ReTrio at the Greyhound Bury St Eds

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

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

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

ReTrio at the Tollgate

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

ReTrio at Tolly Fest Bury St Edmunds Charity Do

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

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

 

 

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

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

 

 

ReTrio + Abbie at Lawshall Village Hall - Macmillan Charity Dance

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

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

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

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

ReTrio + Abbie at Sugar Beet Factory Social Club

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

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

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

GlastonBury St Edmunds Moreton Hall Community Centre

Planning had been underway for nearly a year and finally the big day was upon us.  GlastonBury St Edmunds - a free music festival to celebrate daughter Claire's BIG 30 and my own little 64!  An ambitious programme was lined up.

Band line up is now confirmed.  The opening act starts at 4pm on the Moreton Hall Stage - so don't be late!

GLASTONBURY ST EDMUNDS 2013 - BIG 30 LITTLE 64
BURY ST EDMUNDS MORETON HALL COMMUNITY CENTRE
29 Jun 2013		Guests Arriving from 15:00
		RUNNING ORDER
Military Time	Duration	Item	Stage
16:00	00:05	Festival Welcome by Farmer Gregory
16:05	00:10	Mr MOG - Kicks off the Live Show	Moreton Hall Stage
16:15	00:25	Scratch Acoustic Session featuring:  Roy the Boy,  Dan the Man, Mog the Dog  and a possible mystery guest??	Moreton Hall Stage
16:40	00:25	The Foot Tappers - famous for frequent East Anglian appearances in the 21st Century.  Plus Special Guests!!	The Social Club Stage
17:05	00:30	DJ Nick on the decks
17:35	00:10	Michele Summers,  (star of radio, screen and stage) sings - maybe with some weird?? accompaniment	The Variety Theatre
17:45	00:30	ReTrio the new retro trio of Bury St Eds  play a set including some more strange and interesting guests?!	The Social Club Stage
18:15	00:25	BUFFET Served
18:40	00:20	Abbie sings some country accompanied by ReTrio	Moreton Hall Stage
19:00	00:10	DJ Nick on the decks
19:10	00:40	The CHECKMATES - headlining the festival as they commence their 54th Anniversary Tour	The London Palladium
19:50	00:15	DJ Nick on the decks
20:05	00:10	Witchcraft -  White boys from Lincoln meddle in female magic in the late 60's and conjure up a rare form of the blues called the pinks !?	A Back Alley near the venue
20:15	00:40	ReTrio the retro trio of Bury St Eds  play another set - hoping to get it right this time?  Plus some even more strange and interesting guests?!	The Social Club Stage
20:55	00:25	The Massed Bilge Band return after 18 years off the road (Is it really that long?)	Moreton Hall Stage
21:20	00:05	Festival close by Farmer Gregory and daughter	Moreton Hall Stage
21:25	01:30	DJ Nick on the late night disco for those who aren't ready for cocoa

I was a bit nervy in the morning thinking how we would get it all to work technically - let alone musically.  But then I had a good conversation with Claire's boyfriend Nick on set up and mixing and confidence began to grow.  Loading most of the gear into my car and some into Carl's we set off to land at the Community hall at 12:30pm.  Good start - I was able to park close to the load in door.  We would be setting up to the left of this door just inside the hall and we soon had all the gear in,  the mains distribution laid out and the PA in place.  Chris the Bass arrived next and got his Harkte stack in place including his new 1x 15" cabinet to match his existing 4 x 10".  He said: "this will sound a lot better I've just read up that you shouldn't have the valve and solid state rectifiers both running together as I have been and the cabs should match the amp better".  To the right of the bass stack I set up a little guitar stack consisting on my Marshall AS50D for acoustic guitar and harp and my little VOX VT 20 for other electric guitars.  Nick and I requisitioned a long trestle table for the Mackie ProFX 12 PA mixer and his PC, and we set this up to the left of me so I could reach over and tweak the mixer if necessary.  This area also housed my guitar synth and a Roland SPD-s pad programmed up with crowd applause, encore and laughter.  It took about an hour to wire this lot up and fix any issues,  during which time Chris the Drum arrived and set his kit up.  I had 'borrowed' the bass drum input in the mixer for the Roland Pad,  so we tried the bass drum mic into the spare channel on the bass amp.  It was a bit boomy but they took it down in level until it fitted okish.  We were only using the Mackie mixer and the starting point was all the inputs (mics, guitar, FX and other stuff) panned centre with Nick set to cross pan at the sound of feedback. Nick set the mics with a fair degree of "toppy presence" to cut through (instead of sheer volume). Then we started sound check.  As it happens we had a reasonable flow of muso's coming and going to test it all out.  The on stage sound was great where I was and I trusted Nick's opinion on front of house sound so all this passed off without much incident.  It was decided to drop the bass drum mic during these checks but the kit sounded meaty enough and it wasn't Carnegie Hall!  So Nick was able to put some background muzak on and I was able to join the 'meet n greet' team at about 3:15pm - only a little bit later than planned.  Jacqui looked great in her white, flowery cocktail length dress with wide black waist band. Claire also looked a treat in her tiger look dress.  I popped into the gents to get changed into my red shirt and on the way back took the opportunity to down a couple of lagers in preparation for a long evening singing and playing. But, I so enjoyed talking to old friends that I lost track of time and Jacqui had to remind me to get started.   So I was about quarter of an hour late as I doffed my cap to open the festival as Farmer Gregory.   His intro ran a bit longer than intended and finished with a cameo between Farmer Gregory,  Mr Mog and Mog:  with Mr Mog insisting that for "audience elf n sanity" his son Mog should open the show with something conventional.  Mog finally took to the mic with his Takamine acoustic about 30 mins late to open with "America" by Paul Simon.  Quite a hard song to sing and play this early on but I got through it and the audience played their part by applauding well. 

