrived about 6pm and I was soon ready to mix the PA. I mixed it with the two Chris's vocals hard right,  my own vocal and harmoniser hard left, echo and strings down the middle (also delivering a bit of delayed vocal monitor to each side),  bass drum hard left and guitar hard left.  Chris the Bass had his stack set up on the right to complete the soundscape.  The reason for the hard panning was to avoid phase cancellation effects from the wide dispersion of the Bose.   We had a soundcheck and in this hall it sounded really good.  Interestingly, experimenting with mono mix's didn't reveal any phase cancellation to my ears - but I thought I'd continue to play safe with hard panning.   With all running smoothly,  we set about playing through the 3 x 45 sets we intended to do at the Home Guard club.  Apart from the occasional error it went smoothly enough and we were well satisfied and somewhat tired by pack up time.

 

Come the Saturday Jacqui was on emergency babysitting duties with Ethan in Rochdale.  So after a quiet rainy day I set off for the gig about 6:15 pm for a 6:30 arrival to meet up with Chris the Drum who had already got the club opened up and was mid way through load in.  Chris the Bass arrived as I was loading in and we soon had all the gear in -  there was an awful lot of equipment and I hoped set up would be easy going after the practice.  But I soon ran into trouble remembering the set up and annoyingly some of the knobs had got moved in the rehearsal pack away; so it was relatively hard work testing it all out and getting it right in front of a half full club room.  Why was it half full at 7ish you may ask - were they eager to see the band?  No - it was a hangover from the FA cup final watch!  But,  by the time we came to soundcheck at 7:45 pm the football enthusiasts had left and been replaced by an promising looking older crowd. Also Chris the Drum's entourage of family and friends had started to arrive so the room was actually quite full for the soundcheck. Our few bars check of "Just One Look" sounded OK and everything was working so I didn't push to do any more and I set the background musak playing a familiar playlist from old standards through to rock'n'roll.  We had the luxury of using the big snooker room to dump all the cases and change.  We retired for a beer and a bit of room work meeting and greeting people who'd come to see us.  It was soon time to don our white shirts and waistcoats for an 8:30pm start.  We started off in fine form with the instrumental: "Flingel Bunt".  This we had played it a lot over the previous few months and it went well and got a good round of applause.  I had equally well practiced and familiar "Just One Look" and "Heartbeat" lined up to follow and,  apart from a bit of tweaking on vocals on the fly, these went well and we settled into a good routine of song variety and interaction with an audience who were up for applause and banter.  We continued with "Beautiful Body,  Walk Right Back - When Will I Be Loved"  and then bit of country with "Crystal Chandeliers". All easy listening and well received. I was pleased with our first ballad: "Ferry Across the Mersey".  I sang it well enough and the big echo sounded magnificent.  And when I swelled the strings in I could see people were surprised by such a big sound from a trio.  At the end we got a very good response -  it must have sounded good out there as well!  So at the mid-point in the set we were going down well with the crowd who were reacting enthusiastically with applause and bits of laughter at the right places - but no dancing? Next up was a sequence of rock'n'rollers that I thought would get them up dancing;  starting with "Be Bop A Lula".  It took me most of this song to get the slap back echo level right but we played it well enough to establish a rock'n'roll mood.   Then I announced  "Rock Around the Clock".  I must have slipped into a timewarp 'cos for an unknown reason I started it in A rather than the G we had agreed for ReTrio.  I negotiated the key with Chris on the bass by shouting my apologies along with the fact it was now in A!  Despite the messed up start we had a few up dancing to this.  I was now a bit flummoxed on the arrangement and words and ended up extending it a bit - fortunately the 2 Chris's followed OK and we finished to a good reception.   I carried on quickly with "Blue Suede",  but the dancers soon weakened and disappeared from the floor.   We followed on as planned with "All Shook Up and Move It" with good audience reaction but only bits of dancing.  I think I will change the order to bring "Rock Around the Clock" later in this sequence and maybe switch "Move It" to the next set. As we came towards the end of the 45 minute set it was time to announce a spectacular cabaret performance as Chris the Drum came out front to sing "Delilah".  We do this fast waltz without drums and despite losing the plot a bit as we came out of the instrumental section,  we played it pretty well and it got a big round of applause - so well done Chris!  We finished the set with "Green Grass of Home" and another big round of applause.

