New Years Eve at Roman Camp Inn Almerton

Technically this was to be the last performance by the Foot Tappers. Although the name may get used by some promoters next year we will be fulfilling gigs with our new Sky High Showband. Very cold day, had a good drive over on quiet roads via Swaffham making good time to the Hotel arriving about 6:15pm. Found my way to reception and was shown the small dance / dining area for the band. I worked out the best way to load in was from the front door into the lounge and then I brought my car round. I had just parked up when I saw Nige and Alex arrive so I met up with them and briefed them on load in. Then we went to inspect the gig. It was quite a small playing area, so Nige and I elected to use his Bose for PA and bass and I would use my spare Marshall 50 watt 10” combo for guitar. We got set up with Alex in the corner, Nige next to him and me slightly ahead and to his left. Both Nige and Alex were slightly under the weather with coldy symptoms and I was a little tired, so we downed a couple of pints as we got sorted and that raised spirits a bit. I met up with Vanessa and briefed her on our intentions for the night giving her a copy of the set plan and asked her to please let us know if there is anything special she wanted us to do (or not do). She seemed happy so we went off to get changed for the 7:30 start. We were a few minutes late starting up very quietly with a jazzy 12 bar warm up. We played through quietly for about and hour featuring jazzy buskables such as “Ipanema, Summertime, Sleepwalk etc”. Along the way we started a bit of bantering with an American family and promised to do "Green Door" and a Michael Jackson number as requests in the next set. Jenny and Laura arrived in the middle of the set and towards the end we opened up a bit with some light rock'n'roll e.g. “Be Bop A Lula” and “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and the Everlys “Walk Right Back” sequence. After a break to say hello to Jen and Laura we resumed with a couple of 'normal' Foot Tap sets with added requests for “Green Door” and “Rockin Robin”. Although there were only about 15-20 in the dining room we were playing in, the band sound was carrying through to the lounge and entertaining them there. We tried a bit of country with “Crystal Chandelier” and that was appreciated. In general the rock'n'roll got them up and dancing and the other stuff got them bantering. I did a Shadows walk demonstration to good applause and we closed the set on a high with “Rockin Robin” which filled the floor. In the next set we tackled: “The Wonder of You” which Nige sang really well and “Sweet Caroline” where I hit the low notes – all very well received with the audience singing along, dancing along and having a good time! Jen and Laura had set off for Sheringham mid set, so we resumed after a few minutes break for the big midnight set. Starting with “Dance the Night Away” we followed the party dance sequence through to “Hi Ho” keeping them dancing all the way. Then we picked up “Johnny B Goode” to take us through to 11:55. Nige then called appropriately for “Midnight Hour” and we were all set for the countdown on my radio controlled clock. We set off into “Old Lang Syne, Okey Cokey, Knees Up” with the audience singing and dancing along enthusiastically; and then we had a go at the longer version of “Unchained” - a good choice at this point. We got a request for "Tiger Feet" which I was batting into touch when Nige offered to give it a go in D - and apart from some missing chords on the guitar it went well considering we had never played it before. We played on for another half hour or so eventually signing off with “Wonderful Tonight” to a great reception and shouts for more; so I got the boys to encore with “Shakin All Over” and our year had been completed. Nigel and I could take pride in our handing of the situation following Dave's untimely departure. With the aid of Martin, Alex and Marty on drums we had continued to deliver versatile, entertaining performances right up to the end of the Foot Tappers; culminating in this fine New Years Eve performance under the adverse conditions of a small room and troops under the weather. We were all troupers on the night, but I thought Nige, in particular, had given his all on this gig – well done lad! With not a lot of gear out we soon got packed up. I took my leave of Vanessa who was very happy with the band and the way the evening had gone. The band wished each other all the best for the New Year. Nige and I can look forward to resuming in 2010 with “Sky High”. It had snowed a little and was very cold, so I took it steady on the way home getting in just before 3am.

Caravan Rally Old Buckenham High School.