Then Mr Mog came to the mic sporting a brown wig and asked pet lovers to cover their ears as he opened his set with "The Man Who Ate Cats" from the 'Bringing It All Back Up' album.  I thought the Takamine sounded pretty good and I only fluffed a couple of notes in this fairly difficult to play,  but mercifully short, number.  Clearly there were not a lot of pet lovers there 'cos it got a surprisingly good reception.  Mr Mog continued with "Nurse" from 'The Medicinal LP' co-written with his sister Gina and dedicated to Marita one of our absent friends.  Again very short and well received despite the harmonically demanding ending about "enemas"!

Mr Mog concluded his set with the title song from his 1972 poperetta "The Garon's Daughter". Another hard song to play with a mix of finger style and plectrum acoustic guitar,  although the vocal in this piece is easier - with some spoken words. Surprisingly this went down very well (there were actually a few in the audience who had heard the original)!   Before scuttling off for well earned toilet break,  Mr Mog introduced his brother-in-law Roy the Boy to do "Traintime" accompanied by Chris the Drum.  This would open the jug band acousticky jam section of the festival.  Roy did exactly as was asked and finished Traintime after exactly 3 minutes.  He had played it really well and it sounded good to me out in the toilet and in the hall and he got a great round of applause for it.  So far so good! 

 

Back in character as Mog,  I rejoined Roy to play Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma I'm only Bleeding"  I had done this with Roy a couple of times in 90's at odd functions and I knew it would be OK if I could get the words out - there are a lot of them!  Off we went with guitar and harmonica and I thought 'yes we do capture the sound of an aging acoustic protest duo'. We needed to make up some time but I enjoyed doing this so much that I went round the chorus twice at the end!  I invited Dan to join us on bass to continue with an unplugged pre-prise of "Bilge Rat Blues".   I kept it fairly low key and shortish but Roy was able to put in a couple of good harp solos.  Swapping guitars I donned my usual XTSA to invite my neighbour Paul Lambillion on to stage.

 

 

I spent a few minutes explaining how we found we had similar musical backgrounds,  then discovered we were related and amazingly found out we were identical twins,  what better reason for us to do a number by some similar singing siblings - 'The Beverley Sisters'?  So switching on the tremelo FX to give the authentic first chord, we embarked on "Dream" by the Every Brothers. Paul and I had had a run through during the week and I thought we did this well.  With quietish drums I could hear the vocals very clearly - I was doing the high line quite softly and despite us being twins there was a different spaced quality to the voices that I thought made for an interesting interpretation.  Paul was relieved to finish his first number I think!   We reformed on stage, with Dan taking centre stage with the Takamine,  I switched to my trusty (if somewhat beat up) 1962 Fender Precision Bass and Roy took to his cajon (for its first public airing).  We were quickly set up to do "Fog on the Tyne". 

