ReTrio at The Victoria Thurston

Another pub gig!  I was still suffering from the cold I had picked up and, if anything, it was worse on the chest than the previous week.  Ms J decided to accompany me and we set off at 6:30pm arriving 10 minutes later at the pub to find Chris the drum already loaded in and setting up. A brighter pub but a bit less room than last week.  Chris the bass arrived and we left Chris the drum to get on with it while we got some beers in.  As soon as Chris finished we moved in to set up.  I was a bit squashed on the left and had to face playing slightly side on to avoid hitting the wall with my guitar head.  We sound checked with "Smilin" and got a little round of applause - so I took the view it must sound alright. We had a few of our supporters there: band wives,  Trudy's mum and Les from the previous gig. 

Soon it was 8:30 and we strode up to play.  Immediate problem! No sound from the bass amp.  We faffed around trying to fix it but in the end I plugged Chris into the bass drum input on the mixer - everything would now be through the single Bose!  A kind chap in the crowd volunteered to fetch his Yamaha combo from the village while we got underway.  Once we got started we were obviously well rattled because the first few numbers were fraught with errors;  fortunately non fatal. The bass coming out the Bose was too loud for me and I had trouble hearing vocals.  But we soldiered on getting a reasonable response to our first set considering.  In the break Chris plugged into the loaned combo.  It wasn't that powerful but had a single 15 so it was deep.  I should have brought down the Bose to compensate a bit,  but I wasn't thinking straight.  Jacqui said the sound in the first set out front was OK and I should stop fretting!

We got underway for Set 2.  The bass was a bit lost in the mix now but we were playing better and we got better response generally and a really big round of applause for "Delilah"  which I had announced as sing-a-long:  and the pub crowd certainly did!  We were still making some unforced errors but when I apologised for the ragged performance it was clear no one out front had noticed - so I stopped apologising.  We finished with "Wonder of You" but I couldn't sustain the last note on the vocal and chickened out to a short "You--" this time.

 

We played much the same 3rd set as the previous week,  but I added "Dance the Night Away" as second number.  We hadn't done this for several weeks and I messed up the solo - I sort of scrunched fingers to get through it;  but made a note to relearn it so the fingers could do the walkin' even if the brain went AWOL.  Actually, I blame a lot of my problems on the night on the cold which, apart from the sore throat,  seemed to be reducing brain activity to an even lower level than normal.  I decided to skip "Trilogy" 'cos the vocal would be too hard going.  Good job I did,  'cos when I switched in strings for "Sweet Caroline" they weren't there - another gremlin had struck!  So we stuck to rockier stuff through right though to the encore with "Born to be Wild".  This swung well enough but wasn't cooking like the previous week;  however, the ending was cleaner.  We were pleased to have got through.  Strangely, the landlord was very pleased and people were pretty complimentary on our show - so we must be covering the mistakes up well.  We got packed up and away fairly quick and I was at home with a cocoa by 12:30am. 

Next day Chris took his amp into Sounds Plus for repair,  but bought an  Ashdown ABM500 head anyway.  He says he'll keep the Harkte as a spare if it can be fixed.  I couldn't replicate the absence of strings problem so it remains 'fault not found';  I wonder if low voltage at this rural venue might have affected the synth?

ReTrio at The Railway Tavern Elmswell

We'd had a few weeks off with various of us on holidays and, unfortunately, I had picked up a cold during the previous week on my family holiday in Penistone.  But it wasn't too bad and I had a plan B to play a few 12 bars if the voice was badly shot. A pleasant evening weatherwise as I drove over to Elmswell to find the pub on School Lane - despite the name not that near the railway?  Chris the Drum was just parking up and Trudy had recovered sufficiently from her back and knee injury to come out without crutches.  The bar lady opened up the front doors for us saying (ominously) they normally keep them closed so the bar staff can see who is coming into the pub - a good view via the side entrance!  Chris the bass arrived about then with bruv-in-law Richard assisting.  I was only using the one Bose for this gig so we soon had the gear in.  Not a lot of room for us all to work on setting up, so Chris suggested he would set up his new (vintage Pearl) kit first and then we could fit in around.  Actually once set up there was a reasonable amount of room for a trio and we soon had it all up and running. 