 

I was pleased to have a beer and a bit of down time in the break.  The two Chris's worked the room and reported 'no complaints' - this turned out to be a compliment because apparently bands at this venue can generate complaints along the lines: 'it's too loud' or 'they don't play any songs I know!'  Chris the bass was having problems with his 15 inch speaker flapping.  I couldn't hear it my side,  but Chris the Drum assured me you could hear it when he was out front.  Chris elected to reduce the bass in his amp equaliser to minimise the problem.  We changed into our red shirts for set 2.

This set opens with "Fever".  Chris the Bass is first on stage with several bars of bass,  then Chris the Drum joins him followed quickly by me.  I don't play guitar; just do the vocal.   The bass sounded OK to me and I pressed on with the vocal.  I had a bit more trouble remembering it than at the dress rehearsal,  but we got through in good enough order and the audience rewarded it with good applause.  I announced we would be doing a few songs from the 60's as I strapped on my Fender 12 string (for that jangly sound of the time). 

 

 

 

We opened the sequence with "Tambourine Man".  I was pleased with the 12 string sound cutting through on the centre pick up setting.  We played the song well at an easy pace and we even got a couple up dancing to it.  It's a short song so I got the boys quickly into the next piece "Eight Days a Week".  This is faster and longer and the dancers soon dropped out.  I was very pleased with our performance of this:  we had taken the time to arrange the bass and drums like the record (particularly the intro and bridge) and it worked well on the night and it got a well deserved round of applause.  Next up was "Walk In The Room".  I had a bit of trouble getting the guitar sound right alternating lead with rhythm but in the end I settled for the centre pick up as right for this as well.  The performance was a bit ragged to my ears but it was still well received by the crowd.   I did a quick guitar change and then we were off into "Ring of Fire" with Chris the Drum singing. Chris did a good job, the harmony sections worked well and we had a good rhythm but again I thought it was a little ragged overall - once we've played it a few more times it will be fine.  Despite this it went down well with the crowd. Next was a bit of a sing-a-long sequence with "Daydream Believer and Halfway to Paradise".  I couldn't hear anyone singing along but the audience looked engaged and we continued to get a good response.   We continued with what I thought would be a good dance sequence with "Love Potion 9, Summertime Blues and Do You Wanna Dance".  We played them well enough I thought,  but there was still not much dance action?  "Apache was next and I went out front to do a lightweight 'Shadows Walk'.  I had to quickly step back to set the guitar sound to echo!  As I resumed the 'walk' a lady came up to accompany me which was good fun - the band mix sounded fine,  but some hi pitched feedback crept in because I had left my spot in front of the mic,  so  I had to go back again to deal with that. We finished with a flourish on the strings and once again our bit of showmanship was well received with a big round of applause.  Next we featured Chris the Drum on "Help Me Make it Thru the Night" which also went down very well. As we finished "Bye Bye Love" Chris the Bass mentioned we were close to time, so we did a shortish "Shake Rattle and Roll".  Despite cutting it down in length, I managed to fit in the introductions to the boys in the band as each of us did a solo.  The set finale was "Nights in White Satin".  An ambitious piece for a trio - making full use of strings and harmoniser.  I 'sort of' hum the flute solo.  On the night,  I was very pleased with our performance,  it went surprisingly well and we got the dynamics right with a very big finish that earned a very big response from the audience.

 