 

 

 

This would be one of several numbers in this night that had not been played before as an ensemble at all.  I had written out the arrangement and sent it to Dan and Roy: we had all done a bit of home practice and now we were going to do it for real for the first time - no pressure then!   Dan was confident on his bit but I was surprised by his addition of the intro to each verse. Now this is like the record but for some reason I hadn't clocked it when I wrote the arrangement out.  There was a barely noticeable glitch by me as I followed on bass. Actually, I quite liked the sound of our little jug band.  Dan sang it better than I've heard him sing before and we got the harmonies on the chorus working well.  Roy wisely elected to stick on cajon rather than try to play harp to the instrumental section. I took the liberty of speaking the chord changes in this bit to make sure Dan and I were on the 'same page'.  For the final verse Dan played it without an added intro and we all finished together feeling good about it!  Then Dan swapped to his Warwick bass, Roy stayed on cajon and I switched back to my XTSA to perform that 'written for a festival' classic: "GlastonBury St Edmunds" (nee Woodstock).  This is quite vocally demanding but I was warmed up now and off we went.  I was very impressed by this band.  I was quite familiar with the song,  but Dan and Roy fitted in just great.  My vocal sounded fine and the combination of me, harmoniser and Dan (singing a bass line) on the chorus sounded just great.  Roy was able to depart for the final number of this set.  This would be a recreation of The Crestas in 1965.  Err well!  just two of them,  'cos it would be just me and Dan doing the first "complex number" we learned together.  We performed it first for his mum in 1965 and she liked it and encouraged us to carry on with the group.  I announced we would be playing "Midnight" with just the two guitars pretty much as we did in his mum's front room nearly 50 years ago.  Dan took up my Levinson Blade Stratalike while I got Nick to switch on the Shads preset sound on the VOX VT20.  We played this sweetly and that concluded the acousticky juggy unpluggerty session.  Cue Nick onto background music.

 

 

We reorganised for the Foot Tappers opening the electric part of the festival.  Nigel joined me toting his Hofner bass.  Following the usual tradition of the Foot Tappers we would have a drummer we had never worked with before:  Niece Sian's beau Joey from Bristol - a young chap of 30 who's main thing is "thrash punk"!  I had spoken to him a bit when I was last in Bristol and clocked that he was passionate about his drumming; so I had given him the Foot Tappers set list and offered him the Foot Tappers drum stool at GlastonBury (St Eds).   I was pleased he agreed and having done his research he said the only one he wouldn't be able to do was "Apache".  So we agreed to give the set a go with Chris stood by to stand in for Apache.  A couple of hours previously Joey had come up to try the kit in the sound check (way too loud I said as Chris handed him the hot sticks!)  But now it was showtime for real!  He counted us in with sticks like a pro,  cracked the snare (like the record) and we were off into our signature song - "Foot Tapper".  Joey was pretty tight and pushed us along at the pace of the original record,  no chance for slack, easy paced, easy listening swing guitar - Nigel and I were having to play it like the record!  Actually we did a great job,  no mistakes and all finished tightly together.  Joey had clearly done his homework.  Feeling pretty confident (and, strangely, a little detached) I announced "Take It Easy".  This would be another test.  Nigel and I hadn't played this together for over 2 years and it is a complex song:  lots of chords and harmonies;  and interesting drum fills,  how would it go?  I started it at the right pace I thought and Joey and Nigel piled in.  Rhythmically strong, soon we were approaching the first chorus which would test the harmonies.  I switched in the harmoniser and I could hear Nige pick a high line - Wow!  it sounded ok, even a little like the Eagles,  we were doing a good job.  The next challenge would be the solo.  I was hearing the guitar and bass quite well, I switched to clean solo on the Boss GT10 and went for it.  Fantastic - no mistakes and it sounded good where I was.  We negotiated the final verse fitting in the Am replacement of C like the record and just had the tricky ending with its starts and stops to get through.  No need to worry;  Joey got it spot on and Nige sang along neatly through the coda - my arrangement has an abrupt end and again we all finished together!  I was relieved it had gone well and still a bit detached (or focussed on the mission?) so I didn't register the audience response,  but from comments received later it must have been good!  Next up was "How Long" and Nigel got straight into it with the bass as I completed the announcement.  Joey picked up with the 16 beat hi hat rhythm and I brought the guitar in at the right place.  The vocal starts with the chorus and I planned to go for the high line above Nigel's lead.  Had a momentary glitch as I realised how high it was but then I got into it nicely.  As we came to the verse I switched the GT10 to tremolo to give that electric piano vibe and the song progressed neatly to the solo. I switched to sustain on the GT10 and whisked my hand up the neck with the barest of glitches to get into the solo which I thought I played pretty good (you always think you can do better!). Nige brought us back into the verse with his soulful "well----" and we soon had another song completed in very good order.  I called out for Simon (niece Jo's boyfriend) to join us on vocal for the next song "Brown Eyed Girl".  He's a tall fellow and Nick popped out from the mixer desk to set the mic height. 

