ReTrio at The Morton Hall, Bury St Eds

Space is very tight at this gig and there was no room for the Line 6 mixer the last time we played there. So I thought it would be an easy choice of PA gear for this local job i.e. One Bose with one B1 bin + Line 6 2M and the Bose T1 mixer.  Arrived and found Chris the bass bringing his gear in.  He said: we have been relocated to a bigger area in the pub!  Oh dear I thought - could have brought the Line 6 mixer after all - but anyway dies were cast and it's good to exercise our space saver setup occasionally!'   So in I went and inspected the site: there was more space but there was a big fruit machine where the second Bose would have gone,  so Line 6 2M speaker was right choice!  I could have got the Line 6 Mixer in on my side but I thought one B1 would do and I would hang the T1 mixer from the Bose pole as I used to do and combine the 2 Chris's mics into the one input.  Set up with the T1 required a few other little changes swapping XLR to jacks with adaptors;  but I was relieved to see that levels were all about right when I brought up the ReTrio scene on the T1.  The MP3 player would be swapped with the guitar input on input 4; and input 5 took the echo return (so muzak, echo and guitar all shared the same flat EQ setting.  I set level for echo and then just needed to set the level on the Roland GT10 guitar FX to balance it all up. Sound tests on mics went well,  but I backed the master volume down a little to lose the little toppy ring that emerged when they were all on.  The other compromise with this set up would be no strings,  but I thought I could live with that.  I used a standard jack to take the TI analogue output to the 2M.  Like the previous week signal level was low and I could crank the 2M up over half without feedback.  A lady passing by asked for our card thinking we might suit a caravan rally. She wouldn't be staying long but hoped to get an idea of what the band was like. I suggested to Chris that he provide her a set list to give her an idea of repertoire.   We sound checked with "Smiling" and she seemed happy with that so fingers crossed!  Jacqui walked over from home and made a welcome entrance at 8pm ish The bar girls were enthusiastic as usual and although the pub had been quiet from around 7:30pm it began to fill up with a mix of locals and our supporters as we approached show time. 

We did a toilet change into the white tees and waistcoats.  I had got a new black waistcoat from Matalan to work better with the V necked tees that our wardrobe mistress (Chris the drum) preferred.  We hit the stage bang on 8:30 but immediately had a gremlin with Chris the bass's mic.  I had forgot to tell him that sharing the same input with Chris the drum meant that either of them switching off the mic would switch off the other - Chris the drum had switched his off!  Solving that took a couple of minutes so I announced we were sorry for the technical delay but we would now open up with "Flingel Bunt"   All seemed well and the follow up numbers sounded good so we ploughed on with our current standard pub set.  This was generally well received and I got into a relaxed bantering vibe which was also well received by the relatively big crowd (by our standards) of over  50.  Chris the bass got another rousing response from his supporters for his vocal intro with "Act Naturally"! Once again I chose to finish with "Rock Around the Clock" rather than a slowie.   The 2nd set went well and we got bits of dancing going in the 70's "Hot Love,  Amarillo" sequence.  For the 3rd set we changed into red, white and blue tees.  My voice was a little tired now (I had been suffering the onset of a virus since a tough game of squash in the week),  but I as we encored with "Wonderful Tonight"  I thought we had done a good job considering the compromises on the set up.  Pack down didn't take too long and we were home by 12:30am.  I think I had a ginger wine as a calm down rather than cocoa!

audience action!

 

 

 

ReTrio at The Victoria Thurston

In December we had discussed the possibility of a Valentines Night Dance with the owner of Pot Black and I got as far as making flyers and tickets on the pc.  But while I was away the project got canned:  basically because of poor ticket sales.  I think we learned some lessons about the need for promotion of own events there. But coincidentally the Victoria at Thurston had been given a 5 year lease extension and Chris the bass was able to book us into there this night to replace the Valentines gig. 

The day after the big Friday night storm it was still windy and wet as I set off with Ms J aboard at about 6:15 to arrive at the pub at 6:30.  The two Chris's were in an advanced state of set up and the bass amp was well back as I had asked.  There definitely wasn't room for two Bose,  so I took the decision to put up the Line 6 2M on Chris's side.  I set the stand up just to the right of the bass rig and with the 2M speaker on the pole it was positioned slightly over the bass rig.  By positioning the pole legs carefully to fit in nooks and crannies, the whole set up only took about 6 inches of extra floor space up!  I set the Bose up on my side and, with Chris the Drum forward of the back line, the whole set up was a lot more comfortable all round.  I set the Bose levels first then I ran a normal PA XLR to jack signal lead to the 2M inserting the jack into the combi input socket at the back.  I was able to take the volume up quite high on the 2M before feedback which makes me think that,  another time, I might be able to get more sensitivity using the XLR element of the combi socket? Testing it out - we all thought it sounded good and complementary to the Bose sound.  We sound checked with "Smilin" where I make good use of the harmoniser and a bit of use of strings. 