We changed into white tees with the waistcoats for the final set. Most of our audience had stayed with us as we resumed.  We started with an energetic "Great Balls of Fire" which we played pretty well.  Next was "Dance the Night Away".  This was OK but for some reason I couldn't remember the words so had to sing verse 2 twice.  "Pretty Woman and Bad Moon Rising" went well,  still not much in the way of dancers,  but the band was still going down well.  "Saturday Night at the Movies" segued smoothly into "Come on Over to My Place", and we even managed the key change successfully!  "Runaround Sue" was a little ragged - but we've only played it thru a couple of times!  "Sweet Caroline" was up next.  I was looking for a sing-a-long response and I think they were doing it.  I ran into a bit of trouble pitching the low note at the end of the 2nd line of the verse.  I put it down to a flagging voice and lack fitness. We covered up OK - I know it will be fine once I get match fit again.  The voice was rested in "FBI" then it was time for the 'epic' number of the set: "American Trilogy".  I had a bit of trouble getting the acoustic guitar sound right at the beginning and effectively ended up restarting it.  This is one we had rehearsed a lot and once we got into it, it went very well - building strongly at the end where I went for and hit the high note.  Thankfully it earned an 'epic' response from our audience.  Next we set off into a dance sequence with "Hey Baby, Twist Again and Hi Ho Silver Lining"  I coaxed the band down in volume during the audience sing-a-long bit with "Hey Baby"  and 'yes' they were singing along - so well that I made them do it again!  Chris spotted we were close to time,  so we went quickly into our last number  "Johnny B Goode".  Although my voice was shot,  we played this energetically.  I outroduced the boys in the solos a bit more raggedly than intended but we all finished together.  Amongst the applause I could hear a little shout for more!  So I elected to encore with "All Right Now" rather than risk the voice with "Wonderful Tonight".  I shortened the solo a bit so we were only 5 minutes over time as we finished. 

 

We all agreed it was a good first night for the band as we set about pack up.  The governor seemed happy enough and the Chris's had received favourable feedback.  We even had some folks thinking we must have been together for quite a while.  I was slightly surprised at the lack of dancing during the night.  We had selected a lot of danceable songs,  so maybe it was just that this audience preferred to listen or were a bit infirm?  I was pretty knackered as we packed up and it took quite a while to dismantle the PA - I resolved to find a way to simplify it for the future.  The boys gave me a hand to load up so it was only a little after midnight as we said our goodbyes and I set off on the looong journey home - about 1 mile!   Apologies to any blogateers or blogettes for the length of this report.  I wanted to be as thorough as I could for this first night,  now we have done our debut I'll get back to summaries!

Toftwood Social Deputizing for Kenny and the Motives

Got a call from Nigel in the week to ask if I'd be up for depping on guitar for Glyn from the Motives.  He'd had a car incident and damaged his leg and would be out for a couple of weeks.  "Count me in" I said without hesitation;  knowing I would have to square it with Ms J who was hosting a beer festival weekend. Nigel added that old drumming colleague Martin would be depping on drums as well - so it would be a bit of a reunion for the old Foot Tappers rhythm section.  "Great" I said "I'll look forward to it!"  Broke the news to Ms J who was wonderfully ok with it.  Nige sent thru a set list of which about half were familiar or buskable for me  just needed to mug up on some keys and about half a dozen songs that were a bit tricky.   I had a couple of days to research and concentrated on 'A Little Bit More, Come On Everybody, Love Really Hurts, Dancing on a Saturday Night and 4 Strong Winds".