I announced the number and Nige opened with the bass lead in.  We only played this number occasionally in the Foot Tappers and that first guitar bit is surprisingly tricky at playing speed.  I ran it through a couple of times at sound check but needless to say I cocked it up sufficiently to annoy myself now we came to do it for real.  Fortunately the others didn't let it phase them and once we got into the song it went pretty well.  Simon sang it well.  With Nige doing a good harmony line,  I was a bit vague as to where to pitch my harmony in the chorus.  I should have gone a bit higher for best effect,  but I think we captured the flavour of the record OK.  Simon got a good round of applause while I concentrated on re-arranging the band by bringing up Dan to play rhythm on the next few songs. I introduced Dan as an ex-bass/flute player in the Foot Tappers who,  after he left to go to the states,  continued to dep with the band occasionally on rhythm guitar when he was back in the UK.  Dan and I had donned our Foot Tappers guitar print waistcoats to mark the occasion.  I announced another Eagles song "Peaceful Easy Feeling".   I had elected to sing lead on this and Nige and Dan would be doing Hi and Lo harmonies respectively.  This is an easy paced number and Joey fitted in really well again.  The harmonies went well I thought and we even got the vocal break at the end of the guitar solo with only a bit of a glitch!  Next would be "Apache".  We couldn't persuade Joey to busk it so I asked Chris to stand in.  Dan and I were out front and there were a few squeals of surprise from ladies in the audience as we set off into the Shadows walk. 

The first few bars we were well synchronised but then it went a bit awry until the bridge - where we got it together again.  Not a bad sound at all out front and I think Dan and I were beginning to really enjoy it as we came to the end doing the synchronised guitar lifts we still remembered after several years!  The audience loved it but Dan and I renamed it the Shadows Stumble after this performance!  With Joey back on the kit it was time to do our dedication to Dave Lemmon (the main drummer and vocalist of the Foot Tappers who passed away in 2009)  Dan would sing Raymond Frogatts "Somewhere Under the Sun" - always a favourite of Dave's.  I explained to the audience that the band would be looking skyward from time to time to see if Dave was joining in!  I started with the arpeggio sequence Nigel and I had researched extensively and off we went.  Dan sang it pretty good and Nige and I worked in some good harmonies. 

Dan's interpretation just does a single length guitar solo which threw me momentarily, but we didn't miss a beat and still managed to look skyward!  It was time to encore with "Hippy Hippy Shake"  We threw ourselves into it aggressively and for me it was like wearing a well loved pair of socks - the rhythm section of Nige and Joey sounded just the same as Nige and Greg in 2010.  Nige sang it great,  I ripped off a couple of passable solos and we even got a few up and dancing - a great finish for the Foot Tappers at GlastonBury St Edmunds!  I congratulated Joey, Nige and Dan on a job well done and took a short break, while the stage was set up for Michele, to meet up with Jacqui to get the birthday toast lined up.  As it happened,  they were nowhere near ready,  so I asked Michele to put the birthday / toast bit at the back of her set.  She was OK with that and opened with "Summertime" accompanied by Dan on bass.  This was a spectacular piece of soprano vocalisation with a 'glass shattering' high note to end,  and she earned a big round of applause for it.  I summoned Chris the drum and myself to join Dan and Michele for the next couple of numbers.  "Brown Eyes Blue" was first.  Chris and I had played this a couple of times now.  At this gig I was able to concentrate on bringing in the synth strings in and leaving most of the guitar work to Michele.

 

I thought it worked a treat and we even got 'the leave it to Michele to sing' ending about right! We carried on with "Grandma's Feather Bed".  I struggled a little to remember the banjo type intro but got it out good enough to get us underway.  Then it fairly bowled along.  Michele did a couple of verses then Dan sang his verse strongly and we all got in an exclaimed "Ooh" to his cousin Lou line!  Pretty professional I thought; then unprofessionally missed the next banjo break 'cos I wasn't focussed!  The impromptu backing band came off the stage at this point and grabbed a glass of Cava.  Michele did her Marilyn Munro "Happy Birthday Mr President" breathy vocal spoof and then she kindly took on the responsibility to do the toast to the birthday people: Claire and Adrian. It went very well and Claire, Jacqui and I were so pleased.  No time to relax though I had to get ReTrio up and running, so it was back to the stage for me!