 

Couple of technical points to note: 

1.  I was now running background music in mono into one side of the 'tape in' on the mixer to avoid losing one side of the stereo which noticeably affected some of the background tracks when we only used one Bose. 
2.  The guitar was panned hard right from a previous gig and by setting it centre it seemed to clear a problem of 'dry joint' fade out I experienced at the last gig. 
3.  I reset levels into the FX unit to avoid that overload distortion also experienced at the previous gig.  

Feedback was quite a problem as I set levels but eventually I got a workable balance between brightness and volume and we ran through a new number:  "When My Little Girl Is Smiling"  (inspired by the Motives and Paul Carrack; a song I was also introducing into the Checkmates show because Raye DuVal had played it in Jimmy Justices' band in 1962)  This song is quite short but neatly tests out harmoniser and strings as well as the band.  It was quite a dry sound in the low ceilinged pub but good enough for rock n roll as they say.

 

 
We had a couple of beers and the boys got changed into our pub rock outfits;  white tees and black waistcoats - me,  I had arrived in my gear rightly fearing a toilet change.  Actually by the time we were ready to go at 8:30pm there were quite few in including several of Chris the drum's mates close to the band, some couples and family groups at tables and a well filled bar area looking into the performance room.  We opened up with the usual three and got used to the sound.  Chris's new kit sounded great - tighter snare and much fuller sound overall than the Hohner he had been using.  I was happy with the guitar and bass sound,  but just needed to fiddle with the vocal sound to avoid a dose of feedback.  While I was at the mixer I upped the echo a little to deal with the dry room sound.  So by the 4th number  I was reasonably happy with the sound and bantering away efficiently.  I announced our debut of "When My Little Girl Is Smiling".  Although it's medium paced I set the vocal on big echo and despite getting some words wrong I thought it sounded good and we got a good round of applause for it.  We continued with another newie: "Groovy Kind of Love"  which has same vocal echo -  and, riskily, a guitar solo with key change in the middle.  We negotiated that alright but again I got some of the words the wrong way round.   OK for a first outing though - I was quite pleased.  Next we did a bit of country:  opening with Chris the drum singing "Crystal Chandeliers".  He did a good job this time and my harmony on the chorus worked well.  We followed with "Ring of Fire" which also went well and got a good round of applause.  Thinking it was a country crowd I called for "Guitars Cadillacs".  This was a mistake because it is sung quite high and I found it hard to get strength into the vocal with the remnants of my cold hanging around.  I decided to cut it short and the guys followed my change nicely.  Next up was "Ferry Cross the Mersey" and that went fine and was a good link into "Eight Days a Week" which the band played well I thought.  We now switched to rock n roll with "Blue Suede,  Runaround Sue and All Shook"  No dancing yet but people seemed to be shuffling in their chairs and were generally enthusiastic.  I finished with "Green Grass" which they sang along with nicely and gave it a good response.  An OK set 1 I thought.

We started set 2 with "Apache" a tad slow in my opinion and I tried to push it along a bit. No room for a 'walk' but the audience seemed to like it.  Next we did the couple of 60s songs: "Tambourine Man Walk In Room".  These always go down well and this gig was no exception.  I think the echo guitar sound sells it.  Then we got Chris to stand up and sing "Delilah". He couldn't get out from behind the kit so had to stand there.  A lot of people in the pub were singing along and he got a particularly great reception from the table of mates in the performance room.  We planned to follow up with "Quando Quando Quando" in the same format and we got underway in the key of G as we had practiced.  Oh dear - a problem?  Chris seemed to be singing in an unrelated key.  We struggled on but never got it quite right so we will have to re-visit that song.  Oddly enough it went down well enough - maybe people assumed it was karaoke performance?  We followed up with "Daydream Believer" which also got them singing along and then "Bad Moon Rising" which I dedicated to a family group who had requested "Another Brick in the Wall".  Sadly I had had to turn this request down,  but I did warn them not to let their children out tonight - it being a full moon and all;  hence "Bad Moon".

