Valediction

Of course it is possible the band could re-unite for occasional gigs, but most would think it has run its course working a gig circuit that is mostly in decline. In drawing up some valedictory remarks the first thing I must own up to is that I was one of the founders of the band in 2002 and played right through from its first gig in 2003 through to its last gig in 2010. I can only recall one gig (Gressenall in 2009) that I didn’t play in all that time. I had a real affinity in our approach to repertoire, vocals and entertainment with founder member Dave Lemon who passed away in Summer 2009. Our other founder Dan is a lifelong multi-talented friend who I have played with in many bands since we were teenagers; and I’m sure I will play with Dan again before we get called to the big gig in the sky. My thanks go to all the other dep’ musicians who worked with us over the years; particularly Charlie Steadman and Dave Ainsworth who both helped out on bass for several gigs in the mid-years of the band and Martin Richmond on drums and vocals who kept us going for many of the gigs in the immediate aftermath of Dave’s passing. Thinking about the final line up of the band I can say I have been privileged to work with Nigel over the last few years. Apart from being a damn fine musician to play with, he is a trouper and top bloke who never lets you down. Nige always went the extra bit to keep the band on the road fulfilling its commitments in a most professional way. Nigel is very well respected and connected in the world of East Anglian music. He sourced all 8 drummers we worked with after the trauma of Dave’s passing and sourced many of the gigs we enjoyed. Since Nigel joined in 2008 we played many different types of gigs together and I can’t recall a single gig that we didn’t play well at, whatever the circumstance - even those with no audience! And, of course, I have many fond memories of those special gigs where it all worked really well. I learned a lot from Nigel: It started with attention to musical detail, it continued with repertoire selection and I certainly learned a few things about stagecraft, sound system management and audience psychology. Nige remains a valued friend and, of course, I will be up for working with him again if circumstances allow. Young Greg joined the band in its last few months and immediately surprised us with the quality of his drumming. He is very easy to get on with and I felt there was a lot of untapped performance potential in Greg - I’m sure we would have extracted it if we were continuing! Greg lifted the band emotionally in its final few months when it became clear the band had run its course – it is a pity we didn’t find him earlier. I sense Greg will move on to greater things but I would more than pleased to work with him again.

So the Foot Tappers / Sky High finished 2010 in good form and are now enjoying a well deserved rest. It may be some time before I resume the blog, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the blogettes and blogateers who have followed the band over the years.

And to quote from Nigel’s excellent band web site http://www.foottappers.co.uk/

“The Foot Tappers are now on extended leave but whatever happens, the web site remains as our online tribute to Dave Lemon.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen and goodnight...”

New Years Eve at East Runton Seacroft

Nige and I had had a lot on our ‘plates of life’ for several months and New Years Eve had finally crept up on us. I always find New Years Eve is less about performance and more about crowd control and I couldn’t help thinking sadly that this would be our last performance. We were on with a DJ and I hoped that would work out well – we had mixed experiences of working with DJ’s in the past! Jacqui kindly offered to accompany me on the 'Foot Tappers Last Stand' as she called it. She had arranged we call in to see Dan and Michele for a New Years Eve meal in the afternoon. So we set off early in quite misty conditions to drive to Dan’s via Swaffham. It was steady going and we arrived at East Runton about 4pm. We enjoyed a slap up feed and I was excused the washing up so I could go to the gig only about half a mile away. I arrived at just after 6pm to find the barrier already up and Nige already there starting to unload. He had done the meeting and greeting with Sarah (the manager and chef) and got a green light to work things out with the DJ. He had been suffering from a migraine and hadn’t had anything to eat, so I was pleased to donate some sandwiches Jacqui had prepared before we sealed the meal deal with Michele. Next to arrive was Rollo the compere / DJ for the night. We recognised each other from Searles holiday park and he immediately set to work to clear the stage of DJ gear and set up just off stage on the right hand side. Rollo was just great at working out our performance plan for the night. We would start at 8:45pm and do three sets including the crucial 11:30 – 12:15 set. We asked Rollo to compere the countdown at midnight - so all was set. Greg arrived at 6:30pm disappointed not to be first to arrive (he had missed my email bringing timings forward half an hour)! The Xmas tree on stage meant it was a bit of a squeeze and my mic ended up being a bit too close to the Bose for my liking, but we eventually got sorted and left the stage for a beer. Folks had been queuing up outside the club house and they were now let in to fill the concert room up and start brewing a jolly atmosphere. The changing room is also the washing machine room and it was very steamy with the tumble drier venting into the room - I opened the window but then it got very cold, so we got changed into the white shirts and black ties in the steam. As we came out Trevor from the Sheringham High School gig came up to wish us well and then we took ourselves off to the games room and set up camp on some leather settees. A few minutes later Dan, Michele and Ms Jacqui arrived and we passed the time with them until showtime. We took to the stage on time but Greg had lost his drum sticks so there was a bit of a delay before Rollo introduced us and we got underway with the usual “Foot Tapper” Intro. This went well (if a tad fast), the instrumental sound was fine and we got a good reception from a full room. We did our customary intro of the band members; I explained that Nige spoke the local dialect if any translations were needed and that Greg was very young as drummers go and I was to be regarded as their ‘wicked uncle Mog’ keeping them working and under control! This banter went down well and the evening looked promising. We carried on with a typical set 1 show flow. I was having a bit of trouble with feedback on my mic and I purposefully avoided anything too complex. We included a short waltz with “Around the World” and a final airing for “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” with the red hats. We approached the end of the set with the Beatles medley which went down very well and finished with “Words” which brought quite a few slow dancers onto the floor. Rollo took over and we took a break decamping to our leather settee zone. Greg couldn’t resist a trip to the buffet and despite Nige’s old warning about ‘keeping hungry to play gigs’ ringing in our ears, we soon all joined in tasting some excellent party food. Everything was running a bit late but we were trying to get timings back in track so we were soon back on for Set 2. We opened with “Flingel Bunt” and followed up quickly with “The Searchers”. We had quite a few up and dancing so Nige took us on into “Do It Again” which went pretty well considering it hadn’t had an airing for a while. Greg had requested “Under the Moon of Love” so we set off into that next. Despite having the words and chords open in the book front of me, I had a bit of trouble remembering the verse run down chords but we got there in the end; and rhythmically it was fine and kept the crowd dancing. We took the set on with “All Shook Up” and the audience dutifully sang the answer backs on the punch line. Nige took things on again with “Lets Dance – Mony Mony” and then it was time to slow it down a bit. We did the Shadows walk for one last time with a couple of reluctant lady volunteers.