 

All sounded OK and we got a ripple of applause from the few people in the pub.  By playing time there were still only about 15 people in (including wives) which was disappointing - but it was another cold, wet and windy night.  Anyway we kicked off with the usual and about 4 numbers in,  I was pleased to see old buddy, Mike Keeper and family coming in which boosted numbers significantly.  With a couple more arrivals as the set progressed, we had about 25 to play to.  Mike had brought his video and set about doing a video record of our performance as I opened a mini country sequence by introducing Chris the drum to sing "Ring of Fire".  This went down well and I had briefed Chris the bass to be ready to follow on with his intro number "Act Naturally".   The idea of this is a novelty number to introduce him and get him singing confidently,  I take the high harmony to beef it up and anchor it to key.  On the night he did quite well and got a good round of applause for it!  Thinking there might be some country fans in the far room I popped in an abbreviated "Folsom Prison" to complete this little country spot.  We then moved onto the sixties: opening with some banter about the rivers of East Anglia vs Liverpool before playing a creditable version of "Ferry Cross Mersey" We did the usual sequence of "8 Days a Week, Mr Tambourine Man and Walk in the Room" to complete the sequence.  We had settled down and I was pretty content with the overall sound and my voice was holding up well second night out.  We were in a relaxed vibe:  even where we (mainly me) forgot occasional details of our arrangements the band followed whatever I improvised with only slight hesitation.  After a few rock n roll numbers we were approaching the end of the set.  On this relaxed night I elected to finish with "Albatross" introduced as Albert Ross - a good choice we all agreed.

Set 2 opened with a bit of banter between me and Mike on the role of washboards in skiffle and a snatch of "Putting on the Style" to take Mike back to his cinema seat ripping youth in the mid 50's.  We opened up set 2 proper as usual with "Apache" - I did a bit of a stroll out front but nothing too energetic.  "Delilah" went well as usual but,  as there was such a small audience,  I then took the boys on through the set at quite a pace,  pushing the continuity by running numbers into sequences where I could.  I finished with an OK version of "Wonder of You" where I chose to sing the last phrase down rather than risk an unseemly flat high note on the video!

Set 3  came and went in much the same manner and we wrapped up with Johnny B Goode where I was pleased to get the timings on the outroductions largely right and got back into my final solo in good order!  We have taken to using Chris the drum's vocal: "Help Me Make it Thru the Night" as the preferred slowey in the final set and on this night I recall that we encored with it. 

As we proceeded to pack up,  although the pub was by no means full,  it was strange how large numbers of people contrived to be in the way as we tried to get the gear out through the front door.  True - it was cold outside and they all wanted to huddle near the door as they smoked.  The two Chris's helped me out with the final bits of PA and I was glad to shut the door on the car to get out of the wind and set off for home.  As we drove,  Jacqui commented that the band's sound had been excellent,  we had played well and a good time had been had by those that came.  A fitting conclusion I thought - but I suspect they may not be booking us back as we don't bring enough of a crowd to make it pay.  Ah well,  we will see.  Post script:  Mike dropped his video edit off a couple of days later.  I thought the video was pretty good and he also commented on the crisp, clear sound of the band and how the video didn't do justice to the sound. Must be doing something right?

ReTrio Video

ReTrio at The Dolphin Inn Wortham

Jacqui and I had returned from Mexico refreshed but at least 6 hours behind UK time.  After a few days we were still a bit out of time,  but I organised a band practice on the Tuesday before the gig at my place to check we could remember any of the repertoire?  In the meantime I ordered two Line 6 Stage Source powered speakers;  a 2T and 2M each with a 10" speaker and horn and some interesting DSP in the electronics.  The 2T has a useful mixer on the side - good for solo / acoustic artistes such as Mr Mog.  Line 6 had recently reduced prices significantly and my spend was timely and primarily aimed at overcoming the lack of space problems of pub venues.  Trying them out I was impressed with the sound quality and small footprint.  The DSP included feedback suppression and different sound optimisation for PA, Music, Monitor, Guitar etc.  Downsides:  they are quite heavy and tricky to locate on a pole.   A claimed 800 watt class D amp sounded good with plenty of headroom for dealing with peaks; and there is a quiet cooling fan which only comes on when things get hot inside the cabinet.  After playing around in the back room I concluded they were a similar hi-fi sound to the Bose L1 but a bit more directional.  The Bose with 2 x B1 has the edge in the depth of bass and top end dispersion and produces a big weight of sound for a less powerful amp of around 500 watts.  I reckon the band would be best placed to use the 2 Bose set up if it can and 1 Bose and 1 Line 6 in cramped gigs (i.e. most of the pub jobs).  I can't see where I would use just the 2 x Line 6 with the band,  but I might prefer that set up for a solo acoustic session?  However, I could see us using 2 x Bose and 1 or 2 Line 6 at the largest venues. On the Friday gig day I loaded up both Bose and one Line 6. 