The next few songs were standard rock n roll fare and well received - we even got a bit of dancing going.  We concluded that section with "Rock Around The Clock"  This song is becoming a problem.  My dodgy throat was tested by singing this in A.  Now A is a great key for guitar but E would be better vocally.  So I might try it in E next time and hope the solos are playable!  As we finished a slightly ragged version of "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow"  Chris the bass signalled last number.  As soon as I announced it was by Elvis people started to get in the mood,  and as we started they recognised it straight away and sang along lustily - "The Wonder of You".  In fact they were singing so loud I was able to easily chicken out of the last high phrase.    We got a really great reception for this and as the applause continued it gave me time to swap the MP3 player because the one plugged in had just run out of battery!  The background music started up with "Sherrie" from "Seasons of Gold" based on a disco beat;  and a couple of our follower ladies immediately shouted they loved that and started dancing on the table - or was it the seats?  Anyway they were loving the retro sounds and I made a mental note to maybe revive a version of it for the band!

We came back on for set 3.  I cocked up the opener "Great Balls" because I forgot to switch the mics on.  Doh! - we had to start again.  Then we played through our usual set 3 list (skipping "Dance the Night Away").  Good reception with singing and dancing all the way through.  I managed to run "Saturday Night at the Movies into Come on Over to My Place" successfully,  but Chris on the bass is still not sure where the subsequent semitone key change comes so I'll have to watch that.  Despite the dodgy voice we got through "American Trilogy" in good order and got a fantastic reception for it.  Running up to the end of the night I called "Johnny B Goode" as the last number and kept it fairly short so we could do an encore.  And for the encore we did "Born to be Wild".  This went really well,  the band was cooking like an express train (if you pardon my mixed metaphor). I was really pleased with the raunchy guitar sound and when we got to the solo I switched in chorus echo for the high bit just before the drum break - it worked perfectly and hopefully astounded the audience!  Chris the drum still needs to work out his 3 beat break at the end of the solo but we all got back in together and after the final section we improvised a bit of a 'freak out' to say goodnight and finish on a high.  A lot of folks came up at the end with positive comments so we were well pleased as we packed up. Chris was dead chuffed with the Pearl kit which we all thought sounded a lot fuller and better quality than the Hohner. It was a bit misty outside as we loaded;  but it was only a 15 minute drive home.  I got in about 12:40am and I needed some cocoa to calm down after that show!

ReTrio at the Greyhound Bury St Eds

Well what a surprise to be playing this local pub.  Claire had worked here as a barmaid in the early 21st century,  but it had been completely remodelled since then to move the bar from the middle to the East end of the pub.  Clearance of some old settees meant that there was room at the West end for a band to play.  Not as tight a fit as the Tollgate but still quite cosy for a three piece that has to leave access to the cellar!  Mind you they had a 5 piece: "Five Ska" earlier in the month and they fitted in apparently.   Chris the Drum had talked us up to get the gig. On the day I parked round the back and introduced myself to Phil the manager.  He showed me some rickety power points and as soon as I plugged my circuit breaker in it tripped the power -  I got Phil to fix it as the others arrived.  I advised Chris the bass to use the high socket on his side for the lights but I would run the rest off the TV socket I had just got fixed.  Set up went OK. Chris had fitted the new ReTrio logo to his kit and it looked great.  Too bad it came unstuck towards the end of the night - but it is definitely the way to go for a retro band.