As I got the two Chris's up to play,  I let them know I would be dropping a couple of numbers to gain some time back,  but we would start with the usual two.  And, like wearing a well loved vest,  there were no problems as we played through "Flingel Bunt".  "Just One Look" followed,  I had a bit of trouble getting the harmoniser level right but we got through OK.  I skipped "Heartbeat and asked Paul Lambillion back on to stage to duet as the Beverley Sisters again with "Walk Right Back".  I found this a little tricky to sing the high line because I'm so used to singing lead on this,  but we got through the first verse in good order.  I skipped the solo (as is usual nowadays) and nodded Paul straight into the second verse and then we were on the home straight into the ending and, with a good audience response, another success was chalked up!  Time for some rock n roll. We opened up with "Rock Around The Clock" and a few folks got up to dance,  so I carried on straight into "Summertime Blues" and a few more came up to dance.  Pushing my luck we went into "Move It" and still they kept dancing,  so I finished the sequence with "All Shook Up" well satisfied with our continuity.  I had developed a bit of cramp in my left index finger (this early in the night?) and tried to shake it out as I announced Chris the Drum to come out front and sing "Delilah".  Actually he got a great response,  quite a few were singing along (I could even hear Michele doing a fine soprano from the back of the hall).  At the end  Jacqui gave me the nod that the buffet was ready,  so I announced that it was time to for food and that I would serenade the orderly queue for the buffet with a vocal that would test me (and them?) to the limit: "Nights in White Satin" - featuring Dan on flute!   I was strangely relaxed as I opened up with an acousticky sound on the XTSA.  The band joined in and we got through the first verse in good order.  Now for the hard part - the chorus!  I just went for it vocally adding a touch of harmoniser and synth strings, and Dan backed up on the flute just as he did in the Foot Tappers several years ago,  so we got through it well I thought.  Into the second verse I added more strings and I thought that sounded pretty good.  But I thought the best bit was the solo.  The flute on a 450mS echo backed by the strings and arpeggio guitar over a sparse rhythm section sounded gorgeous.  Chris the bass and Dan were a little shaken by the quick C chord link back into the chorus (as per the record chaps!) but we brought the final chorus to a rousing climax and got a rousing cheer from the queue at the buffet.  Risky, but it had gone as well as I could possibly have hoped.  I was able to take a short break to loosen my locked finger and work the crowd a bit,  but I stuck to lager shandy to be on the safe side. 

We hadn't caught up much time so I got Abbie and ReTrio on fairly quickly and we opened with her usual: "Good Girls Gonna Go Bad".  Abbie sounded pretty good to me and I thought we got the harmony balance a bit better for her third time out with the band.  (I had found singing under her on the chorus a little more difficult that my usual high line harmonies,  but I thought we were beginning to gel nicely)  She got a great reception. 

We went straight on into "Blanket on the Ground" and then slowed things up with "Sober" from Little Big Town.  This song is quite subtle and Abbie is still gelling her vocal with the band;  but we are getting there! 

Next up was "Valerie" by Amy Winehouse.  Just announcing it livened up the young bunch of Claire's revelling friends over on stage right!  The two Chris's opened up with a lively 'Bo Diddley Beat' and Abbie came in confidently for a few bars before I brought the guitar in.  She sings this just great and it shows off the potential of her voice.  Despite trying to pay attention Chris the bass and I messed up the tricky transition from verse 2 to 3 (the natural temptation is to go into the chorus and we did it for a couple of beats!?!).  Not enough to break down though.   You could see quite of few of the younger lot over on the right swaying along and even dancing a bit; and we got a great round of applause as we finished this great sounding, rhythmic and certainly the most modern song of the night!  (I would really like Abbie to do more of this as a foil to her country stuff - which I like as well,  but you blogateers know what I mean......)  Abbie finished off with "Country Roads" getting a good reception from the crowd who had appreciated the change from just 'old boys' playing guitar!

 

Nick took over on the decks as I quickly mustered the "Checkmates" - I took a few minutes break in the disabled toilet to change my shirt and let go some of the now processed lager.  I had sounded out Graham to help me out on this gig by doing all the lead vocals in the spot and he had kindly offered to keep Raye amused as well and;  as it turned out,  to take the responsibility to stage manage and lead the band on the night.  Not bad for a chap who has been through the massive cancer challenge he had,  and well appreciated by myself.  Raye had brought his own snare drum (as drummers do) and set about putting that in place whilst Graham lugged my old Fender Precision on to his shoulders.  Actually it looks just the same as his - except the neck is more warped!  Before you could say 'Checkmates', Raye counted us in and we were off into "Eyes".  No problem playing with these guys,  it's just like wearing a favourite pair of underpants;  you can do it blindfold  err?!  We played through the selection of Checkmates hits I had lined up,  following up "Eyes" with "Slow Boat, Red Sails (nearly forgot to do the solo), Mona Lisa, Wonder Who's Kissing".  Graham did skip the beginning to this but Raye and I followed seamlessly!  We followed up with "I Believe" which I know has some poignancy for Graham - I thought we did it pretty well. 