It was 6pm on a very stormy night as Chris the Bass and I set off in convoy up the A143 heading to Wortham.  The wind was strong and gusty and the rain was heavy and torrential at times!  Despite the storm and rush hour traffic, we arrived at the pub after 30 minutes and parked up near the front door well away from the worst of the puddles and mud spreading round the pub frontage.   Stepping inside we were shown to a decent sized stone floored playing area in front of a large bay window.  I made up my mind there and then that this would be a 2 x Bose gig but I would use just one B1 bass bin on Chris's side to save a few inches on the footprint!  As we got the last of the gear in, Chris the drum arrived.  I explained to the guys that at most gigs from now,  we were aiming for the PA and bass amp to be right at the back and Chris the drum was to set up in front of them.  About an hour later we were all set up and enjoying beer with the band muzak on.  I was happy enough with our sound check even though we were setting the PA down a bit to avoid a toppy ring.  I wanted a less aggressive feedback suppression than New Years Eve and figured it would be better to avoid feedback altogether until there was a real need for more volume.  By 8:30 there were was a little crowd of 20 and 30 somethings round the bar,  a darts match starting up in the side sports bar with a good age mix and a handful of 40 plusers in the dining area enjoying a meal. 

 

Chris the bass had agreed our start time of 8:45,  so we did a bit of a toilet change and came out to open up our first gig of 2014 with the safe choice of "Flingel Bunt".  I was happy with the sound and we got a ripple of applause which is as good as it seems to get in pubs, so we carried on with a safe choice set.  We did start to get a bit of reaction here and there and I was heartened enough to build up the banter which began to involve the younger ones round the bar.  I avoided slowies and on this occasion we finished with "Rock Around the Clock".  We are now playing this in G as the optimum compromise between guitar for the 9th shape chords and the vocal (A is too high E is about right).  Anyway it went well and it's an easy reserve to have in the repertoire to drop in as needed.

In the break one of the audience mentioned that Mick Taylor (ex Stones) lived nearby and sometimes popped in.  Wow I said:  I was playing a school dance in 1968 and we were supporting a London band (can't remember the name though).  They had brought a guest guitarist with them who had just landed the job with John Mayall - turned out to be Mick Taylor!   So I would have met him briefly though I'm sure he wouldn't remember the lanky youth on bass with the 'Banana Tree Band' that was me then!  Looking out the window we could see the wind had got up and the pub sign was really rocking in the gusts.
 
We opened set 2 with "Apache" and I went out front to do the 'walk' and check the sound.  Guitar sound was good and then a young lady joined in the shads walk - fantastic.  Things continued quite well and we even got a couple of the 'youngsters' at the bar doing a few dance moves as we did a 'strictly come dancing' version of "Delilah".  I was pretty happy with the overall sound - the audience reaction to the banter showed that they were able to hear the PA clearly.  We were remembering our songs better than expected and I pushed the continuity between numbers to make it a bit slicker. We finished with "Wonder of You" to good applause.
 
We came back on for set 3 maintaining the cosy audience reaction and played a rockier final few numbers than usual with "Born To Be Wild" as the encore.  This time I was able to get the attention of the Chris's to bring it to an end together rather than the usual 'freak out' descent to a muddled finish!
 
We were all pleased with the first gig back and that we had laid the New Years Eve ghost of PA problems to rest by using both Bose.  We didn't notice the absence of one B1 bass bin on Chris's side and, because we aren't putting bass through the PA, I reckon one B1 on my side would be fine as well.  Mind you I need two my side to stand the mixer on!
 
We took our time packing up hoping the wind would die down.  One chap came over unsolicited and said what an excellent sound I got from my guitar - I was quite chuffed!  The landlady came over and said she was sorry there weren't more there - the storm had kept some of the regulars away. I didn't tell her that a half full pub was a good crowd for us nowadays!  We loaded up in the wind,  the rain had eased fortunately.  I led the convoy back and we had to stop briefly to skirt a fallen tree near Stanton (fortunately the police were in attendance and the blue / green? lights advertised the problem from a safe distance away.  Got in about 1am and enjoyed a cocoa before I took to bed.

ReTrio at The Greyhound Pub Bury St Edmunds

Phil the landlord had liked our last appearance and stretched his budget to book us in for New Year so we were keen to give a good show.  We arrived from about 6pm.  Bit of trouble getting parked in the yard,  but we shuffled cars around until we got sorted.  It had been raining hard and getting the gear in though the back we had to negotiate a big puddle which inevitably led to wet foot.  The 2 Chris's were largely set up by the time I got my gear in and although they had left me a lot of room, Chris the bass was tight to his wall and forced to set up in front of the Xmas tree angling the band a little. I only intended to use one Bose so that was no problem,  but I had brought my Marshall acoustic amp thinking I might set that up for PA on Chris's side to give a bit more monitoring over there. Clearly there was no room and negotiating the puddle put me off going back to the car to get it anyway - this decision would prove to haunt me later. 

