Planning had been underway for nearly a year and finally the big day was
upon us. GlastonBury St Edmunds - a free
music festival to celebrate daughter Claire's BIG 30 and my own little 64! An ambitious programme was lined up.
I was a bit nervy in the morning thinking how we would get it all to work technically - let alone musically. But then I had a good conversation with Claire's boyfriend Nick on set up and mixing and confidence began to grow. Loading most of the gear into my car and some into Carl's we set off to land at the Community hall at 12:30pm. Good start - I was able to park close to the load in door. We would be setting up to the left of this door just inside the hall and we soon had all the gear in, the mains distribution laid out and the PA in place. Chris the Bass arrived next and got his Harkte stack in place including his new 1x 15" cabinet to match his existing 4 x 10". He said: "this will sound a lot better I've just read up that you shouldn't have the valve and solid state rectifiers both running together as I have been and the cabs should match the amp better". To the right of the bass stack I set up a little guitar stack consisting on my Marshall AS50D for acoustic guitar and harp and my little VOX VT 20 for other electric guitars. Nick and I requisitioned a long trestle table for the Mackie ProFX 12 PA mixer and his PC, and we set this up to the left of me so I could reach over and tweak the mixer if necessary. This area also housed my guitar synth and a Roland SPD-s pad programmed up with crowd applause, encore and laughter. It took about an hour to wire this lot up and fix any issues, during which time Chris the Drum arrived and set his kit up. I had 'borrowed' the bass drum input in the mixer for the Roland Pad, so we tried the bass drum mic into the spare channel on the bass amp. It was a bit boomy but they took it down in level until it fitted okish. We were only using the Mackie mixer and the starting point was all the inputs (mics, guitar, FX and other stuff) panned centre with Nick set to cross pan at the sound of feedback. Nick set the mics with a fair degree of "toppy presence" to cut through (instead of sheer volume). Then we started sound check. As it happens we had a reasonable flow of muso's coming and going to test it all out. The on stage sound was great where I was and I trusted Nick's opinion on front of house sound so all this passed off without much incident. It was decided to drop the bass drum mic during these checks but the kit sounded meaty enough and it wasn't Carnegie Hall! So Nick was able to put some background muzak on and I was able to join the 'meet n greet' team at about 3:15pm - only a little bit later than planned. Jacqui looked great in her white, flowery cocktail length dress with wide black waist band. Claire also looked a treat in her tiger look dress. I popped into the gents to get changed into my red shirt and on the way back took the opportunity to down a couple of lagers in preparation for a long evening singing and playing. But, I so enjoyed talking to old friends that I lost track of time and Jacqui had to remind me to get started. So I was about quarter of an hour late as I doffed my cap to open the festival as Farmer Gregory. His intro ran a bit longer than intended and finished with a cameo between Farmer Gregory, Mr Mog and Mog: with Mr Mog insisting that for "audience elf n sanity" his son Mog should open the show with something conventional. Mog finally took to the mic with his Takamine acoustic about 30 mins late to open with "America" by Paul Simon. Quite a hard song to sing and play this early on but I got through it and the audience played their part by applauding well.
Then Mr Mog came to the mic sporting a brown wig and asked pet lovers to cover their ears as he opened his set with "The Man Who Ate Cats" from the 'Bringing It All Back Up' album. I thought the Takamine sounded pretty good and I only fluffed a couple of notes in this fairly difficult to play, but mercifully short, number. Clearly there were not a lot of pet lovers there 'cos it got a surprisingly good reception. Mr Mog continued with "Nurse" from 'The Medicinal LP' co-written with his sister Gina and dedicated to Marita one of our absent friends. Again very short and well received despite the harmonically demanding ending about "enemas"!
Mr Mog concluded his set with the title song from his 1972 poperetta "The Garon's Daughter". Another hard song to play with a mix of finger style and plectrum acoustic guitar, although the vocal in this piece is easier - with some spoken words. Surprisingly this went down very well (there were actually a few in the audience who had heard the original)! Before scuttling off for well earned toilet break, Mr Mog introduced his brother-in-law Roy the Boy to do "Traintime" accompanied by Chris the Drum. This would open the jug band acousticky jam section of the festival. Roy did exactly as was asked and finished Traintime after exactly 3 minutes. He had played it really well and it sounded good to me out in the toilet and in the hall and he got a great round of applause for it. So far so good!
Back in character as Mog, I rejoined Roy to play Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma I'm only Bleeding" I had done this with Roy a couple of times in 90's at odd functions and I knew it would be OK if I could get the words out - there are a lot of them! Off we went with guitar and harmonica and I thought 'yes we do capture the sound of an aging acoustic protest duo'. We needed to make up some time but I enjoyed doing this so much that I went round the chorus twice at the end! I invited Dan to join us on bass to continue with an unplugged pre-prise of "Bilge Rat Blues". I kept it fairly low key and shortish but Roy was able to put in a couple of good harp solos. Swapping guitars I donned my usual XTSA to invite my neighbour Paul Lambillion on to stage.
We reorganised for the Foot Tappers opening the electric part of the
festival. Nigel joined me toting his
Hofner bass. Following the usual
tradition of the Foot Tappers we would have a drummer we had never worked with
before: Niece Sian's beau Joey from
Bristol - a young chap of 30 who's main thing is "thrash punk"! I had spoken to him a bit when I was last in
Bristol and clocked that he was passionate about his drumming; so I had given
him the Foot Tappers set list and offered him the Foot Tappers drum stool at
GlastonBury (St Eds). I was pleased he
agreed and having done his research he said the only one he wouldn't be able to
do was "Apache". So we agreed
to give the set a go with Chris stood by to stand in for Apache. A couple of hours previously Joey had come up
to try the kit in the sound check (way too loud I said as Chris handed him the
hot sticks!) But now it was showtime for
real! He counted us in with sticks like
a pro, cracked the snare (like the
record) and we were off into our signature song - "Foot Tapper". Joey was pretty tight and pushed us along at
the pace of the original record, no
chance for slack, easy paced, easy listening swing guitar - Nigel and I were
having to play it like the record!
Actually we did a great job, no
mistakes and all finished tightly together.
Joey had clearly done his homework.
Feeling pretty confident (and, strangely, a little detached) I announced
"Take It Easy". This would be
another test. Nigel and I hadn't played
this together for over 2 years and it is a complex song: lots of chords and harmonies; and interesting drum fills, how would it go? I started it at the right pace I thought and Joey
and Nigel piled in. Rhythmically strong,
soon we were approaching the first chorus which would test the harmonies. I switched in the harmoniser and I could hear
Nige pick a high line - Wow! it sounded ok,
even a little like the Eagles, we were
doing a good job. The next challenge
would be the solo. I was hearing the
guitar and bass quite well, I switched to clean solo on the Boss GT10 and went
for it. Fantastic - no mistakes and it
sounded good where I was. We negotiated
the final verse fitting in the Am replacement of C like the record and just had
the tricky ending with its starts and stops to get through. No need to worry; Joey got it spot on and Nige sang along
neatly through the coda - my arrangement has an abrupt end and again we all finished
together! I was relieved it had gone
well and still a bit detached (or focussed on the mission?) so I didn't
register the audience response, but from
comments received later it must have been good!
