Got My Bass Back

After Glastonbury St Edmunds, I realised that my 1962 Fender Precision Bass needed a lot of work.  The action was very high and still there was fret buzz above the 13th fret.  There was a bad twist in the neck and the body was shambolic after my own bodge job to take the 1960's dark red stain finish out, and there were lots of other minor niggles.  Still it had worked its passage over the years and had a bit of a swansong by appearing at Glastonbury St Eds - I certainly had enjoyed playing it again that night!

Anyway,  I took it into Guitarlodge at Felixstowe and they quoted a reasonable price to refurb it so off it went for a dismantle,  the body to be sanded and re-varnished,  the neck to be straightened,  shiny bits to be cleaned and control electrics to be replaced!

Got it back today and it is a whole lot better:  looking good,  but still looking vintage!  Sounding good with new D'Addario flat wounds and a real low action making it play good.

This is how it looks now:

This how looked in 1978 when I was using it with Banco plugged into a Vox Foundation Bass rig:

I bought the Precision from Carlsbro in Mansfield in 1972 trading in my Epiphone Rivoli (wish I hadn't!) - here's the Rivoli waking the neighbours in 1970:

Can't find any photos of the Precision in the condition I bought it because I quickly got the neck refurbed from a rosewood to a maple fingerboard by John Birch.  Quite innovative then!  As I recall Paul Strong took the guitars over and made the decision to go maple,  so I didn't know until we got them back.  Initially I was a bit miffed but I grew to like it and now much prefer a maple fingerboard on a Fender.  Here is the earliest pic I can find: post neck refit along with the other instruments used for a recording session in 1973.  It was during this session I took a day out to sand the red finish out and we resumed the next day in natural.

I suspect it might have been sunburst or white when made in 1962.

ReTrio at The Elmswell Fox

The two Chris's we're going early to set up their 'new' stuff so I thought I'd hang back for a 7 arrival.  Jacqui and I set off about 6:40pm on a pleasant Autumn evening - it took all of 15 minutes to get there - the pub is just North of the railway crossing in Elmswell.  I saw Chris the drum eyeing up a Kebab stall as I turned in and parked next to his car.  He came over and said "they are resurfacing the crossing tonight and it will be closed from just after 7pm"  "Good job we set off when we did" I said - thinking about a long diversion to get North of the railway.  It was an easy load in through double doors to the large bay window where we would be playing.  The Chris's were already set up and there was quite a bit of room to work with.  I put the Bose right at the back and as centrally as I could.  I positioned myself well forward and out of the bay so I had room to swing the guitar.  Nice polished floor I noted (thinking about a Shadows stagger?)  I was just plugging the last bits in when in walks Steve Lemon with his lady - Lou.  Big hugs all around - he is looking very well and obviously enjoying life!  I finished set up and checked the mix.  It was my intention to play quieter than last time out so I set the mics well below feedback. Chris the bass came up for sound check.  The bass though the new Ashdown amp sounded just great: a deep and bouncy sound using a bit of sub-bass,  but well compressed into the bass area of the soundscape.  We could all hear it clearly as well - a massive improvement!  We did a bit of "Just One Look" as a sound check but the harmoniser was too low.  I fixed that and we re-tested - all good and we were ready to rock!

Had a beer and a bit of a chat with Steve before we got changed into the red shirts and black waistcoats for the off.  We had the luxury of the kitchen to get changed in,  but I didn't realise and got changed in the gents before I found out - oh dear.  The landlady had asked for a start at 9pm.  A bit late by our standards,  I was well into my second pint by the time we got up to play.  There were only about 25 in the pub as we opened up with the usual few,  but they were quite receptive to the band and banter.  One couple had come to see us again after our appearance at the Railway Tavern a couple of weeks previously. Soundwise it was a bit dry so I upped the echo a tad,  but it was a good balance and we started to enjoy playing together and hearing some of the subtleties.  I was a little nervy as we did "Smiling" and got the words the wrong way round but it was well received and we carried on through a creditable set 1.  Got a bit of banter going with some of the younger folk there who claimed they hadn't heard of the Beatles as I prepared them for "8 Days a Week".  It went down well though, as did the rock n roll that followed.  I had skipped "Guitars Cadillacs" earlier and that left us in need of a filler as we approached the 40 minute mark.  No problem - I dropped into "Be Bop A Lula" and the boys followed effortlessly.  I was intending to finish with "Nights in White Satin" but opted for the easier "Green Grass" when we got there and we played it pretty well closing to good applause. 

 

Back on for set 2,  we opened with "Apache".  I couldn't resist the opportunity to do the walk and was rewarded by a great round of applause. 

