Norwich WMC

Made very good time over but had the usual difficulty navigating Norwich’s one way to actually get in front of the alley up to the club. Dan, who was depping for himself, rolled up shortly after and we parked up to unload into the club. We were just shifting the cars out when Dave arrived. He was pretty fed up because he had just been done by the police for using a mobile while driving. Anyway, Dan and I managed to park opposite the alley free of charge. We got Dave’s gear in and he set off to park further down the street. It was a warm night and by the time we got the gear up the stairs we had quite a sweat on! Then it was set up time. I decided to put one of the PA speakers behind us to give us a monitor sound, that worked quite well for me and Dan but Dave still needed his personal monitor. Jen and Laura arrived. Ran through “I Feel Fine” and a few flute pieces and got the volume down OK; so it was off for a re-union lager with Dan before we got on for set 1. Well it was just like a time warp as we played through confidently with Dan doing his bits of fluting and some announcements. We all felt very comfortable together. And it was a similar story for set 2 – we started with the old medley and then put Dan on the spot to do “End of the Line”, the 4 Seasons and “Somewhere Under the Sun”. In Set 3 we did a special request for American Trilogy and it was right at the end that we tripped the sound meter to turn the power off. The governor had to come and power us back on for the “Pretty Woman / Wonderful Tonight Finish” We got a great reception and it had been a good night for the band. Dave set off to do some glad handing whilst we began the long pack up. Then we got the gear down the stairs, brought the cars round, loaded up and negotiated the bollards to exit the alley. Quite a palava, but it was a good run home and I was back for 1:30 am.

Band Practice at Skeyton

Arrived at the hall to meet Dave at 5pm. There was some painting going on so we elected to set up at the toilet end of the room. It was our first try out with the Bose LI Personal Amplification System. It only takes a few minutes to set up; but I knew the main problem would be getting the sound right. After juggling with various settings and pushing up the middle tone control a lot I started to get the focussed cut through guitar sound needed. – but still a bit to go there. Despite setting up the same as Nigel, I couldn’t get my mic sounding as good – this needs looking into! Tried out various numbers with varying success; in parallel we had a discussion about where we were heading as a band and laid some demons to rest!

Evening at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club

Got Rocky to come and assist me loading in and arrived at the club spot on 6pm. There was quite a bit of activity and I soon found Luke and Janie and agreed the “modus operandi” for the two bands on the night. It was good job Rocky came because we had to get the gear up a difficult flight of stairs. Rocky went home (via The Morton Hall!) and I started to set up. A few minutes later I looked up and there was Dave, Jen and Neil (our dep bassist for the night) - They’d come up the fire escape. As I came back to the gear the guitarist in the other band pointed out my Korg FX unit was smoking – shock horror I had plugged the wrong power supply in. After I unplugged it all it was clear it wasn’t working, so I drove home and picked up my spare Line 6 XT and set up with that. We did a brief sound check with “Just One Look”. And let Janie’s band (Headless?) set up. I helped them sound check and then Jacqui, Claire and Rocky arrived to make it quite a band party. After the speeches, Headless did their set and We got changed - Neil wasn’t keen on wearing the band uniform so we compromised by wearing the black shirts and red ties. Then we went on with our usual start. We got as far as “Apache” and Dave decided to liven it up. He went out and grabbed many of the younger (mainly single men) elements in the audience for a Shadows dance class. This went down really well, so well that we decided to do “Flingel Bunt” to follow up! After doing Happy Birthday for Luke (Foot Tappers style) we ploughed on with a mix of stuff to a mixed response. We took a break and came on to do the final set starting with “500 Miles” which Dave also assembled the Bury St Eds formation dance team for. Then we simply blasted through to “All Right Now” keeping the party dance atmos going. We just had chance for a ballad in the shape of “Unchained Melody” before we were into the closing sequence. Dave said goodbye with “Pretty Woman” and we encored with “Wonderful Tonight”. Neil had done a fine job (if a bit loud) but he doesn’t take direction too easily, so I would put our recent deps in order of preference: Charlie, Dave A then Neil. Got packed up and, with some difficulty, got the gear down the stairs. It was an easy run home for me – I got in about 1am. Pretty exhausted after 3 gigs so I was asleep immediately.