Next up was "How Long" and Nigel got straight into it with the
bass as I completed the announcement.
Joey picked up with the 16 beat hi hat rhythm and I brought the guitar
in at the right place. The vocal starts
with the chorus and I planned to go for the high line above Nigel's lead. Had a momentary glitch as I realised how high
it was but then I got into it nicely. As
we came to the verse I switched the GT10 to tremolo to give that electric piano
vibe and the song progressed neatly to the solo. I switched to sustain on the
GT10 and whisked my hand up the neck with the barest of glitches to get into
the solo which I thought I played pretty good (you always think you can do
better!). Nige brought us back into the verse with his soulful
"well----" and we soon had another song completed in very good order. I called out for Simon (niece Jo's boyfriend)
to join us on vocal for the next song "Brown Eyed Girl". He's a tall fellow and Nick popped out from
the mixer desk to set the mic height.
I announced the number and Nige opened with the bass lead in. We only played this number occasionally in the Foot Tappers and that first guitar bit is surprisingly tricky at playing speed. I ran it through a couple of times at sound check but needless to say I cocked it up sufficiently to annoy myself now we came to do it for real. Fortunately the others didn't let it phase them and once we got into the song it went pretty well. Simon sang it well. With Nige doing a good harmony line, I was a bit vague as to where to pitch my harmony in the chorus. I should have gone a bit higher for best effect, but I think we captured the flavour of the record OK. Simon got a good round of applause while I concentrated on re-arranging the band by bringing up Dan to play rhythm on the next few songs. I introduced Dan as an ex-bass/flute player in the Foot Tappers who, after he left to go to the states, continued to dep with the band occasionally on rhythm guitar when he was back in the UK. Dan and I had donned our Foot Tappers guitar print waistcoats to mark the occasion. I announced another Eagles song "Peaceful Easy Feeling". I had elected to sing lead on this and Nige and Dan would be doing Hi and Lo harmonies respectively. This is an easy paced number and Joey fitted in really well again. The harmonies went well I thought and we even got the vocal break at the end of the guitar solo with only a bit of a glitch! Next would be "Apache". We couldn't persuade Joey to busk it so I asked Chris to stand in. Dan and I were out front and there were a few squeals of surprise from ladies in the audience as we set off into the Shadows walk.
The first few bars we were well synchronised but then it went a bit awry until the bridge - where we got it together again. Not a bad sound at all out front and I think Dan and I were beginning to really enjoy it as we came to the end doing the synchronised guitar lifts we still remembered after several years! The audience loved it but Dan and I renamed it the Shadows Stumble after this performance! With Joey back on the kit it was time to do our dedication to Dave Lemmon (the main drummer and vocalist of the Foot Tappers who passed away in 2009) Dan would sing Raymond Frogatts "Somewhere Under the Sun" - always a favourite of Dave's. I explained to the audience that the band would be looking skyward from time to time to see if Dave was joining in! I started with the arpeggio sequence Nigel and I had researched extensively and off we went. Dan sang it pretty good and Nige and I worked in some good harmonies.
Dan's interpretation just does a single length guitar solo which threw me momentarily, but we didn't miss a beat and still managed to look skyward! It was time to encore with "Hippy Hippy Shake" We threw ourselves into it aggressively and for me it was like wearing a well loved pair of socks - the rhythm section of Nige and Joey sounded just the same as Nige and Greg in 2010. Nige sang it great, I ripped off a couple of passable solos and we even got a few up and dancing - a great finish for the Foot Tappers at GlastonBury St Edmunds! I congratulated Joey, Nige and Dan on a job well done and took a short break, while the stage was set up for Michele, to meet up with Jacqui to get the birthday toast lined up. As it happened, they were nowhere near ready, so I asked Michele to put the birthday / toast bit at the back of her set. She was OK with that and opened with "Summertime" accompanied by Dan on bass. This was a spectacular piece of soprano vocalisation with a 'glass shattering' high note to end, and she earned a big round of applause for it. I summoned Chris the drum and myself to join Dan and Michele for the next couple of numbers. "Brown Eyes Blue" was first. Chris and I had played this a couple of times now. At this gig I was able to concentrate on bringing in the synth strings in and leaving most of the guitar work to Michele.
I thought it worked a treat and we even got 'the leave it to Michele to sing' ending about right! We carried on with "Grandma's Feather Bed". I struggled a little to remember the banjo type intro but got it out good enough to get us underway. Then it fairly bowled along. Michele did a couple of verses then Dan sang his verse strongly and we all got in an exclaimed "Ooh" to his cousin Lou line! Pretty professional I thought; then unprofessionally missed the next banjo break 'cos I wasn't focussed! The impromptu backing band came off the stage at this point and grabbed a glass of Cava. Michele did her Marilyn Munro "Happy Birthday Mr President" breathy vocal spoof and then she kindly took on the responsibility to do the toast to the birthday people: Claire and Adrian. It went very well and Claire, Jacqui and I were so pleased. No time to relax though I had to get ReTrio up and running, so it was back to the stage for me!
The changes between numbers were very slick. We had maintained a relatively low key crowd interest throughout but that was about to change. Next up was "Wipe Out"; Raye really threw himself into this and amazed drummers half his age by playing this at a rip roaring pace. We got a well deserved round of applause for it. We did our usual dedication of "Route 66" to Val and played that pretty energetically as well. I thought I got a good solo going in this, the finger lock had gone and we had pushed the volume up a bit. Then it was time for "Let There Be Drums". Off we went into another voyage of discovery with this piece - different every time! We got through to the breaks in tight, good order and had clearly captured the audience's attention with our energetic start. After the breaks Raye put in the bit of playing the bass with his sticks; this night sitting on the kit to do it while I shifted the large tom and cymbal to the dance area. I came back and edged Raye off the kit and took up a rim shot type rhythm while Raye clambered over the bags we used to separate audience from band to get to the tom. He took his time getting ready and I was able to indulge in a bit of cymbal bashing before he took over. Then it was out to the front for another variation on the drum routine. Graham called the scenes. We were a little ragged as we did 'rim hits, heads and sticks'; we circled the tom as though we had had one too many, but we all made the last hit tightly together and Graham and I departed back to our guitars while Raye carried on with his tom routine. Very rarely does Raye count us back in, but this night he did - and did it well! So I was able to bring in the guitar run ups in good time and we all had a glitch free play through the last verse to a slightly shortened ending. This left Raye plenty of time to bounce his stick off the floor; which he did second time (I think he teases the audience), to finish to a great roar of appreciation from the stunned onlookers. On a normal night that would be the end of our set, but tonight we were continuing. Raye, moving very quickly for a chap in his eighties, got the tom and cymbal back to the kit as Graham and I opened up with the slow intro to "Make Believe".
