ReTrio at The Felsto Arms Felixstowe

Following the amicable resignation of Chris the drum, Chris the bass had arranged for local drummer Ian Bishop to dep this one.  As it turned out he had recently finished a long spell in a rock-a-billy band and was available and looking for a local band.   We had had a get together on the Thursday and ran through a few numbers.  He fitted so well we agreed he should come on board as a full member of the band.  But,  having said that we already had another dep booked for the gig after on the 21st at the Tyneside Sheringham and thought it best to honour that.

Come the Sunday Ian travelled over to Felixstowe with Chris and I met up with them at the venue at 2pm.  We commenced load in and set up at this small pub that Chris and I have played a few times.  Ian was using his small Pearl kit with some very expensive cymbals.  I helped orientate him into the best spot for playing that would leave him a small gap on Chris's side to get out of.  Chris was using just one of his bass cabs but we were using the usual 2 x L1 Bose PA.  This gig has some weird resonances so its only when it fills up you can open up the PA.  Nevertheless,  I reduced the master volumes on the Bose to 4 from their usual 5 so that the mixer could operate at -2dB on its master.  That would give me a couple of dB to push up as the gig progressed. Ian does sing but said he would prefer to concentrate on drumming for a while so no drum vocal mic needed.  I had collected the bass drum mic from Chris the drum and we set that up and powered up - it all worked !  In the week I had changed the running order to replace some of the songs Chris had sung e.g. "Delilah" was replaced by "Sweet Caroline".

The pub gradually filled up such that by the 4pm showtime it was quite busy.  We had all come dressed in black shirt and jeans and it only remained to finish our beers and take to our instruments.  We were a couple of minutes late starting 'cos Ian ordered a showtime drink and the barrel needed changing. Chris ended up handing it over as I started "FBI".  Put it down to the distraction of the drink handling but I was a bit too slow in tempo and had to take it up a bit as soon as the others came in.  But it was fine once we got going.  Compared to Chris,  Ian's sound is bigger,  tighter and drives the band along more. Less easy listening and more dancey.  And so it proved - we soon had some ladies dancing as we progressed through the first set.  We skipped "Ring of Fire" and "Eyes" but that meant I could finish the set with a slowey:  "Wonder of You"  to which I got them all singing along and it was a good finisher.  Chris had joined in vocally here and there in the set and had sung "Act Naturally" but I felt I had to push a bit harder on vocals to line up with a more driving rhythm section and was feeling somewhat exerted by the end. By now the pub was full enough for me to push the PA to 0dB which I hoped would make it easier in set 2.

We started with "Apache" I was pleased Ian got it going a bit faster than Chris but then I lost my way in the Shads walk amongst the audience in this busy pub.  Fortunately a couple of ladies came up and did a proper 'walk' to put me to shame - we had a laugh!   We carried on with "Tambourine Man" which went surprisingly well and then quickly into "Daydream Believer and Sweet Caroline"  These are good sing-a-long numbers that also had a few up dancing and went down well despite Chris losing his way with some of the chords in the chorus - deep sound blooper is not that noticeable.  Played a strong rock'n'roll sequence with Ian driving us through: "Move It - Summertime Blues - Rip It Up".   After "Bad Moon", I did a sort of Creedence Clearwater version of "Proud Mary" to replace Chris's Tina Turner version.  I have noticed audiences like this number so we will need to keep it in.  I had to politely decline a request for "Build Me Up Buttercup" - this is another one that often seems to get asked for so I made a mental note to learn how to busk it.  After "Don't Stop"  I took us into the Hot Love - East Anglia Girls sequence intending to pad it out a bit.  Only trouble was I forgot to do the solo in Hot Love and had to find a way of working it back in.  We finished "East Anglia Girls" in good order.  I hadn't missed Chris's falsetto too much and Chris the bass did sing the bass line a la Mike Love.  In some ways it was clearer vocally,  but it would be good to get the falsetto back when we get organised.  I elected to finish the set with "American Trilogy".  We had run this by Ian in the week and he did a great job considering all the stops and changes that had to be felt.  He did an excellent bit of big band drumming to the climax in the final section and we got the desired massive applause result with the audience.  Only trouble was,  with the band playing louder, I had given it my all vocally and was really glad we were taking a 20 minute break.

In the break I knocked some water back and felt a bit better. We resumed set 3 with "Great Balls - Standing There - Dance The Night Away".  Chris used to sing the lead on "Standing There" but I found it fairly easy to take that on.  Ian did a great job on the drums on "Pretty Woman" up next and, as I took us on through the long party dance sequence through several songs to "Alright Now",  he followed just fine.  I asked Chris if he was up for "Rockin All Over the World" but he politely declined citing still not sure of words and arrangement.  We improvised a version of "Twist Again" to keep the dancers busy.  We hadn't been able to do this confidently with Chris on drums 'cos he struggled with the rhythm and tempo,  so it was useful to find our feet with it again as Ian drove it along quite nicely.  I had had a couple of instances of crowd enthusiastically dancing into band but nothing irrecoverable.  I took the opportunity to catch my breath by slowly introducing "Summer of 69" as a new song from the band at the Felsto.  This needed to be aired and it went well enough but should get better as we all get familiar with it..  Then we ran into the closing sequence with "Hippy Hippy Shakes - Mustang Sally" and then "Johnny B Goode".  We got a lot of shouts for More - so we encored with "Born to be Wild".  No problems with strange tempos with Ian;  it really rocked and,  icing on the cake,  we all finished together.  We were a few minutes over the 7pm finish time so I declined another encore and we closed down.  I was exhausted but had to soldier on with a few meet and greeters as we retrieved the cases.  A couple of ladies were disappointed we hadn't done "Penny Arcade" and another chap asked for some "Status Quo" next time - 'no problem' I said 'we can do all these next time'. 