Lunch at North Walsham Church Fete

Had an early start at 8:30am to get there for 10am. Traffic was a bit frustrating but I got there just after 10am to find a van blocking the entrance. Got that cleared and parked up to meet Dave and Nigel who were already there talking to Ken Grover. With Ken’s and Martin’s help we got the gear round to the band tent pretty quick. Because rain was imminent, Dave got one of the organisers to put a side sheet in our tent. We were just setting up and and up walks Dan looking tanned and relaxed from his American jaunt. Michele, Jenny and Laura had also arrived so it was quite meet and greet session. Eventually we got off to a relaxed and quiet set 1 which went down well with the fete attendees; I thought there were not as many as last year. The ladies in the stall opposite were bopping away to our music, the harmonies sounded good and all was well with the world, even when it started to rain a bit. Similar result for Set 2 and Set 3. In fact we did quite a laid back version of a well know Eagles song – I called it “Travel Lodge California” and it got a good ripple of applause from right round the grounds. Dan had come back for most of the third set said the band was sounding good, very good harmonies and guitar fingering! Poor old boy is obviously missing it – but I hope he will make a million in his new venture. We got packed up and loaded very quickly. Nie was staying with Dave for a couple of hours kip before his gig and I got off double quick home. I drove back round the East of Norwich to pick up the A47 to avoid road works on the ring round and got home by 4:00pm

Club Oasis California Sands Scratby

...near Great Yarmouth

Left early and kept up a good pace to arrive on the California Sands road at 5pm. Missed the club on the left and drove down to the end to ask directions. After a look round the wrong club I finally found it, but had difficulty actually getting to the club to park up (You have to take the first left before you get to the shops). But I eventually parked up round the back and arranged to bring the gear in through the kitchen. Nigel showed up at this point and Dave and Martin were not long after. Then Jenny and Laura arrived. It is a big venue, so we had brought the bass bins. Couldn’t use the poles because the way the stage was built with a valance round the top, but in the end we simply placed the EV’s on top of the DB Bins on the (purpose built) PA shelves. Then it was a bout of very hard work to connect it all up, mic up the drums, send monitor signals to Nigel’s Bose and receive his bass and my guitar direct injections signals. Started to balance up a mix but, needless to say we ran out of time, because they wanted to start bingo at 7pm. All we had time for was a very quick sound check. That left us feeling nervous about the eventual performance. Then had to while away a couple of hours before set 1 at 9pm. I had originally suggested we start with set 2, but we were a bit uptight so we just drifted into doing our usual set 1. There weren’t many punters in as we started, but a few more arrived as the set progressed. We made a good enough start but the on stage sound was poor and we couldn’t hear the vocals - but they obviously could out front! Anyway, despite increasing nerves we ploughed on through most of set 1 with me doing most of the banter. Got a good response to the Shadows walk. Nigel got the Bose monitor vocals up a bit towards the end, but then it was probably too loud at that point. Despite all that we came off to a good response. I stayed behind to fiddle with the mix, but apparently Nigel and Dave had had words. Dave went to sit with one of his mates in the relatively short break before Set 2. Nigel and I had some water and a chat and then assisted Dave on quiz game machine. Then it was back on for set 2 (which was mainly set 3). The on stage sound was slightly better and we played with a lot more continuity. We did get a few people up and dancing, but generally it was still hard work. We finished with “Pretty Woman” and with a good response from the audience encored with “Wonderful Tonight”. We were pleased to be finished and with a large number of Dave’s family around we got packed up quite quickly. The band felt quite bad about the night, but Sandra (the promoter) was happy enough and seemed interested in booking us back. Plus Dave’s mate said the band was OK, so we were probably beating ourselves up too much! Made good time on the way home, getting back for 1:30am. I took three main lessons on board from this gig.