It had been raining all day and I set off in poor visibility deciding to take the main roads to Attleborough rather than attempt cross country. I found Abbey Road easily enough and then the Junior School, but couldn't identify the High School. So I ventured out into the country about a mile going through a serious bit of flooding on the way; but it didn't seem right. I came back and, noticing an open gate on the other side of the road to the Junior School, drove in and parked. There were vans parked there labelled Old Buckenham High School but it still didn't seem right? I rang the organiser to see what was what, but only got an answer machine. It was after 6:30pm now so I rang Nige – no reply! But a few minutes later he rang back to say he and Alex had arrived and were loading in? We decided I must have missed the main entrance so I set off back down Abbey Road and in a bit of a layby road there was indeed another entrance; I drove in and soon met up with the boys and Willy the organiser. It was a quite a long load into the large main School hall. Got set up on the main stage, there was loads of room. Nige had set up the backdrop curtain to absorb unwanted reverb and it seemed we would have a good on-stage sound. They are a really nice friendly crowd who try to help us out. For example we had a little crisis – it was a bring your own do and we had no beer! But one of the chaps donated some bottles of Becks: lovely job. And then we had some tea (and some had cake) as well so the band was well watered and looked after! We got changed into the usual Xmas wear, avoiding some broken glass on the floor; then we were set to go. Opening up with “Foot Tapper” it was indeed a good on stage sound. Our bantering is getting more confident nowadays, I tend to be on the ball more at the start of the performances whilst Nige keeps going all evo. On this night we set about some energetic bantering and audience reading to play a varied and entertaining 3 sets. They liked the rock'n'roll and the Country and responded well to all the banter. We dropped in “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” and several slowies which went well. Even got some folks up to waltz to “Around the World” and quickstep to “Lady is a Tramp”. I was only using the harmoniser sparingly e.g. on the Beatles but it went really well I thought (apart from the last chord which I muffed). I think both of our voices are getting stronger from having to do more singing and we are more confident about busking. Nige slipped in a couple of Everly 'try outers' with “Price of Love” and “Lucille”; these showed good potential; just need to get them rehearsed up a bit on guitar and my harmonies. We had a go at "I Believe" for old time's sake; a bit ragged but appreciated by the crowd. We played on through to about 11:30pm then gave them a dress rehearsal for New Years Eve by doing Old Lang Syne, Okey Cokey, Knees Up Mother Brown. Most of the audience got up to join in singing and dancing, and it went down really very well, Then we signed off with “Wonderful Tonight”. Thankfully it had stopped raining by the time we started loading. Willy and his team organised some trolleys to get the gear out and we were soon loaded and on our way out of the gate. Made good time home going back on the A11 and in bed for 1am.