I had visualised us playing this as big showpiece number and we slowly built it up with strings and harmony to the big ending I was hoping for. Poor Graham - it was a big load to take on this song after the year he has had; but he delivered and we a got a good response for it. Before the applause died down, we started "Lucky Old Sun". This went OK but it is not as big a number as "Make Believe". Graham wisely shortened it and, as we finished, Graham and I took it straight into the gospelly type intro of "Early In The Morning" while Raye nimbly shifted his snare and a cymbal out front. Graham kept this short as well going straight into the final verse after the first bridge. I led the boys into the speed up in the coda and, as we approached warp speed, we brought it to the big finish. Once again we got a big round of applause for what I thought was a tight set considering we hadn't played together for nearly a year.
Band line up is now confirmed.
The opening act starts at 4pm on the Moreton Hall Stage - so don't be
late!
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GLASTONBURY
ST EDMUNDS 2013 - BIG 30 LITTLE 64
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BURY ST EDMUNDS MORETON HALL COMMUNITY CENTRE
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29
Jun 2013
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Guests Arriving from
15:00
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RUNNING ORDER
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Military
Time
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Duration
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Item
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Stage
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16:00
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00:05
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Festival Welcome by Farmer Gregory
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16:05
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00:10
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Mr MOG - Kicks off the Live Show
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Moreton
Hall Stage
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16:15
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00:25
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Scratch Acoustic Session
featuring: Roy the Boy, Dan the Man, Mog the Dog and a possible mystery guest??
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Moreton
Hall Stage
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16:40
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00:25
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The Foot Tappers - famous for frequent
East Anglian appearances in the 21st Century.
Plus Special Guests!!
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The
Social Club Stage
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17:05
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00:30
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DJ Nick on the decks
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17:35
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00:10
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Michele Summers, (star of radio, screen and
stage) sings - maybe with some weird?? accompaniment
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The
Variety Theatre
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17:45
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00:30
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ReTrio the new retro trio of Bury St Eds
play a set including some more strange and interesting guests?!
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The
Social Club Stage
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18:15
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00:25
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BUFFET Served
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18:40
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00:20
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Abbie sings some country accompanied by ReTrio
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Moreton
Hall Stage
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19:00
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00:10
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DJ Nick on the decks
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19:10
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00:40
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The CHECKMATES - headlining the festival as they commence their 54th Anniversary
Tour
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The
London Palladium
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19:50
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00:15
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DJ Nick on the decks
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20:05
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00:10
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Witchcraft - White boys from Lincoln
meddle in female magic in the late 60's and conjure up a rare form of the
blues called the pinks !?
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A
Back Alley near the venue
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20:15
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00:40
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ReTrio the retro trio of Bury St Eds
play another set - hoping to get it right this time? Plus some even more strange and interesting
guests?!
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The
Social Club Stage
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20:55
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00:25
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The Massed Bilge Band return after 18 years off the road (Is it really that long?)
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Moreton
Hall Stage
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21:20
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00:05
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Festival close by Farmer Gregory and daughter
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Moreton
Hall Stage
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21:25
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01:30
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DJ Nick on the late night disco for those who aren't ready for cocoa
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I was a bit nervy in the morning thinking how we would get it all to work technically - let alone musically. But then I had a good conversation with Claire's boyfriend Nick on set up and mixing and confidence began to grow. Loading most of the gear into my car and some into Carl's we set off to land at the Community hall at 12:30pm. Good start - I was able to park close to the load in door. We would be setting up to the left of this door just inside the hall and we soon had all the gear in, the mains distribution laid out and the PA in place. Chris the Bass arrived next and got his Harkte stack in place including his new 1x 15" cabinet to match his existing 4 x 10". He said: "this will sound a lot better I've just read up that you shouldn't have the valve and solid state rectifiers both running together as I have been and the cabs should match the amp better". To the right of the bass stack I set up a little guitar stack consisting on my Marshall AS50D for acoustic guitar and harp and my little VOX VT 20 for other electric guitars. Nick and I requisitioned a long trestle table for the Mackie ProFX 12 PA mixer and his PC, and we set this up to the left of me so I could reach over and tweak the mixer if necessary. This area also housed my guitar synth and a Roland SPD-s pad programmed up with crowd applause, encore and laughter. It took about an hour to wire this lot up and fix any issues, during which time Chris the Drum arrived and set his kit up. I had 'borrowed' the bass drum input in the mixer for the Roland Pad, so we tried the bass drum mic into the spare channel on the bass amp. It was a bit boomy but they took it down in level until it fitted okish. We were only using the Mackie mixer and the starting point was all the inputs (mics, guitar, FX and other stuff) panned centre with Nick set to cross pan at the sound of feedback. Nick set the mics with a fair degree of "toppy presence" to cut through (instead of sheer volume). Then we started sound check. As it happens we had a reasonable flow of muso's coming and going to test it all out. The on stage sound was great where I was and I trusted Nick's opinion on front of house sound so all this passed off without much incident. It was decided to drop the bass drum mic during these checks but the kit sounded meaty enough and it wasn't Carnegie Hall! So Nick was able to put some background muzak on and I was able to join the 'meet n greet' team at about 3:15pm - only a little bit later than planned. Jacqui looked great in her white, flowery cocktail length dress with wide black waist band. Claire also looked a treat in her tiger look dress. I popped into the gents to get changed into my red shirt and on the way back took the opportunity to down a couple of lagers in preparation for a long evening singing and playing. But, I so enjoyed talking to old friends that I lost track of time and Jacqui had to remind me to get started. So I was about quarter of an hour late as I doffed my cap to open the festival as Farmer Gregory. His intro ran a bit longer than intended and finished with a cameo between Farmer Gregory, Mr Mog and Mog: with Mr Mog insisting that for "audience elf n sanity" his son Mog should open the show with something conventional. Mog finally took to the mic with his Takamine acoustic about 30 mins late to open with "America" by Paul Simon. Quite a hard song to sing and play this early on but I got through it and the audience played their part by applauding well.
Then Mr Mog came to the mic sporting a brown wig and asked pet lovers to cover their ears as he opened his set with "The Man Who Ate Cats" from the 'Bringing It All Back Up' album. I thought the Takamine sounded pretty good and I only fluffed a couple of notes in this fairly difficult to play, but mercifully short, number. Clearly there were not a lot of pet lovers there 'cos it got a surprisingly good reception. Mr Mog continued with "Nurse" from 'The Medicinal LP' co-written with his sister Gina and dedicated to Marita one of our absent friends. Again very short and well received despite the harmonically demanding ending about "enemas"!
Mr Mog concluded his set with the title song from his 1972 poperetta "The Garon's Daughter". Another hard song to play with a mix of finger style and plectrum acoustic guitar, although the vocal in this piece is easier - with some spoken words. Surprisingly this went down very well (there were actually a few in the audience who had heard the original)! Before scuttling off for well earned toilet break, Mr Mog introduced his brother-in-law Roy the Boy to do "Traintime" accompanied by Chris the Drum. This would open the jug band acousticky jam section of the festival. Roy did exactly as was asked and finished Traintime after exactly 3 minutes. He had played it really well and it sounded good to me out in the toilet and in the hall and he got a great round of applause for it. So far so good!