Then I announced “Halfway to Paradise” Nige did his manly answer back in the middle 8 so, for the last time, I stopped the band and made him wear the blonde wig to sing it like a girl! We were close to time now and I called for “Sweet Caroline” to finish: a good call ‘cos we got a lot of people up dancing and singing along as we finished the set. Rollo took over smoothly and we took another break until 11:30pm. We came back on to resume with Sir Cliff’s “Do You Wanna Dance” which got a few people up to dance then we went straight into “Amarillo - Hey Baby – The Twist – Hi Ho Silver Lining sequence. This filled the floor and got them singing along nicely, There was just time to do “Hippy Hippy Shake and Rip It Up” before we started the New Year countdown with the appropriate song: “Midnight Hour” at 4 minutes to – fortunately Nige spotted I was about to start in the wrong key and gestured me into the correct one. As we finished we had about a minute and a half to go and Rollo took over marshalling the crowd into a circle. Ms J was invited to join in as well. Then we did the countdown from 10 arriving at a mass ‘Happy New Year’ a few seconds late by my radio synchronised clock!




Then we started up “Old Lang Syne”. The dance floor was heaving and Greg wisely declined to speed it up much for fear of injury or riot. As we finished Nige took it on quickly to the “Hokey Cokey and Knees Up Mother Brown” and the job was all but done. We just needed a couple of numbers to finish. Nige called for “Saw Her Standing There” which went a bomb and I started “Johnny B Goode as our last number. We brought that to a fine climax for Rollo to take over and for us it was all over. We all wished each other and Rollo a ‘Happy New Year’ then we fought our way through the crowd to regroup in the foyer, getting many a well wish en route. We posed briefly for an emotional group hug then it was off to get changed.




When we emerged, Rollo was still DJing about 20 dancers who had stayed on so we kept clear for 10 minutes while he wound up proceedings. As we came back into the hall one couple wished me all the best saying the band had been just brilliant doing songs they remembered and playing and singing so well! Well it had been a good night to finish on, we had had some good gigs in the last few weeks and we could hold our heads high for a job well done. Then it was pack’n’load. A few minutes later Rollo was on his way. We bantered away a bit as we packed up – with echoes of Shakespeare’s ‘when will we three meet again’? Greg got away first – he had a young persons party to go to in North Walsham and he even declined a Werthers original in his haste to get off. Nige and I finished load up and went to sign off with Sarah and Sally who were nearly ready to close. We all agreed it had gone really well and wished each other all the best for the New Year, then Nige and I trudged back to the vehicles for a final handshake. As we set off about 2am. Ms J and I decided to go back via Norwich and made reasonable time because the fog had lifted. We finally got in at about 3:40am tired but pleased with the job well done.