Seacroft East Runton

Made good time over via Norwich on a cold windy night and got a barrier key from the bar. Just got parked up and up comes Nige. We just got the first few bits in and up comes Martin, our dep for the night - for what was probably his last outing with the Foot Tappers? I shifted the Xmas tree and we all got set up neatly on the smallish stage. As we completed set up, the couple in charge of site development came over to say goodbye – they had enjoyed having the band in but would be going on to Brighton in the New Year. The place was filling up so we didn't sound check as such; but we did spend a bit of time restoring PA settings and making fine adjustments to get a quality sound that would carry. No boomyness here! Had a beer and got changed ready for an 8:15 start. We were a few minutes late getting started as we made a few last minute adjustments: Nige and I both agreed to take the Bose masters down a notch so we didn't blast them out – a very good move in hindsight! Made a good start with the usual suspects. It was a good on-stage sound from the off and we got a good reaction from the reasonably full room. So we settled into a bantery, dancey sort of set. I introduced Martin as the Kareoke Kid to do “Lady is a Tramp” and we did the Beverly sisters intro for the Everlys. Got a lot up and dancing with the “Blue Suede/Rock Around the Clock” Rock'n'Roll stuff. Bantered and played through the Beatles and got a good reaction for that. Even treated them to “Crystal Chandeliers” with false “Lilly the Pink intro! We only had two sets to do, so we started to pick and mix through some set 2 stuff such as the Searchers and got Martin to wrap the set up nicely with “The Wonder of You”. While we were off we got a couple of requests for Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, so I said we'd oblige. Sir Cliff's “Do You Wanna Dance” got them up and dancing, then we fitted in “Fulson Prison” as the Johnny Cash request getting a good round of applause. “Sweet Caroline” filled the floor again and we kept them at it with with another request for “Shang A Lang” followed up by the “Moon of Love” medley. It was soon time to start close down; I asked the boys to play “Pretty Woman” so I could have a go at singing it before New Years Eve. It went down well and I have learned that I'll need a bit of a boost on my mic for the close mic verse vocal on that. We wrapped up with “Walk Alone” which earned a great round of applause and shouts for more. Nige said we'd encore with a 'fasty' and a 'slowey', so we raced off into “ Hippy Hippy Shake” and Martin finished off the night with a stirring performance of “Words”. A great ending to a very good night for the band. As we packed up we tried to work out why the sound is so good there. Nige spotted the absorbent backdrop and suggested that might help? They can be expensive and time consuming to set up but I reckon it would help, even if we simply draped a black curtain in the corners of difficult gigs it would cut down the nasty reverbs we get from certain corners. My contribution to the debate was to propose a review of the linking set up in the new year with the idea of returning feeds from the reverb / mixer into T1 input 4 which would give us some control over the boomy frequencies that we can't get with the analogue input to the L1. I would also like to review reverb settings to make the repeats more pronounced. As we loaded up we were all a bit sad with it being Martin's last session. He has done a great job over the months for the band and he said he would miss the easy Foot Tappery atmosphere. But we all know we must move on to address our separate futures; I wished him well but added that I sensed our paths might cross again in some shape or form. Had a good run home getting about 1:30.

Boxing Day Gala Dinner Maids Head Hotel Norwich

I researched the location on Google maps using street view to ascertain there is a lane leading to the back of the hotel into the car park. We had to be set up early so I left at 4:40pm arriving at the hotel after a good run at 5:40pm. I found my way into reception to find that our contact Lindsay wasn't on duty. But they soon sorted me out and we had just got the fire escape door open when Nige and Martin arrived. So it was a heavy load up the fire escape stairs and into the Minstrel room to set up for a gala Boxing Night dinner coach party. Set up was little tricky because people were coming through the load in door to take their tables for dinner. We ended up routing the power over the door and I moved closer to Martin pushing Nige a bit more into the far corner to leave a clear path through to the door. The on-stage sound was very bassy and we took loads of bass off on the T1's. Martin and Nige decided a beer was needed and they came back with 3 pints of Stella – they must have thought it was a serious sound problem! Eventually we were content (but not happy) and left the room as the meal started up. We were not due on 'til 9pm and we whiled the time away in the bar downstairs watching a girly duo called Venus – very easy on the eyes as we enjoyed a second pint (of Carling). We had been allocated a room for changing and I made sure we were up and dressed in good time. Nevertheless as we arrived in the Minstrel room 10 minutes early it was clear that the dinner had gone very smoothly and they were ready for us. In fact one of the hotel staff asked to get going as soon as possible. So we started to take our positions, but a test of the vocal mics revealed a bassy boom from Nigel's corner. We had to faff around for a few minutes to try and deal. In the end Nige disconnected the Bose link up system and we decided to press on regardless. Actually “Foot Tapper” was very well received, so I took the opportunity to introduce the boys in the band and mention that we take requests. On we went with a sort of cabaret, bantery Foot Tappers show. We did a wide variety throwing in easy listening jazzy specials like “Around The World”, “Phoenix” and “Lady is a Tramp” amongst the usual openers and going down quite well. The “Blue Suede” rock'n'roll sequence got several up and dancing so we kept it going with a key change into “All Right Mama”. At this point a lady came up with a request dedication for Ernie; could we play “Your My Best Friend”. Luckily Nigel knows the words so off we went and it went down real well so, after another couple of numbers, we quickly followed up with some more country - courtesy of Nige. We finished the hour spot at just before 10pm with “Three Times A Lady”. I was a bit out of touch with this but we got through OK and I think it was the right song choice. It was clear there was going to be an exodus as our well fed audience took to their beds[ so we had a very short break and resumed with “Under the Sun”. By this time there were only about 20 left but they were very attentive. A couple of numbers in Nigel received a message from Rob the manager, for us to wrap up at 10:30pm (about 40 minutes earlier than we expected) and we timed our big ending with “Walk Alone accordingly. This got such a good reception with shouts for 'more' that it was a shame I had to explain that 'the hotel has run out of electricity!'; still it got a laugh and the small crowd started to disperse good naturedly. We had carried the gig off well and several people came up at the end so say they had enjoyed it. Then it was the long pack and load down the fire escape. I found that heavy going with a twingy knee exacerbated by the awkward pitch of the stairs, but Nige and Martin 'pitched in' and we were soon ready to go. Luckily Nige spotted one of the staff exiting the car park and got the code for the barrier (1432). Then I remembered we still had the key to the room, so Nige went off to reception to hand it in – apparently it was deserted so it was a good job he got the code when he did; he left the key on the desk. Smooth ride home getting in about 12:20am Jacqui was surprised and asked if I'd “Got the sack?” Overnight Nige and I both started ruminating on the boomy bass problem because this has happened a couple of times now. And before the next gig we had formulated some plans – see the next nights exciting instalment!

