ReTrio plus Nigel at Searles Hunstanton

Unfortunately I had gone down with a cold after last weeks gig.  Despite heavy medication with various flavours of Lemsip,  the voice was still dodgy on the Saturday morning and I was convinced it wouldn't do the whole night.  I conferred with Chris and suggested we draft in Nige on guitar and vocals to provide more vocal options rather than cancel.  He agreed and we made it so.  Chris dropped off a bass speaker so he and Ian could travel together and we agreed to meet at the gig around 7pm for a 9pm start.  Not a bad drive over and I was delighted to find a car park space near the door.  Chris and Ian helped me load in using the trolley to shift all my gear piled high in one run.  We had to wait for the end of the FA cup final to start set up so a beer was a welcome relief to a sore throat.  I decided to site the Bose on Chris's side out front to give front of house projection with the one on my side at the back providing monitoring as well as a bit of left front of house fill.  This allowed Chris to set up further right so I could create some space for Nige as the 4th member on my left as I took up the middle position.  Nige and Jenny arrived just after 8pm as I was testing the PA.  He had brought along a small Tech21 amp and his Strat.  He set the amp up angled back on the left of the stage and I set up our spare Audix OM6 mic for him.  We soon had everything working and it sounded pretty good to me.  With a half full room it wasn't appropriate to do a sound check so we had another beer.

Waiting to go on we had a brief conference about how we would play it and I found I had lost my carefully crafted on the day amended for Nigel running order.  We had plenty of old lists so in the end we decided to just do it pick and mixing it through the old set lists!  Nige had arrived smart;  Chris, Ian and myself retired to the dressing room to get our band togs on.  We were set ready to go at 9pm but Ian was still at the bar.  So I announced the band and did a bit of banter about Ian leading a conga into the Wash at midnight for those who stayed through our performance.  Then as Ian returned I struck up with the usual "FBI" just as he sat down - this looked impressively casual I would say.  As usual the sound on stage was good and I could see the audience reacting well so the sound out front must have been OK.  And Nigel's guitar sound and style added something completely different.  A middley sound on the edge of break up playing fingerstyle he picks bits of the chords to create a melodic accompaniment.  A bit like having a honky tonk piano in the band but played by guitar - I was definitely able to ease back a little.  As we finished I was pleased with a good response from an 80% full room.  We continued with our homage to Adenfield with "Heartbeat". Nige added some harmonies and we got another good response.  Next I introduced the band on the "Mystery Train" riff before sashaying into "Hound Dog".  It worked well with crisp stops and I could hear some 'aaahs' behind the solo.  No dancing but we got a good round of applause for it.  Next we intro'd Chris on "Act Naturally".  Nige did the harmony and I concentrated on guitar.  Still a bit fast in my opinion but it went down well enough. After a rhythmically satisfying and well paced "Alright Mama" (where I thought the two guitars worked particularly well)  I asked Nige to sing "Rock Around the Clock".  Key of E he said so I passed it down the line to Chris and we got underway.  Still a little fast for me but it was a too early for dancing.  The solo came -  I found it tricky in E at pace but it was over before anyone noticed.  We finished in good order though and got another good round of applause.   I teed the boys up for the Beatles.  We did the wig routine with Nige, Chris and myself mop topping up.  It got a laugh!  I sang "8 Days a Week" and Nige took the harmony lines so no need for harmoniser.  We did the full length version and then Nige took us into "Can't Buy Me Love".  That cracked through at quite a pace and we did the full length version with solo.  I skipped the couple of bars on A for the McCartney scream and went straight into the solo because I had a feeling Chris would play straight into the 12 bar as we had improvised it occasionally.  We got through OK and again got a good response from this attentive audience.  We cruised through the "Searchers Medley" Nige handled the low keys well and sang lead on most of it.  Best to get "Halfway" done before the voice went I thought so I announced it as a romantic number suitable for a smooch dance.  In the event no one did dance - but they did sing along.  Just like old times I did the harmoniser falsetto girl answer backs in the bridge and Nige did some growly male answerbacks.   But I didn't have the girly wig to do the 'stop and girlify' him up routine that probably would have worked at this gig.  A group of ladies over to my right provided a Sue that I could dedicate the next song to:  "Runaround Sue".   I sang lead with Nige adding some backing.  Once into it we had a nicely paced rhythm which brought some dancers up.  We continued straight into ""All Shook Up" and I conducted and got some good audience answer backs.  'One more' Chris said so I persuaded Nige to do "Wonder of You" - a good sing along end to a good first set.

In the break Ian did some meet and greeting and came back with a birthday request for Julie.  We agonised over doing something by 'Take That' that she wanted but she had also settled for "Mustang Sally" if we couldn't do a Take That song - so we teed that up.  Also we had Bob from the audience volunteered by his family to sing "Great Balls of Fire" with us.  We decided to open as usual with "Apache".  I did a bit of a walk and it was remarkably well received.  We followed with "Move It - Summertime Blues"  I sang the former and Nige did the latter.  We actually got some dancing going for a while.  Next we brought Bob up for his 'Bandioke' performance of "Great Balls".  He borrowed Chris's mic.  It went remarkably well considering and of course it was rapturously received by his supporters and family.  Next up was our dedication of "Mustang Sally" for Julie.  Nige got it underway with a bluesy jazzy riff and he sang it.  The ladies came up to dance and it swang along nicely.  Nige popped a fingerstyle solo in and Chris, Ian and I and harmoniser did the answer backs.  All very well received.  I persuaded Nige to continue on lead vocal for "Do You Wanna Dance" and we kept the dance floor reasonably busy through "Proud Mary and Bad Moon Rising".  We were able to finish in good order with "Hot Love and Crazy Little Thing".