I was just using just one Bose and,  although it looked tight, there was about 4 inches clearance from the ceiling.  Had a bit of trouble with the mixer cutting out on the guitar channel,  but a burst of high volume seemed to clear it - mental note to get the Line 6 mixer working as soon as possible!  Chris the Drum went out to listen to the basic band sound and reported it as too toppy.  Well it was set very toppy at the previous gig so it was no big deal to bring that down a bit and restore some of the bass.  Be good when we do get to use the Line 6 mixer 'cos it can record 30 seconds of the band doing the soundcheck.  You can then set that to repeat as you walk round the hall making adjustments on your iPad! Anyway I left our background musak playing and had a walk round.  The sound didn't carry as well in volume as it usually does to the back,  but it remained very clear.  I settled down for a beer just as Jacqui and Bridget arrived.  Trudy had hurt her back so she was having a night in.  Abbie is going to take some life time out and go travelling so it's unlikely she will be singing with us for quite a while.  I already had my white tee shirt and black trousers on so it only remained for me to slip on my waistcoat and shiny shoes and I was set. I did a bit of glad handing and explained the sort of stuff we do to an interested couple. There were about 30 in the pub and maybe 20 in the courtyard as we gathered for a start about 8:15pm and opened up with "Flingel Bunt" which got a good reception.  After "Just One Look,  Heartbeat and Beautiful Body" I skipped the softer stuff and cracked on with the rock n roll.  We were going down pretty well but there were a couple in their 20s who were rather drunk and dancing dangerously near the band.  We kept them going until they needed another drink and I think he was sent home?  I did a bit of a Shads Walk to "Apache" which got a great reception.  I slipped in a new fast country song we had tried out in the week:  "Guitars Cadillacs".  It went pretty well for a first outing.  It is quite demanding for me playing the solos, singing lead, switching harmoniser - all at quite a pace,  but I managed it and it went down as well as the other stuff.

Continuing the country feel we brought "Ring of Fire" into set 1 and signed off with "Green Green Grass".  I was pretty happy with the set performance and bantering but the sound wasn't great in my opinion,  so I made a few small adjustments to increase middle push on vocals and guitar in the break.  Jacqui and Bridget had decided to pop off home - it was a bit too Saturday night pub atmosphere for them!  We resumed for set 2 with the 60's sounds: "Tambourine Man, Eight Days and Walk In the Room".  Then I introduced Chris to do Delilah.  He couldn't get out though; so he had to do it on the kit.  Actually the audience loved it and sang along lustily.  That set the pattern for the rest of the night - we either had them rocking or singing along!  It began to dawn on me that the poor vocal sound was due to a miss match in levels into the Vocal 300 echo unit.  Couldn't deal with it on the night,  but made a mental note to fix it for the next gig.  We finished the set with my rendition of "Wonder of You".  I had put a lot of effort into working this up during the week and was confident of all but the final "Wonder of You---" line.  Elvis takes it up an octave.  It is well within my range but it is quite demanding to do it powerfully as chest voice.  Actually it played out well - we had the audience participating strongly and so many joined in at the end that I could really go for my vocal knowing it would be one amongst many.  I got it good enough,  but there is room to improve!  We took a short break then regrouped for set 3.  So far we had done 2 x 45 and this one we planned to do a bit longer.  So we played through the list with no skipped songs.  There is lot of sing-a-long in there and we were going down well with an increasingly well lubricated crowd.  We reached the usual high point with "American Trilogy" and after a request for "F B I" approached the end with a medley of "Hey Baby - Hi Ho"  In the week I told the boys we would drop "The Twist" and replace it with "Hippy Hippy Shake" and then we would do "All Right Now" which I would announce as the last number.  And that's how it panned out.  We got the shouts for more and encored with "Johnny B Goode and Wonderful Tonight" to finish on a high from a pretty good night's performance despite a slightly rough sound. The set had lasted an hour. I was due to make an early start to Bristol the next morning so I set about pack up with gusto,  but I was quite knackered by the time we loaded the last few bits in.  Still it was only a 5 minute run home!  We made it to Bristol OK and I had an enjoyable afternoon at the Festival at St Michael's Hill accompanied by several lagers!!