 
Come the day,  I set off about 5:40pm for an easy paced drive over to Dereham.  Arrived 6:45 to find the band had arrived and were setting up.  Nige had just introduced me to Kenny (singer) and Hannah (keyboards) when Martin rolled up. I set up my Mesa Lonestar and my trusty Godin XTSA on Nigel's right and was soon operative.  Nige suggested I cut the bass a bit on the Mesa;  a good thought particularly for a 5 piece - it allows the guitar to sit above the bass in the soundscape and complement keyboards.  Kenny had some PA gremlins to clear,  but that didn't take long.  We had a brief sound check with bits of "Crocodile Rock and Four Strong Winds". Martin's Tama kit was crisp and the bass drum sounded just great.  Nige's bass was thru his mini Phil Jones Bass suitcase stack - I knew how good that sounds 'cos I have a single one at home and his double set up was awesome.   After we came off, Hannah teasingly told me that she'd heard I was very disorganised and kindly offered to put my music notes in set order.  (Nige had told them I was highly organised!)  Had a beer with the boys and then it was time to get changed.  Nige,  Martin and I squeezed into the concert secretary's office to put on our black shirts and trousers.  Then,  shock horror, Nige found he had left his clothes at home "Kenny will kill me" he said. We improvised.  I lent him my trousers,  'cos my travel gear was dark anyway.  Nige came clean with Kenny and borrowed a shirt from him.  Kenny decked us all out in pink ties to match Hannah's dress and we were set to go.  We took to the stage a few minutes late and I still didn't know what the opening number would be until Ken announced "My Little Girl is Smiling"  - Nige whispered in my ear the Key  "E" and I went into busk mode.  Actually its a fairly simple chord sequence with a nice guitar riff between verses and I was able to pick it up quite well.  It was a bit of a strange sound experience for me:  I am well used to the Bose set up and here the guitar and bass amps on the floor immediately behind us sounded distant -  but I could hear the drums and keys well.   The sound out front must have been fine 'cos the dancefloor soon filled.  Most of the early few numbers I could busk or find in the book,  but then the repertoire seemed to depart from the sequence Hannah had set up.  However, with a combination of extreme busking and Nigel reminding of tricky chords, I got by quite well and even turned in the occasional improvised solo.  Hannah as musical director is quite disarming.  Typically she will turn and look at you with a winning smile that means "your solo if you want it".  I was able to decline a couple and she just ripped out a great solo on the keys to keep it going.  But I thought I'd have a go at "Your 16" - it was a bit jazzy (experimental) but I got thru in the end.  Thereafter rock and roll solos were no problem; the Mesa is a great help with its valve compression and sustain making the solos really sing.  (The Bose is always a more brittle sound).  Early on I opened 'Four Strong Winds" with the XTSA acoustic sound with a lot of chorus to simulate a 12 string and I was surprised by how good it sounded through the Mesa.  The night continued pleasantly;  highlights for me included a great band performance of "Pretty Woman",  a fair solo in "Johnny B Goode" and an audience request for "Apache" which Hannah improvised nicely considering she hadn't done it before.  I elected not to do the Shadows Walk into the audience - my knees are not practiced!  All too soon it was all over,  we finished with 'Wonderful Tonight';  I did my own simplified  guitar interpretation which Kenny was happy with.   I know Kenny was disappointed with the audience turn out but he was happy with the band.  We'd had a good night and for me I think were a few more on the floor than when the Foot Tappers last played there in 2010.  Pack up was easy and I was soon on the road feeling strangely elated at a good night out.  Bit foggy on the way home and I took a wrong turning in Thetford which meant I wasn't home 'til 1:45am.  It had been great playing with Nige and Martin again and I got some positive feedback from Nige on Kenny's view of my depping the next day.  I was looking forward to depping with them again the next week,  but their guitarist Glyn had recovered enough to be able to play - I wished them well though.

Saturday 3rd November 2012 New Band Retrospective

A lot has happened bandwise in the last couple of weeks.  I responded to a “Join My Band “ ad from a local bassist and drummer looking for a guitar vocalist to do 50’s 60’s and country. I had a try out session with Chris Hutton (bass) and Chris Burgiss (drums) in Horringer Community Centre and agreed there was potential to take the band forward doing non-complex 50’s – 70’s pop for pubs, clubs etc.  Chris the Drum sings a bit of karaoke so I expect he will work in on vocals as we go,  but initially he wanted to just concentrate on drumming.  So I would need to be the principal vocalist going forward!  The guys also asked me to take on musical direction to work up 3 x 45 club sets.  Sleeping on it I figured that the singing challenge was something I wanted to do.  It would allow me to develop my vocal capability and by keeping the repertoire based on easy wins the musical director role would be not too demanding.  I quickly melded a list of stuff Chris the Bass knew with easier stuff I knew and we agreed to work on that.  Then we had a practice session at the Priors pub. I was using a single Bose L1 T1 for vocals and guitar and I rigged up the harmoniser in a better way than in the past.  Basically I separate out the harmonies from the main vocal so there are separate T1 mixer channels for main vocal and harmoniser – this allows the OM5 mic to get optimum tone matching without having to compromise to also take account of harmonies from the Digitech harmoniser.  It results in a noticeable improvement in sound quality – unfortunately the voice is the same and I need to work a bit harder on singing better.  Chris the Bass  has a Harkte stack nand a G&L Telecaster bass – it sounds fine for this type of band.  The practice went well enough.  Chris the Drum’s wife Trudi came along,  recorded some bits on her iPhone and was quite complimentary on the sound.  She also came up with some ideas for the band name.  Next practice we were at a bar attached to an Indian restaurant at Barnham.  I tried out both Bose’s here and proved it all worked.  But in a small hall you can’t exploit width with a stereo mix too well and, although I tried some tricks like putting echo thru one side and vocal thru the other,  I concluded that we definitely only need one Bose for small to medium halls until we get more vocals going. Makes set up quicker too!  At this session we looked at Trudi’s band name suggestions and agreed “ReTrio” as the name,  so that was a step forward!   There is still a lot to do in rehearsing the guys thru the repertoire – stops, starts,  drum fills and subtle chords etc.  So I’ve given the guys CD’s with a play list of all the songs we agreed to have a go at to get them familiar.  Below is a list of the songs we are working on – but I guess some might not persist and others may come in as we go thru them.  We don’t currently have any gigs as a deadline, but I reckon we could muddle thru if something came in!