The changes between numbers were very slick.  We had maintained a relatively low key crowd interest throughout but that was about to change.  Next up was "Wipe Out";  Raye really threw himself into this and amazed drummers half his age by playing this at a rip roaring pace.  We got a well deserved round of applause for it. We did our usual dedication of "Route 66" to Val and played that pretty energetically as well. I thought I got a good solo going in this,  the finger lock had gone and we had pushed the volume up a bit.  Then it was time for "Let There Be Drums".  Off we went into another voyage of discovery with this piece - different every time!  We got through to the breaks in tight, good order and had clearly captured the audience's attention with our energetic start.  After the breaks Raye put in the bit of playing the bass with his sticks;  this night sitting on the kit to do it while I shifted the large tom and cymbal to the dance area.  I came back and edged Raye off the kit and took up a rim shot type rhythm while Raye clambered over the bags we used to separate audience from band to get to the tom.  He took his time getting ready and I was able to indulge in a bit of cymbal bashing before he took over.  Then it was out to the front for another variation on the drum routine.  Graham called the scenes.  We were a little ragged as we did 'rim hits,  heads and sticks';  we circled the tom as though we had had one too many,  but we all made the last hit tightly together and Graham and I departed back to our guitars while Raye carried on with his tom routine.  Very rarely does Raye count us back in,  but this night he did - and did it well!  So I was able to bring in the guitar run ups in good time and we all had a glitch free play through the last verse to a slightly shortened ending.  This left Raye plenty of time to bounce his stick off the floor;  which he did second time (I think he teases the audience),  to finish to a great roar of appreciation from the stunned onlookers.  On a normal night that would be the end of our set,  but tonight we were continuing.  Raye, moving very quickly for a chap in his eighties,  got the tom and cymbal back to the kit as Graham and I opened up with the slow intro to "Make Believe". 

I had visualised us playing this as big showpiece number and we slowly built it up with strings and harmony to the big ending I was hoping for.  Poor Graham - it was a big load to take on this song after the year he has had;  but he delivered and we a got a good response for it.  Before the applause died down, we started "Lucky Old Sun".  This went OK but it is not as big a number as "Make Believe".  Graham wisely shortened it and, as we finished, Graham and I took it straight into the gospelly type intro of "Early In The Morning" while Raye nimbly shifted his snare and a cymbal out front.  Graham kept this short as well going straight into the final verse after the first bridge.  I led the boys into the speed up in the coda and, as we approached warp speed,  we brought it to the big finish.  Once again we got a big round of applause for what I thought was a tight set considering we hadn't played together for nearly a year.

Nick had the 'decks' on while we re-arranged for Witchcraft.  Alan Clark on guitar was a bit nervous to say the least - having not played the two songs I had lined up for him since 1968.  In fact he had only bought a guitar in the last 6 months (about the time I persuaded him to do this spot).  He showed me his new instrument - a nice dark blue Epiphone copy of a Gibson ES335. Alan was about the only person in Lincoln in the mid 60's to own a real Gibson ES335 and consequently he had the nickname Gibbo at the time! In those days I was on bass,  playing an Epiphone Rivoli.  Alan and I played together in the Drive and Banana Tree Band playing pop, and Witchcraft playing blues.  We ran into an immediate problem on this night though - his guitar was over a semi-tone flat from concert pitch.  I'd plugged him into the VOX VT20 with a nice crunch sound preset and despite my best attempts I could not get the (cheap'n'quirky) built in tuner to even register where this guitar was pitched.  In the end I took it over to my guitar station,  plugged it into the GT10 FX unit and tuned it there.  Alan was a bit agitated all through this which didn't help but as soon as it was tuned I got him plugged back into the VT20 and he noodled away while I got my Precision Bass strapped on.  I had coerced Chris the drum to join in and play the two songs that would represent the Witchcraft era and, in theory,  all three of us had had plenty of time to home practice the song arrangements I had put in place.  But we had never played together before - so this would be interesting.  It was getting dark by now and the stage lights cast an eerie 'magical' glow on the band as we got ready for lift off. After a last check all was well on the mics and guitars, Alan opened up with the riff to "Sunshine Of Your Love". 