Pack up seemed to take ages but load out went well for me mainly because Ian and Chris brought my stuff out.  We were on the road before 8pm and I was home at 8:40.  I told Ms J I needed a drink so I had a couple of lagers from the fridge but being so tired after the gig I was dozing in my chair by 10pm and settled for an early night -  felt better the next day after a long sleep (I suppose a bit similar to a boxer after a fight I needed to sleep).  It was only the next day I realised I had forgotten to take any photos of Ian's debut.

Reflecting on the bands development: we are definitely moving on from easy listening and consequently my role playing and singing is becoming more demanding.  Spoke to Chris the next day and agreed we would try out a front man who had come to our attention with a view to him coming in and performing some newer numbers as a cabaret feature of the band at the better paid gigs.  But actually I am open to this role growing if he fits in.  Keep watching this space you blogateers!

 

ReTrio at Cambridge United Football Supporters Club

This gig was a bit of a paid audition and was booked before Cambridge United's fantastic cup run against Man United earning them over a million pounds.  I followed Chris the bass out to the gig on a cool but dry evening and when we arrived he joked: 'see those stadium lights - they rang up and that's where we are playing tonight!'  I was taken in for a few seconds before I quipped back:  'supporting Shirley Bassey I suppose?'  We entered the club, it was quite full despite the team's loss to Wycombe in the afternoon.  Quite a big concert room with a sizeable stage in the corner.  They soon opened the fire door so we could get the gear on to the stage comfortably.  We started load in and had most of our gear in before Chris and Trudy arrived.  Set up went OK.  Most of my gear was a little damp from having been stored in the cold,  so I took my time to unplug and replug jacks and XLR's to ensure contacts were sound.  The only power I could find was a trailing lead capable of running about 10 amps so I suggested to Chris that he forget the lights.  But he found a socket the other side of the fire door and routed an extension over the top to the stage.  He set up the Bose on his side fairly well forward and to the outside of the bass stack.  It was angled left into the main body of the hall which was pretty well what I would have gone for.  On my side I took the trouble to set the mixer up on the left of my Bose so it also had a good run of sight into the body of the hall over to my right (facing it). I wanted to avoid setting them up too aimed to the middle because there was a low beam about 30 foot from the stage which could have bounced back badly.   Too my relief,  it all powered up OK and we had pretty good headroom before feedback.  There was a hum on the guitar which I couldn't get rid of and will need further investigation.  It seems to be from the guitar 'cos volume down or hand on the bridge seems to clear it. I decided to live with it.  So we were all set.  Chris the bass and I swapped reminiscences about playing this gig in the mid 70's.  I had come down from Lincoln with 5 piece to do it and he had done it with a young country band.

We met up with Paul the concert sec who explained timings,  lighting etc and after a quick beer, I whiled away some of the time setting up a Go-Pro camera to video some of the show.  This has a very wide angled lens and is reputed to be capable of recording live sound well.  Then Paul switched on the hall lighting and it was great:  a starry backscene,  well lit stage and atmospheric lighting in the hall.

We had a dressing room for a change and it was nice and warm!  We got into the black and whites.  Chris the drum had forgotten his hat but Chris and I decided to wear ours. I'd say the concert room was about half full as we started.  We took to the stage at 8:30 the concert sec announced us and off we went with "FBI".  What a good on-stage sound!  We played this note perfect and finished to some applause.  I did my quip about their million pound windfall and us expecting to be supporting Shirley Bassey and then we moved onto "Heartbeat".  The vocals sounded good to me and again we played it at a good pace and with no mistakes to earn another polite round of applause.  Actually the audience were quite a way away from us so you would only expect to hear it lightly anyway.  Next up was "Smiling" which I thought we did well.  I made a couple of fluffs on guitar but nothing too noticeable and again it was well received.

As we moved onto rock and roll some jivers came up to dance.   We carried on through the set playing well I thought and we were rewarded with bits of dancing, applause etc.  Strangely,  at the 40 minute point, the concert sec came on his mic as we finished "All Shook Up" to announce the end of the set.  Did he want to be part of the show?

During the break we met up with another Paul who had come to see us specially.  He is a muso acquaintance of Chris the Bass and I showed him round our PA.  He was very much up to speed with technology and quite impressed with the set up.  The hall had filled a bit more by start time.