Norfolk Centre Caravan Rally - Old Buckenham High School

Earlier in the day Greg had intrigued me by email announcing there would be a surprise at the gig? Carl elected to accompany me after I told him it was free beer (in the shape of cans of Carsberg). We set off in good time in very misty conditions and made slow progress to Attleborough on the A 11. There we took the Diss road southbound. It was very hard to see road signs in the dark and mist and I missed the turn for Abbey Road at Old Buckenham. Unwisely I decided to take the next turn left and see if it brought me back – it didn’t! We ended up in a dead end and we had to turn back. Finally got into the school and found my way through to the main hall where I met up with Willy the promoter. A couple of burly fellows volunteered to help us in with the gear so we set off back to the entrance and had just started to get organised when Nigel arrived followed a few minutes later by Greg. Greg revealed the ‘surprise’ by handing me a packet of Werthers Originals as the prize for being first to arrive. The gear was got in very quickly. It is a very big high stage in an echoey main school hall but no significant resonances. We were able to set up in great comfort toward the front of the stage with me reverting to my old position on the left. I set up a mic and agreed times with Willy and he showed us a large disabled toilet which we could use as a dressing room. We had a few minutes to relax in the canteen and, after a can of beer, one of the ladies there offered to make me a cup of tea – just the job. A chap called Colin came over to say how he enjoyed the band last year and could he request a country song. I agreed we’d do “Crystal Chandeliers” for him and started to glad hand another well wisher. This delayed me setting off to get changed with the boys. A few minutes later I found my way to our luxury disabled toilet dressing room to find Nigel and Greg already there with Colin the country requestor who had decided to pop in for a wee (he admitted not knowing there were several other toilets down the hall). So we stood around and bantered a bit while he relieved himself! Then we got changed into the black shirts and white ties and took to the stage a few minutes after 8pm to open up with our usual “Foot Tapper, Just One Look, Heartbeat” opening sequence.

The onstage sound on my side was just perfect. I could hear lots of musical subtleties from the Bose and it made for a better performance. The audience were very obliging giving us a good reception and, by the time we did the Everly’s “Walk Right Back – When Will I Be Loved”, we got some dancers going. We donned the red hats for “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” and that got a very good response so we did a bit of rock’n’roll with “Blue Suede – Whole Lotta Shakin”. At this point we did our country request with Nige doing the false beginning a few times: starting with “Lilly the Pink” then “Sundarise” and some more obscure ones before we finally got underway with “Crystal Chandeliers”. The floor filled nicely with dancers and Nige took us on into “Cheating Heart” to give ‘em a run for their money! We gave them some slowies in the shape of “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and the Monkeys “Daydream Believer”. We donned the wigs for a well received “Beatles Medley”. It was all going down very well and we were confidently bantering and performing. I announced “Take It Easy” and took it into a slightly slower start. The slight easing in tempo gave me a few extra milli-seconds to make the harmoniser and guitar changes more confidently and resulted in the best we have played it. We got a warm reception from the audience which was most pleasing. We finished the set with “Words” and took a break while Willy did the raffle. Carl confirmed that the good on stage sound also producing a really great sound in the hall. Then that nice lady in the canteen offered me a coffee and I took a request from another lady for a Rolling Stones number. Some more ladies came over to ask if we could do a tango and even showed us some steps! We returned to the stage to open set 2 with Ace’s “How Long”. We hadn’t done this for a few weeks and it took me a while to get into it. But Nige was confident and in fine voice, Greg had a nice 16 beat rhythm going, the guitar solo went well enough and our performance must have sounded good in the hall ‘cos’ we got some ‘whoops’ of appreciation as we finished. We carried on with the Searchers which got the dancers going again and then I did “Jumping Jack Flash” as the Rolling Stones request. This was pretty good rhythmically but Nige and I were feeling our way through the chords for the first verse. As we came to the second verse I forgot the words and had to make something up not unlike the first verse again. I didn’t play a solo as such but we did a funky rhythm build up back to a repeat of that verse I couldn’t remember! It got a surprisingly good reception. Willy asked us to ease off on the volume and as it happened I was planning to do a strictly session with "Around the World - Lady is a Tramp" so that allowed a perfect lowering of volume while we did the waltz and quickstep. Next up was “White Xmas” so we donned the red hats and the slow dancers came up to do their bit.

Actually Nige and I finally got the vocals much as intended and it worked very well. We continued with “Raining in my Heart” to keep the slow dancers going and that went down really well as well. I took the boys on into “Move It – All Shook Up” and we started to get a lot up and dancing, so Nige took them on through “Lets Dance – Mony Mony”. We concluded the set with our usual “Halfway – Wonder – Sweet Caroline” sequence which was perfect sing’a’long for this audience. As we came off for the break a younger chap came over to tell me the band was tremendously good – he hadn’t expected anything like that and he was amazed at our versatility. We had a few minutes off and came back on to open the third set with a request for “Summertime Blues”. This got them dancing from the off and we followed up with the “Amarillo – Hey Baby – Twist” sequence to get the crowd in party mood. I warned the crowd we would be rehearsing New Years Eve at 11pm. So we got them all set up in a circle for a countdown at a minute to 11. Then we wished them a ‘Happy New Year’ and set them off singing and dancing to “Old Lang Syne” in key of G and then on into the “Hokey Cokey” in key of C. Nige started the Hokey Cokey an octave low but soon got it right; otherwise it all went very well and we carried on playing mainly dancey stuff up to 11:30pm when I announced “Johnny B Goode” as the last number. We rocked that to a conclusion getting enthusiastic applause and shouts for ‘more’; so I called for “Merry Xmas” as the encore. We played that pretty good and finished to more wild applause. Willy came up to talk the evening down and we made our way off stage to a heroic reception from well wishers from the audience. Despite the uncertainty over the band’s future I was asked for cards by several people including a fellow musician who thought we would be great for the holiday parks at Hemsby (he took all my spare cards). Willy was keen to book us for next New Years Eve, but I explained the price would be very high and, with uncertainty over the bands future, it would be best to think about it for a couple of months. Pack up went OK with Carl helping on some bits, then the brawny fellows from the club helped us out with the gear. We loaded the vehicles, I passed round the Werther’s originals, we shook hands and we hit the road. It was very misty as we set off. I chose to head back via Diss. This turned out to be a ‘long and winding road’ so we made fairly slow time in the mist only getting home at about 1:30am. On reflection I thought we had played and performed really well at this gig and the sound was obviously spot on. One of our best efforts in the year I thought – it’s strangely all coming good at the end of the band’s life cycle!