ReTrio at the Tollgate

Chris the Drum had secured this first pub gig for the band.  I walked the 2 miles to it on the Thursday evening to survey it.  One of the bar girls showed me round. When it is very warm the bands play on the patio;  but there is no cover so you have to be certain it will not rain.  Normally the bands play tucked into a corner of the main bar.  There looked to be enough room for a trio so I was happy enough to order another half pint before I marched the 2 miles home.  Come the night Carl was over and offered to help load in.  We did squeeze into the corner but on my side we had to keep a clear space for people to move between bars (and the fire exit).  This made it a very tight squeeze and I had to place some of my FX pedals in between some of the drum hardware and hope to get my foot through the forest of stands to switch the echo or harmoniser!  Abbie was taking some time out, so it would be just the band which made it easier.  Sound check revealed quite a bassy sound;  I had to push the top up quite a bit on the equalisers - I even pushed up the final slider on the graphic equaliser a bit.  We changed into tees and waistcoats and opened up with our usual sequence. Although the pub was half empty we got good applause from the beginning and soon had some banter going.  Chris Drum had expressed an interest in singing "Crystal Chandelier",  so I put him on the spot and said 'give it a go and I'll do a harmony on the chorus'.  Well he got off to a strange rhythm and could only remember one verse.  Then he put me on the spot calling for a solo.  We did finish together - 'it will be alright next time' I said encouragingly and he said 'he would do his homework on the words etc'.  We carried on through a typical 3 sets playing to an attentive audience and in the last set working up some banter with some chaps enjoying their beer.  They asked for F B I and as we played it they danced up to the bar marching in time with the music, then ordering beers while marching on the spot.  Most enjoyable for the band to see and quite original in my experience!  They started to sing a long with the last few songs and then requested a Kylie song.  I shoulda done "Locomotion" but didn't think quick.  So we did Kylie's version of "Hey Baby" instead!  We finished with "Johnny B Goode" getting a raucous response with shouts for more.  But we were under orders to finish at 11 so declined the encore.  Not a bad night.  Our entourage reported it as the best sounding, most upbeat performance yet and the management were very pleased.  He is only trying out live music though and isn't sure if he can make it pay.  Nevertheless we hope to get booked back.  Short journey home and a quiet rest of the weekend to look forward to.

ReTrio at Tolly Fest Bury St Edmunds Charity Do

Tolly Fest runs for 2 days on the sports field at the Sugar Factory Social to raise funds for charities.  ReTrio had been booked to follow the Funky Voices Choir who opened the festival on the Sunday.  Our 90 minute spot would be at 1:30pm.  We arrived at noon on a sunny day and got ushered down the band entrance to park behind the trailer parked on the sports field that was the stage for the day.   The 50 strong choir were massing as we unloaded and they started their set on the grass in front of the stage as we manhandled our back line up onto the trailer.  We didn't have a lot to set up - I was using my Mesa Lonestar,   Chris had his Harkte stack and Chris had his usual kit.   I was going to operate without a music stand and the PA guys would look after everything else.   So after about 20 minutes  we were set and could retire for a beer while the choir continued their show. They do some nice songs I particularly liked their version of "Mr Blue Sky".   Jacqui and her friend Sue arrived and I set them up in a sunny spot at the edge of the field. 

  
The two Chris's entourage had also gathered so there were possibly a hundred people spread out across the site as the choir finished their spot.  We went up to sound check about 12:50pm.  The PA guys miked the Mesa up (SM57 to edge of the speaker) and DI'd Chris's bass.  The kit was miked up with 2 AKG C1000 overhead and a proper bass drum mic.  As soon as I got the Mesa powered up I realised there was a problem with hum.  It was some kind of earth hum that became very intrusive if I took my hands off the strings.  I briefly considered switching to the spare Fender Ultimate Chorus I'd brought along,  but I (wrongly) concluded it was the diesel generator power supply that was at fault.  The guys on the mixer indicated they could filter the worst out so - carry on!  The sound guys were very efficient on the sound check doing sound for each member of the band in about 5 minutes in total.  I ended up with quite a powerful sound on my guitar with the Mesa volume set to half and some coming back through the monitors.  With hindsight I should have taken the Mesa down to third volume and pushed it up on the guitar a bit more,  but 'hey ho'.  I asked for a bit more top on the SM58 vocal mic and that seemed nice and strong as well - so we were ready to rock!  We went to the back of the cars for a wee in the bushes and to get changed into the white Tees with black waistcoats. Climbing back on the trailer we took our positions and the sound man said it was all ours for 90 minutes.  I started with a big "Helloooo Tolly Fest" and introduced the band and our chosen charity - cancer research.  Then it was over to Chris to start "Flingel Bunt" and we were away.  With a powerful sound we rocked a bit harder than usual and when I followed up with a vocal with "Heartbeat" we kept it faster and rockier than our usual easy listening feel. 