 

FLINGEL BUNT          Shadows

JUST ONE LOOK       Hollies

HEARTBEAT  Buddy Holly

WALK RIGHT BACK   Everly Brothers

WHEN WILL I BE LOVED       Everly Brothers

BLUE SUEDE SHOES            Elvis Presley

BEAUTIFUL BODY     Bellamy Bros

PEACEFUL EASY FEELING  Eagles

CRYSTAL CHANDELIERS     Charlie Pride

CHEATING HEART    Ray Charles

APACHE         Shadows

MOVE IT         Cliff

BE BOP A LULA         Gene Vincent

ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK           Bill Haley

THAT'S ALRIGHT MAMA       Elvis Presley

FERRY CROSS THE MERSEY          Gerry and Pacemakers

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK           Beatles

ALL SHOOK UP          Elvis Presley

SUMMERTIME BLUES           Eddie Cochrane

I BELIEVE       Bachelors

GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME  Tom Jones

           

WALK DON'T RUN     Ventures

MR TAMBOURINE MAN        Byrds

WALK IN THE ROOM Searchers

DON'T THROW YOUR LOVE AWAY Searchers

LIVING NEXT DOOR TO ALICE        Smokie

DAYDREAM BELIEVER         Monkees

FEVER            Peggy Lee

HALFWAY TO PARADISE     Billy Fury

RAINING IN MY HEART         Buddy Holly

FBI      Shadows

FOLSOM PRISON BLUES     Johnny Cash

SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL  Bill Haley

I CAN'T STOP LOVIN YOU    Ray Charles

BAD MOON RISIN      Creedence Clearwater

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES           Drifters

RUNAROUND SUE    Dion and the Belmonts

BYE BYE LOVE          Everly Brothers

GREEN DOOR           Frankie Vaughan

LOVE POTION NO 9  Searchers

WANDERER   Dion and the Belmonts

SWEET CAROLINE    Neil Diamond

WONDER OF YOU     Elvis Presley

           

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE        Jerry Lee Lewis

RIP IT UP        Little Richard

ACHEY BREAKY HEART       Billy Ray Cyrus

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY   Mavericks

PRETTY WOMAN       Roy Orbison

JAILHOUSE ROCK     Elvis Presley

SHAKING ALL OVER Johnny Kidd and Pirates

LET’S TWIST AGAIN  Chubby Checker

HI HO SILVER LINING           Jeff Beck

WIPE OUT      Surfaris

HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE            Swinging Blue Jeans

I SAW HER STANDING THERE        Beatles

LOVE IS ALL AROUND          Troggs Wet Wet

CAROLINE      Status Quo

ROUTE 66      Stones

WISHING WELL         Free

MUSTANG SALLY      Wilson Pickett

HONKY TONK WOMEN         Stones

ALL RIGHT NOW        Free

BORN TO BE WILD    Steppenwolf

JOHNNY B. GOODE  Chuck Berry

WONDERFUL TONIGHT        Eric Clapton

Friday 21st September 2012 Colorado Southern at Chatfield’s Sports Bar, Littleton Denver USA