Back in character as Mog, I rejoined Roy to play Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma I'm only Bleeding" I had done this with Roy a couple of times in 90's at odd functions and I knew it would be OK if I could get the words out - there are a lot of them! Off we went with guitar and harmonica and I thought 'yes we do capture the sound of an aging acoustic protest duo'. We needed to make up some time but I enjoyed doing this so much that I went round the chorus twice at the end! I invited Dan to join us on bass to continue with an unplugged pre-prise of "Bilge Rat Blues". I kept it fairly low key and shortish but Roy was able to put in a couple of good harp solos. Swapping guitars I donned my usual XTSA to invite my neighbour Paul Lambillion on to stage.
I spent a few minutes explaining how
we found we had similar musical backgrounds,
then discovered we were related and amazingly found out we were
identical twins, what better reason for
us to do a number by some similar singing siblings - 'The Beverley
Sisters'? So switching on the tremelo FX
to give the authentic first chord, we embarked on "Dream" by the
Every Brothers. Paul and I had had a run through during the week and I thought
we did this well. With quietish drums I could
hear the vocals very clearly - I was doing the high line quite softly and
despite us being twins there was a different spaced quality to the voices that
I thought made for an interesting interpretation. Paul was relieved to finish his first number
I think! We reformed on stage, with Dan
taking centre stage with the Takamine, I
switched to my trusty (if somewhat beat up) 1962 Fender Precision Bass and Roy
took to his cajon (for its first public airing). We were quickly set up to do "Fog on the
Tyne".
This would be one of several
numbers in this night that had not been played before as an ensemble at
all. I had written out the arrangement
and sent it to Dan and Roy: we had all done a bit of home practice and now we
were going to do it for real for the first time - no pressure then! Dan was confident on his bit but I was
surprised by his addition of the intro to each verse. Now this is like the
record but for some reason I hadn't clocked it when I wrote the arrangement
out. There was a barely noticeable
glitch by me as I followed on bass. Actually, I quite liked the sound of our
little jug band. Dan sang it better than
I've heard him sing before and we got the harmonies on the chorus working
well. Roy wisely elected to stick on
cajon rather than try to play harp to the instrumental section. I took the liberty of speaking the chord
changes in this bit to make sure Dan and I were on the 'same page'. For the final verse Dan played it without an
added intro and we all finished together feeling good about it! Then Dan swapped to his Warwick bass, Roy
stayed on cajon and I switched back to my XTSA to perform that 'written for a festival'
classic: "GlastonBury St Edmunds" (nee Woodstock). This is quite vocally demanding but I was
warmed up now and off we went. I was
very impressed by this band. I was quite
familiar with the song, but Dan and Roy
fitted in just great. My vocal sounded
fine and the combination of me, harmoniser and Dan (singing a bass line) on the
chorus sounded just great. Roy was able
to depart for the final number of this set.
This would be a recreation of The Crestas in 1965. Err well!
just two of them, 'cos it would
be just me and Dan doing the first "complex number" we learned
together. We performed it first for his mum in
1965 and she liked it and encouraged us to carry on with the group. I announced we would be playing
"Midnight" with just the two guitars pretty much as we did in his
mum's front room nearly 50 years ago.
Dan took up my Levinson Blade Stratalike while I got Nick to switch on
the Shads preset sound on the VOX VT20.
We played this sweetly and that concluded the acousticky juggy
unpluggerty session. Cue Nick onto
background music.
I announced the number and Nige opened with the bass lead in. We only played this number occasionally in the Foot Tappers and that first guitar bit is surprisingly tricky at playing speed. I ran it through a couple of times at sound check but needless to say I cocked it up sufficiently to annoy myself now we came to do it for real. Fortunately the others didn't let it phase them and once we got into the song it went pretty well. Simon sang it well. With Nige doing a good harmony line, I was a bit vague as to where to pitch my harmony in the chorus. I should have gone a bit higher for best effect, but I think we captured the flavour of the record OK. Simon got a good round of applause while I concentrated on re-arranging the band by bringing up Dan to play rhythm on the next few songs. I introduced Dan as an ex-bass/flute player in the Foot Tappers who, after he left to go to the states, continued to dep with the band occasionally on rhythm guitar when he was back in the UK. Dan and I had donned our Foot Tappers guitar print waistcoats to mark the occasion. I announced another Eagles song "Peaceful Easy Feeling". I had elected to sing lead on this and Nige and Dan would be doing Hi and Lo harmonies respectively. This is an easy paced number and Joey fitted in really well again. The harmonies went well I thought and we even got the vocal break at the end of the guitar solo with only a bit of a glitch! Next would be "Apache". We couldn't persuade Joey to busk it so I asked Chris to stand in. Dan and I were out front and there were a few squeals of surprise from ladies in the audience as we set off into the Shadows walk.
The first few bars we were well synchronised but then it went a bit awry until the bridge - where we got it together again. Not a bad sound at all out front and I think Dan and I were beginning to really enjoy it as we came to the end doing the synchronised guitar lifts we still remembered after several years! The audience loved it but Dan and I renamed it the Shadows Stumble after this performance! With Joey back on the kit it was time to do our dedication to Dave Lemmon (the main drummer and vocalist of the Foot Tappers who passed away in 2009) Dan would sing Raymond Frogatts "Somewhere Under the Sun" - always a favourite of Dave's. I explained to the audience that the band would be looking skyward from time to time to see if Dave was joining in! I started with the arpeggio sequence Nigel and I had researched extensively and off we went. Dan sang it pretty good and Nige and I worked in some good harmonies.
Dan's interpretation just does a single length guitar solo which threw me momentarily, but we didn't miss a beat and still managed to look skyward! It was time to encore with "Hippy Hippy Shake" We threw ourselves into it aggressively and for me it was like wearing a well loved pair of socks - the rhythm section of Nige and Joey sounded just the same as Nige and Greg in 2010. Nige sang it great, I ripped off a couple of passable solos and we even got a few up and dancing - a great finish for the Foot Tappers at GlastonBury St Edmunds! I congratulated Joey, Nige and Dan on a job well done and took a short break, while the stage was set up for Michele, to meet up with Jacqui to get the birthday toast lined up. As it happened, they were nowhere near ready, so I asked Michele to put the birthday / toast bit at the back of her set. She was OK with that and opened with "Summertime" accompanied by Dan on bass. This was a spectacular piece of soprano vocalisation with a 'glass shattering' high note to end, and she earned a big round of applause for it. I summoned Chris the drum and myself to join Dan and Michele for the next couple of numbers. "Brown Eyes Blue" was first. Chris and I had played this a couple of times now. At this gig I was able to concentrate on bringing in the synth strings in and leaving most of the guitar work to Michele.