We set off into a standard 2nd set with "Apache and Do You Wanna Dance"  I was a bit rusty on both of these but we got quite a few up and dancing to the latter.  And that was the pattern for the rest of the night really.  They liked the 70's dancier stuff like "Hot Love" and were less into the slowies ad sing-a-longs.  I thought we played pretty well and at a good pace and we had good continuity.  Hard to read really.  Later on: soft rock like "All Right Now didn't fare that well with the dancers,  but towards the end the slowies filled the floor.  We were just gearing ourselves up for the run down to the end when the concert sec came on the mic and announced the last number.  So we did "Johnny B Goode".  Then he announced a couple of encores - I chose to do "Hippy Shakes and Wonderful Tonight"  both of which filled the floor quite well.  The concert sec then carried on with a 80's themed disco session til after midnight.

As we came off stage  a few well wishers came up to say hello and how much they had enjoyed it so we were feeling good about the gig as we packed up.  Chris found time to sound out Paul the Concert Sec about another booking we had pencilled in for the club in June:  but he wasn't that enthusiastic saying he couldn't remember and would need to check his books.  Anyway we all set off home feeling fine and next afternoon we had the news that he wasn't taking up the option on the re-booking?  When pushed he told Chris that the tempo didn't suit the club and he thought the vocals needed more work.

This prompted a flurry of texts between the band as we entered a crisis of confidence.  As it happened we had booked a practice try out session with a female singer in the week to come that I thought might improve our versatility.  So later in the afternoon we settled on that as the way forward for a while.  Thinking about the concert sec's criticism I think we are about 15 years away from him in era so that probably takes care of the tempo issue.  We may have a had the occasional vocal problem on the night,  but the video showed an acceptable performance overall I thought.  Also the other Paul the musu reported back to Chris the bass that the band sounded very good instrumentally and vocally to him.  So I decided to put the vocal issue down to a bit of rustiness and try to work harder at it.  Then,  late on the Sunday we had a text from Chris the drum to say he was resigning: citing more time needed with the family! 

By the next day Chris the bass had lined up deps for the immediate gigs and we agreed to consider one of these as replacement.  So we had now reached another settlement around: 'carry on and keep calm'.  The female singer is an acquaintance of Chris the drum so we don't know if she will turn up for a try out on Wednesday as agreed?  A lot of the performance load is on my shoulders so I'm thinking that we will take the opportunity of this hiatus to augment the band with another member.  Watch this space blogateers!

The Checkmates at The Borderline Soho London

Raye had booked this gig several months previously and I was able to adjust my holiday to fit.  Nevertheless,  Jacqui and I were still somewhat zombified after our return from the Caribbean on the Tuesday before the gig on the Sunday.  Partly time adjustment but mainly the ferocious cold that seemed to envelop East Anglia on our return! I prepared the day before:  my Godin gig bag had got messed up in the flood at Carl's flat so I squeezed the XTSA into an old Fender gig bag I have and loaded my Boss GP 10, some leads and a tuner in a back pack with my Checkmates shirts. We would be using the house amplification thank goodness.  Anyway,  come the day we drove to Cambridge,  parked up at the station car park (only £1.30 on a Sunday) and got the 13:20 to Kings Cross.  This was a non-stop, on time experience and we were flagging a taxi down by 14:20.  I directed him to Leicester Square where I intended to have a beer and kill about 30 minutes contingency time before arriving at the venue at our scheduled 3-4pm meet up time.  It was a lot warmer in London than Bury but Jacqui and I were pleased to take refuge in the Cambridge Arms on Charing Cross road about 5 minutes from the gig.  I enjoyed a couple of pints before we walked up to Mannette St opposite Denmark St (tin pan alley where all the music shops are) to find the club well and truly locked.  Strange I thought, checking my notes,   there should have been a gear load in phase before 2pm?  Then the thought struck - there must be a stage door!  So we walked on a block and down an alley where a short line of some of Raye's mates were waiting to see him and they pointed out the stage door.  I buzzed us in (non one asked who we were,  maybe there is a camera?) and we came down some well worn stairs into the concert room where I spotted Graham and his boy Adam,  They had just arrived five minutes earlier.  Apparently Raye and Val were on a bus coming over from Victoria and would not be at the gig for another half an hour.  At that moment the impresario,  Keith Woods,  came over to us and, recognising us as the Checkmates,  led us to our own dressing room back stage. We dumped the gear and as we came out past the stage we could see the house band had just completed set up and was starting a sound check.  I was amazed when the guitarist (Johnny) spotted me and said "Ah The Checkmates are here".  Apparently he had seen us play at Lindfield in 2010!  Well, he took the trouble to show me and Graham the set up.  A choice of Fender guitar amps and a Trace Elliot for bass.  Strangely all the back line amps were one side of the stage to leave plenty of room for keyboards,  sax's etc on the other side.  Although he had a nice looking Fender de-luxe 30 watt valve,  I opted for his solid state Fender 65 'cos I was using my pedal for the amp sound.  This worked out well because he could leave the settings for himself on the Deluxe. We took a step back to them get on with their sound check and greet Raye and John/Raz the Ted (Raye's old road manager) who had just arrived.   We listened a bit to the house band and Beryl Marsden's sound check before retreating to the dressing room to get sorted.  She has a fine soulful voice,  and the 'in hall' sound was very good with repeater speakers and TV screens at the back delivering a good clear sound throughout this 'intimate' venue.  We would be last to check at 4:30 ish 'cos we were first on.  I had prepared a running order and themed our show so we all knew what we were doing and we were all fit and well and ready to go.  Raye went and arranged with the lighting man to dim the stage lights in the drum routine because we would be using lit up drum sticks and Graham and I set off for our sound check.  I plugged in but nothing worked.  The sound guy came over and discovered a faulty house lead into to the Fender 65.  Then I got going.  The sound was a bit middley and had a bit too much reverb,  but I was being urged by the other two to get on with it and didn't get round to adjusting the amp settings - so I decided to settle for it.  Actually most of the sound colour was from my pedal and it would cut through nicely with the middley sound!  The mics sounded good on stage,  but Graham was well away from the back line and needed more bass in his monitor.  So we set off by trying out "Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now".   We were a little hesitant getting started but it had all gelled by the second verse.  No harmoniser meant for an interesting counterplay between mine and Graham's voice with quite a few unison lines that are normally harmonised - strangely attractive in a vintage sort of way though.  I kept edging the guitar volume down because it was so strong in my monitor but I assumed the sound guy would fix in the front of house mix.  And he did because all our supporters later re-assured us it sounded really good. We realised as we finished that Raye didn't have a vocal mic - so that was fixed for the show itself and Raye's voice would add a little bit more in places.   Although doors hadn't yet opened,  there were quite a few fans already in the room - special invites by Keith?  As we left the stage we were complimented by several of these and I even was asked for a couple of autographs on the way back to the dressing room.  A group of three international fans; including Lucky from France and Sven from Norway insisted on having photo's taken with the band.  We obliged but said we would do it again later when we had our stage wear on!  When doors opened at five,  we are delighted to meet up with daughter Claire and partner Nick and a couple of old friends of ours: Pete and Di from Farnham. We only had a few minutes because we needed to get changed ready for the 5:30pm start.  We retreated to the dressing room and donning our blue shirts we just reminded each other of some of the starts. 