The guitar sounded pretty good and fairly loud considering it was such a small amp and I felt quite at home joining in on the bass.  I had played that Precision Bass a lot in the 70's and my hands just fell into place so naturally - it was like being in a time warp.  I could hear that Chris the drum had done his homework as we pounded out the riff up to the start of the vocal.  Then,  considering he hadn't sang for a while, Alan's vocal was a surprise:  in tune,  maybe lacking 'gravel' a bit,  but certainly good enough for a pub gig!  We played through the arrangement and I joined in the harmony on the last 'sunshine of your lo---ve' of the bridge before we took on the solo.  Again I was surprised:  the start of the solo was like the Cream version,  maybe the timing was a bit jerky but quite a good take off - Alan had also done his homework!  I pounded out the bass line good and loud to keep us to the arrangement and then we were cruising through the final verse and bridge finishing like the record on an extended: 'sunshine of your lo-----ve'.  Wow - we had done it!  I was so relieved that I didn't clock the audience response,  but I heard later it had been well received by an increasingly well oiled crowd.  No time to relax though.  I brought Roy the Boy up  to join us on "Spoonful". 

We were having a bit of trouble with the harmonica mic but Roy wisely elected to use a vocal mic for harp for this number.  Again we got off to a good start.  I thought the mix of a sparse bass and guitar with the harp worked well. Chris fitted in real good on the drums and I thought we created quite a bluesy feel.  

Alan's vocal was a bit weirder this time,  more shouty? But I could make out enough of the words to know where we were in the song.  I was having a lot of fun playing bass variations on the Em riff - the trick on bass is to keep it sparse but with big impact on the root, flattened third and dominant notes.  We deliberately avoided a 'freak out' guitar solo that we conjured up in the 60's and we kept it bluesy and quite short compared to the 30+ minute versions we used to do.  Somehow we negotiated an ending between the three of us and the Witchcraft reincarnation was complete - to a suitably un-restrained audience response.

ReTrio came back together for a set.  We opened with a couple featuring Simon on Vocal and Roy on harmonica. I confused Roy by shouting the wrong key for "Folsom Prison" but as we started he soon worked it out and was blowing away like that 'train coming round the bend'.  I got the guitar solo well enough and Roy got in the 'lonesome whistle' atmosphere,  Simon was happy with the vocal and we finished to a good round of applause from country blues fans - there were a few!  We carried on quickly with "That's Aright Mama",  Roy adding some harp to the usual Elvis arrangement.  I wanted to do a Beatle song and chose "Eight Days A Week" to follow.  Next up would be "American Trilogy".  I thought it would be good to get Graham up to sing this and I put him on the spot a bit - but he agreed to give it a go if I could provide words;  which I had cunningly line up!  We did a pretty good version considering and it got a very good response from the audience. 

I carried on with "Sweet Jacqueline" dedicated to Jacqui,  who was suitable surprised when I announced she doesn't normally get a song dedicated,  but I was going to break that duck tonight!  For the most part I remembered to sing 'Jacqueline' to replace 'Caroline'  and it went well,  with quite a few people joining in.  Trying to pull some time back I skipped to "Hi Ho" - too unsophisticated for this audience I think!  But I was now set to call Johnny B Goode - bringing Paul L up to sing his final number for the night.  We did a pretty good job of it,  got some folks up dancing and finished to good applause.  ReTrio's second (curtailed set) had been a success.
 
I took a few minutes off to work the room.  People seemed amazed by my stamina,  but I was actually starting to wilt; so I gathered Dan to assemble the last act:  The Massed Bilge Band.  First we got Chris the drum up and then I beckoned Jack Hale over.  Jack was our trusty road manager in the 1970's but now he is a University professor.  I had recalled he had a bit of musical form in that he could play cello and,  interestingly,  he now sings in a choir!  Dan had borrowed Chris's 4 string G&L Telecaster bass for this section and was familiar with what was about to take place.  Jack had heard what we were about to play a couple of times many years ago; but I took a full minute to brief him on what was required from the choir.   Chris I hoped would just follow - probably suitably bemused by what was happening?  Ready for the off: Dan opened with the bass run up, I came in on guitar and we all sang the vocal to the chorus as we delivered a rare performance of "Sing Something Complex" (a parody of "Sing Something Simple"). 

Jack's main role was to lead the humming under my spoken lines of 'welcome to sing something complex -  half an hour's entertainment of a baffling and complex nature that you won't be able to follow or understand......'.   It all worked a treat and we finished in good order with a harmonised 'we'll sing something complex for you; some-thing fo-r you---'  It was great to do it again after the last performance 40 years ago. Moving on we quickly got Roy and Alan up for the massed "Bilge Rat Blues" (the electric reprise of the acoustic song we had done a few hours earlier).  This was relatively low key compared to the performance we had put up at our silver wedding anniversary in 1995;  but we all got little bits in and it pootled along quite pleasantly for a blues! I knew Roy was still having trouble with the harp mic.  I found out later that Nick had declared himself 'too drunk' to fix it!  But Roy ended up using a vocal mic to good enough effect for backing.  I think it lacked power for a solo,  so we had to try and lower the band for his bits. 