Jacqui and I were taking a holiday in the USA and had arranged to see Dan in Denver.  Dan said “Come along to my bands gig on the 21^st “;  “Actually one of guitarists is having an operation so you might have to deputise – and its our first night with new drummer!”  We arrived in Denver on the Thursday evening.  Denver is 7 hours behind the UK so although we were tired from the journey, we woke early the next day regardless and were up and about by 9 am. After a day exploring round Parker where Dan lives,  he ran us over to the gig about 25 miles away on the South West side of Denver.  Chatsfield’s is a typical American bar with a sizeable stage (by UK standards) at the front as you come in from the car park.  Rick had already arrived with the band’s gear in his big MPV and set up was coming together.  Dan introduced me to the guys in the band: Dennis (Telecaster & Dan’s pink Strat into a Crate valve half stack), Rick (Les Paul and Fender Twin), new drummer Robert and  Larry (Strat into Marshall half stack) now recovered from his operation;  and teed me up to come and guest on ‘Johnny B Goode’ in the last set.  As the band were setting up Jacqui and I were introduced to Christy and Betsy  (Rick and Dennis’s ladies) and we all wisely elected to drink water through band set up!  Rick was also in charge of an old Peavey PA with at least 3 monitors.  Dan was soon set up and showed me his Ibanez plugged into his  Mark Bass 1x12 combo amp.  Very compact and light amp and a very good loud sound from something so small.  There was a problem with Rick’s pedal board which absorbed some time and attention.  Meanwhile Dan and Larry were having a shot of something strong so they would be tanked up and ready to go. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problem solved but sound check would now have to be minimal with a bit of adjustment on the fly!  The band opened up with “Whiskey Rock and Roller”.  Not as loud as I expected!  I suggested a few adjustments between the opening numbers.  More treble on PA,  bring up Dan’s bass and Larry’s guitar a tad and even more top on the PA.  After a bit of fiddling, they settled into a well balanced American rock groove at the right volume for the hall.  The soundscape is interesting.  Dennis has quite a toppy guitar sound (as you’d expect with a Tele).  This fits well with Ricks more middley Les Paul sound.  The new drummer in the centre sounded good and not overloud;  and then you had another contrast on the left between the trebly sound of Larry’s Strat and Dan’s deep bass to complete a full and wide soundscape.  Rick and Larry do most of the vocal duties,  with Rick focussing on rock and Larry doing the less heavy country / blues numbers.   Dan and Dennis occasionally join in on chorus’s and there are snippets of harmony, but the genre doesn’t really call for big harmony arrangements. The bar was fairly full with a mixed crowd:  some eating,  some listening and several doing bits of dancing from the off.  Good applause at the end of numbers!   

 

 

 

Jacqui, Christy,  Betsy and I had bagged a band table and we had a waitress dedicated to the band and its followers to take drinks orders.  So I started on the beer – ‘Coors Light’ the local brew.  By the third set I was sufficiently relaxed to take Ms J for a spin on the dance floor and I had another one or two after that.  By the start of the 4^th set it was getting on for 7am UK time and I was feeling a tired and just getting a bit chilly.  So when I was called up to join in an extended Johnny B Goode I was a bit taken unawares – straight off I forgot to give Jacqui the camera.  Rick kindly lent me his Les Paul (and pick).  I strapped it on;  it was quite low slung but not really polite to adjust it.  I gave it a strum and it sounded good so off went.   Dennis started and I picked up the opening riff with him.  I think I play it a bit more like the record but it didn’t sound too conflicted with two lead guitars playing slightly different lines so we pressed on.  As we got to the verse I came into some familiar territory as I heard Dan belting the vocal out,  so I put in my ‘patent’ open A with added C/G notes to the basic riff to countrify and  underpin Dennis’s playing higher up the neck. 

The low slung guitar meant I had to keep my head down so no chance to look up for band signals,  but the solo came where I expected and Dennis and I doubled and traded solos through a few 12 bars.  I thought we got it pretty good despite the booze; in fact the Les Paul played really well allowing me to try out some quite fast licks!  After a few more verses and solos it was all over. 