In the break Bob volunteered to do "Green Grass of Home" - I said yes, about 4 numbers in.  The barman came over with a request from management to turn it down a little - which I did on the PA:  but the guys in the rhythm section (Chris and Ian) said they were OK as they were so......    We returned for the final set with my voice well scratchy.  We started with "Happy Birthday" to Julie and then I opened up with "Dance the Night Away" with Nige on the lead vocal and me doing a low volume falsetto harmony.  Several folks came up to dance and Nige took us through the full record length version. 

Ian got underway with the drumming to "Pretty Woman" as we finished.  But I had confused Nige saying it would be "Mony Mony". Just in time I was able to correct this and get us back on track to play "Pretty Woman"  Nige indicated I should sing it and I gave it my best shot but the high parts were well growley.  Still the dancers were happy with it and Nige did do a good harmony line.  Then it was "Mony Mony".  Ian got us underway straight away.  Nige took lead vocal and away we went almost filling the dance floor.  I took us from this into "Hey Baby - Hi Ho" which I sang and "Alright Now" which Nige sang both keeping the dance floor and sing along going.  We brought Bob up for his big chance with "Green Grass".  I was so busy prompting him I forgot to do the intro but we got going fine and he sang it well enough.  I couldn't remember the A dim passing chord before Am in the verse, Hair of gold and [Adim bass C] lips like [Am7 bass C]  but Nige had it covered.  And we did some 'angelic' aahs in the spoken section.  It all went down very well with the crowd and Bob later thanked us - it brought tears to his daughter's eyes! Chris called for "Another Brick in the Wall" and that actually got a few people dancing.  We got a several more up as we did "Summer of 69".  Nige sang and played growley guitar and I did the 12 string simulation -  it all was rather a fine rendition and got a good round of applause.  Then it was time to sign off with "Johnny B Goode".  My voice was now completely shot and once again Nigel did the honours singing and we had a bit of fun all doing our bits as we did 4 lots of Outro.  As we brought it to a tight finish there were a couple of shouts for more.  So we obliged and got going with "Born to be Wild".  This went like a train and finished smartly to good applause as Ian did a fine fill to the last chord.  A few folks came over at the end to say how much they had enjoyed it.  And we in the band all agreed we had enjoyed our night - so we must have done something right.

Pack up was slow.  I was relieved to have got through the night but I now had a raging sore, phlegmy throat to contend with.  Chris piled the gear high on the trolley again and we were ready to roll about 12:45 am.  We said our good nights,  I extra thanked Nige for helping us out.  Couldn't have done it on my own for sure.

Easy drive home getting in just after 2am to find evidence in the form of push chairs and coats and 'Phil asleep in a chair' that the family had arrived.  I took to my bed.  Next day was taken up entertaining youngsters Ethan and Isaac. 

Of course there are some readers of the blog who were there that night and may remember it differently (you know who you are Nigel);  but I thought overall it was a jolly good banding night.

ReTrio at Felixstowe Conservative Club

I set off at 5:40 to join Chris's convoy to the gig.  We met up OK but Ian had to get petrol so he said he'd see us there and off we went. Smooth run on a nice day and we parked up in the club car park at 6:20pm.  It turned out we had parked close to a fire exit which was our easy load in route to the performance area immediately the other side of the doors facing a good sized dance floor.  The performance space was awkward for a live band with the drummer having to sit back in the alcove leading to the fire doors and us two guitar players spilling onto the dance floor - but I've seen worse.  We put my Bose back in the alcove and the one on Chris's side out front where a normal PA would sit - we had both foldback and projection from these site-ings.  When I got it all powered up I was surprised by the lack of volume and I had to go through the mixer settings to correct some 'on the fly' changes I had made at the previous gig.  Once sorted feedback head room wasn't great - but,  looking at the club,  I thought we wouldn't want to be too loud anyway.  All that took time and we only had 30 mins or so to have a drink before show time at 8:30pm.  Yvonne from the club introduced herself and asked us to plan our sets to make space for a raffle and bingo at 10pm. We had Bridget and Sharon there in support and Chris had asked a prospective singer, Steve from Stowmarket,  to come along and try out on a few numbers.  He looked through our set and picked a few out so we drew up a micro set of 5 numbers he could do in the middle of the evening.  He is a nice chap,  had been doing solo work and seemed easy to get on with. 

We went and got changed into our smart black and whites and took our places for the off with the usual show start.  A good sound where I was,  we got a good reception from the off and as soon as we got into "Heartbeat"  the dance floor filled.  I skipped the slow intro to "Smiling" and kept them dancing.  We did our "Hound Dog" intro and that went well,  but the dancing diminished.  they came back for "Alright Mama" but we lost them with "Rock Clock".  It dawned on me that this audience were of a certain age and liked to dance to medium paced stuff,  so I started to get Ian to hold the pace back on the faster ones.  That worked:  we kept the dance floor busy through the rest of the set and got good applause throughout - with the bantering succeeding as well we were having a good night at 'our kind of club'!

After the break we did a few numbers from set 2 before bringing Steve up.  I had set up my spare OM6 mic for him and I checked all was working before introducing him as a special guest singer for the evening.  We opened his set with "Dance the Night Away".  He has a good voice and is easy to perform with.  I was able to sing the hi harmony gently in the background as we played it through close to the record arrangement and then got a great response as we finished.  Next up was "Folsom Prison".  I hadn't done this for a while but again we got through in good order and,  once again,  we kept the dance floor busy with this country train rhythm.  He sang it well and the next song showed he could sing high as well. An odd choice but he had gone for "Nights in White Satin".  We hadn't done this for a while either and I warned Steve we might not follow the arrangement as per the record,  He was happy with that so off we went.  He did sing it well and after a while I was able to bring in the very hi harmony lines in the chorus.  The crowd were happy to do a slow dance and we played it well considering.  We hummed our way (a bit erratically) through the solo.  Our arrangement ended up shorter than the record but at least the band crescendo'd together as we finished to a  relatively rapturous reception.  Steve continued with good performances of  "Johnny B Goode and Bad Moon Rising" and left us to a well earned applause.  He did do well and will suit the band I'm sure.  We continued with some more of our set to the 10pm gameshow slot.  They ended up borrowing one of our mics for that 'cos theirs was on the blink.