I thought it worked a treat and we even got 'the leave it to Michele to sing' ending about right! We carried on with "Grandma's Feather Bed". I struggled a little to remember the banjo type intro but got it out good enough to get us underway. Then it fairly bowled along. Michele did a couple of verses then Dan sang his verse strongly and we all got in an exclaimed "Ooh" to his cousin Lou line! Pretty professional I thought; then unprofessionally missed the next banjo break 'cos I wasn't focussed! The impromptu backing band came off the stage at this point and grabbed a glass of Cava. Michele did her Marilyn Munro "Happy Birthday Mr President" breathy vocal spoof and then she kindly took on the responsibility to do the toast to the birthday people: Claire and Adrian. It went very well and Claire, Jacqui and I were so pleased. No time to relax though I had to get ReTrio up and running, so it was back to the stage for me!
As I got the two Chris's up to play,
I let them know I would be dropping a couple of numbers to gain some
time back, but we would start with the
usual two. And, like wearing a well
loved vest, there were no problems as we
played through "Flingel Bunt".
"Just One Look" followed,
I had a bit of trouble getting the harmoniser level right but we got
through OK. I skipped "Heartbeat
and asked Paul Lambillion back on to stage to duet as the Beverley Sisters
again with "Walk Right Back". I
found this a little tricky to sing the high line because I'm so used to singing
lead on this, but we got through the
first verse in good order. I skipped the
solo (as is usual nowadays) and nodded Paul straight into the second verse and
then we were on the home straight into the ending and, with a good audience
response, another success was chalked up!
Time for some rock n roll. We opened up with "Rock Around The
Clock" and a few folks got up to dance,
so I carried on straight into "Summertime Blues" and a few
more came up to dance. Pushing my luck
we went into "Move It" and still they kept dancing, so I finished the sequence with "All
Shook Up" well satisfied with our continuity. I had developed a bit of cramp in my left
index finger (this early in the night?) and tried to shake it out as I
announced Chris the Drum to come out front and sing "Delilah". Actually he got a great response, quite a few were singing along (I could even
hear Michele doing a fine soprano from the back of the hall). At the end
Jacqui gave me the nod that the buffet was ready, so I announced that it was time to for food
and that I would serenade the orderly queue for the buffet with a vocal that
would test me (and them?) to the limit: "Nights in White Satin" -
featuring Dan on flute! I was strangely
relaxed as I opened up with an acousticky sound on the XTSA. The band joined in and we got through the
first verse in good order. Now for the
hard part - the chorus! I just went for
it vocally adding a touch of harmoniser and synth strings, and Dan backed up on
the flute just as he did in the Foot Tappers several years ago, so we got through it well I thought. Into the second verse I added more strings
and I thought that sounded pretty good.
But I thought the best bit was the solo.
The flute on a 450mS echo backed by the strings and arpeggio guitar over
a sparse rhythm section sounded gorgeous.
Chris the bass and Dan were a little shaken by the quick C chord link
back into the chorus (as per the record chaps!) but we brought the final chorus
to a rousing climax and got a rousing cheer from the queue at the buffet. Risky, but it had gone as well as I could
possibly have hoped. I was able to take
a short break to loosen my locked finger and work the crowd a bit, but I stuck to lager shandy to be on the safe
side.
We hadn't caught up much time so I got Abbie and ReTrio on fairly
quickly and we opened with her usual: "Good Girls Gonna Go Bad". Abbie sounded pretty good to me and I thought
we got the harmony balance a bit better for her third time out with the
band. (I had found singing under her on
the chorus a little more difficult that my usual high line harmonies, but I thought we were beginning to gel
nicely) She got a great reception.
We went straight on into "Blanket on the Ground" and then slowed things up with "Sober" from Little Big Town. This song is quite subtle and Abbie is still gelling her vocal with the band; but we are getting there!
Next up was "Valerie" by Amy Winehouse. Just announcing it livened up the young bunch of Claire's revelling friends over on stage right! The two Chris's opened up with a lively 'Bo Diddley Beat' and Abbie came in confidently for a few bars before I brought the guitar in. She sings this just great and it shows off the potential of her voice. Despite trying to pay attention Chris the bass and I messed up the tricky transition from verse 2 to 3 (the natural temptation is to go into the chorus and we did it for a couple of beats!?!). Not enough to break down though. You could see quite of few of the younger lot over on the right swaying along and even dancing a bit; and we got a great round of applause as we finished this great sounding, rhythmic and certainly the most modern song of the night! (I would really like Abbie to do more of this as a foil to her country stuff - which I like as well, but you blogateers know what I mean......) Abbie finished off with "Country Roads" getting a good reception from the crowd who had appreciated the change from just 'old boys' playing guitar!
Nick took over on the decks as I quickly mustered the
"Checkmates" - I took a few minutes break in the disabled toilet to
change my shirt and let go some of the now processed lager. I had sounded out Graham to help me out on this
gig by doing all the lead vocals in the spot and he had kindly offered to keep
Raye amused as well and; as it turned
out, to take the responsibility to stage
manage and lead the band on the night.
Not bad for a chap who has been through the massive cancer challenge he had, and well appreciated by myself. Raye had brought his own snare drum (as
drummers do) and set about putting that in place whilst Graham lugged my old
Fender Precision on to his shoulders.
Actually it looks just the same as his - except the neck is more warped! Before you could say 'Checkmates', Raye
counted us in and we were off into "Eyes". No problem playing with these guys, it's just like wearing a favourite pair of
underpants; you can do it blindfold err?!
We played through the selection of Checkmates hits I had lined up, following up "Eyes" with "Slow
Boat, Red Sails (nearly forgot to do the solo), Mona Lisa, Wonder Who's
Kissing". Graham did skip the
beginning to this but Raye and I followed seamlessly! We followed up with "I Believe"
which I know has some poignancy for Graham - I thought we did it pretty
well. 
We went straight on into "Blanket on the Ground" and then slowed things up with "Sober" from Little Big Town. This song is quite subtle and Abbie is still gelling her vocal with the band; but we are getting there!
Next up was "Valerie" by Amy Winehouse. Just announcing it livened up the young bunch of Claire's revelling friends over on stage right! The two Chris's opened up with a lively 'Bo Diddley Beat' and Abbie came in confidently for a few bars before I brought the guitar in. She sings this just great and it shows off the potential of her voice. Despite trying to pay attention Chris the bass and I messed up the tricky transition from verse 2 to 3 (the natural temptation is to go into the chorus and we did it for a couple of beats!?!). Not enough to break down though. You could see quite of few of the younger lot over on the right swaying along and even dancing a bit; and we got a great round of applause as we finished this great sounding, rhythmic and certainly the most modern song of the night! (I would really like Abbie to do more of this as a foil to her country stuff - which I like as well, but you blogateers know what I mean......) Abbie finished off with "Country Roads" getting a good reception from the crowd who had appreciated the change from just 'old boys' playing guitar!