I handed the guitar back to Rick,  mentioning that his pick was in the strings, and strode through the crowd for a rest,  pausing to “hi five” Christy who said: “Awesome Rocking” or something similar.  Rick immediately forgot where the pick was and the intro to the next number was interesting ‘til he found it tucked in the strings.  The remainder of the set passed quickly and it was pack up time at 1am Denver US time = 8am UK time.  The band had been very well received and a couple of guys came up to buy them a round of drinks!   By the time the band got loaded and we got back to Dan’s it was approaching 3 am and we were well due a long sleep – today being another tomorrow or something like that!   Actually after that night we adjusted pretty well to US time and the rest of the trip went well.  We spent a great few days with Dan looking round Colorado,  visiting bars and quilting and guitar shops.  On the Wednesday Jacqui and I took an AMTRAK train over the Rockies to Sacramento to see the 150 year celebration of the start of the Union Pacific railroad which forged the first rail line through the Rockies.  With temperatures in the high 30’s we had a fine time in Sacramento.   Also couldn’t resist visiting Folsom Prison while we were in California.  All too soon it was over and we were back in the grey wet UK.  Well,  I have now achieved one of my ambitions - to perform in the USA!

  

The Checkmates at the big Lindfield Charity Bash

Raye had booked us up for this gig in the knowledge that Graham would be having a big operation to remove a tumour in the chest.  The operation was a big success but it was understood it would be several months before he was fully fit again.  So what was agreed was that another band “The Trojans” would be booked as well as “The Checkmates”  for a big Lindfield Charity Bash.  We would borrow the Trojans gear and each band would do 2 sets.  We were positioned as headlining so we would be on second and finish the night with the final set.   The minimum I would need is just a guitar!

On the day I packed a Bose in (just in case!) and decided to take my Roland GT10 FX,   DIgitech harmoniser and Roland GR33 synth;  oh and my Audix OM5 Mic and stand (just in case).  So the car was quite full as Jacqui and I set off about 3pm on a beautifully sunny day for Sussex.   We arrived about 5:45pm and,  ‘cos we had agreed to meet the others at 6:30pm,  Jacqui and I had a drink in the White Horse.  Its been ‘done up’ but it was a bit nostalgic ‘cos I used to take my dad in there in the 90’s.   As we came out the pub we saw Raye arrive and had just said our greetings when Graham and his missus Janice rolled up.  Superficially he looked fine,  but Janice said he had spent most of the previous day at hospital with shortness of breath.   Graham admitted he wasn’t in best shape but as a trouper he wanted to do the gig!   We wandered into the hall and met up with the Trojans.  They seemed to be led by Amanda and it was her well used Carlsbro PA that was set up for vocals. Rick the roadie showed me his Fender Chorus which he had kindly brought along specially for me to use (their guitarist and his AC30 would be heading off back to Somerset immediately after their second set).  Graham had the use of the bassists Laney stack with a 4 x 12 cab on each side of the drums.   After they had sound checked,  we plugged our gear and mics in and had a run through.  Even though I have a Fender Chorus at home, I had trouble getting a good sound out of Rick’s.  This turned out to be due to a mismatch of output settings on the GT10 and once I fixed that and pushed up the middle on the amp quite a bit,  it sounded fine.  The basic mic sound was OK and I had my own control over it from tone controls on the harmoniser.  As the stage was very busy with leads guitars mics etc,  I decided to abandon the idea of using the synth in the first set.   We sound checked with bits of “Wonder,  Blue Suede, Summertime Blues and Apache” and retired happy enough to have a beer,  a sit down and a chat with the other band.  I showed Amanda a list of songs we were going to do.  There were only a couple that were also in their set (Apache and Blue Suede Shoes) and she agreed they would avoid them. After a beer it was show time.  The gig had sold out and the hall was full!  The Trojans opened their set with a bunch of Shadows instrumentals. 

 

 

 