Norwich Ramada Jarvis Hotel

The weather was still very cold as I loaded up. We were playing a Xmas Eve dinner for guests at the Norwich Ramada. The brief from our agent, Mark Buller, was: arrive by 5:45 so we could be set up by 7 pm when the guests arrive for dinner. I set off at 4:30 pm allowing plenty of time to cruise over. I’d got a couple of miles to the roundabout near the sugar factory when i remembered I hadn’t picked up my sandwiches - Shock Horror! So I went right round the roundabout and set off back home. I rang up Ms J on the way and Carl was waiting outside the house with them. As I arrived I opened the passenger window and he threw the bag of food onto the passenger seat as I passed by at about 2 mph! I soon got back on route but things were running slow up to Thetford. Once on the A 11 I got up to cruising speed and made good progress to Norwich. As I arrived in Norwich the traffic was still light, but frustratingly in my way a lot of the time. So I was a few minutes late as I parked up outside the Ramada ‘City Suite’ where the event was being held. As I got out the car up comes Nige. He knew the layout of the gig from the old days and we were able to load all the gear into a big goods lift. We had all of our gear upstairs when Greg arrived. Nige went off to help him while I started set up. Just got the mains wiring in place when up comes our compere and agent Mark Buller.

He advised us to mix friendly chat with easy listening and some lightweight dancey material. We wouldn’t be playing until about 9pm so he suggested we got changed and spend time in the bar. Great acoustics on this stage. We finished set up and loaded the bags into a very cold store room where we got changed into the white shirts. We had a word with a few early arriving guests as we came out, then we headed to the bar. The people we spoke to seemed up for a mix of 50’s 60’s 70’s - things boded well.