The changes between numbers were very slick. We had maintained a relatively low key crowd interest throughout but that was about to change. Next up was "Wipe Out"; Raye really threw himself into this and amazed drummers half his age by playing this at a rip roaring pace. We got a well deserved round of applause for it. We did our usual dedication of "Route 66" to Val and played that pretty energetically as well. I thought I got a good solo going in this, the finger lock had gone and we had pushed the volume up a bit. Then it was time for "Let There Be Drums". Off we went into another voyage of discovery with this piece - different every time! We got through to the breaks in tight, good order and had clearly captured the audience's attention with our energetic start. After the breaks Raye put in the bit of playing the bass with his sticks; this night sitting on the kit to do it while I shifted the large tom and cymbal to the dance area. I came back and edged Raye off the kit and took up a rim shot type rhythm while Raye clambered over the bags we used to separate audience from band to get to the tom. He took his time getting ready and I was able to indulge in a bit of cymbal bashing before he took over. Then it was out to the front for another variation on the drum routine. Graham called the scenes. We were a little ragged as we did 'rim hits, heads and sticks'; we circled the tom as though we had had one too many, but we all made the last hit tightly together and Graham and I departed back to our guitars while Raye carried on with his tom routine. Very rarely does Raye count us back in, but this night he did - and did it well! So I was able to bring in the guitar run ups in good time and we all had a glitch free play through the last verse to a slightly shortened ending. This left Raye plenty of time to bounce his stick off the floor; which he did second time (I think he teases the audience), to finish to a great roar of appreciation from the stunned onlookers. On a normal night that would be the end of our set, but tonight we were continuing. Raye, moving very quickly for a chap in his eighties, got the tom and cymbal back to the kit as Graham and I opened up with the slow intro to "Make Believe".
I had visualised us playing this as big showpiece number and we slowly built it up with strings and harmony to the big ending I was hoping for. Poor Graham - it was a big load to take on this song after the year he has had; but he delivered and we a got a good response for it. Before the applause died down, we started "Lucky Old Sun". This went OK but it is not as big a number as "Make Believe". Graham wisely shortened it and, as we finished, Graham and I took it straight into the gospelly type intro of "Early In The Morning" while Raye nimbly shifted his snare and a cymbal out front. Graham kept this short as well going straight into the final verse after the first bridge. I led the boys into the speed up in the coda and, as we approached warp speed, we brought it to the big finish. Once again we got a big round of applause for what I thought was a tight set considering we hadn't played together for nearly a year.
Nick had the 'decks' on while we re-arranged for Witchcraft. Alan Clark on guitar was a bit nervous to say
the least - having not played the two songs I had lined up for him since
1968. In fact he had only bought a
guitar in the last 6 months (about the time I persuaded him to do this spot). He showed me his new instrument - a nice dark
blue Epiphone copy of a Gibson ES335. Alan was about the only person in Lincoln
in the mid 60's to own a real Gibson ES335 and consequently he had the nickname
Gibbo at the time! In those days I was on bass,
playing an Epiphone Rivoli. Alan and
I played together in the Drive and Banana Tree Band playing pop, and Witchcraft
playing blues. We ran into an immediate
problem on this night though - his guitar was over a semi-tone flat from
concert pitch. I'd plugged him into the
VOX VT20 with a nice crunch sound preset and despite my best attempts I could
not get the (cheap'n'quirky) built in tuner to even register where this guitar
was pitched. In the end I took it over
to my guitar station, plugged it into
the GT10 FX unit and tuned it there. Alan was a bit agitated all through this which
didn't help but as soon as it was tuned I got him plugged back into the VT20
and he noodled away while I got my Precision Bass strapped on. I had coerced Chris the drum to join in and
play the two songs that would represent the Witchcraft era and, in theory, all three of us had had plenty of time to home
practice the song arrangements I had put in place. But we had never played together before - so
this would be interesting. It was
getting dark by now and the stage lights cast an eerie 'magical' glow on the
band as we got ready for lift off. After a last check all was well on the mics
and guitars, Alan opened up with the riff to "Sunshine Of Your
Love".
The guitar sounded pretty good and fairly loud considering it was such a small amp and I felt quite at home joining in on the bass. I had played that Precision Bass a lot in the 70's and my hands just fell into place so naturally - it was like being in a time warp. I could hear that Chris the drum had done his homework as we pounded out the riff up to the start of the vocal. Then, considering he hadn't sang for a while, Alan's vocal was a surprise: in tune, maybe lacking 'gravel' a bit, but certainly good enough for a pub gig! We played through the arrangement and I joined in the harmony on the last 'sunshine of your lo---ve' of the bridge before we took on the solo. Again I was surprised: the start of the solo was like the Cream version, maybe the timing was a bit jerky but quite a good take off - Alan had also done his homework! I pounded out the bass line good and loud to keep us to the arrangement and then we were cruising through the final verse and bridge finishing like the record on an extended: 'sunshine of your lo-----ve'. Wow - we had done it! I was so relieved that I didn't clock the audience response, but I heard later it had been well received by an increasingly well oiled crowd. No time to relax though. I brought Roy the Boy up to join us on "Spoonful".
We were having a bit of trouble with the harmonica mic but Roy wisely elected to use a vocal mic for harp for this number. Again we got off to a good start. I thought the mix of a sparse bass and guitar with the harp worked well. Chris fitted in real good on the drums and I thought we created quite a bluesy feel.
Alan's vocal was a bit weirder this time, more shouty? But I could make out enough of the words to know where we were in the song. I was having a lot of fun playing bass variations on the Em riff - the trick on bass is to keep it sparse but with big impact on the root, flattened third and dominant notes. We deliberately avoided a 'freak out' guitar solo that we conjured up in the 60's and we kept it bluesy and quite short compared to the 30+ minute versions we used to do. Somehow we negotiated an ending between the three of us and the Witchcraft reincarnation was complete - to a suitably un-restrained audience response.
ReTrio came back together for a set. We opened with a couple featuring Simon on Vocal and Roy on harmonica. I confused Roy by shouting the wrong key for "Folsom Prison" but as we started he soon worked it out and was blowing away like that 'train coming round the bend'. I got the guitar solo well enough and Roy got in the 'lonesome whistle' atmosphere, Simon was happy with the vocal and we finished to a good round of applause from country blues fans - there were a few! We carried on quickly with "That's Aright Mama", Roy adding some harp to the usual Elvis arrangement. I wanted to do a Beatle song and chose "Eight Days A Week" to follow. Next up would be "American Trilogy". I thought it would be good to get Graham up to sing this and I put him on the spot a bit - but he agreed to give it a go if I could provide words; which I had cunningly line up! We did a pretty good version considering and it got a very good response from the audience.
I carried on with "Sweet Jacqueline" dedicated to Jacqui, who was suitable surprised when I announced she doesn't normally get a song dedicated, but I was going to break that duck tonight! For the most part I remembered to sing 'Jacqueline' to replace 'Caroline' and it went well, with quite a few people joining in. Trying to pull some time back I skipped to "Hi Ho" - too unsophisticated for this audience I think! But I was now set to call Johnny B Goode - bringing Paul L up to sing his final number for the night. We did a pretty good job of it, got some folks up dancing and finished to good applause. ReTrio's second (curtailed set) had been a success.