Good lead sound with an old Fender strat through a new AC30.  Then Amanda came on and they did a few female rocking pieces starting with Stupid Cupid. Towards the end she went on the drums and her father came out to sing a couple of classics like “Jezabel”.  We Checkmateers slinked off to the dressing room to get our outfits ready and get motivated.  We left the shirt change so we could come on the stage to re-arrange the gear.  Raye and Graham were soon ready but coming back onto the dark stage amidst a sea of wires it was a bit hit and miss for me and it took me a few minutes to get sorted.  We quickly popped back to the dressing room to don our green shirts and returned to open with “Eyes”.  The sound was a bit weak initially but we got it right towards the end of of the song.   The audience didn’t mind – they were singing along loudly and gave us a wonderful welcome!   We carried on with “Cathy’s Clown – Bye Bye Love”.  By now I had made some further adjustments to the vocal sound so we were able to carry on through the set with a tight performance,  strong vocals,  good relaxed banter and no noticeable mistakes!  Next up was “Blue Suede” which went very well and was well received.  Then we did “I Believe and Raining in My Heart” as two short slowies to get the romantics our on the dance floor.  As we came to Apache I signalled to Raye and Graham that I would be doing the Shadows walk.  I put the guitar on the edge of the stage and jumped off,  jarring my knees a little!   I put the guitar on and off we went. 

 

 

 

This was quite amusing for the audience,  but I was also able to judge the sound while I was out there – definitely brighter than on stage,  but about the right volume and mix.  As I finished I got a fantastic reception – a wonderful round of applause that made me forget about the knees.  I resumed with the boys reminding the audience that the Shads were Sir Cliffs backing band and setting off into “Move It”.  This immediately filled the floor and carrying on with “Summertime Blues” continued the dancey atmosphere.  We did “Red Sails – Them There Eyes” as two of the Checkmates hits from the 60’s and then gave Raye a drum display opportunity with “Wipe Out”  I had chosen “Make Believe” as the finisher for the set.  I checked Graham was up for it and we gave a strong closing performance of it with the audience singing along lustily.  I did miss the synth strings in this one but I don’t think anyone else was bothered.   Our finish timing was perfect for the start of the buffet and the Trojans had the great idea of playing a set of Shadows numbers as a wonderful backdrop to the meal.   After a while Amanda came on to do her bit and we retired to the dressing room to take stock.  Graham was still suffering a bit but said he would carry on - he felt worse sitting around but felt better on stage!  The Trojans finished their set and then they cleared a lot of their gear from the stage.  For this set I had to set up my mic stand  and untangling my FX pedals from the mess on stage did disrupt settings ‘cos I couldn’t get the guitar or mic to work initially.  I eventually traced the problem of the mic to the harmoniser knob which had been fully twisted clockwise to cut out the mic thru signal.  In the dark and confusion of wires I couldn’t find why the guitar was so weak, so I turned the amp up and we opened up with “Walk Don’t Run”.   We carried on with “Slow Boat” and looking around the floor I spotted the problem.  Oddly enough it was the opposite problem with the guitar – the GT10 volume had been twisted fully anti-clockwise to minimise the guitar signal.  These things happen as gear is moved around on a busy stage.  There was nothing I could do until the end of the number,  but then I was able to fix it.  So “Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” went better.  Now it was time for an abridged version of “Let There Be Drums”.  We didn’t go on the floor,  but Raye was able to satisfy some audience expectations by playing Graham’s Bass on-stage.  I messed up the count in and run up to the final section but we covered up OK and basked in the well earned applause at the end.  “Halfway to Paradise” went surprisingly well. This was a number I had been rehearsing at home and I was pleased with my vocal performance even though the audience was singing along nearly as loud as the band!   We rattled through “Saw Her Standing There” and “Shakin All Over” and then dedicated “Route 66” to Raye’s missus Val.  Coincidently it  was her 66^th birthday the next day so we did it as “Route 36”.   Next up was “American Trilogy”.  The band was a bit loose on timings but we got through it in good order with the audience singing along.  I missed the synth again but substituted a strong guitar solo for the flute bit.  We were beginning to tire a little,  but we pressed on to the big finale with “Lucky Old Sun” and Raye came out front for the big finish with “Early in the Morning”.  I set off speeding the end up a bit earlier than normal and as we got to the final beats we were racing at top speed = much faster than normal - oddly enough the audience loved it!  

 

 

We encored with “Eyes” earning more applause and shouts for more;  but we were concerned for Graham and decided to stop at 11:45pm leaving them wanting more!   All in all a great night considering the circumstances.   Pack up was easy and we did our goodbyes and got Graham off by about 12:15am.  Raye and I got off shortly after and Jacqui and I settled in for the long run home to Suffolk,  it was about 2:45 am when we got back and it took a good couple of days to recover!