Xmas Eve Norwich WMC

Ms Jacqui decided to accompany me so I had advised the boys to be on best behaviour! We set off in good time and, despite the threat of freezing fog we had a relaxed run to Norwich, parking up at the bus stop near 'Keir Hardie Hall'. After a few minutes I saw the club lights come on and I got the doors opened for load in. Just then Nige and Alex rolled up, parking skillfully between the bollards. I moved my car as close as I could, asked Jacqueline to guard the vehicle and began the load in, trudging up and down St Gregory's Alley with the gear. Once we had the gear in Nige and I set off for the multi-storey car park (Alex found a spot on the street). Soon got set up and happy with the sound. The place was done out nice and Chrismassy. Jacqui had been talking to some of the locals including the twins who had come in matching Santa Claus outfits – very fetching!

Jenny arrived and we got changed and on with the show. It was a good on-stage sound. We played a good mix of our usual and Chrismassy stuff; Nige did “Blue Xmas” and I did “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree”. We got the twins up to do the Shadows walk to a great reception. It wasn't packed but it was busy enough, we were going down nicely with the crowd and we got quite a bit of dancing going. Nige and I mixed in some buskable material including “All Right Mama” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” and generally kept things going well continuity wise. We wrapped up with “Words” then took a break for bingo and a beer. We resumed for set 2 with our dedication of “Somewhere Under the Sun” to Dave, followed by “Tambourine Man” and the “Searchers” which both went very well. We did a nice Everlys' “Dream”, “White Xmas” and a bit of country for a barn dance; generally catching the audience mood nicely I thought. Phil the guvnor, came up to do an announcement so we took another break. Jen said goodbye as she set off home at the end of the break – it had been good to see her looking so much better. We got on into the final set doing quite a bit of the party dance stuff. We were bopping along so strongly we managed to get the power switched off by the volume monitor. Confidence was high so Nige took on “Unchained” which went down really well with the crowd. I elected to take on “Sweet Caroline” and again the song went down really well. Having done these we think we could do both of these regularly where required. With the experience of doing it live now, I realise that I need a touch of very close mic work on the verses of Sweet Caroline to get the bass notes through, but I was quite comfortable on the chorus's and pleased with the resultant audience reaction. Nige signed off poignantly saying it would be the Foot Tappers last appearance at the club and he thanked everyone for their support. Then we finished off with “Merry Xmas Everybody”; I'm finally getting familiar with the chords and its nearly time to put the song away for another year! A very good night for us really. A few folk came up at the end to ask if it really was our last time and I explained that we would be re-launching as “Sky High”; so I did look forward to seeing them again under a new name. Doing a bit of name dropping, Alex and I had to explain our fame with our previous bands. But, off the record, I think it will be our last time at the club because the launch of Sky High will be accompanied by a significant price increase. Jacqui packed up my guitar and stands and I got the rest ready for load up. Nige and I went to get our cars, paid the £1.60 fee and, only as we exited, did we realise the barrier was up – they were letting folks out free for Xmas but we had paid – the only consolation being we had helped the night time economy of Norwich!!! (Apparently Marty had got his ticket revoked from the previous gig using this phrase!) We had a good journey home getting in about 1:15am on Xmas morning.