After the raffle and bingo we got underway with "Hot Love" missed out earlier and then into the remnants of our set 3.  Once we got going with "Pretty Woman" we carried on as usual without a break right through to "All Right Now" and kept the dancing going remarkably well.  I chose to do "Love is All Around" as the mid set slowey and, although I hadn't sung it with the band before, it worked very well and filled the floor.  As I announced "Saw Her Standing There" I mentioned to Ian that it was a straight beat -  he said he had got songs mixed up last time out - but on this night it was fine.  On we went with some more dancey rocky numbers like "Hippy Shakes" and still going down well. Even as we approached 11:30 there was still as good crowd and many had kept dancing throughout the night.  We signed off with "Wonderful Tonight" which got a very good reception and big applause as we finished.  So we did do our encore.  My quip was 'I thought we were playing a Conservative club?  But you lot were "Born to Be Wild"'.   Off we went into a loose but effective version that rounded the night off really well.  At the end Yvonne asked to borrow a mic to thank the audience and band for the evening and we got a huge round of applause from the remaining crowd.

As we came off Steve said what a great last number that was and he loved the sound.   Chris and he went into a huddle to try and establish a way forward and I dealt with Yvonne who had come over to say what a brilliant night they had had and could she re-book.   All in all it had been an unexpectedly good night and we were well pleased as we packed up.  There is a slight reserved atmosphere with my leaving the band hanging over things,  but I really couldn't ask for a better outcome than the amicable,  professional way we are dealing with this whilst still performing well.  An uneventful run home.  I had to be unloaded and up early the next day to go to Manchester to pick Jacqui up from her baby sitting duties.

Band Get Together at My Place

We had convened a 'practice session' at my place to try out Vicky, a lady singer keyboard player for a role in the band.  She presented well,  looks the part and has a nice personality.  In summary she is properly musically educated,  done stints in London musical theatre, been musical director for Hairspray at Norwich,  sings in a 40's trio and currently depping for function band Galaxy.  She wants to leave her school music teaching job and generate enough income to get by from performance and private teaching - and saw our band as one of several outlets for that.  We played through a few numbers e.g. "Dancing Queen, Love is All Around, Sam Smith's Stay With Me, Summer of 69".  She handled all of these with ease and it was clear she has a fine voice with a wide range.  I switched on the piano and found she can play keys effortlessly and professionally.   I found I could harmonise with her easily trying out lines under and over and even a bit of harmoniser.  She seemed to like the band and the discussion moved onto how it might work.  Given the gig circuit we are currently on, it suggests a sort of function band repertoire to include Abba, Soul, Pop (ancient and modern)  as well as some of the 60s 70's and rock n roll at the root of the band.  A typical function band name would be needed.

She would not be available all the time but believed in the principle that once a gig was committed she would honour it.   In the end we agreed to exchange song proposals. 

After she left we chewed it over some more.  I made the point that this time I wanted to avoid the Paul Kent situation of working her in on a few songs gig by gig.  I urged that the tasks of sorting out repertoire and arrangements are completed before rehearsal and, only after some rehearsal, would we agree a target debut.  My guess was that we would need to work up around 30 numbers to make the new show effective.  Some of that material would be buskable but there would be some newness and complexity we would need to take on board to make the show impressive as well.

The best spin was obvious:  she would fit in easily and it wouldn't take long to work up a reasonable show.  We could manage the diary complexity between all of us to work the circuit as a 4 piece versatile show/function band.  Initially she would work the gigs we have priced as they are but, on rebooking we could look to pitch the price minimum to say £320 a night and the gates would open for weddings etc.

I played devils advocate illustrating the worse case that:  yes lovely personality,  extremely talented and clearly easy to work with;  but a lot of work and commitment from all of us needed to work up the objective show.  The main risk in the worse case scenario is that she moves on.  She has the talent to get a pro role in theatre or similar and her 40's band 'The Apple Blossom Trio' could take off or she could simply move from the area; having recently come through a divorce and in the process of giving up her school teaching job - she is not tied to the area or even country.

I didn't enjoy playing the 'wet blanket' card over Chris's obvious excitement that it would be a brilliant future.  Ian I think,  understood the risks but would be less involved in whipping the new band into shape. 

Normally I would relish the challenge of working up the new and expect that we could fall back to the trio if it all fell apart.  But, on this occasion, I still had mixed feelings.  Once again I slept on it!

Next day I concluded that Vicky joining would not work commercially because I doubted we would hold her for long.  So not really worth the effort in working the show up.  The other two arrived at the same conclusion a couple of days later and wanted to try out another of Ian's male vocalist contacts.  I found I just wasn't keen on doing that.  Basically I still wanted to sing a bit but there is little scope when you have a main male singer.  Moreover, after Vicky,  I began to feel that this band had gone as far as it could musically.  I agonised over the weekend but ended up handing in my notice to the band citing 'all getting too much for a chap in his 60s' but offering help to achieve their transition.  This went as well as it could have and I did help them audition Steve on the next Thursday.  A nice chap but,  in my opinion,  a rock band voice.  It worked well on numbers like "Alright Now and Can't Get Enough" but less well on the pop and ballads.  Probably could have worked out with them on the current circuit but he was committed to a rock band who play a couple of times a month - so only really available for deps.   I wasn't surprised a couple of days later when Chris asked if I minded him bringing along another chap to try out on a few numbers on the next gig at Felixstowe - no problem I said.  They are looking for a guitarist as well so I am hoping to be released from my duties by July August timescales.
 