 

 

We were getting applause from the field but the audience were very distant so it was hard to judge how we were doing.   We ploughed on with a variety of country,  rock n roll and the odd ballad,  they all got applause but the closest to dancing was a bit of drunken swaying near the club room bar!  Playing a bit faster in the dry air I found a couple of the solos a bit tricky to bash out - I made a few ad lib easings to get by but nothing the crowd would notice.  After an hour I called a short toilet break and we took to the bushes.  Coming back from the hedge I bumped into Jacqui who had popped over to report that the sound was very good and the band was playing well.  So we clambered back enthusiastically to do the final 30 minutes.  I opened with "Great Balls of Fire" and kept it rocking.  I was quite enjoying the singing role and, taking advantage of the relaxed atmosphere, I gave it my best shot!  With 10 minutes to go I called for "American Trilogy".  We had talked about doing this without special effects and we were up for it.  I opened up with the guitar.  The vocal sounded strong and we took it through at a steady pace without any significant mistakes.  I switched the guitar echo on for the solo and kept it on for the big ending crescendo.  The last couple of lines are demanding to sing but I was pitching it OK and I went for the high chest voice on the last line.  I could hold the final note for four bars but then ran out of puff.  As I backed away from the mic I was feeling faint from the exertion and a recent drop in fitness (hadn't played squash for a month);  but I dipped my head as we finished the song and recovered slowly taking my time announcing "All Right Now" as our last number.  Considering we hadn't done this for a while it went very well,  I had to improvise some of the solo that I had forgotten but the crowd seems to like it and we actually had a few up and dancing.  We finished to some applause and then it was pack the gear up and clear the stage for the next band "The Keepers". 

They were an interesting band with a young drummer and bass player led by a 30 something guy on acoustic guitar and vocals.  They also had a young lady on acoustic guitar who looked new to the set up.  The drummer sometimes played cajon and it was good to hear one miked up out front.  They did a varied set of covers and own penned songs which I found pleasant listening on a sunny afternoon armed with a beer.  We stayed for the next band as well - standard vintage rock with a 30 something female singer.  Jacqui being supportively biased said we did "Alright Now" better!  We left the field about 5:30pm to set off home - a good day out for ReTrio and its supporters.

 

 

ReTrio + Abbie at Lawshall Village Hall - Macmillan Charity Dance

We had agreed to meet at the 'Macebearer' car park at 4:40pm with Chris the drum tasked to lead us to this charity dance at Lawshall Village Hall.  It was a nice warm day and we met up on time.  Chris the drum was accompanied by an injured Trudy.  She had had a fall in the week and exacerbated a knee injury so she was toting crutches!  We headed south towards Sudbury and then west into the country.  It seemed to take ages to find Lawshall itself,  but we were heartened by signs up in the village promoting the dance and eventually rolled up to a deserted village hall a couple of minutes late.  We were just setting up a call to see when we would be let in when a car arrived with the daughter and granddaughter of Jeanette (the promoter) and they soon had the doors open for an easy load in to the adjacent stage.  Its a fairly high stage and,  once cleared of kids playthings, there was plenty of room for the band to set up.  I could see the stage area would act as a box with curtains absorbing sound at the edge;  which usually makes for a loud sound on stage but weak out front.  But I decided to put the Bose at the back anyway and see how it went.  We soon had the gear set up and running. I left the mix pretty much as per the previous gig.  On my side I actually had a good bit of room to perform in but our set up had crowded Chris the bass's side of the stage a little.  However,  we did manage to fit Abbie's mic in amongst all the lights on Chris's side - so we were all set for a sound check. Just then Jacqui arrived with Bridget and Abbie (and Abbie's brother Lewis) - so now we could get on with the sound check proper;  which went surprisingly well.    The box effects weren't too bad and despite the limited line of sight from the Bose on Chris's side the sound out front was reported as good. I put the background musak on about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and looked round.  Wow - the hall was filling up already!  Time for me to get the beers in for charity?  We had a room to the back of the kitchen to get changed.  With it being warm we dropped the ties and got ready to open in our usual white shirts and waistcoats. At 8:30 we took to the stage to open with our usual sequence. 