Keith came and collected us at 5:25pm and we strode onto the stage in front of a full house, plugged in and opened up with "Eyes".  All went very well and we got a great round of applause.  As I looked round there were quite a few videoing the performance providing us with a view of a sea of outstretched arms with phones in hands.  I counted us straight into "Slowboat" and off we went - again it was well paced and note perfect and very well received.  We carried quickly on with the third Checkmates top ten hit "Them Their Eyes".  A couple of fluffed chords and odd remembrances of the backing vocals but a well paced rendition nevertheless.  As the applause died down Graham did our planned announcement providing a bit of background on the Checkmates and Rayes early 60's band lineage,  concluding with the morphing of the Checkmates in 1962 into the Ex-Checkers to back Jimmy Justice.  Then it was over to me to sing "Smiling" as a tribute.  Despite my failing to hit the solo switch on my Boss GP-10 for the solo,  it went very well.  I thought I sang it well, Graham joined in on some harmonies and we finished to a great round of applause.  Then Graham announced the drum routine as per his usual style and we were soon off into "Let There Be Drums".  A familiar routine that we would adapt as we went to fit on the stage. It was business as usual up to the point I would move the large tom.  This was miked up but I had pre-planned exactly where it was going for us to work round but not disturb the mic.  Raye had issued us with sticks that light up and as the house lights dimmed we looked eerie with the sticks flashing away.  We came out of the drum section OK but Graham and I got a little at cross purposes on the run up to the resumption of the verse;  nothing the crowd would notice though.    But I held my cool and restarted the run up as though it was part of the act and we ran through to the end smoothly to a fantastic reception.   As we re-organised the drums,  Graham announced our dedication to the 2 i's Coffee Bar, a favourite hang out of Raye's where much of early British Rock n Roll started. We chose to play "Brand New Cadillac by Vince Taylor (and covered by the Clash in the 80s). I had set up my slap back echo rock n roll sound and we got off to a good start at the right tempo.  In fact,  we performed this the best we ever have done - I had recently adjusted the solo to be closer to the record and that worked really well.  Once again we got a great reception for it.  Graham then announced our finishing sequence beginning with "Lucky Old Sun".  This started OK but I did have a bit of trouble getting the backing vocals as I would like without the harmoniser,  so I kept them down in the mix.  Also the middley guitar sound didn't help the arpeggios because the g string was so pronounced and I had to try and play softer on that one.  Graham elected to do a bit of an outro announcement in the middle and it took me a few bars to cotton on to the fact he was doing this over the verse chords (in effect adding an extra verse where I had wrongly assumed the next bridge would be).  All in all I felt I was struggling with this song all the way through - but again I think nothing the audience would notice.  We segued smoothly into  "Early in the Morning" with Raye joining us out front and carried it through to its usual speeding up ending and tight, syncopated finish.  As we finished to a fantastic reception we tried to leave the stage in good order,  but were generally mobbed by well wishers and autograph collectors.  One fan asked why we hadn't done: "Never Know What You're Missing"?  I said 'maybe next time!' hoping we would get to do this gig again sometime.  As I left the stage I provided our names to a music journalist who would be writing up the gig.