The bar was very quiet and we were soon making ourselves at home and enjoying a beer. After a while Nige went out for a smoke and came back to report it was snowing - we had another beer! Mark came round to pick us up about ten past nine and we got on stage ready to go by 9:15 pm. Mark gave us a fantastic introduction so it was about 9:20pm as we opened up with “Foot Tapper”. It was a really good instrumental sound on-stage and we got a warm reception from a fairly full room. I introduced the band and we carried on with “Just One look”. The vocals sounded great and I could see we had the volume pitched right for the audience. We worked through “Heartbeat” and I announced we would do some songs from some well known brothers with a weight problem – the “Heavily Brothers” quipped Nigel. As we got underway with “Walk Right Back” the dance floor filled and stayed full through “When Will I Be Loved”, so I took the boys on into “Cathy’s Clown”. I meant to stop after that but Nige and Greg carried on into “Bye Bye Love” and the crowd loved it – it had turned out to be a fortunate band judgement to play an extended Everlys medley. Next up I tried “Around the World” as a waltz but there wasn’t any dance interest so we kept it short. But they did sing’a’long and gave it a good round of applause. At this point I asked the boys to don their red hats ‘cos we were gonna do a Xmas song – “Rockin’ Around the Xmas Tree” This went very well and Nige called for the Beatles to continue the entertainment angle. So we hatted down and wigged up. The audience reacted well to the Beatles intro banter and even answered back ‘John Lennon’ when I invited the people in the expensive seats to ‘rattle their jewellery’ We got underway with “8 Days a Week” and, surprisingly, the dance floor filled again. Most of them stayed with us as we bashed through the medley and it got a great round of applause. We bantered our way through the Monkees “Daydream Believer” and Ferry Across the Wensum”. We had a few slow dancers up and Nige took us on into “Raining in my Heart” which filled the floor. Then tried out some rock’n’roll with Sir Cliff’s “Move It” and “Blue Suede Shoes – Great Balls of Fire”. After rocking them around the dance floor we got them to take a break while we did the “Halfway-Wonder-Sweet Caroline” sequence to a good singalong response. I was thinking about the next number to get the dance floor busy again. I had lined up the Searchers in my mind but it was getting close to an hour and just then Mark signalled last number. I made a quick judgment to carry on with the “Searchers” as our last number for this set - this turned out to be a good call. The dance floor was packed, the band was playing with passion and I sensed that the audience loved our medlification of the hits. As we left to loud applause, Mark took over smoothly and started his Xmas Eve competition. We took to the bar for a round of tap water! We re-grouped at 10:30pm thinking most people would drift off after the competition; but to our surprise, they were still there looking hungry for a dance! So I briefed the boys to open with “Amarillo”; Mark did his introduction and we were off. Still a good on-stage sound and the dance floor filled nicely. As we finished I took the boys into “Hey Baby” which turned out to be the right choice. The audience, particularly the ladies, sang the chorus with gusto and nicely in tune. We ran on into the “Twist” and I altered a spoken ‘whats that up there’ line to ‘Is it a Santa Claus?’ to get a great ‘Yesss’ response! Nige slipped in “Lets Dance – Mony Mony” to keep them going. We played on with some more audience involvement pieces including “All Shook Up” and “Apache”. A couple of ladies came up to do some strictly come Shadows Walk dancing with me. Unfortunately I was a bit too vigorous in the last verse and I played a few ‘avant garde’ jazz notes by mistake as my Hank Marvin glasses fell off my nose. But we got through to the end in good order after that incident and we got a great response from an appreciative crowd. We did don the red hats to do “White Xmas” as a slowie but there weren’t many takers for slow dancing so we kept it short again. I wanted to do an Eagles number so we could run the Norfolk eagle banter, but I picked the wrong number with “Peaceful Easy Feeling” because that late in the evening I had real trouble hitting the high vocal notes and ended up resorting to a weak falsetto. But we still got good applause for it. I was surprised to see it was coming up to 11:30pm already so I called for Johnny B Goode as the last number. We rocked that through doing a drum and bass solo as well as a few guitar solos. The crowd had danced it through with gusto and there was a good enough response for me to call for Slade’s “Merry Xmas” as the ‘planned encore’. This went pretty well (actually I thought the best we have played it over the years) and they were still shouting for ‘more’. At this point Mark took over as compere and asked us to do one more. A lady dancing nearby asked for “Rock Around The Clock” and off we went straight into it. Since Nige took over this song I have always been caught out surprised at the ending because his ending comes up (like the record) without a repeat of the last line. After many months of only getting halfway there with the twiddly guitar ending, this was the night I got it right!!! As we came off several people came up to congratulate us on a wonderful night, saying how great it was to hear so many memorable old tunes. Mark was pleased with the good job done and we went off to get changed leaving Mark to play out the last 15 minutes with some disco. We noticed Mark had a bit of a problem with a speaker cutting out but it was too late for him to do anything about it really. As he finished we started pack up and Nige acquired some supermarket trolleys from the kitchen so we could move the gear into the lift in just a few movements. We soon had the gear down and in the cars and shook hands to a gig well done, and wished each other a merry Xmas. There was a light covering of snow on the cars but the roads were clear as we got underway. Just as we left my daughter, Claire, rang and asked me if I could pick her up in Bury on the way home – no problem I said I’ll be there in an hour! But as I got out of Norwich I ran into fog mostly OK to continue at 70 mph, but some patches I had to slow down for. I was able to test out the inbuilt hands free and voice recognition phone technology in the car to call her as I approached Bury so she could be waiting outside the night club ready for me to pick her up. It all worked perfectly and we were home by 2 am.

Wensum Community Centre Norwich

Ms J decided to come along. We had a good run over in cold, slightly damp conditions in the S-Max to Norwich. As per the last few visits I missed the turning for Hotblack Road but this time when I turned back I missed it again; so I came at it the other way off the Dereham Road finally getting to the gig at 6:45pm to find Nigel already parked there. As we got out to say hello, Richard the promoter arrived to open the club. We got the gear in quickly to keep the heat in the hall. It’s a boxy stage and I set about putting a blanket and the gear covers around the back and corners, and the acoustic tiles over the front valance, to absorb some of the adverse sound reflections at this gig. By the time Greg arrived I was set up on the right with the Bose well back. As I started my soundcheck Nige had a listen out front. He thought it was too quiet and he and Greg inched my Bose forward to give it more dispersion. Even though Nige was chesty on the night, I was let off shifting things ‘cos my sciatic leg is still troublesome - one of the benefits of being the ‘old man’ in the band! Satisfied with set up we settled down for a beer when Jen arrived with her daughters Suzy and Theresa along with Dave’s ex wife Valisha, their daughter Laura and her man Pete.