Set up went well and I had quite a bit of room to work in.  It is a relatively small pub but it has been made kind of open plan with a bit of a divide between the lounge and the bar.  This divide would work to block some of the sound penetrating through to the bar which I thought would be a good thing for taking drinks orders. I dished out some Xmas kazoos and,  although we didn't use them, we sound checked with a messy ska mix to try out: "A Message to You Rudy and One Step Beyond"  and immediately ran into feedback with quite low PA volume.  It was weird,  you could hear the mixer feedback suppression kicking in and out as resonances changed.  I set the whole PA gate a bit higher and the graphic EQ down in the top end to try and get a bit more control,  but it was not brilliant - as you spoke you'd still get a little burst of toppy feedback then it would be suppressed into a muddy sound.  Chris the drum's mic was particularly badly affected.  It wasn't a great environment to work on the sound and in the end I made the judgement it would be good enough for this small venue. I got the musak going.  Despite fixing the little Creative players, I was so impressed with the sound from the iPhone,  I had set up the first half of our musak playlist on Spotify and set that to run - nice sound!  Being local and a long night I was gonna pace myself with drink and treat myself to a limit of 3 pints instead of my usual 2 and I was soon quenching my thirst.

 

Line 6 Mixer on top of Behringer DEQ Graphic

 

Trudy had arrived with Chris the drum and about 8pm Jacqui and Bridget arrived, having walked down the hill between rain showers.  I had set out 3 sets of 45 to take us to 11:30 pm with breaks and then we would do an hour last set.  The pub was still filling up at 8:30 so we took to the stage slowly and got underway with Flingel Bunt at about 8:40pm.  I actually had a time warp moment and was all set to start with "Foot Tapper" till I looked round and remembered where I was,  stopped counting and left it to Chris to start "Flingel Bunt".  The guitar was a bit low in the mix initially because I had brought down the overall PA level to cope with feedback,  but I soon had that sorted and we played the next few songs in reasonably good order with added banter about how some 'strange' parts of East Anglia celebrate Old Years Night rather than New Years Eve but I was having to sing and announce quite loud to cut through.  I had peppered the running order with 'other / reserve' songs to gain playing time.  The first departure from norm was to put Chris the bass on the spot to do his vocal debut with a Ringo version of "Act Naturally".  We had rehearsed it a few times and he was up for it.  I thought we played it pretty well for a first time out,  hanging back on guitar a little to allow his vocal to cut through.  Like the Beatles I worked a harmony vocal in over most of it and he got a good reception from relatives,  friends and some locals for this debut.  By and large the crowd was a bit younger that we were used to,  but we had a good turnout of supporters who led the response. An off the cuff "Folsom Prison" and improvised "Thats All Right Mama" went so well I quipped to the band we should 'do more numbers we don't play!'  At the end of set 1 Jacqui reported good balance with the band coming across as experienced at playing together.  A report filtering through from Phil the landlord was mixed: the band is good but vocals could do with being louder.   I fiddled a bit more with the PA but couldn't get much more without feedback - the Bose was well placed out of line with all the mics so it must have been some peculiar reflections and the lowish ceiling at the gig that causes the problem. Can't rebuild the place so we downed another beer and took off for set 2. 

The pub had filled up but there was a bit of floor space in front of us for a handful of dancers so, as we opened with "Apache", I did venture out front.  Mainly to have a listen but also did a bit of a 'walk' while I was there.  The bass and drum sound was good but the guitar was a bit less bright than normal (due to the PA adjustments).  We got a good round of applause for it and I brightened the guitar on my return to play the follow up "Do You Wanna Dance".  Then we played through to 10:15 with a mainly 60's vibe that went down quite well.  We took another break and Phil came over to ask me to make an announcement about the bar arrangements - the bar would shut for 15 minutes from 11:50 so folks would need to get their New Year drinks in by 11:45.  No problem I said.  He reiterated that the vocals needed to come up a bit but did acknowledge that it was only in the bar they were having trouble hearing announcements etc.  Mind you there were a lot of people in there so It would be difficult to penetrate even if we could get more power on.

 

 

I had added "Honky Tonk Women" as the opener because we had played it well 'off the cuff' at the previous gig.  Jacqui signalled guitar needed to come up as we got underway and I had to take a bit of license with the words 'cos I was distracted fiddling with the sound - but we played it well.  After a few more rock n roll songs I felt I was starting to flag a bit and we took on "American Trilogy" before the voice started to fade.  I thought we did a good job of this and were rewarded with a lot of pub sing-a-long and a great response as we finished. Skipping "Get Back and Don't Stop" to keep to time, we finished with the sequence:  "Yellow River,  Hot Love,  Amarillo"  and then the "Wonder of You".  This went the best yet, even the low pitch vocal ending worked well and we got a good round of applause for it.  Chris the bass came over in the break and said he could hardly hear the PA. He checked with family sitting out front and they said it was fine,  so it seemed more of a monitoring issue.  This is where I regretted not having brought the Marshall in.  We could have set it up somewhere on his side of the pub to reinforce the PA and monitoring sound,  but now the pub was full and it would be too much disruption to start faffing around at this late stage.