We headed back toward the dressing room and did some photo shoots with Lucky etc on the way and eventually we found our way back to family and friends who all said it was fantastic.  Finally we got changed and, after an hour or so watching the other bands, Jacqui and I agreed to take Claire and Nick for a meal.  Graham had had to go anyway because he was due at a conference in Copenhagen the next day;  so we said our goodbyes and ventured out into Soho.  Nick led us to a Byron's restaurant where we had some posh burgers - most enjoyable.  After, we hailed a cab on Oxford St and gave Nick and Claire a lift with us back to Kings Cross.  Where we only had a short wait before the next fast train to Cambridge.  This ran to time and we were soon picking up the car and on our way home on a very cold night.  Pleased to have some cocoa and get to bed basking in the glow of what was probably the best Checkmates gig I've done. 

 

ReTrio at Moreton Hall Pub Bury St Eds

We had agreed within the band some time ago that we wanted to do a local New Years Eve and that this was our preferred venue but we knew we would have to compromise on price.  After a successful previous gig,  Chris had persuaded them to push the budget up a bit to book us and,  after consulting head office,  we got the OK!  Having had an exhausting Xmas with a lot of family visiting and Jacqui and I both suffering with colds I was kind of looking forward to a gig, but doubted my stamina.  I loaded the car at lunch to ease my gear carrying muscles back in gently.   At 6:10 I set off for the gig and arrived a few minutes later to find the boys well advanced on load in.  The pub was busy but not packed so load in wasn't too difficult.  I was pleased Chris had arranged a larger playing area for the band which meant that I could perform back a little from the expected crowd.  We did a steady set up and everything worked and sounded OK so I put the background muzak on and settled down to doing a bit of meeting and greeting and beer drinking as the wives arrived.  A chap in the growing crowd insisted on buying the band a beer in advance of our performance so I was 2 beers happy by showtime at 9pm.

As this stage the audience was mixed,  but most near the band were 20, 30 somethings.  As expected on such an evening of meeting, greeting and drinking, there was little in the way of audience reaction so we concentrated on making our music snappy as we played through a 50 minute but largely standard set 1.  I was very pleased with the sound from the off,  the bit of extra room had allowed us to get a workable volume on the mics.  I extended the rock'n'roll sequence to include "Rock Clock, Alright Mama and Blue Suede" and these got some of the girls near the band dancing.  We made a nod to Xmas with "Rocking Around the Xmas Tree" which had a few folk singing along. A bit faster than I intended and I messed up the solo a bit - still,  at least I knew I had lost my way and I moved seamlessly into fluffed chords!  We did do a bit of bantery entertainment with the Beatles but Chris didn't catch the wig when I threw it!  After the Searchers we did "Halfway" which got quite a bit of sing-a-long going.   "Runaround Sue"  got a few up dancing and I got quickly into "All Shook Up" at a dancey tempo to keep things going.  Unfortunately,  I didn't look at my hands on the guitar as I got underway and I had stepped up a semi-tone to Bb.  I only noticed as I entered the verse and I signalled by waggling my guitar neck to Chris to make sure he was in the same key.  In fact he had clocked it during the intro so we carried on.  We got a lot of loud answerbacks so I didn't have to sing  'all shook up'  throughout the song!  The solo was a bit tricky in Bb and I found it best to look away from the neck and do it by feel.  With all that sing-a-long it had to be "Wonder of You" to finish and it was a great choice with massive sing-a-long to a well performed set ender.

Having got the first set out the way with no vocal difficulty I was feeling more relaxed about my stamina to do the whole night.  However, the 2 Chris's were still suffering from the after effects of colds so a couple of their songs would be skipped.  We stepped up to do set 2 confidently and it all went well until I threw in "Be Bop a Lula" to pad it out.  Having not done it for a while I lost timing in the first solo but fortunately the boys followed me as I reset time for the second verse.  We also fitted in "Don't Stop" which we hadn't done for a while and I was pleased the words just came to me as we played it 'cos I couldn't remember them before we started it!  I substituted by doing "Honky Tonk Women" instead of "Proud Mary" 'cos Chris was suffering a bad throat.  After a good and extended "Hot Love - East Anglia Girls" I elected to finish with "Wicked Games" thinking it would suit this younger audience better than "Trilogy".  We performed it OK.  I did find singing the high chorus line a bit of a struggle but settled for it being in tune rather than loud.  After all that effort it wasn't that well received and I thought maybe I should have done "Trilogy".  As we took the last break before the run up to midnight, Jacqui said it was sounding good and she particularly liked "Wicked Games" which she hadn't heard us do before - she thought it was somewhat over this crowd's head.