ReTrio at Cromer Social

Ms J had returned from a visit to a chum in Lincoln but she had so much on (quilts and familywise) she decided to give a trip to Cromer a miss.  Dispatched with a bag of sandwiches I set off on a cool,  dry day at 5pm.  It was a very smooth run to Cromer and only took an hour and a half.  I was parked outside the club at 6:30pm to find Chris completing his load in.  I popped in and was surprised at how the well the club had been done up since I was last there.  A nice backdrop with lit up stars to the stage,  proper dance floor and a generally tidy look about the place.  Ian arrived from the Hotel de Paris where he and Sharon were staying for the night and soon he was setting up as well.  We had loads of room to set up but I remembered this gig had some tricky resonances so I spread the Bose well out and decided to position my mic stand to the left of my Bose to give maximum sound penetration into the centre of the room.  On reflection this might have been less optimal than placing the Bose on my left which would have left me performing closer to the boys in the band.  As it was I was out on a limb - a bit disconnected?  I powered up and this immediately revealed a few problems.  First,  easily fixed,  I had forgotten to plug in the mixer feed to the Bose on Chris's side.  But the main problem was a low resonance that seemed to emanate from the corner on Chris's side.  He was using his AKG mic which does have a pronounced bass and it was this low mid range that was feeding back,  not the usual hi end issues.  The feedback filters deal better with the hi end so I adjusted Chris and Ian's mics to make them less boomy and more toppy.  I left mine as was and then let the feedback suppressors do their work.  The resulting sound had a slightly hard edge.  I was happy enough with that because it would cut through.  I had changed guitar strings early in the week and they had slackened somewhat - they would need a bit of an eye on tuning as the evening progressed. 

 

Plenty of time for a beer before showtime.  Sharon had arrived and kindly got the first round in.  I was getting the second in and a chap at the bar said his son was a muso and had been in Hank Marvin's backing band on a recent tour.  Most impressive I replied,  I had seen Hank a few years ago and wondered if I might have seen his son with Hank then?  Probably not it turned out.  Got back to the band and,  after a few more minutes,  we set off to get changed into the smart black n white;  and Chris and I were wearing our white hats.  As we took to the stage there was some confusion as to which timepiece we were going by,  Ian's watch or the club clock?  In the end I put another track on the player and spent a couple of minutes checking tuning.  Despite being warned by management it was a quiet night at the club, the room looked fairly busy to me.

 

'Ready Girls' I said and off we went with the usual FBI.  It sounded fine and "Heartbeat  and Smiling" following were OK.  It seemed a dry sound on vocal and I was tempted to push the echo return up a little but I was busy enough so I thought I'd leave it 'till the break.  Where I was standing the balance sounded different.  I was hearing the guitar above the band presumably because I was further away from the rhythm section than normal.  This should have been good from a quality control point of view,  but the exposure increased nerves which led to a less relaxed and accurate guitar performance than when it is more hidden in the on stage mix. I tried the "Mystery - Hound Dog" routine early as a means of introducing the band and this went quite well. It naturally led us into " Alright Mama" which was nicely paced. We were getting some polite applause with the rock n roll and I'm sure the wigging up for the Beatles sequence amused some.  Towards the end of the set we were in the middle of a fair version of "Tambourine Man" and I was heartened to see Nige,  Jen and Martin arrive - some support for the band!  I broke a strum to give a wave and we ploughed onto a timely ending.  Again this number got a good reception,  maybe people like the easy pace.  We set off into "Halfway" and I hoped for some audience sing-a-long.  I set the long echo but quickly reverted to the medium echo after hearing the slap back awkwardly timed against a slightly more upbeat tempo than I am used to.  Nige and co took up seating near Sharon who was busy taking pics. As we finished I called for "Runaround Sue" and as soon as we got going we got some dancers up.  It was easy to run on into "All Shook Up".  Ian and I got at cross purposes on the rhythm straight away but we settled into some kind of compromise between my relaxed swing and his more on the beat style. It was going quite well so I had expected a big audience join in when I left them to sing the 'All Shook Up' halfway through but in the event it was a bit muted. Still we finished in good order and Chris indicated time for our break and,  switching on the muzak,  we took our leave.

 

It was good to meet up with Nige and gang.  They said the band's sound was great,  A good clear balance as soon as they came through the door and not too loud.  And,  to Chris's bemusement,  again the comment on the well rounded bass sound being just right.  Chris can't hear it stood in front of the stack!  Had a little misunderstanding with the table behind us.  A chap asked me to turn the music down  they wanted to chat.  I misunderstood thinking he was joking about turning down the band level so they could chat.  But it turned out it was the muzak level that was a little intrusive.  I apologised and obliged!  With that sorted they could get on with their chat as could we.  I showed Martin and Nige the Line 6 mixer - people are always amused to see little cartoon people rather than sliders!

 

We returned for set 2 with "Apache"  I decided to give the walk a go.  Got off to a bad start forgetting to set the shads sound on the FX pedal - I had to step back and adjust that.   I only did a half walk 'cos my back was still playing up.  I couldn't get very far out,  but it sounded ok.  My picking was still a bit nervy but we did a strong end to it and were rewarded with a big response.  I took my time to introduce "Move It" getting all the settings right and making sure Ian and I were gonna do the same number!  We got a good groove going and some lady dancers  came up.  I was still fluffing the odd note and wondered if the bad back was affecting fingering?  We slipped seamlessly into "Summetime Blues" to keep the dancing going and then Sir Cliff's "Do You Wanna Dance" which brought up a few more dancers.  I was getting a bit more relaxed,  but my fingers still made some strange choices in the solos which normally play a standard routine.  With a full dance floor,  I called for "Sweet Caroline" to keep it going - a good choice and we had some sing-a-long as well as dance. As that finished I took off into "Daydream Believer".  Its a necessary slow swung start but as the song progressed Ian got us into a good groove at the right pace for the dancers.  Although my voice was well recovered from the previous weeks problems,  I was finding it a stretch to hold the high lines and there was a bit of a rasp,  but I think it was in tune.  I continued the sequence for one more number with "Bad Moon Rising".  I thought I could see the dancers flagging a bit as we came to the end and elected to try a slowey in the shape of "Raining In My Heart".  The dancers melted away and only two couples came up for the slow dance.  (I noted that Chris is still not sure of the chords in the middle 8).  "Crazy Little Thing" brought some dancers up again.  We did an OK version.  We've only played this a few times and it is coming together but it needs a few more plays to fully gel.  I thought the quick transition to "Hippy Shakes" would have kept the dancers,  but it may have been a bit fast for them.  As it was I got off on the wrong key vocally and had the wrong guitar settings so the start was ragged.  Once underway,  it went like a train.  We finished it a bit looser than I prefer,  but Ian is still getting familiar with this ending I think.  Chris got us straight underway with "Hot Love" which I thought went well and,  on this night,  I decided to take us into "East Anglia Girls".   We made the transition to A in good order but, not playing this for a while,  I forgot the 'Florida,  Hawaii --- shouts" and then the chords once we got into the verse.  Doh!  Somehow we got through it and the second verse was better and the dancers kept going.  Chris indicated we needed one more.  Again I found myself announcing "American Trilogy" rather than something easier.  And again it was a mixed performance only slightly better than the previous outing.  We did get some sing-a-long going and with a rousing big ending we elicited a big round of applause from a patient audience.  Time for a break.