All sounded fine and we were getting a good response from the off.  We even had some dancing going as we got into rock'n'roll mid way through the set. 

We finished with a really good audience response to the two Tom Jones numbers: "Delilah and Green Grass",  so we were happy and relaxed for once as we left the stage to replenish our glasses.  Fifteen minutes off then we changed to the red shirts for the second set and opened with a request for "Apache",  I couldn't get off the stage to do the 'walk' but the chap who asked for it (and his mates) was most appreciative anyway.   We carried on with "Eight Days a Week and Walk In the Room"  which went really well. 

 I was very happy with my guitar sound and quite happy with my vocal sound so all was building well.  I called for "Mr Tambourine Man" as another 60's number to do before we brought Abbie on.  Unfortunately, Chris the bass lost his way in his music book and I had to start without him.  He eventually gave up looking and tried to play from memory with mixed success - oh dear!  But the audience didn't seem to mind:  they got up and danced and gave it a good round of applause (I just love country village dances!)   I looked round to see Abbie was ready.  She had alternative stage wear on tonight:  a black dress with a denimy embroidered jacket - looking good!  We had agreed to play Abbie on with "Wildwood Flower".  Starting it fast playing through a few bars and then slowing down as she came to the mic. Then I go straight into the opening riff of "Good Girls Gonna Go Bad"  On the night it worked really well and we were soon rattling through Abbie's mini set of 5 numbers. She got a great reception and I got in a good banter line about the audience must be very familiar with country roads so we would finish with "Country Roads" dedicated to tractors and single track roads everywhere - or something like that!  We played Abbie off with "Wildwood Flower" as well;  although Chris the bass had to remind me!  Then us boys in ReTrio carried on with our second set getting a good response and increasing dancing for pretty much everything we did. As we were close to time for the raffle I chose to finish with "Do You Wanna Dance" on this occasion.  After the raffle we only had about half an hour to play.  During the break Chris the bass had asked if Abbie's brother Lewis could come up and sing "Achey Breakey Heart".  "Yes" I said "we will open with it!"   I got it started on guitar and Chris bass was busy prompting Lewis so it took a while to get the rest of the band going. Although he didn't know too many verses, Lewis did a good job singin it.  I was able to work in some good harmonies with the harmoniser;  and it went down great with the crowd who were amazed to see live karaoke on display.  I just picked and mixed the next few numbers;  the crowd were dancing and singing along and even we in the band were having a great time.  I called "Hi Ho" as our last number and we had a lot of shouts for more,  so we were set to finish with "Johnny B Goode"  This night I asked Abbie to come up and sing it with us.  I did the first verse then she took over and it went really well. She can sing quite low for a girl and the key of A was just fine. Our solos and outroductions are still a bit ragged but we are getting better.  We finished on a high on this night - a good job well done chaps!  Pack up took a while as we dealt with a few enquiries (hopefully these will turn into bookings);  but we were on the way home by midnight getting in about halfpast feeling well satisfied with the best performance so far with this band.

ReTrio + Abbie at Sugar Beet Factory Social Club

We had been booked to play a caravan rally social night;  they were parked in the grounds of the Sugar Factory Social Club.  I drove the quarter of a mile or so over to the club at just after 6pm to find Chris's the drum & bass already there with the side load in doors open.  I surprised to see a stage there and even more surprised to see a hi-tech back drop behind the stage.  It is a big room and there were lots of tables set out either side slightly swept back and leaving a big area in the middle for dancing.  Setting up the gear up was straightforward physically,  but it took me a while to get the Mackie mixer back to my normal settings after Nicks foray the previous week. Set up also took a bit longer 'cos Nick had kindly unplugged many of the leads I normally leave plugged into the devices to save time - but 'hey ho' it exercises the connections (and the brain).   I had decided to stick to my Shure Beta 58 for this gig,  and I had put all the mic heads through the dishwasher in the week to freshen them up after GlastonBury St Edmunds.  Once running I decided to stick to centre panning as we had not suffered any strange effects so far,  but I also retained Nick's concept of added top presence which I think suits the Mackie - although the equalisers don't handle the high frequencies as smoothly as the Bose or Line 6 mixers?  Tonight I was using my birthday Godin XTSA Koa for the first time.  It looks gorgeous, plays great and sounds very similar to the old red one i.e. just what I like.  Everything else sound checked OK,  so I nipped home to pick up Jacqui and, with others arriving, we soon had a table of band relatives and supporters filled up! With everything in place and background music on,  I was soon nursing a beer on a warm and pleasant evening.   We had the luxury of a big changing room and put on our white shirts with waistcoats to start.  The place was surprisingly full as we took to the stage at 8:30pm and opened with the usual sequence. 