We went back on at 11:25 for the final set.  We started with "Johnny B Goode" at Chris's request to get a rocker in the show earlier rather than use it as a sign off later.  Good idea I thought - actually if we could find a better sign off song we could do that regularly!  It went really well with folks dancing and singing and I thought we played it the best we ever had, with the band cooking and no solo errors!  We were quickly into "Great Balls" which kept the atmos going and then I called for "Saw Her Standing There".  I shouted to Chris the drum that I would sing it if he wasn't well enough for it but he decided to give it a go.  He had a bit of trouble with the high lines and forgot the guitar solo but we did do it!   I chose "Dance the Night Away" next to keep the dancing going - it went well and I went straight into "Saturday Night - Come on Over - Hey Baby,  Hi Ho, " to keep it going further.  We had a bit of a confab on timing for midnight and decided we could do a couple more.  I went for "Hippy Hippy Shake" and then "Alright Now".   We still had a couple of minutes so I said we'd do enough of "Mustang Sally" to while the time away.  As we stopped, Chris the bass took over as MC and led the talk down to midnight.  He was using his iPhone and we were about 10 seconds ahead of the TV with a text count down that was slow because of digital processing delay.  At this crucial point,  the vocal section of the crowd took over the count down from the TV so we ended up with two shouts of "Happy New Year" about 10 secs apart.  Chris announced us underway with "Old Lang Syne" which I sang in D.  Just then Jacqui came up to give me a hug and simultaneously someone from the crowd caught their foot in my guitar lead and pulled it out the FX unit.  It took me most of "The Okey Cokey" to sort it out but the boys carried on - well done!  After Chris the bass sang "Knees Up Mother Brown" we took a minute to wish each other a happy New Year and then got on with the set with:  "Pretty Woman,  Sweet Caroline, Road to Hell, Shakin All Over, You Really Got Me" and the closer for the night "Wonderful Tonight".  A surprising number of people had remained so we did do "Born to be Wild" as an encore and then we met and greeted well wishers as the pub music system took over.  It had been a good night for the band but, as I have said many times,  New Years Year Eve always has a 'hardness' to it which makes it more about crowd control than music.  Having said that I was pleased with the band and my own progress during the year.  In my opinion,  with all the lead vocal seasoning I have had over the year, this gig was about the best I have sang ever in my 50 year career as a bandsman.  (Not quite in Frank Sinatra's league yet though!)

Pack and load took ages but it was only a short trip home and I had a couple of "Baileys" with my cocoa to see the New Year in.  Pretty tired the next few days but should be back to normal for our annual pilgrimage to warmer climes.






 

ReTrio at the Grapes Cambridge

A new gig for us at a regular live music pub in Cambridge.  I checked it out on the net and somewhere in the blurb it said: "The Grapes brings you live performances from local Cambridge bands. Covering the greatest tunes from ANY decade, most bands have been playing on the circuit for a long time. A NIGHT NOT TO BE MISSED!"  Seemed our kind of gig?

Chris the bass picked me up at 5:50pm to form a 2 vehicle convoy heading West;  Chris the drum would be coming later.  An uneventful ride towards the city centre on the Histon Road took us to the venue by 6:30 and straight into the pub car park.  We were able to park up with several yards carry to the back door and then several more yards carry to the performance area,  so not too bad a load in.  The performance area was a railed off raised lounge.  The guvnor came and fixed sound proofing to the windows (polystyrene),  cleared some chairs and tables and voila:  a sizeable playing area with a bit of a dance floor!  Chris the drum arrived and we set the Bose well to the back so there would be a bit of sound carry to the main part of the pub as well.  Power was well off to Chris's side and I had to run a mains lead from there to my main protected distribution board and then a lead back to the bass side.  With set up complete I had plenty of time to test the sound  (the pub was busy so not a sound check as such).  Like most pubs we would be restricted in headroom by changing resonant frequencies on the PA.  The guitar and bass sounded good and a chap came over to ask me a few questions about the guitar sounds I was testing.  Chris the bass had a new cold and said: 'it was making him feel he wasn't in the mood';  Chris the drum was still recovering from a cold.  I,  currently coldless, thought we'd best have a couple of beers to improve the mood a bit!  Show time was at 9pm so we had plenty of time to while away on not a lot. 

By show time the clientele was much the same - mainly 30 plus's with a sprinkling of 40-50 somethings and a few younger folk round the pool table.  As I looked through to the other bar I could see some older folk,  so I was hoping for an OK crowd.  We had come dressed in black shirts and blue jeans,  no ties.   The venue and clientele weren't that well turned out so we stayed like that and still looked smarter!

We opened with "FBI".  All seemed OK soundwise,  but there was only a muted response as we finished so I did a bit of introductory chatter.  We carried on with "Heartbeat - Smiling" and we started to get some attention and little ripples of applause.  I pushed the echo up a little because the vocal sound seemed dry to me.   It was only as we ventured into rock and roll with "Rock Clock - Alright Mama" that we got a reasonable response and even a few on the dance floor.  I decided to skip the Xmas stuff and we got on with the Band intro songs: "Act Naturally,  Ring of Fire,  Eyes at Me For".   We hadn't done the latter for a few weeks and it was worth airing even if we were a bit rusty.  I did tease some of the oldies down in the other bar with this one,  inviting them to remember this song from the late 1950's then going "Do wappy do wappy" stop then 'silence' - they clearly couldn't remember it!  The Beatles (sans wigs) went down well and we had a few singing and dancing along with us.  I pretended we were more pro than we are by asking Chris where we were the previous night -  'Coventry' he replied!  No connection to the Searchers there so we just got on played the medley. There was an 'old boy' off to my left who clearly was enjoying the banter and the music (and a few drinks).  "Runaround Sue - All Shook Up" was well received and after a bit of prompting we got the crowd to answer back on the latter. We finished off with "Wonder of You" which did get some applause so I thought job well done really. It being a kind of 'take or leave it' venue I was relaxed and in a good mood myself.   The mood of the rhythm section had improved with playing and I thought we had the measure of the crowd, so confidence was high.