 

Ian asked to be excused "Flingel Bunt" (with another drummer in the room) and we opened with "Albatross" instead.  Despite me having run through this in the week,  it was still a nervy performance but no major goof thank goodness.  Then we opened up the dance sequence running through "Dance Night Away - Great Balls - Pretty Woman - Saturday Night - Hey Baby - Hi Ho and Alright Now" without stopping to keep the dance floor busy. I intended to keep it going with my 1 2 3 4 intro to "Saw Her Standin There",  but Ian must confuse it with another song 'cos he takes the pace on significantly faster than I feel it.  So we lost the dancers and it was over in a matter of under 2 minutes.  I called for the ballad for romantic dancers with "Wonderful Tonight"  This went OK but I lost the plot on the transition to the bridge,  nothing too noticeable just not concentrating!  We did "Another Brick in the Wall".  Again not too well on my part:  although I had managed it the previous week,  I couldn't get the timings on the 'Hey Teacher' and,  with no dancers,  I found the solo hard going so kept it short.  After "Mustang Sally" I announced "Johnny B Goode" as the last number and we played our outro solos.  By now the voice was shot,  but it didn't matter too much at this late stage.  There was one shout for more and we were teed up for it so we gave "Born to be Wild" an airing.  Quite a fast and loose performance,  but we all arrived at the end together! 

 

Said my goodbyes to Nige and gang and then set about pack up.  I was bent over a Bose bag when the club chairman came over.  He spoke to Ian,  saying it had been a nice night in a complimentary way.  We had a good sound,  had kept the audience and elicited some dancing -  so there were some satisfied folk out there.  I personally had had a poor night on guitar,  but the voice had held up better.  All in all we should have been in good humour,  but things were strangely subdued as we packed and loaded.  Chris and I were lined up outside the club to leave in convoy with me at the front to lead the way out through a short cut down St Mary's street.  Sharon was quite merry as she and Ian set off for their hotel  -  she had had some kind of conversations with folk at the club which had her marked down as a character!

 

We had a really good run home taking only 90 minutes to get back at 2 am.  Sore back the next day and mixed feelings about things in the band - I can't work out if the other two think I'm not up to it or if they respect the leadership I am giving.  I was pleased I had a bank holiday coming up for some extra recovery time.  We had agreed to meet up for a practice session later in the week with a girl singer / keyboard player to try out so I resolved to give that a good shot and see how it goes. 

 

Sorry Blogateers - no action pics as yet!

 

 

 



ReTrio at The Felsto Arms

... voice was rough from the previous night.  I took a blogateer's advice drinking lots of water and I got a small bottle of glycerine lemon and honey mixture which definitely helped.  The gig starts at 4pm and I was a bit late, only getting away just before 2pm.  But I had a quick run over to Felixstowe arriving at the pub at 2:30pm to find Chris and Ian just completing unload.  They gave me a hand in with my gear and I explained I wasn't being rude,  but I wasn't going to speak much to conserve the voice.  Set up was fine and I enjoyed a lager which took the throat soreness away. 

We were already changed into jeans and white tees so it only took the addition of a waistcoat and we were ready. There weren't many in though.  We span it out a few minutes before taking to the instruments and opening up with the usual 3 songs.  With only about 20 people in it sounded loud and we were asked to turn it down,  which I did.  But the drums were still very loud.   Ian takes the view that the band is there to be heard rather than as background muzak for them who liked to chat - could be a problem there!

Struggled on through the usual stuff which the voice was holding up enough to do - this trick was to avoid the big Elvis ballads.  Early on we did "Albatross" - a couple of chaps liked the instrumentals but couldn't stay for "Apache" and that was the trend really.  A few people would arrive,  a few people would leave but there would never be more than 25 in the audience.  As the second set got underway, we did do a request for "Penny Arcade" for a couple of Lancashire lasses that inhabit the bar.  Actually,  it went well.  I had asked Ian to have a listen before the gig thinking it might come up,  and he clearly had.  I sang it well considering and the ladies were pleased.  We finished the 2nd set on "Hot Love" with a few ladies dancing. 