 

I loaded up with my final pint for the gig in the break and we took to the stage at 11:30 pm for the crucial last set.  I realised we had skipped "Happy Together" earlier.  This was an error - my eyesight not good enough to read a set list on the floor!  So I asked Chris the drum to open set 4 with it.  And it went well, I could see people bopping in their chairs to it.  We didn't follow the arrangement quite right at the end but nothing the audience would notice. We were soon into the dancey sing-a-longs such as:  "Saturday Night at Movies,  Sweet Caroline, Hey Baby, Hi Ho" and doing a good job.  I had originally intended playing "One Step Beyond" as the last song before the countdown to New Year,  but Chris the drum said that the chap who requested it hadn't shown up and it would be best to skip it. I had done the crucial bar closure announcement and I chose "Hippy Hippy Shakes", "All Right Now" to take us to 3 minutes to 12.  I was a bit tired from singing loud so I was quite pleased when Chris the bass took over as MC for the New Year itself.  He got them all circled up,  negotiated exactly what time it was with key members of the crowd and got them all to count down from 10.  Then it was 'Happy New Ye--ar' and into "Old Lang Syne" in D.  That went very well, we managed to fend off some exuberant dancers heading into the band and then we took them into "Okey Cokey" with Chris the drum singing.  After that Chris the bass did a couple of verses of "Knees Up Mother Brown" and I did a few bars of "Conga"  but the crowd were all danced out by then so we took a few moments to shake hands ourselves before playing on with Chris the drum singing a slowey: "Help Me Make it Through the Night".  That went down surprisingly well and we were all set to run into the finishing sequence of and "Caroline, Johnny B Goode - Born to be Wild".  A bit ragged here and there but at this late stage who was caring!  Chris the bass called for "One Step Beyond" as the encore.  We hadn't had chance to play it during the night so it was good to give it a go.  Not too bad at all for three tired chaps,  we didn't risk the kazoos in the end but I'd like to work it up properly with them.  Dead tired packing up but got there in the end.  we bade our farewells and Jacqui and I were home by 1:30am.  Despite the physical tiredness I still felt brain lively so I had a couple of ginger wines and a beer before retiring. I was exhausted and achy the next day but pleased we had completed the gig programme for the year.  Reflecting on the PA situation I remembered the Bose was angled towards the two Chris's and,  because the speakers are staggered this 'toe in' may have increased propensity to feedback? No harm done by not toeing it in for the future?  I also resolved to get the feedback suppression on the Behringer Ultra Graph Digital DEQ 1024 going and not messing with the graphic so much in the future. Doing a bit of research on Line 6 PA the next day I see they have brought out a smaller version of their highly regarded PA speakers - maybe get a couple of those in the new year and they can be always available as lightweight PA reinforcement.  Ah well - not a bad year for the band overall!  The boys in the rhythm section are progressing well,  but we need to get some better class gigs in 2014.  Might consider doing some more modern retro music a la Oasis and Blur to cope with the younger audiences?

ReTrio at The Victoria Pub Thurston Bury St Edmunds

In the week I had procured 2 x stereo mini jack to mono jack leads to deal with the MP3 player crackling. We had lined a few supporters up for this gig and had good expectations.  I set off at 6:15,  Jacqui said she would come over with Bridget later.  As I arrived I could see the rhythm section (Chris and Chris) setting up through the window. 

I came into the performance area and I was pleased to see Trudy was better and able to attend the gig. The two Chris's had completed set up leaving me a luxurious amount of room - I was able to set up the single Bose slightly away from the wall which would help the sound.  Set up went well and we sound checked with "Smilin" - even getting a small round of applause for it.  It sounded good to me and Chris the bass reported a good vocal sound on his side so I didn't fiddle with the mix at all at this stage.  So all was well as I plugged in the mp3 player to set the background muzak going and strode over to the bar to get the beers in.  Here I was greeted by a distressed looking bar girl who delivered the beer along with the tale of woe - she had just been told that Green King had decided to close the pub in the New Year. Terrible time to tell them I thought.

Jacqui and Bridget arrived and got good seats in front of the band.  As we got ready for the start, in comes my business partner Justin with wife Ruth and her mum and dad, and her friend Rachel.  There must have been about 20 of our supporters and maybe as many locals as we opened with "Flingel Bunt".  It was a slightly nervy beginning to the set (no mistakes as such, just got some of the words in wrong order) but,  after "Groovy Kind of Love",  we settled into a relaxed bantery vibe and played a good set to a good audience response.  The Xmas song "Rockin Around the Xmas Tree" went very well.  Finishing off with the "Green Grass" we got a good round of applause.  Did a bit of mingling in the break and all said how good it sounded including Jacqui, who has seen me in some good sounding bands over the years. 

 

 

Rachel doing a red hat moment

Just as we were about to return for set 2 I heard the dreaded mp3 player crackle again!.  I couldn't believe it!!  I had changed leads and players and could only assume there was corruption of the data on the identically programmed players.  Changing players again only fixed it for a few songs?  I gave up and we went on for a creditable set 2. As we got to "Get Back",  I noticed Ringo had appeared on the drums again! By set 3 Rachel was in a very happy mood and requested a Fleetwood Mac song as we were taking to the stage.  So we obliged by opening with "Albatross".  Couple of songs later she requested something by the Stones - again we obliged.  I called for "Honky Tonk Women" which we hadn't played since a rehearsal in the Spring. The two Chris's started up with what sounded suspiciously like "Mustang Sally" so I called a halt and we bantered a bit until I reminded them of the start to "Honky Tonk".  All very friendly and relaxed I must say and then off we went and played it pretty flawlessly.  The guys are getting much better at improvising basic songs!  We played out a good 3rd set finishing with "Johnny B Goode" with much better band sign off outro's that were well applauded by the crowd.   Encoring with another freak out version of "Born to Be Wild",  we did manage to finish together - which I was very pleased with.  In the band we all agreed it had been a very good night.  After a stiff start we had played a relaxed but rhythmically strong night.  It is true that Chris the drum still has a bit of trouble remembering starts and stops and 'non stops' but he works hard and wants to get it right,  so I know it will come together next year.  Jacqui told me later at home that it was the best the band had sounded and it was nice to see us working so well together and creating a good vibe - any mistakes we made were not that visible to the audience. 