This was an excellent boost to our audience making well over 30 in total. We got changed into the white shirts and took to the stage a few minutes late to open with “Flingel Bunt”. The on-stage sound was poor as expected and I had to fiddle a bit with my settings through the first few numbers. Alan Cannell and Hilly arrived a few numbers in. Unbeknown to Greg, part of Alan’s reason for visiting was to check him out as a potential drummer for his band ‘Shake rattle and Roll’. Meanwhile we continued with a relatively dancey set 1. In fact the only mid-set slowey we did was: “Ferry Cross the Wensum”. After the first few numbers we had quite a few dancers up: these were people who knew how to dance (particularly the modern jive) and I adjusted the set to cope; bringing in “All Shook Up” and “Rockin’ Around the Xmas Tree” (complete with Santa hats) to keep things rock’n’roll. We followed up with a wigged “Beatles Medley” getting a big round of applause. Things were going reasonably well and I slipped in “Take It Easy”, which got a good response. Then we finished with “Words”. During the break we had a bit of socialising to do: the younger ladies were knocking a few drinks back and were dressed up Christmassy: with glowing earrings, antlers etc. While we were off, I was approached by one of the dancing chaps who had a few requests. Great - we could do most of them and I promised we would slip them in the next set. We opened with Raymond Frogatt’s “Under the Sun” dedicated to Dave. This was well received and we carried on straight into “Tambourine Man”. This too went down well and we got stuck into a good performance of the “Searchers Medley” before starting a sequence of requests starting with “Love Potion No Nine”. We played this close to perfect then carried on with another request for “Brown Eyed Girl” in a slightly cha cha cha rhythm. After a little break while we established the key, we continued with yet another request for “Under the Boardwalk” which filled the floor nicely. Next up was a relatively unsuccessful attempt to do “White Xmas” in C in which Nige and myself were confused as to who was singing Bob or Bing’s parts. Must discuss it before the next outing! I took it up a bit tempo wise with “Move It”. This filled the floor again and we followed up with another request for “Rock Around The Clock”. We continued with the two requested Johnny Kidd and Pirates numbers: “Shakin All Over and I Can Tell”. These went pretty well and kept the dancers going but we only had a few minutes left on my set timing so we went into our usual set 2 closing sequence with: “Halfway to Paradise, Wonder of You and Sweet Caroline”. Despite my pushing it, we again started to rally before the final guitar break in “Sweet Caroline” – we managed to look around and I think Greg has got it now! We came off to great applause and took a long break for the raffle. The band didn’t win but I one of our band of supporting girls did. The girls had enjoyed several drinks by now and were getting ‘quite lively’. Greg enjoyed a long chat with Theresa and Jacqui did a bit of counselling for most of them. Richard came over as we resumed for the final set, he requested “Johnny B Goode” and could we keep it going to 11:30pm. No problem I said and we opened up with Sir Cliff’s “Do You Wanna Dance”. Greg got the start and tempo spot on and the dancers filled the floor. We carried on with “Rip It Up, Hippy Hippy Shake and Hi Ho Silver Lining” to keep things going then I called for: “All Right Now” ‘cos I had the guitar FX already set up. This went well and kept quite a few on the floor. Next up was “Pretty Woman” dedicated to the ladies. With confidence high we had a go at “Uptown Girl”. At the last moment I realised I would need the music for this and was busy turning pages as Nige and Greg got underway. I ended up joining in without the music and, we were soon at the dreaded middle section. I got hopelessly lost and played some howlers – sorry boys! About halfway through I got on the right page and we played the second half of the song in good order. Good job most people had had a drink and didn’t notice too much! Actually, I looked up, and I could see the audience had thinned out quite a bit after the raffle, and we were close to time, so I called for “Johnny B Goode” to finish. As I started the intro riff, Richard came out to have a dance. We rocked along nicely and as we ended there were a few lacklustre shouts for more. But there weren’t many paying people left so we decided to call it a night. Theresa and Laura came up and asked if they could sing something, so I said OK and left them to it on my mic. They’ve got nice voices but had had too much to drink to do anything proper. Meanwhile we got changed. The word had got out that the band was splitting up and we had to field a few discussions from well wishers as to why and when. Richard said it was a pity because we were such a good band. Apparently, in the early days of the club’s re-launch Dave had helped him a lot with ideas and advice and he was grateful to the band for a great re-launch a few years ago. We finally got packed and loaded at just after 12:30am. I handed out Xmas prezzies for the boys, thanking them for their loyalty (and saying don’t get me anything please lads!) Greg needed to be directed to a garage to fuel up ‘cos he was on empty. Jacqui and I got away next. We had a quiet run home in the cold with occasional patches of freezing fog. Finally got to bed about 2am. We have a weekend off now before we have to all pull together for the last few gigs.