In the break I swigged some more medication and judged I'd be OK to finish the night.  While we were off,  Ian had had a request for "Let There Be Drums".  I said I was sure we could busk a version so he went out and had a listen on the phone.  We opened set 3 with it!  He is a good drummer and got going well with it.  I had briefed Chris to play along with me in the key of E - I would improvise something within E A B.  After Ian had done a minute or so bash I counted us in to the main riff.  It was fine!  Chris just played a simple bass line and I did the riff.  I had a slight concern this might not work as we got to the rising in semi - tones section,  but it was fine.  Sufficiently so we went round again.  We got a good round of applause at the end.  We got back underway with the usual set and that kept us busy 'til about 15 minutes from the end.  All of us were surprised how long there was to go - we must have played the previous 25 minutes very efficiently!  (Actually there were no breaks)   I called for "Another Brick in the Wall".  We did a passable version of it.  Its not demanding vocally - I just wish the other two would join in on the 'we don't need no education..' verses.  I was happy with the solo improvising several bars reminiscent of Dave Gilmore's style, but I wasn't happy with the sound on the clean setting.  I knew sustain wouldn't work either,  but after the event I think the weakness of the sound is down to the pick up selection between bass and middle.  You need this for the main song sound but I have since resolved to try switching the guitar to the bass pick up for the solo to give it more depth.  Next I did the band outro version of "Mystery to Hound Dog".  This went very well.  It is rhythmically strong and we had some dancers up.  Ideal set up for the big finish with "Johnny B Goode".  Even though the voice was shot I could just about manage it and we finished the night in good order.  It was just after 7pm, no call or need for an encore.  We set about pack up quietly and were loaded for the off at about 7:45,  Chris had a word with Robbie the landlord who seemed OK despite the poor turn out. 

I was home by 8:30  knackered but pleased it was over.   Reflecting on things:  I'm not happy and I don't think the others are too.  That whole business with Paul bred some lack of trust between us.  There is clearly still a a head of steam to get another singer in.  I know it makes sense,  particularly after this weekend where it shows how dependent the band is on me being in perfect health every night. Chris the drum used to sing up to 5 numbers and that was a useful foil along with a few instrumentals.  However,  trio gig money split between 4 won't work for every person.  My view of keeping the trio for some gigs and augmenting with a singer for the better paid ones hasn't gained much traction.

In the week we took a break from practice.  Ian is well connected in the music world and had suggested we try a male singer contact.  But I suspect he wasn't available because that was dropped and then he came up with a female who can sing and play keyboards. This is more in line with my thinking so I said I'd be up for trying her out the week after.  The good news is the voice returned mid week,  so I hope I'll have the stamina for the Cromer gig on Saturday.

ReTrio at Seadell Club Hemsby

After the traumas of the previous week and a rather boozy second half of the week at the Beer Festival,  I had developed a slight sore throat. Ominously,  we had decided not to get a dep singer in - we were going to play the weekend as a trio.  Moreover, I was out of practice on my own vocals due to the distraction of sorting out and fitting in the singer who had now left the band.  But it 'was what it was' and I geared up manfully to do the gig to the best of my ability.  I rewrote the set lists taking the liberty of bringing in "Flingel Bunt" to start set 3 - to get another instrumental into the show.

Come the day Chris propped round in the morning to drop a bass cab off for me to take.  He would be taking Ian but he said there wasn't much room for lights.  It was a warm sunny day as we set off at 5pm for the run to the coast.  Roadworks south of Norwich slowed us down but we arrived in Hemsby just before 6:30pm.  We parked up near the fire exit and enjoyed a slow load into the club.  A good sized stage faced into a big and wide,  soft furnished, concert room with a dance floor off to my left.  Chris soon found there were no performance lights and regretted his decision to leave his at home.  He settled for the white spots above the band.   We worked though set up slowly.  The Bose PA only just fitted in by pushing the false roof panels in a couple of inches!  I looked round and Chris had set the Bose up in a corner on his side where the lines of sound would be obscured. Too late to change but I suggested next time we put it between the bass cab and the drums.   There was a moment of fear when the mixer powered up.  Sometimes with low voltages you get an uncertain outcome and this was the case here - it didn't boot up right first time.  Fortunately when I rebooted we were OK second time around - phwew! The place was fairly empty so we did an instrumental sound check with "Flingel Bunt".  Ian wasn't that familiar with it so it was a good job we tried it out.  Then we did "Smiling".  I was pleased with the very good on-stage sound - on the dry side and no nasty resonances.   I had run the PA up quite loud to try and fill the room and a couple out front (unprompted) said  'lovely sound!'  I backed it off a tad and we took a beer break. It seemed none of us wanted to discuss the singer experience so we settled into mild banter to while away 40 minutes to show time at 9pm.  About 8:45 pm we got changed into our smart black n white in the storeroom behind the bar - nice and warm!

Set Up - you can clearly see the guitarists foot pedal array,  for once plenty of room!

We opened with our usual suspects of "FBI - Heartbeat - Smiling"  garnering some polite applause from the 20 or so in for the start of the night.  As we continued with familiar rock n roll numbers I could see the hall filling up and we did get one couple on the dance floor.  Chris sang his "Act Naturally" and got an OK response,  but I judged that this crowd weren't massive country fans so we sidelined a possible airing for "Ring of Fire".   Next we wigged up for the Beatles and then played the Searchers Medley.  I was happy with the PA sound and was just using the harmoniser to add a high line.  Probably 'cos I was out of practice playing as a trio,  I was having a bit of trouble coordinating all the guitar and PA effects changes with my foot pedals;  but I didn't let it bother me and took my time.  We were starting to get some response from the increased audience and "Mr Tambourine Man", up next, got a good round of applause.  The audience is relatively distant at this gig so its hard to hear how its going down.  Next I called for "Halfway to Paradise" thinking a slowey was worth a try.  We got going OK - Ian did a nice fill into the song.  Once underway, the big echo produced an intrusive slap back,  so I switched back to the 300mS echo mid song - this fitted the bands tempo better.  I could tell the audience were singing along,  but there were no slow dancers so I kept it short.  I was quite confident with "Runaround Sue" which I chose to sing in the high key of C we had moved to for Paul.  The audience seemed to like this and I took us into "All Shook Up".   As we finished Chris indicated we needed another few minutes.  My throat had held up well so far so I announced "Wonder of You".  It went well - we bigged it up towards the end i.e. lots of volume and strings.  Ian added a few tentative 'ah ah ah ahs' and I'm sure the audience was singing along as well.  I chickened out on the big Elvis ending as we eased to a close singing in the lower octave.  Despite some rough edges at the end (Chris hit the big finish Eb at the wrong point on the bass and my voice was fading at the same time) it went down remarkable well.  I put the muzak on and we took our break. 