It sounded good,  we were getting applause from the off,  but no dancing and the band seemed a little nervy - maybe being that bit distant from the audience?  We soldiered on through a standard first set.  I couldn't work out why they weren't dancing as we tried rock'n'roll,  pop,  country even some slowies.  But they seemed attentive and were applauding everything so I knew we were connecting with them.  As we came to the end of the set,  I brought Chris out to sing "Delilah".  He was able to take the mic onto the floor.  Amazingly, some people came up to dance to this waltz!  We also had quite a few singing along and we got a great reception as we finished.  Telling the audience we now had the measure of them I announced "Green Green Grass of Home" as the last number of the set and we got a similar response with dancing and applause.  We had a 20 minute break,  changed into the red shirts and then ReTrio resumed with a little 60's sequence with "Eight Days a Week, Walk in the Room and Mr Tambourine Man".  These all went down well but we didn't get much dancing again. 

Now it was time to bring Abbie up.  She had decided to drop "Pontoon" from her set but we opened with the usual "Good Girls Gonna Go Bad".  This went well and she got a good round of applause and same for the next number "Blanket on the Ground" although weirdly the band (including myself) seemed to be struggling to remember the arrangements?  Abbie continued with "Valerie" which I thought went well,  but no dancing.  We followed up with "Sober" a slowie which I announced and got some good banter going with some wags in the crowd - played it well enough and got a good response!  And then we finished with "Country Roads".  Abbie got a good reception for this but was a little subdued as she left.  We carried on pick 'n' mixing through the second set repertoire;  couldn't evoke any dancing but continued to get a good response.  We seemed to tire and lose our way a bit so I was pleased to approach the finish of this set.  I asked Chris to do "Help Me Make it Through Your Tights"  Strangely for this number they all got up and danced and gave it a great reception! So much so I decided to throw in "Wonderful Tonight" as the set finisher, which got the same response - they clearly liked slowies on this hot night.  Off for another 20 minute break,  we got changed into tee shirts and waistcoats for the last set which would be about an hour long.  We opened with "Great Balls" and threw ourselves into this set much more energetically:  playing a sequence of dancey songs which started to get them going at last.  And then we did "American Trilogy" which brought the house down - at last we had struck gold in audience response. From then 'til I indicated  "HI Ho Silver" as our last number we were doing fine - although my voice started to fail towards the end.  There were enough shouts for 'more' for me to call for  "Johnny B Goode" as an encore  (I had asked Abbie if she wanted to come up and join in with Johnny B Goode but she declined on this night).  It was a bit of a ragged ending but were some shouts for 'more'.  We were spent so we eased the background musak on and wound down.  I was just about to leave the stage when the secretary of the caravanning club came up to say how much he liked the show and could he have a card for a future booking - so all must have been better than we thought.   I was pretty tired as we packed up,  but couldn't grumble about a 5 minute run home!  In retrospect it was a demanding gig.  We were high up and a bit distant from the audience (the first time on a high stage for Abbie who had found it hard going to connect);  it was a relatively hot night, our audience weren't in the mood for dancing and, physically, I personally was a bit run down from the cold I was about to have and couldn't give it my best shot vocally or energywise.  But we had won them over and are well placed to develop the caravanning entertainment  market segment.  As Nigel said:  Why not give our old friend Willy McCaravan a call?"