Caister Social Club

It had been been very cold and snowing so much of the UK has been bogged down in traffic disruption. A few inches of snow had fallen in parts of Norfolk so I decided to plan for a slow journey and set off at 5pm in the S-Max. Although there wasn’t actually much snow in Suffolk, it was still slow going to Thetford. But once I was on the A11 I could let the car have its head. By Wymondham it was still good going but I was now gaining time so I eased back for the rest of the journey, timing my arrival at the gig at precisely 6:28pm as I had promised the boys! Nige arrived shortly after and we soon got the gear in the hall and the door shut to keep the cold out. They have a very efficient heating system here and we were soon basking in warm conditions as we inspected the stage. It had been tidied up since our last appearance and parked on the right there was a large wooden sub-stage that Nige and I shifted onto the newly refurbished dance floor (hope we didn’t scratch it) to act as an apron for the main stage. Looking around the club it was clear that new carpets had also been laid and the place looked tidy and well lit. So we were beginning to hope for a good evening as we set up. I set up forward on the apron leaving plenty room for Nige and Greg to set up on the main stage. We heard Greg hammering on the door so we let him in (he’d been delayed with credit card problems at a filling station), but he soon got set up. We didn’t sound check as a band, but just by bashing away individually it was clear that the curtains round the back and sides of the stage were highly sound absorbent. This made for a very clean and dry sound, but we had to bring the volume up on the Bose to compensate for sound lost to the curtains. I was still not completely happy so I gave a bit of top and bottom boost to the mic sound as well. We managed another beer and I had a word with PJ the promoter about the playing times. He wanted an 8:40pm start and we were to stop for bingo at 9:30pm. He was optimistic we would have some people in and he briefed me to inform them about the newly refurbished dance floor to get them to use it! Nige came back from a smoke to report that some drunken youths had been evicted from the other bar for being ‘leery’ and they had damaged an invalid scooter on the way out. I quickly nipped out to check our cars were OK – they were! As we went to get changed (into the white shirts) there were still only about 10 people in the room so it didn’t bode well. But we got underway - with “Flingel Bunt for a change. This went well and Greg got the drum breaks pretty darn good in the middle. We had a good on-stage sound and the audience looked like they enjoyed it as we got some good applause from them. That set the pattern for set 1. No dancing but whatever we did we got good applause from this small audience, and we even got some response to our banter. We went on to play a typical bantery set 1. After “Peaceful Easy Feelin” they gave us a big round of applause so I made a note that they like the Eagles. A couple of numbers later I called for “Take It Easy”. Oh dear – we hadn’t done it for a couple of weeks and I got hopelessly lost in verse 3 and ended up doing an ad-lib repeat of verse 1 into the coda. Still the boys followed me very well and the audience gave up a good round of applause! We ran towards an on-time finish with a well received “Beatles Medley” and closed the set with “Words” which did actually get a few up to dance. We came off to rousing applause from an audience of about 12 including PJ the promoter. Surprisingly, folks were keen to compliment us on an entertaining set of music they liked, that was well played and sung. PJ said the Beatles was excellent and his mate said that I sounded like John Lennon - can’t be bad! One wag pointed out that “Words” was actually covered by Boyzone not Westlife but he also said we did a great job! Bingo went on for a while and as we sat through it the subject of band plans for the New Year came up. As 2010 had progressed Nige and I had sub-consciously avoided taking any commitments for 2011 because I think our confidence had been rocked in the Summer when Ray left and, after several years on this circuit, I was getting tired and thought I needed a break. Jacqui’s sister’s illness was the ‘last straw’ for me – Jacqui and I would need to spend some quality time with her next year. Nige and I both agreed that Greg coming into the band had been a breath of fresh air and we were now a lot happier with the musical state of play. But, on the other hand, quite a few of the clubs we were playing weren’t getting the audiences necessary to support a band and the booking prospects for the band next year looked dire. My view was that Greg and Nige would be best served looking for permanent positions in another band/s - although it didn’t look like there was much in the way of opportunity in the current gigging climate? Perversely, there were a few clubs (e.g The British Legion) that really liked our band and would miss the Foot Tappers / Sky High. I left it that, if Greg and Nige hadn’t found regular work by the time I returned from New Zealand in March, then I was up for playing some gigs if that worked for them. We would, of course, recommend Greg if anyone asked for a reference. After this downbeat discussion we then had to psyche ourselves up to play set 2! We opened up with “Under the Sun” then progressed through “Tambourine Man into the Searchers”. We were playing well and the small audience were still responding well. We played for about 40 minutes to finish with our usual set 2 closing sequence of “Halfway to Caister – Wonder of You – Sweet Caroline”. Something weird has been happing in “Sweet Caroline” the last couple of performances. We start to slow and rally just before we go into the guitar solo? This time I forced the pace a bit but it was still a bit messy for that few bars. Anyway, playing quality was now academic because after giving the band a great round of applause, our audience came up to thank us for great performance but they had to leave now. They went to great lengths to explain that it was not our fault, the club had some ‘issues’ to sort out and we were not to blame or take it badly. In the break I asked the bar man if it was worth continuing to play. He said yes – because the bar was reasonably full and they were listening to the band. So we resumed to play to an empty room. We decided to air some rarely played songs starting with “Travel Lodge California”. As it hadn’t been played for a while I was delighted that we got through our cut down version of “Hotel California” so well. Next up was the Everlys “Price of Love”. I thought this went well with a driving beat and we had the vocals pretty well synched even if some parts really tested my ability to sing so high without falsetto (up to Ab). Next Nige did a great “I Can Tell”. After my choice of “Rip It Up” we did Greg’s request of “Uptown Girl”. Nige sang and played it well and Greg obviously knew what he was doing, but I let the side down with some muffed chords in the middle sections. Still overall it was surprisingly good – maybe we should pop it in the show for the last few gigs? “All Right Now” went well and after the guitar solo Nige and I left Greg to play a drum solo for several minutes. While we were sat out front we could hear the quality of drum sound – it was very good, but the bass drum sound (miked up through my Bose) was outstanding. Nige and I came back on to play the final phrase of the solo and the last verse. It was time to wrap up and I volunteered “Alright Mama” to give the guitar solo an airing. So we finished in reasonably good heart to no applause or reaction, but the job was done and we had been paid. We could pack up quickly without dealing with people. Even so I was a bit slow taking the gear down compared to Nige and Greg – blame it on the sciatica! The boys did help me to load and we were soon set to go. It was very cold as I set off. There were some snow flurries on the way home and I took it relatively steady. Even so I got home about 1:30pm - not too bad considering. The snow is much worse North of the A 11 and Nige reported that his journey had been colourful with lots of blue lights attending mishaps.