Feedback from people in the break was positive and we took to the stage to open with "Apache" in a positive mood.  I thought we played this well - Ian puts in lots of the Shads features and on this night I concentrated on playing rather than walking.  We did get big round of applause as we finished.  I did my usual trick of asking the crowd who the Shads used to back.  'Harry Webb' came back one wag,  I indicated we would do one of his and Ian surprised me as he got underway with "Do You Wanna Dance".  The set list showed "Move It" so I had to change guitar and PA settings to fit in.  But we got through OK,  maybe a bit more ragged than we can do,  but it went down well enough. As we carried on with some rock n roll I could feel the voice getting croaky.  The two Creedance songs went well and got some dancing going.  We approached the end of the set with a good rendition of "Hot Love" which had fully populated the dance floor and earned a big round of applause.  I was going to take it into "East Anglia Girls" but couldn't feel my way into it.  Ian read my hesitation as time to stop and we stopped in good order without going up a tone for "East Anglia Girls".  Big decision now on how to close the set?  I found myself announcing "American Trilogy" saying we would need lots of sing-a-long as I had a sore throat.  We hadn't done this for quite a while and I was struggling to feel it right while at the same time favouring the voice which was now sounding hoarse.  Fortunately,  there was some sing-a-long going on in the crowd.  We got to the 'glory glory' phrase and I annoyingly mixed up chords and phrasing - not fatally though.  On the positive side we did a good transition to the flute sound and a very big end with lots of strings and drums.  Ian does a very powerful job! As we left we could see the hall was well over half full now.

We took our break and I nursed the voice with a pint of water before resuming with "Flingel Bunt".  Ian needs to listen to the beginning but once underway we did a good job.  I got us underway with "Dance the Night Away".  Quite a few came up to dance.  I'm still messing up the guitar playing the horn parts - nothing the crowd would notice but annoying to me as I fall back to the chords.  Its one of those things I need to play through a few time before the gig so the fingers do it on auto pilot.  We carried on into our long dancey song sequence and soon had the dance floor busy and quite a bit of sing-a-long going.  The only 'really hard on the voice' number in that sequence was "Pretty Woman" and it did sound strained,  but we soon moved into easier singing territory such as "Hi Ho".  They shouted for "The Twist" and we gave it to 'em - in my low key of G.   We did fit in one slow song "Rainin in my Heart" which brought up a couple of couples to dance.  After "Hippy Shakes" I brought in our "Mystery Train - Hound Dog" pairing to introduce the band. That went well - "Hound Dog" is easy to sing and the band does a strong dancey rhythm.  We eased down with "Mustang Sally".  I wanted to extend this with a solo to give the voice a break,  but Chris misread my signal and carried on into his 'all the ladies sing - ride sally ride' routine.  But as we came to the end Chris said we were close to midnight and it was time to wrap up.  We tore into "Johnny B Goode".  It was a great finisher and we got a good round of applause from the by now much thinner crowd. Having just done the band intro we passed on the band outro routine and just played it straight. We worked hard to deter any call for an encore as we quickly moved off the stage and headed to the storeroom to get changed.  People on the way out seemed happy with the band and Jackie the governess in charge said we'd done a very good job:  She said the audience had liked the music and the band sounded good;  and we did well to get them dancing 'cos they don't usually dance on these quiet weekends before the season gets going.  We were buoyed up by this 'cos I think the mood in the band was that we were struggling a bit with repertoire changes,  my vocal problems and the fact that the audience was fairly distant so we didn't get how well it was going down.

Pack and load in the rain was a chore but we finally hit the road just before 1am.  I was home for 2:30am after an unenjoyable drive in the sleety rain;   navigating the road works on the Norwich bypass was a pain.  The voice was well shattered when I woke up the next day though .....

ReTrio and Paul Kent play Littleport Ex Servicemans Club

I had returned from Malta in a healthier mind state and I was determined to try and make the current band line up work.  So I teed up a meeting with Paul to try and iron out the song issues before the scheduled band practice on the Thursday before the gig.  The meet with Paul went OK and we worked for about 3 hours visiting every song on his set list,  confirming the key where necessary and testing harmonies.  Some of the high harmony lines I would have done in my younger days were too much of a stretch at the mo' and given that we only had two voices to play with I chose to sing the close harmony under for some songs e.g. "Little Bit More" . In terms of new band material we worked up the Wet Wet Wet version of "Love is All Around" as a banker ballad for the last set.  Although I wasn't keen on it, Paul had confirmed he would be using his own PA and a Bose Compact for monitoring at the gig and I would continue to use the band PA as normal  - but we agreed to provide a feed from my Stagescape mixer and take a feed from his so we were all interconnected. I was well aware of the risks of over complexity but reckoned on keeping the interconnections at low levels to avoid feedback.  The other problem would be remembering all the good work we had put in on the songs,  but I hoped the practice scheduled for the Thursday would solidify most of it.

The practice went quite well musically and our try outs of the harmonies worked very well - so well that I was only using the harmoniser on couple of songs e.g. "Happy Together".  Unfortunately, the practice didn't go well personality wise with Paul seemingly using the session to score points against me for trying to organise things (I discounted paranoia in this assessment).   At the end I had very mixed feelings about whether I wanted to continue in the band with him and these feelings intensified as the gig approached. 