Post script. Next day I set up the PA and the mp3 player to sort the crackling out.  I proved that there was no data corruption earlier by playing the player through its own speaker for an hour.  Plugged in, sure enough, the crackling started up after about 10 minutes.  Changing the player it worked for another 10 minutes then it started again?  Now I tested the theory that it was the low impedance mp3 player output struggling to keep going into a high impedance input.  Simply turning down the volume on the player from 80% to 70% cured it instantly.  The output stage must warm up and start cutting out under miss match load!  So problem is fixed by lowering volume on the player and increasing the gain trim on the mixer input!

ReTrio at The Tollgate Pub Bury St Edmunds

I was looking forward to a return gig here because it was a known, if somewhat tight, single Bose set up and I had decided at last to 'bite the bullet' and use the Line 6 digital mixer for its first live gig.  To that end I had spent a couple of hours on the Saturday afternoon going through and tweaking set up in my back room.  I didn't have access to the two SM58 clones the boys were using,  but could simulate using a spare SM58 (or so I thought).  I decided to use the Line 6 mic pre-sets as supplied and it sounded just fine in my music room.  Not quite as toppy and bottomy as the Bose T1,  but seemed to cut through well. Despite a really great onboard FX section,  we would still be using the Digitech Harmoniser and Vocal 300 delay as outboard to get the benefits of foot switching.  The most complicated Line 6 mixer thing is setting up monitor settings as aux send and applying them logically to the programmable control sensor knobs.  I also set up a spare line in for channel 13 just in case we needed to plug in a mono source.   Happy that I had covered everything I loaded up satisfied with the decision to use it.  However,  I did notice I was also loading in the bag with the T1 mixer and leads (just in case?).

 
I got to the gig at 6:30pm to find the boys with their gear in place.  It is very tight so I explained I would need every inch they could give.  To their credit they leapt into action and found an extra 6 inches - luxury!  They had already relocated the Xmas tree and it was a problem to get to the mains socket behind it. There was no other socket nearby! In the end I ran a long extension past the tree then behind the bass stack and drums to my area.  I got the gear neatly set up with a cable run past the drums to all the FX,  leaving about a 9 inch path beyond my Roland GT10 on the other side that people could use to squeeze through to the other bar (not the only route though).  Before I started on the PA I agreed to test out Chris's new bass settings.  The previous gig had seen things being vibrated off shelves and amps due to the powerful sub-bass and the kitchen staff had complained that it was interfering with their cooking!?!.   So I played some funky bass riffs on his new settings while he walked the room. He had reduced the bass and sub-bass from just under 50% to about 12% leaving middle and top as they were.  In front of the amp I thought the sound had been suitably tamed,  but Chris the drum was still reporting vibrations.  I took the view that you would never get rid of sympathetic vibrations completely in a pub and it would emasculate the sound completely to take it down any further.  Chris the bass returned from his walk declaring himself satisfied so we called it a wrap.    Next the moment of truth came as I powered up the PA to a squeal of feedback that was quickly suppressed by the anti feedback filters in the mixer.  I decided to set up the 2 Chris's mics first. Strangely the two mics were quite dissimilar with Chris the drums' being much bassier.  Both needed some top end adding compared to a Shure and I used the 'simple tweak' on the mixer where you move your finger over a X Y grid on the screen to give the right mix of terms like: deep, clarity, air and scoop rather than conventional EQ.  With theirs roughly sorted,  I had a go at mine and was pleased to hear that what sounded good at home also sounded good in the hall,  so no EQ changes needed!  I spent most of my time getting the relative mix between my mic and the harmoniser right.   The FX loop worked well and only needed a little level adjustment.  The guitar sound was a bit bass heavy so I tweaked that a little.  Strings sounded OK and clear on a flat EQ and I left it alone.  There was a slight gremlin in that the guitar wouldn't switch the synth programs.  I only use it for strings and flute so not catastrophic,  but I found the 13 pin lead into the synth wasn't pushed in far enough home and re-inserting it fixed the problem.  Finally,  I plugged the MP3 player into the (unlucky?) spare channel 13 using the newish lead I had fabricated - it sounded fine.  I put our muzak on at 8:10 and popped out to the car to get my waistcoat when I noticed I had forgotten to change my trousers?  Fortunately there was a spare pair in my suit bag and I was able to get changed in the toilet before things got messy in there.  Chris the bass had a few supporters arrive in the shape of his missus Bridget,  Abbie,  Nathan and Richard, and one other whose name escapes me?  The dining area was busy but the bar where we were playing was fairly quiet.  I had a word with a chap who had come specially to see us;  used to live in Manchester and was a neighbour and childhood friend of Wayne Fontana.  I promised him a Mindbenders song once we got going!