Dinner Dance at Barn Ruche Near Watton

Carl elected to drive me over in the Galaxy on a cold, foggy evening. The fog was bad enough to keep speed down after Thetford so it took us a full 50 minutes to get to the gig, but I’d allowed a bit of contingency so we were still there just before 6:00 pm. I walked in but apart from the kitchen there wasn’t anyone around. However, I could see a poster confirming the gig so we went into the concert room to get things started. The concert room was dark and we couldn’t find the light switches but I got the concert room door open and had just started to load in when Nige arrived. He set up a portable light over the porch so we could at least see to load in. As we started load in. the manager (Sean) arrived and switched on the lights for us. There is no stage here and looking at the size of the dance floor we decided to set up compactly in the corner to give a bit more room for dancing. We soon got all the gear in and set up nicely making good use of the acoustic foam to damp down corner resonances. It was after 7pm when Nige and I looked up and then at each other to voice the question: “Where is Greg?” Nige got on the phone and eventually got hold of him in Dereham. He was delayed in the fog and feeling sick. Nige talked him back onto the route and he arrived about 7:30pm but still feeling rough. We got his gear in before the dinner started and then we had to exit to the bar for a couple of hours. After a while Greg started to feel better and I sneaked him through to the hall to quietly set up his kit as the diners hit the pudding. So apart from some minor drum adjustments we were set up ready to go. We finished our beers and went to get changed. The big changing room upstairs is used for brass band practice and there are many bits of memorabilia (e.g. old drums) there. We got changed into our white shirts, black ties, waistcoats and trousers so we were ready to perform when called. The dinner finished about 9:20pm and Greg got the message ‘the floor was ours’ so we took off to do our bit. We made the usual start with “Foot Tapper, Just One Look, Heartbeat” and then the ‘Heavily’ Brothers with “Walk Right Back – When Will I Be Loved” The on-stage sound wasn’t great but manageable. However, we were getting warm applause from our audience of about 50. No takers for dancing early on, so we bantered our way through to the obligatory waltz with “Around The World” which I thought would fill the floor – but still no dancers? “Blue Suede Shoes – Whole Lotta Shakin” was well appreciated but still no one came up for a dance? Ploughing on with my intro about the ascent of man into the Monkees “Daydream Believer” we were surprised to see people coming up to dance en masse and they stayed there dancing though the Beatles and our finisher: “Ferry Cross the Mersey”. A good first set I thought! We took a ten minute break and resumed with Ace’s “How Long”. This got people up’n dancing and we kept them there as we progressed through “The Searchers Medley and Do It Again” with Nige stepping in to do very brief introductions as we kept things going. We had great response to “Move It and All Shook Up”. Nige took us on into “Lets Dance and Mony Mony”. At this point I called for “Words” as the slowey at the right place and time. This filled the floor so well we did the extended version. We carried on with “The Twist” then I called for “Hey Baby”. Nige and I got at cross purposes on the key and we ended up in the key of A which is no longer familiar to me! As I thumbed through my crib sheets to find the chords for the second middle eight we carried on with some mistakes on my part as I transposed the key of G to A. However, the crowd were in a party dance mode and we got them to sing the refrain: ladies first, then the men and then all together. I called for “Amarillo” as we finished. There was something odd about the beat on this. I’m sure Greg would be doing the authentic version but it’s not that dancey – might need to settle for something more disco beat there? We we did a short “Unchained Medley” to fill the floor with romantics, then we called Johnny B Goode as the last number to ‘rock them to bed’. We finished to a great round of applause and encored with a short “Wonderful Tonight” to close slightly over time at 11:35pm. It had been a successful night and quite a few came up to thank us. Greg was looking a lot better after his groggy start. I was pleased to have Carl assisting as we packed up ‘cos my sciatic leg was hurting a bit. It was still cold and foggy outside as we loaded up. We got underway about 12:30am and there were some dense patches of fog on the way home slowing us down to 20 mph in places. We finally got back about 1:30am – earlier than a trip from the Norfolk coast though! Next day Carl took the Galaxy to Manchester ‘til Xmas so I’ll be using the S-Max or Focus for the next few gigs.