A fairly standard set 2 came and went.  I replaced American Trilogy with "Albatross" as the set closer to exercise it and promptly made a mistake in the first high section,  but slid into the correct frets quickly - so not too noticeable! 

We went on for set 3 opening with "Great Balls - Saw Her Standing There".  These got good responses with applause and dancing and I took the boys on quickly through a long sequence starting with "Dance the Night Away" and ending about 20 minutes later with "All Right Now".  It being the last gig for a couple of weeks,  I went for it vocally and thought I did a good job, and I enjoyed it.  Chris drum was too croaky to do "Another Brick in the Wall" so I called for "Hippy Hippy Shake" quickly and caught the boys dithering - it took them half a verse to get going but the song did energise the crowd into drunken dancing.  We did a bit more dithering over what to do next so I said lets exercise some stuff in progress and we did "Rockin All Over the World & Road to Hell" - I half forgot a solo in the former and both were a bit less together than last time, but it got some more finger time under the belt.  After playing our outroductions with "Johnny B Goode" we were dithering over the encore to fully finish.  In the end I said 'nothing to lose' - lets do "Summer of 69"!  This was very much a work in progress; I recall we had played it through only once before at a practice session to see what rockier numbers might work.  Actually we did it better than I thought we might and the audience didn't notice me struggling to shout the chords of the bridge and singing it at the same time.  I was pleased with my guitar sound and playing and got most the words right so it was a good call.  I also think the boys were pleased that I had the confidence in them to busk it through dependably.

Then it was pack and load.  Chris had a word with management who declared themselves well pleased and keen to have the band back.  We all agreed we liked the venue so Chris will make it so!   I was delayed opening my sandwich bag that Ms J wraps up so tightly - in effect we set off home separately.  But even on a slow run I was home by 1:30 am to find Ms J and Neice in law Nat still up and making cocoa.  Phil, Nat and the boys had arrived while I was gigging.

ReTrio at The Felsto Arms Felixstowe

We had left the gear in the cars from Friday night and agreed to meet up at the gig about 6pm for a 8pm start.  Chris would take Chris. I set off at 5:20 and took an easy drive to Felixstowe,  getting to the gig at 6:05 to see the Chris's loading their last few bits in.  I parked at the back and they helped me shift my gear in.  The guvnor (Robbie) had cleared a bigger space than last time so we did fit in OK (still tight for Chris drum).  Set up was uneventful but switching on the PA had the feedback suppressors working hard to track changing frequencies.  We would have to sing louder or play quieter - I opted for the latter.  We had come dressed in jeans, black shirts and ties so no need to change as such.   A chap at the bar bought us a round of drinks - good one ya buddy! 

The pub was busy but not as crowded as previous visits as we opened up a typical set 1 with added bits of Xmas songs.  It all went well in a toned down sort of a way,  we developed bits of banter with people who knew us now.   I thought I played and sang pretty well really,  and the bass and drums were solid.  Chris the drum was still a bit croakey from a bug he had had, so he declined a couple of vocals as the night progressed. 

During the break we had a strange discussion where Chris the drum explained he had been in touch with a singer Keith about us backing him.  I remembered this was the chap who sang in strange keys,  and didn't turn up to sing a couple of songs at Moreton Hall last time we were there.  Chris advised that he wouldn't need any special keys after all and he was set to come along New Years Eve and sing a few.  I didn't see a problem with us doing that,  but I couldn't see us backing him unless the whole unit was getting gigs for £300 plus so I questioned the added value,  saying that it could work better with a female singer to complement the band repertoirewise and improve vizuals.    I also pondered why Keith was not gigging on New Years Eve?  As we resumed I must confess I had mixed feelings about how to manage this and decided to sleep on the situation before trying to reach a settlement we could all buy into.

Typical sets 2 and 3 completed a low key but well performed evening.  But, even with only 20 left, we got to encore with "Born to Be Wild".   Unfortunately we were back to the slowed down drumming again;  ah well at least we all finished together!  Pack up was slow with stragglers milling around the band: and when we went outside it was a white xmas! Well not xmas and only a dusting of frostiness on the cars - but it was cold.  We got going after a bit of demisting and made our separate ways home.  Next day was busy with son Carl (and his family) over to celebrate his birthday.