Come the day Jacqui offered to come to see the band.  She was intrigued as to what was bothering me, and the other band wives Bridget and Sharon were going so she wouldn't be on her own.  Sleeping on it I had decided it was too risky to interconnect PA's - I would set our PA up as normal and leave Paul to do his own thing with his own PA.  I followed Chris in convoy to the gig and we arrived at 6 pm to find parking spaces outside the club and Paul already there and loaded in.  We got our gear in and set up on the commodious (by most club standards) stage.  Paul set his PA up on the floor in front of the stage and was soon busy testing it out.  It did sound good and the fold back from the Bose compact angled into the band from my left was perfect - very clear and no hint of feedback.  I got our PA going and it sounded equally good in my opinion.  The hall itself has a slight pleasant reverb but no awkward low end resonances = good for the onstage band sound.  There is a lowish ceiling beam dividing the band from the audience that I thought might cause some trouble,  but all it did was cut down the volume a bit on the way to the audience - not a bad thing.  We had a run through a few numbers,  "Bye Bye Love - Hound Dog - Searchers" and it all sounded fine and Paul was relatively well behaved.  I ran the guys through a more professional Paul intro where Ian starts the Mystery Train riff going,  I announce him then same for Chris and myself then we all play the riff to a big stop - 'and its Pa--ul Ke--nt on vocals'!  Satisfied with that we took to the bar.  As I re-joined the women I noticed Paul was getting a bit of an interrogation from the ladies on his commitment.  After a beer we got changed and Chris gathered us up for a photo shoot on stage.  I suspected this would be a just an interim one no matter how well we processed it but we did our best.

Come 8:45 we took to the stage and opened up with the usual "FBI - Heartbeat".  The audience is a long way from the band but it seemed to go down well.  The on stage sound was fine.  Having not played for a few weeks and dealing with Paul's stuff for the last 10 days,  I found I was out of practice on guitar and struggling to remember song words for numbers I have done for years.  Also I couldn't quite see the set list on the floor and called the next few songs out of sequence (and even missed one out) so it was after "Act Naturally" I asked Ian to start the train riff to bring Paul on.  Actually that went OK.  It would have been more professional if Paul had come up when announced rather than at the beginning of the riff - but 'hey ho' he started "Hound Dog" well and did a good job of posing and mingling with the audience, so it was a good first outing.  The solo's went well - I have to watch Paul to see when he's going to call it:  it seems different every time!  He does do the Jordinaires 'aaahs' under the solos which is good,  but the ending remains uncertain.  I had run them through an ending similar to the record but we need an indication of this is the last verse from Paul to fix that.  He got a good reception and we carried on with "Blue Suede Shoes (still a bit fast) and Bye Bye Love" both going down well with an audience of about 40.  I thought we did a good version of the Everly's song.  I had shifted the key to A as per record and Paul's and my voice (doing the high line) blended well.  It was played at an easy pace and we had a few ladies dancing by this point.  Next I announced the Searchers medley.  I had shifted the keys in this to be all in A to suit Paul on lead lines.  We got underway with "Sugar and Spice" and it went OK,  but I sensed Paul hadn't done his homework on words.  I missed the drama of the key change to F as we transitioned into "Needles and Pins" and Paul still seemed uncertain on words and arrangement.  The change to "Walk in the Room" brought us back to more familiar territory and we did a tight finish.  Paul seems to expect me to do all the announcements which looks a bit odd out front,  best spin is initial nerves and he will interact better as we go.  Next up was "Happy Together" so I did our usual link into it and we started the riff.  A nice relaxed pace brought several dancers up and we played a very creditable cover of this with added harmoniser and strings filling it out in the choruses - it went down really well.  There was a bit of dithering to establish how much time we had left before we got underway with the next song "Can't Buy Me Love";  and Paul was behaving unprofessionally by barracking me rather than using the opportunity to engage the audience.  This slowed down decision making and made the delay worse.  Not that the ladies dancing were that bothered.  So after a 40 second delay we got going and played it well.  I still need to work on the solo which remains somewhat improvised but all in all a good pace and a song these audiences relate to.  Next was "All Shook Up".  Paul had insisted we liven this up and play it faster and,  as I predicted,  it was too fast for this crowd and the dancers dropped away.  We redeemed ourselves with a good finish on "Wonder of You" which he sang well and it had the big arrangement with strings and harmonies.   Overall a good first set despite the diva act on vocals.

 

We started set 2 with "Apache".  Ian does a good job on this and it got a good response.  We progressed on with me singing familiar material "Tambourine Man, Move It,  Summertime Blues and Sweet Caroline".  We had quite a few dancing and singing by the end of "Sweet Caroline" and I brought Paul on quickly to do "Daydream Believer".  He sang it well and we gave "Delilah" a go in Tom's key Gm.  For a first time outing I couldn't grumble - it went well but maybe the audience would find it easier to sing along in Em?  The rest of the set was fairly familiar.  When it was time to do a couple of ballads Paul did a good vocal on "A Little Bit More" which compensated for a messed up vocal on the bridge in "Rainin in My Heart" preceding it. After a few more dancey numbers we finished with "Mony Mony" - somewhat ragged in my opinion.

I started the 3rd set with a familiar run of numbers.  I was still suffering from lack of practice and found singing and playing some of these hard going.  Paul was due to come on to "Saw Her Standing There".  We got the riff going and I looked in vain for him.  He had missed his cue and had to be told to get off the phone and get going.  The next few numbers were tortuous for me.  We still had attitude problems,  but now he was bending down to fiddle with his vocal processor and adding what sounded like a harmoniser not receiving any key information.  Fortunately it wasn't too noticeable out front and we played on to a ragged end by our standards.  To be fair "Love is All Around" was an exception in this closing sequence -  he sang it well and kept off the FX box. 

We packed up without saying much. Paul was first to be ready to go and he made a point of saying goodbye to me with what I took to be sarcastic comment about my being the leader.   Strangely, the management were happy with the band and confirmed the re-booking in July.  As I drove home I continued to have very mixed feelings:  alternating between wanting to resign or work at taming Paul.  Jacqui urged me not to do anything hasty saying that the band had sounded good and the lack of slickness wasn't that noticeable out front.  Next day we got the unsurprising news Paul had resigned.  The mood between the three of us was now at a low ebb for different reasons and I half hoped it might result in a band split.  But come Tuesday Ian had found a potential singer from his contacts who he assured us wouldn't be a diva.  So we fell in line with that.  We have to play the next weekend as a trio which I will find demanding,  but hopefully we can get sorted after that.