I took a few minutes off to work the room. People seemed amazed by my stamina, but I was actually starting to wilt; so I gathered Dan to assemble the last act: The Massed Bilge Band. First we got Chris the drum up and then I beckoned Jack Hale over. Jack was our trusty road manager in the 1970's but now he is a University professor. I had recalled he had a bit of musical form in that he could play cello and, interestingly, he now sings in a choir! Dan had borrowed Chris's 4 string G&L Telecaster bass for this section and was familiar with what was about to take place. Jack had heard what we were about to play a couple of times many years ago; but I took a full minute to brief him on what was required from the choir. Chris I hoped would just follow - probably suitably bemused by what was happening? Ready for the off: Dan opened with the bass run up, I came in on guitar and we all sang the vocal to the chorus as we delivered a rare performance of "Sing Something Complex" (a parody of "Sing Something Simple").
Jack's main role was to lead the humming under my spoken lines of 'welcome to sing something complex - half an hour's entertainment of a baffling and complex nature that you won't be able to follow or understand......'. It all worked a treat and we finished in good order with a harmonised 'we'll sing something complex for you; some-thing fo-r you---' It was great to do it again after the last performance 40 years ago. Moving on we quickly got Roy and Alan up for the massed "Bilge Rat Blues" (the electric reprise of the acoustic song we had done a few hours earlier). This was relatively low key compared to the performance we had put up at our silver wedding anniversary in 1995; but we all got little bits in and it pootled along quite pleasantly for a blues! I knew Roy was still having trouble with the harp mic. I found out later that Nick had declared himself 'too drunk' to fix it! But Roy ended up using a vocal mic to good enough effect for backing. I think it lacked power for a solo, so we had to try and lower the band for his bits.
I think many in the audience would have been bemused by our performing this 'not very interesting' sailors blues song but it has been traditional jamming fare for most of us ex-Lincoln musos since the mid 60's! Now for something more exciting! I was born on the 7th day of the 7th month nearly 64 years ago. Enough of an excuse to do "Hoochie Coochie Man! We brought SImon up to sing it. The boys in the band had all been briefed several weeks previously and done bits of practice at home so I led them straight into it with the famous Claptonesque riff. Actually it went very well: Simon got his vocal timing right (he had been worried), Alan got some B B Kingish riffs in, I got in a cracking solo, Roy was still struggling with volume but kept the backing suitably bluesy. It went so well I motioned to SImon to go round again! We rallied to a finish and some good applause.
The guitar sounded pretty good and fairly loud considering it was such a small amp and I felt quite at home joining in on the bass. I had played that Precision Bass a lot in the 70's and my hands just fell into place so naturally - it was like being in a time warp. I could hear that Chris the drum had done his homework as we pounded out the riff up to the start of the vocal. Then, considering he hadn't sang for a while, Alan's vocal was a surprise: in tune, maybe lacking 'gravel' a bit, but certainly good enough for a pub gig! We played through the arrangement and I joined in the harmony on the last 'sunshine of your lo---ve' of the bridge before we took on the solo. Again I was surprised: the start of the solo was like the Cream version, maybe the timing was a bit jerky but quite a good take off - Alan had also done his homework! I pounded out the bass line good and loud to keep us to the arrangement and then we were cruising through the final verse and bridge finishing like the record on an extended: 'sunshine of your lo-----ve'. Wow - we had done it! I was so relieved that I didn't clock the audience response, but I heard later it had been well received by an increasingly well oiled crowd. No time to relax though. I brought Roy the Boy up to join us on "Spoonful".
We were having a bit of trouble with the harmonica mic but Roy wisely elected to use a vocal mic for harp for this number. Again we got off to a good start. I thought the mix of a sparse bass and guitar with the harp worked well. Chris fitted in real good on the drums and I thought we created quite a bluesy feel.
Alan's vocal was a bit weirder this time, more shouty? But I could make out enough of the words to know where we were in the song. I was having a lot of fun playing bass variations on the Em riff - the trick on bass is to keep it sparse but with big impact on the root, flattened third and dominant notes. We deliberately avoided a 'freak out' guitar solo that we conjured up in the 60's and we kept it bluesy and quite short compared to the 30+ minute versions we used to do. Somehow we negotiated an ending between the three of us and the Witchcraft reincarnation was complete - to a suitably un-restrained audience response.
ReTrio came back together for a set. We opened with a couple featuring Simon on Vocal and Roy on harmonica. I confused Roy by shouting the wrong key for "Folsom Prison" but as we started he soon worked it out and was blowing away like that 'train coming round the bend'. I got the guitar solo well enough and Roy got in the 'lonesome whistle' atmosphere, Simon was happy with the vocal and we finished to a good round of applause from country blues fans - there were a few! We carried on quickly with "That's Aright Mama", Roy adding some harp to the usual Elvis arrangement. I wanted to do a Beatle song and chose "Eight Days A Week" to follow. Next up would be "American Trilogy". I thought it would be good to get Graham up to sing this and I put him on the spot a bit - but he agreed to give it a go if I could provide words; which I had cunningly line up! We did a pretty good version considering and it got a very good response from the audience.
I carried on with "Sweet Jacqueline" dedicated to Jacqui, who was suitable surprised when I announced she doesn't normally get a song dedicated, but I was going to break that duck tonight! For the most part I remembered to sing 'Jacqueline' to replace 'Caroline' and it went well, with quite a few people joining in. Trying to pull some time back I skipped to "Hi Ho" - too unsophisticated for this audience I think! But I was now set to call Johnny B Goode - bringing Paul L up to sing his final number for the night. We did a pretty good job of it, got some folks up dancing and finished to good applause. ReTrio's second (curtailed set) had been a success.
I took a few minutes off to work the room. People seemed amazed by my stamina, but I was actually starting to wilt; so I gathered Dan to assemble the last act: The Massed Bilge Band. First we got Chris the drum up and then I beckoned Jack Hale over. Jack was our trusty road manager in the 1970's but now he is a University professor. I had recalled he had a bit of musical form in that he could play cello and, interestingly, he now sings in a choir! Dan had borrowed Chris's 4 string G&L Telecaster bass for this section and was familiar with what was about to take place. Jack had heard what we were about to play a couple of times many years ago; but I took a full minute to brief him on what was required from the choir. Chris I hoped would just follow - probably suitably bemused by what was happening? Ready for the off: Dan opened with the bass run up, I came in on guitar and we all sang the vocal to the chorus as we delivered a rare performance of "Sing Something Complex" (a parody of "Sing Something Simple").
Jack's main role was to lead the humming under my spoken lines of 'welcome to sing something complex - half an hour's entertainment of a baffling and complex nature that you won't be able to follow or understand......'. It all worked a treat and we finished in good order with a harmonised 'we'll sing something complex for you; some-thing fo-r you---' It was great to do it again after the last performance 40 years ago. Moving on we quickly got Roy and Alan up for the massed "Bilge Rat Blues" (the electric reprise of the acoustic song we had done a few hours earlier). This was relatively low key compared to the performance we had put up at our silver wedding anniversary in 1995; but we all got little bits in and it pootled along quite pleasantly for a blues! I knew Roy was still having trouble with the harp mic. I found out later that Nick had declared himself 'too drunk' to fix it! But Roy ended up using a vocal mic to good enough effect for backing. I think it lacked power for a solo, so we had to try and lower the band for his bits.