ReTrio at Horringer Community Centre Casino Nite

Chris the bass's son in law Nathan is a teacher and he'd  booked us for a Xmas charity fund raising event his school was putting on.  There would be a casino thing going on as well, so the band sets would be relatively short.  I distilled workable set lists from the usual and asked the boys to be prepared to operate "out of the box" if we found the audience needed something special on the night. The event would start at 6:45pm and the band would start its first set at a relatively early 7pm.  Now, Chris the drum couldn't get time off work.  So there were some 'interesting' logistics preceding the gig.  Chris the bass and I met up on the Wednesday to go through "The James Bond Theme" song we would be playing as a link on the night.  So at the same time he dropped one of his bass cabs off with me to take to the gig.  That freed enough room in his car for him to go round to Chris the drum's on Thursday and pick up his kit.  Come Friday we had all the band gear aboard both cars and I followed Chris the bass down to the hall arriving at 4:15pm This was the same hall we met up in for a first time try out two years previously.  We'd certainly come on since then and we both had a sense of nostalgia as Chris opened the door.  That happy glow was immediately dispelled by the fire alarm continuing a high pitched noise.  Couldn't switch it off what ever we did.  The main hall was relatively quiet so we set about getting the gear in and setting up while the hall guvnor made his way over to sort it out.  A related problem soon emerged:  no power on stage?  I fiddled about with that for a bit but when the governor arrived he explained that the fire alarm automatically switched off power to the stage!  It took him about 20 minutes to identify a problem with a sensor in the kitchen then it was all systems go.  Meanwhile,  Chris the bass had set up the drums.  A couple of issues here and there but he seemed to know what to do.  One of the rare occasions I set up a music stand nowadays - just to see the set list really.  Although Chris the drum had yet to arrive, we had about an hour to event opening time,  so I conducted a sound check with the two of us.  After sorting out PA headroom,  which seemed quite high, we ran through a verse of "Smiling" and I recorded 20 secs of what went through the PA.  Then I played it back on a continuous loop.  Chris played along and I wandered out into the hall to have a listen.  It was surprisingly clear and loud all round the hall;  and well balanced with vocals sitting clearly above the backing.  The harmoniser was understated but that suited,  as were the strings.  I kind of wish I'd taken the time to perform the 20 secs a bit tidier,  but you could still judge the sound quality and it was good.  An amazing coincidental confirmation came in the shape of a chap who came into the hall at this point.  He said he was passing by, heard the band and was interested. He immediately commented on the great hi-tech sound - so its not our biased hearing! We explained the gig we were doing and he asked for a card.   Then Chris and I swapped positions.  I played the bass and he went out front to listen.  He was similarly impressed.  He had asked me to play the bass with a plectrum and it was a bit like a Jazz bass sound with the toppy pick click sitting on top of a full bass thump.  Sounded good to me.  I can get a similar effect with fingers by striking the string harder,  but the toppier pick sound does help fill the overall band mix of a 3 piece.  We implemented my judgement that we needed to pull the overall volume down a bit and tidied some of the wiring up - we were all set apart from a drummer!  Chris the drum arrived shortly after,  so we did a final sound check of "Smilin" with him and then tested out our rendition of the  "James Bond" theme phrase.

The hall was open now and the organisers were organising.  It seemed everything would be put back half an hour 'cos the Casino was running late.  I put on the background muzak and we went for a beer.  On this night I elected to have Becks bottled lager to avoid being first out the pumps!  The hall filled with a mix of teachers,  families and teens from the school.  3 of the boys had been shifting chairs from the back of the stage to make a lounge area at the back of the hall.  Spotting it as a risk,  I had managed to keep them from affecting our mains lead which ran through that area of the stage and I was glad that was over.   Bridget and Jacqui arrived looking good for a casino - we were all set.  But still no casino.

Nathan said we should get started - so we got changed into our smart gear in a cold committee room and came on to open up with the usual first few.  All went well, it sounded good, people applauded.  I had just got to the start of "Rock Around the Clock"  when the power went!  My first thought was fire alarm;  but no,  it was the young fellows shifting chairs again to accommodate a fuller house than predicted.  They were most apologetic,  we laughed it off and I reset the kicked power breaker!  We were soon going and played through a good set 1 of about 50 minutes.  There were bits of dancing and applause but we could also see people were really engaged with the band and we were doing well.  The casino people came in about 8pm and created some mild disruption shifting their tables in while we kept playing.  We finished our set and handed over to the Casino by playing our "James Bond Theme".  This went better than rehearsed and was very well received by the younger chaps of the audience who were all smartly dressed - I was right to refer to them as James Bond types!

In the break we played a bit of casino and managed to lose most of the 'free' chips issued on black jack and roulette.  I left mine on the band table as I went bock to play a 30 minute set 2.  This we started with the "James Bond Theme" then "Apache".  We went straight from that to "Happy Together" and that did sound good and full vocally.  We had a lotta folks singing along to "Daydream Believer and Delilah"  I had asked Chris to listen to the Alex Harvey version and he has taken to playing the drums on this number recently - it gives it more bite.  We did follow with a dancey "Bad Moon Rising,  Move It and Summertime Blues" before moving to our closing sequence with "Hot Love into East Anglia Girls".  I recall that these went OK.  We even had enough time to do a relaxed "American Trilogy" and this went down exceptionally well - we got massive applause and came off after a final flourish of "James Bond"

Next up was the raffle.  I won a bottle of Prosecco!  Then a bit more gambling and the announcement of the winners.  By now it was after 11pm and we went on to play the event out.  But with the casino packing up and people starting to leave, Chris the bass suggested we start with "Johnny B Goode" and introduce the band as the opener - so we did,  and it went very well = good call!  But after that people were on their way home so we left it at "Dance the Night Away",  "Saw Her Standing There" and with only the organisers left we finished off with "Honkey Tonk Women".  Chris had to be prompted to find his cow bell but once we got going it was a fine rendition.  Pack and load didn't take long - because we had some helpers to shift the gear.  Jacqui and I were home just after midnight I celebrated a good night banding with some toast and cocoa!