Started off with the usual.  All was OK,  guitar was maybe still a tad bassy but I didn't feel an immediate need to adjust things until a few numbers in.  Actually I thought it was a good balance:  the reduced sub-bass allowing the bass to sit better in the soundscape and no strange vibrations of the walls and ceilings to worry about!  The vocal sound was different:  it sounded clearer to me but not as toppy,  but that could be the venue.  The harmoniser was also clearer and better balanced than of late.  It was only when Chris the drum sang "Ring of Fire" that I attempted to make an adjustment to bring his vocal up a bit.  Identifying the sensor to do that was trickier than a conventional mixer.   Band performance had been good up to now but, apart from a couple of stalwarts, we were getting little response and now we were at our first red hat moment.  'Red hats on boys' I announced as we readied ourselves for the first Xmas song of the night:  "Rockin Around the Xmas Tree".  I pretty happy with the way it went for a first time out - it was tight and no mistakes!  I expected some audience reaction,  but there was no significant response - 'oh dear' it would be one of those nights;  best to just plough on and concentrate on getting things right.  We got to the end of the set finishing with an abridged version of "Green Grass" with virtually no audience reaction.  While we were off I took some more of the top off Chris the drum's mic to get more volume on it - I think I got it as good as it can be with this clone mic.

We resumed for set 2 with "Apache". As usual I took the opportunity to step out front and listen to the band.  It sounded pretty well balanced to me and I was very pleased with the guitar sound.  We followed this up with a bit of banter about who the Shadows used to back? - no audience response whatsoever; so I had to do a Bruce Forsythe and look at the band for an answer!  They didn't know either so off we went into: "Do You Wanna Dance".  I made a mistake in the solo because I was trying to look at the set list,  but otherwise it was OK.  "Delilah" got a smattering of audience reaction so I had medium hopes for "White Xmas" the xmas song in this set.  I thought we played it pretty well,  but to no avail.  To be fair,  apart from some of our supporters,  hidden away in an alcove,  there was no one in the bar we could see. But I suspected the people in the dining area we enjoying it because twice we had couples exiting from the dining room via the bar who waved approvingly at the band - so maybe we were going down well there (i.e. the real audience was out of sight and sound!)?   We carried on through the set in good order doing creditable performances of Don't Stop",  "Get Back"  (turned round to count it in and Chris the drum had dressed up in Beatle wig and John Lennon specs - brilliant!),  Yellow River and "Amarillo".  I was delighted to get this mostly right and we all finished together in the right key!  Chris the bass indicated time was up but I called for one more: "Wonder of You" to finish  (I was keen to exercise this).  We got off to a shakey start as the boys were late to join in,  getting in just before the verse vocal.  Then all went well until the solo where I got distracted and messed up - flubbing the fingers to get through:  but we did the end OK.  I did the safe ending of singing the last line down rather than attempting the high G and this worked well. 

In the break the MP3 player started crackling again so,  rather than try and fix it,  I got the band on for set 3.  Second number in I messed up the middle of "Pretty Woman" badly.  I had left the guitar on the rock sound group (in error) on the Roland GT10.  Not a problem until the middle when I went to footswitch 3 for what should have been the tremolo sound and got a distorted overdrive instead.  It is this point in the song that there are a lot of chords and, although I kept singing,  it took some footwork and missed chords before I got back in on the right sound - doh!  A couple of chaps had arrived at the bar by then and were taking an interest so that gave some audience to play to - we even got some applause from them for "Sweet Caroline" and "American Trilogy".  We then embarked on Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" with Chris the drum doing the lead vocal.  The good news was we played it through intact and at the right pace.  The harmonies could have been tighter; my excuse was I was playing from memory and couldn't remember the words! Also I felt the band was a little too loose - but it was first time out and it is relatively complex.  It raised a bit of response for the guys at the bar!  We ran down to the finish with a tight and rocking "Hippy Hippy Shakes". I was pleased with that but we were already overdue on finishing time so I called for "Johnny B Goode" as the last song.  This went well and as we did the 'Outroductions" we got some applause for each member of the band.   'Good night audience' I quipped as the two fellas at the bar left and they waved good night back.  I wondered who they were;  then Chris the drum explained they were from a rival local 60s band - ah that explained why they looked interested!   The landlord apologised for the poor turn out in the bar,  but added that a lot of the diners had enjoyed it and commented favourably! We were soon packed up and off home getting in before midnight.  Not a great night but good for our development I think; and I was pleased with the use of the Line 6 mixer.  Chris the bass felt the vocal sound from it was a bit thin compared to the Bose or Mackie.  I was using the pre-set sound on my mic and it sounded good where I was.  And this gig has unusual acoustics I remembered -  but I'll check things out at the next gig!  