I think many in the audience would have been bemused by our performing this 'not very interesting' sailors blues song but it has been traditional jamming fare for most of us ex-Lincoln musos since the mid 60's! Now for something more exciting! I was born on the 7th day of the 7th month nearly 64 years ago. Enough of an excuse to do "Hoochie Coochie Man! We brought SImon up to sing it. The boys in the band had all been briefed several weeks previously and done bits of practice at home so I led them straight into it with the famous Claptonesque riff. Actually it went very well: Simon got his vocal timing right (he had been worried), Alan got some B B Kingish riffs in, I got in a cracking solo, Roy was still struggling with volume but kept the backing suitably bluesy. It went so well I motioned to SImon to go round again! We rallied to a finish and some good applause.
It was now time for the finale:
two numbers none of us had played before but that were very appropriate
for the occasion. First I had to get
Raye and Graham up for the rhythm section.
I motioned to Raye to come up but couldn't see Graham? But looking again - there was a strange bloke
in a blue Sergeant Pepper suit sat at their table. It was Graham!?
I nearly fell over laughing as he came up with a dead pan air to play bass on "Now I'm 64"' my take off' of 'When I'm 64'. Dan was ready to play flute, Roy would do a bit of harp, Raye on the drums - we were all set. I counted us in and Dan and I played the intro in unison, the rhythm section hung together and we were off. It sounds easy but this is a complex song and it went much better than I could have hoped, As planned, at the end I did a guitar solo around the tune and motioned to Dan and Roy "did they want one?" They wisely declined (it is quite tricky) and we brought the song to a close with a repeat of the intro - great work chaps! And the audience were into it as well, quite a few were now in the 'mosh pit' encouraging us and singing along. I was tired but elated as I announced the last number (no encores please) asking the audience to sing along with "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life". I had seen a production of Spamalot in Florida in January and so enjoyed their rendition I worked it into our play list for GlastonBury St Edmunds. I was going to follow the Pythons version very closely - even the spoken bits and Eric Idle's London accent. And so it turned out! I opened up with the tacet intro, the band joined in on the first chorus, the audience, scenting the end was nigh, gathered and started singing along - marvellous!
We got through the main song in good order and negotiated the key change towards the end with a prompt from me in the form of finger up and shouted 'A' and then we were into the outro choruses. I even did the Eric Idle spoken joke: "Come from nothing, go to nothing, what you got to lose - nothing!" We finished on a rallied "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" to loud applause - one of the best endings of my career. It was about 10pm as I unstrapped my guitar. I had been performing for over 5 hours and it was 10 hours since I became active loading the car; so I motioned Claire over to lead the 'festival closure' bit.
She had had a drink or three but did a fantastic job thanking the crowd for coming and their great support; and thanking mum and dad for being such great parents and hosting the event. Nick murmured - "a very professional radio announcement Claire!" I waved my thanks asked Nick to take over as DJ and strode manfully over to Jacqui to give her a hug. Quite a few people popped over to congratulate me on the epic performance and many of them got me a beer so I was getting really happy. As Nick wound up the volume on the disco (those Bose's can go really loud), the younger group gathered on the dance floor and we oldies gravitated toward the bar area. Nick worked it really well: with clever DJ announcements, smoke and lights and a great track selection that even the oldies could relate to. Despite enjoying his drinks quite a bit, he had done a great job throughout the event on minimal briefing. The evening wound to a close around 11:30pm but for many the partying would continue at the Quality Hotel. We broke the gear down and stored it in the committee room and walked slowly home - leaving the car and gear load until the next day! What a night - we were well pleased it had gone so well.
I nearly fell over laughing as he came up with a dead pan air to play bass on "Now I'm 64"' my take off' of 'When I'm 64'. Dan was ready to play flute, Roy would do a bit of harp, Raye on the drums - we were all set. I counted us in and Dan and I played the intro in unison, the rhythm section hung together and we were off. It sounds easy but this is a complex song and it went much better than I could have hoped, As planned, at the end I did a guitar solo around the tune and motioned to Dan and Roy "did they want one?" They wisely declined (it is quite tricky) and we brought the song to a close with a repeat of the intro - great work chaps! And the audience were into it as well, quite a few were now in the 'mosh pit' encouraging us and singing along. I was tired but elated as I announced the last number (no encores please) asking the audience to sing along with "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life". I had seen a production of Spamalot in Florida in January and so enjoyed their rendition I worked it into our play list for GlastonBury St Edmunds. I was going to follow the Pythons version very closely - even the spoken bits and Eric Idle's London accent. And so it turned out! I opened up with the tacet intro, the band joined in on the first chorus, the audience, scenting the end was nigh, gathered and started singing along - marvellous!
We got through the main song in good order and negotiated the key change towards the end with a prompt from me in the form of finger up and shouted 'A' and then we were into the outro choruses. I even did the Eric Idle spoken joke: "Come from nothing, go to nothing, what you got to lose - nothing!" We finished on a rallied "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" to loud applause - one of the best endings of my career. It was about 10pm as I unstrapped my guitar. I had been performing for over 5 hours and it was 10 hours since I became active loading the car; so I motioned Claire over to lead the 'festival closure' bit.
She had had a drink or three but did a fantastic job thanking the crowd for coming and their great support; and thanking mum and dad for being such great parents and hosting the event. Nick murmured - "a very professional radio announcement Claire!" I waved my thanks asked Nick to take over as DJ and strode manfully over to Jacqui to give her a hug. Quite a few people popped over to congratulate me on the epic performance and many of them got me a beer so I was getting really happy. As Nick wound up the volume on the disco (those Bose's can go really loud), the younger group gathered on the dance floor and we oldies gravitated toward the bar area. Nick worked it really well: with clever DJ announcements, smoke and lights and a great track selection that even the oldies could relate to. Despite enjoying his drinks quite a bit, he had done a great job throughout the event on minimal briefing. The evening wound to a close around 11:30pm but for many the partying would continue at the Quality Hotel. We broke the gear down and stored it in the committee room and walked slowly home - leaving the car and gear load until the next day! What a night - we were well pleased it had gone so well.
I woke next morning to find the garden full of Claire's friends enjoying
a bacon butty breakfast after their hotel check out. Here I was presented with more pressys. At mid-day we had a gear picking up party,
then it was off to "The Pickerel" at Ixworth for Sunday lunch. What a weekend!
Thanks so much for coming to GlastonBury St
Edmunds and making it a success - we couldn't have done it without you!
Best wishes Jacqui &;
Adrian
(aka Mog)
Guitar, Vocals; a Founder Member of
the Foot Tappers & ReTrio
and an Occasional Member of The Checkmates (formerly with Emile Ford)