Then we followed the well established set 2 flow for the first 30 minutes.  Bit of sixties, followed by "Delilah and Daydream Believer" as sing-a-long,  then some rock'n'roll.  I had replaced "Rock Around the Clock" with "Jailhouse" in the pub rock set list to give it a bit more bite and that went down well with this audience.  At the 30 minute point we tried out a 70s sequence of:  "Don't Stop,  Yellow River and Amarillo".  First time out for the latter two.  Actually we played them well I thought.   Chris the drum's "Yellow River" vocal worked well and it was great to add my high harmony to it.  He returned the favour with his high harmony as I sang "Amarillo".  And Chris the bass came in with a low line on this as well.  This is the start of us getting some more substance in our vocal arrangements and I plan to keep us at it by picking popular harmony songs we know and can do easily.  We did "Wonder of You" to finish.  I messed up some of the words but the audience was singing along well so it didn't matter too much.  I need to work up a plan B for the final vocal phrase for when I'm not quite on form.  I got the pitching right this week but, still breathless from the last gasp of my cold, couldn't sustain it. Ah well the audience filled in well enough!

 
We changed into white tees and black waistcoats for set 3.   Yet again I forgot to turn the mics on for the opener "Great Balls".  I gave myself a good telling off and we restarted!  Still only about 25 in the pub but they applauded well.  Despite putting the time in during the week to fix the horn solos in "Dance The Night Away" I decided to skip it 'cos we would be hard pressed to get through the list by finish time.  I got Chris to get on with the drum beat to "Pretty Woman" as I announced it and we did a pretty good job of it I thought.  Next was  "Saturday Night at Movies into Come on Over"  I was basking in the success of finally getting the middle "aahs" section right with the unnatural double bars of Bs and E's at the end and lost concentration as we smoothly entered "Come On Over";  only to be woken up a minute later as I forgot the key change I had been imploring Chris the bass to get right (and he did!). I caught up quickly but gave myself another mental telling off!  My voice was feeling a little tired by now,  so I brought forward "Trilogy".  We got off to a nicely sensitive start but I shortened the linking bars of C on guitar to move things along.  The boys followed without a blink and played their parts really well.  When I brought the strings in they sounded pretty good in this room.  Also the pace was spot on and we built the song confidently to the climax just before the solo.  Because it was so well timed and 'band felt' I had plenty of time to switch from strings to flute and turn the guitar down;  resulting in the flute solo I had always intended but hadn't been able to achieve with this band yet.  Same as we exited the solo,  Chris took his time to bring in the start of the large tom roll giving me enough time to switch the guitar back in and flute to strings.  So the final crescendo was spot on and only marred slightly by the lack of sustain from my vocal on the last line.  The audience went extra large in response and sustained their applause for at least a minute giving me time to catch my breath. Fantastic response from only 25 people.  Voice was going and I needed an instrumental so I called for "Albatross" as a change.  It went pretty well. We got back on track with "Sweet Caroline" which had the 20 odd sing-a-longers raising the rafters.  Then I took a bit of stock.  We had about 3 numbers to do,  so I called for a rocky finish.  We opened the mini sequence with "Hippy Hippy Shake".   We did this pleasingly tight and as we finished I got straight on into the riff for "Caroline" which went surprisingly well for a first outing.  I had been on the net to sort out my guitar riffs and was quite pleased with the result on the night.  Chris the drum got the chorus harmony spot on and we finished with 3 rounds of guitar riff with the middle one quiet like the record. He even did a bit of stand up drumming! Once again we got a good response from the about 20 left now. 

I called "Johnny B Goode" as the last number and that went well as usual.  We got the 'goodnights' from the band out in better order (still not perfect though) and finished well together.  We 'rewarded' the remaining few in the pub with "Born to be Wild" as an encore.  This went very well up to the end but we need to work out a better finish - at the moment its a bit of an improvised freak out! We were slightly over time as we finished, but some folks came up to thank us for a great evening.  Including the couple had come to see us again after our appearance at the Railway Tavern - they had stayed all night and finished with a B52 cocktail as we packed up.  Gotta admire their stamina!  Steve came over to say how impressed he was:  3 great musicians,  really good sound and surprised at how well we did the rockier numbers (not something we did so much in the Foot Tappers).  Lou thanked us as well.  She (and Steve) go to see Mark James quite a bit and she said it was great to hear a live band for a change rather than backing tracks.  They set off back to Norwich and we finished pack up.  Once we were loaded and ready to go I realised we would have to go back across country 'cos the rail crossing was still being worked on.  It was a bit misty as we wended our way through rural Suffolk but eventually we found a way to Norton and then it was an easy run home down the A14. In my opinion this was the best of the three nights on the East Enders tour:  having completed the tour the band is now working well together;  we cracked the gremlins and improved the sound.  A bit more work on the vocals and I think we will be ready for anything.

ReTrio at The Victoria Thurston

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

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

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

 

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

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

ReTrio at The Railway Tavern Elmswell

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

 

Couple of technical points to note: 

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

ReTrio at the Greyhound Bury St Eds

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

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

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

ReTrio at the Tollgate

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

ReTrio at Tolly Fest Bury St Edmunds Charity Do

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

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

 

 

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

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