ReTrio at The Moreton Hall Pub Bury St Edmunds

Jacqui and I flew back from Lanzarote on the Thursday,  but a combination of late plane and taxi wait meant that our drive home from the car park at the Copthorne Hotel was delayed and we didn't get in until about 2am Friday.  We had a lot of admin to deal with at home so I was still tired and out of practice on the Saturday gig day;  but at least it was exceedingly local. 

We had previously agreed to take all the gear and sus out how much we could set up when we got there.  I decided to chicken out of using the Line 6 mixer and,  thinking there would be little room,  I brought a small Bose T1 mixer along just in case.   Good job I did,  'cos after I wandered into where I thought the band would be playing I was re-directed to a small alcove on the North side of the pub where the boys were setting up already.  Although we could squeeze one Bose L1 next to the bass stack there would be little room to get at the mixer if we put it its usual place on the B1 bass bins.  So I made a quick decision to set up just the one Bose L1 on the right of the bass stack and use the small T1 mixer located on a shelf on the other side near where I would be playing.  This would involve a few compromises. The drum and bass vocal mics would share channel 2 by plugging them into a splitter/combiner transformer box.  No string synth.  Also the delay return would share levels and EQ with the guitar through channel 4/5, and there would need to be some changes to harmoniser and delay input and output levels to maintain an undistorted gain structure.  I will need to revisit this when we start using the Line 6 mixer,  I suspect mic level connections will be better than the current line level connections.  The pub was quite busy as we set up and we shifted the cases and covers back to the cars to keep things tidy.  I plugged our muzak player into the guitar input and it sounded OK EQ wise,  so just set level on the player.  Only trouble was:  I was using a very old stereo mini jack to mono jack lead and it was a bit crackly.  The house PA was playing modern stuff and I decided to leave that until we started our show in a couple of beers time! 

We had a few followers from Chris the bass's family and the pub was hosting a Xmas meal event over on the South side,  so it was reasonably busy as we started up.  A few numbers in I had my vocal set right but Chris the drum was quite low in the vocal mix.  Controlling feedback on the T1 mixer was a bit of  a problem and I struggled to get it right through most of the set.  During the break I tinkered with the Chris's vocal EQ  bringing down the top end and the PA was better but not perfect as we opened set 2 with "Apache" - walking out front a little I could hear the instrumental balance was fine and the guitar sounded very good.  We had one new number to play early on in this set:  "Happy Together" featuring Chris the drum on lead vocal to which I would add my harmonised vocal.  At practice it had gone so well we were confident to bring it into the set tonight. I announced it as a new one for us and opened up with the guitar riff.  That was OK,  but it took Chris some time to get in on the vocal and from then we all struggled to remember the arrangement - and the vocal sound could have been better.  There was little audience response at the end so they must have been aware it was a bit ragged.  I quickly soldiered on with "Daydream Believer" which got the bar girls and some of the audience singing and dancing along.  Next up was "Delilah" which brought the house down as usual and from then on the set went pretty well with this crowd.  We chose to finish with the 70's sequence "Hot Love (a bit fast?),  Yellow River,  Amarillo"  which we performed well and got a good response for.  As we were already over time we omitted the usual finisher "Wonder of You".  I wasn't unhappy about this 'cos holidaying away in warm climes,  my voice was beginning to crack already.  Talking about cracking,  the crackly lead on the Muzak player got very bad in this interval and I had to faff around with it a lot to keep things going (when I got home I cut the lead up and threw most of it out;  only reusing the moulded stereo mini jack which I am sure was OK - we will see!). 
Set 3 went down well: the drink had started to take hold and we were on our dancier set list.  By the time we got to "Saturday Night at the Movies" we had the audience and bar staff well involved in sing-a-long-a-dancing.  One problem though: my voice was getting rough and "American Trilogy" was such a struggle I called for "F B I" to follow to rest it.  Unfortunately, I then messed up the middle of that and had to 'flub' us back to the verse!  As we went on, things seemed to go a bit awry with the two Chris's as I linked several rocky numbers together towards the end (e.g. "Hi Ho, Really Got Me, Alright Now, Caroline") -  losing sheets, forgetting arrangements and getting off in the wrong key,  but not so bad the audience noticed.  I'm sure this is down to lack of familiarity with my approach to reading audiences and picking songs to suit rather than following a strict list;  but I'm sure all will be well as we get a bit more playing time under our belts!  We signed off with "Johnny B Goode",  I thanked the audience and the bar girls in particular for their enthusiasm and said how much we were in awe of the bar staff's ability to sing, dance and pull pints at the same time.  'It's called multi-tasking - women can do it" one of them quipped back.  We encored with an even wilder version than usual of "Born to be Wild" which I could not get the Chris's to finish.  So from a promising beginning it staggered into an undisciplined freak out ending,  authentically typical,  and very reminiscent, of some of the wilder bands from my far past that I had played in.  It was a hoot though! 

As we packed up there were a few folks passing by making favourable comments which was good to hear and Chris came back from a visit to see the management with an excellent report and 2 more gigs!  Pack up went smoother than set up and we were soon ready for the off.  I gave Lewis a lift back to Chris's house and was still home 5 minutes after leaving the pub.  Overall a good night but still plenty of potential for us to improve.