1. We need a clear 2 hours to do the big set up with bass bins etc.
   
2. We would benefit from sorting out a higher energy 2 x one hour sets for these types of venue
   
3. We need to organise the sets and Dave’s book so we can maintain continuity whilst varying the running order; e.g organise sets in runs of 3-6 numbers and have some popular tactical “drop in” songs in alphabetical order at the back of the book.
   

Swaffham ex Serviceman’s club

Easy drive over in about 45 minutes on a typical sunshine and showery day for June this year. I arrived at 6:20 just ahead of Charlie who was depping on bass. I parked up down an alley down the side of the club and the Dave and Martin arrived. The club opened up at 6:30 pm and we could get the gear in through a side door off the alley. Charlie had a big Eden bass combo with what looked like 8 x 10 speakers in it (He had been out ‘till 4 in the morning playing RAF Cranwell and brought the gear that was in the van). Reasonable sized stage and we got set up without any problems and managed a bit of a soundcheck while there were only a few people in the club. It was a good sound on stage and we looked forward to a good evening. Got on for a one hour set 1, and got a good audience response from the off, and by the time we got to the “Everlys” there were a fair few up and dancing. Charlie was very solid on bass and Dave and I were singing and bantering well. Because I forgot to tape the set list up on the speaker near me, I found myself announcing the Beatles medley, where we should have been dipping into the rock’n’roll; but the boys took it in their stride and we reverted to rock’n’roll toward the end. Finished off with “I Believe” and got a great response. Charlie’s partner Dorinda had arrived towards the end of the first set and said everything sounded good. We had a short break and then got on for 45 mins of set 2 starting with “I Feel Fine” and a special request for the “Anniversary Waltz” which we busked a verse. Then we worked our way through to the Elvis piece, which went down very well and finished with “Sweet Caroline” and “Love is all Around”. We had another break for the raffle - Dorinda won a bottle of something exotic. Had a change of shirts and got on to do a one hour set 3 starting with “500 miles”, then playing through the dancey stuff to “Hi Ho Silver”. The floor was pretty packed with dancers as we did “Unchained Melody” (Dave’s voice still managed to just break up the PA on the loud bits). Then we did a good version of “Dance the Night Away” carrying on with “Bad Moon Rising” and “Shakin All Over” (Nearly lost it in the drum break) before doing a very relaxed American Trilogy. We finished with “Pretty Woman” which Dave signed off on and, following a great round of applause, we encored with “Wonderful Tonight”. Packed up slowly as Dave did his bit of re-booking with the governor. It had been a very good night for the band and we all felt good about it. Set off through a very misty Thetford forest to arrive home about 1:30am.

Practice at Skeyton

Reasonable trip over, Norwich was a bit busy but I arrived at 6:20 to find Dave already setting up drums. Got most of my gear in and the Nigel arrived. Did a fairly quick set up and I decided to set the Hi and Lo Behringer Enhancer controls to mid as a starting point. Oddly enough that sounded great so I just left it like that. Nigel used his Bose for his mike and the three mic’s bended well enough – maybe a bit more volume needed on Nige’s? Warmed up with Hotel California which went perfectly until the very end of the guitar solo when I had a brain cell go and had to relearn it. (I think it may also have been playing the slightly shorter scale 12 string that did it) Next we played thru the Searchers sequence to include Needles and Pins to the Bridge then Walk in the Room then Don’t Throw Your Love away. Nige suggested we put Sugar and Spice (A) into the medley for the future and work that in as well – we had a little try and it sounded good! Then we started working through the sets looking for weaknesses.

Noted:

• Don’t Throw Your Love Away – Harmonise on Play at Love in Bridge
  
• Adrian checked Beatles From Me To You Middle 8 – the music and record indicates a passing D7+  at the exit
  
• Under the Moon of Love D Dim or Aug Nige - can you remind me where it was?
  
• Beautiful Sunday
  When you say, say, say that you love me
  A                               B
  My, my, my, it’s a beautiful day
  D       E                    A
• Sweet Caroline - check out Intro
  
• Somewhere Under the Sun - Double Guitar at end