I think many in the audience would have been bemused by our performing this 'not very interesting' sailors blues song but it has been traditional jamming fare for most of us ex-Lincoln musos since the mid 60's!  Now for something more exciting!  I was born on the 7th day of the 7th month nearly 64 years ago.  Enough of an excuse to do "Hoochie Coochie Man!  We brought SImon up to sing it.  The boys in the band had all been briefed several weeks previously and done bits of practice at home so I led them straight into it with the famous Claptonesque riff.    Actually it went very well: Simon got his vocal timing right (he had been worried),  Alan got some B B Kingish riffs in, I got in a cracking solo,  Roy was still struggling with volume but kept the backing suitably bluesy.  It went so well I motioned to SImon to go round again!  We rallied to a finish and some good applause.  

 

It was now time for the finale:  two numbers none of us had played before but that were very appropriate for the occasion.  First I had to get Raye and Graham up for the rhythm section.  I motioned to Raye to come up but couldn't see Graham?  But looking again - there was a strange bloke in a blue Sergeant Pepper suit sat at their table.  It was Graham!? 

I nearly fell over laughing as he came up with a dead pan air to play bass on "Now I'm 64"' my take off' of 'When I'm 64'.  Dan was ready to play flute,  Roy would do a bit of harp,  Raye on the drums - we were all set.  I counted us in and Dan and I played the intro in unison,  the rhythm section hung together and we were off.  It sounds easy but this is a complex song and it went much better than I could have hoped,  As planned, at the end I did a guitar solo around the tune and motioned to Dan and Roy "did they want one?"  They wisely declined (it is quite tricky) and we brought the song to a close with a repeat of the intro - great work chaps!  And the audience were into it as well,  quite a few were now in the 'mosh pit' encouraging us and singing along.  I was tired but elated as I announced the last number (no encores please) asking the audience to sing along with "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life".  I had seen a production of Spamalot in Florida in January and so enjoyed their rendition I worked it into our play list for GlastonBury St Edmunds.  I was going to follow the Pythons version very closely - even the spoken bits and Eric Idle's London accent.  And so it turned out!  I opened up with the tacet intro,  the band joined in on the first chorus,  the audience,  scenting the end was nigh, gathered and started singing along - marvellous! 

We got through the main song in good order and negotiated the key change towards the end with a prompt from me in the form of finger up and shouted 'A' and then we were into the outro choruses.  I even did the Eric Idle spoken joke: "Come from nothing, go to nothing,  what you got to lose - nothing!" We finished on a rallied "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" to loud applause - one of the best endings of my career.  It was about 10pm as I unstrapped my guitar.  I had been performing for over 5 hours and it was 10 hours since I became active loading the car;  so I motioned Claire over to lead the 'festival closure' bit. 

She had had a drink or three but did a fantastic job thanking the crowd for coming and their great support; and thanking mum and dad for being such great parents and hosting the event.  Nick murmured - "a very professional radio announcement Claire!"  I waved my thanks asked Nick to take over as DJ and strode manfully over to Jacqui to give her a hug.  Quite a few people popped over to congratulate me on the epic performance and many of them got me a beer so I was getting really happy. As Nick wound up the volume on the disco (those Bose's can go really loud),  the younger group gathered on the dance floor and we oldies gravitated toward the bar area.  Nick worked it really well:  with clever DJ announcements,  smoke and lights and a great track selection that even the oldies could relate to.  Despite enjoying his drinks quite a bit,  he had done a great job throughout the event on minimal briefing.  The evening wound to a close around 11:30pm but for many the partying would continue at the Quality Hotel.  We broke the gear down and stored it in the committee room and walked slowly home - leaving the car and gear load until the next day!  What a night - we were well pleased it had gone so well. 

 

I woke next morning to find the garden full of Claire's friends enjoying a bacon butty breakfast after their hotel check out.  Here I was presented with more pressys.  At mid-day we had a gear picking up party, then it was off to "The Pickerel" at Ixworth for Sunday lunch.  What a weekend!

Thanks so much for coming to GlastonBury St Edmunds and making it a success - we couldn't have done it without you!

Best wishes Jacqui &;  

         Adrian (aka Mog)             

Guitar, Vocals; a Founder Member of the Foot Tappers & ReTrio and an Occasional Member of The Checkmates (formerly with Emile Ford)