Sheringham Tyneside

6 inches of snow in the week had paralysed UK transport. The weather still wasn't good with sub-zero temperatures and more snow forecast. I decided to allow 2 hours and set off via Swaffham. The journey to Thetford was OK but once I turned off the A11 there was frozen snow on the road and speeds dropped. I was stuck in a queue of slow moving traffic down to about 20 mph for most of the run to Swaffham. Then, losing most of the traffic, I expected a faster run to Fakenham, bit no; I was slipping and sliding, so it was only a steady 30 mph. That was the pattern on to Holt when things improved a lot and I could get up to 50mph; arriving at the gig at 6:45 to find Nigel and Alex already there with a similar tale to tell. We were using a mix of gear, using my Bose L1 with Nige's T1 as the PA. Guitar through the Mesa Lonestar and Bass through Nige's Behringer PA into a single 15 EV cabinet. We put the Bose right at the back, but it took quite a bit of equalisation to get a good sound. The guitar sound was OK, if a bit thin because I took some more bass off it to counter the boom in the corner. Nige wasn't happy with the bass guitar sound and we eventually concluded that we would go back to all Bose next time, but pay particular attention to using the parametric EQ to filter out the low-mid boomyness. There were only a few in by 8pm but duty called so we got changed into the all black with red Xmas ties ready for an 8:30pm start. Just as we went on I could see snow coming down again outside. We played a usual sort of set to the small audience, I dropped in “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” and we did a bit more rock'n'roll than usual. The sound wasn't good on stage and we were a bit untogether, but going down well enough with the 20 or so in the room. As we got stuck into the Beatles, I could see out the window the snow coming down heavily outside but also the arrival of the Salvation Army. As they came in we stopped the medley expecting them to do a tune: but no they were going to have some sausage rolls, mince pies and coffee first, so we resumed playing through to the end of our set ending with “Words”. Then the very good 'Sally Ann' band did their bit and the club did their raffle, giving us quite a break before set 2. One couple took a liking to the band and we aimed our set at keeping them amused and dancing. Then we had a short break before the final half hour set. After we closed, our little fan club came over and said how much they enjoyed the band and when would we be playing again. We got packed up quickly conscious of the continuing snowfall; actually it eased off as we loaded up. The guvnor told Nige he had enjoyed the band, not our fault there weren't many there and he'd see us in the new year. We got ready for the off. I decided to go back through Norwich. I got away first and by keeping going I was able to get up the hill out of Sheringham coming to a skiddy halt across the A149 at the top. I turned left and headed off toward Cromer, turning right onto the minor Felbrigg road to avoid Cromer. The snow was falling again and was quite thick down this lane. It was difficult to see the road boundary and there was some traffic coming the other way to avoid. Doing a maximum of 20 mph I eventually arrived on the main A140 to Norwich, to find it was snowed up much the same. So it was a slow old drive to Norwich where it finally stopped snowing and the roads were relatively OK. Once I got through Norwich onto the A11 it was steady single lane going at about 40 mph. Then as I got to Thetford it became a lot clearer and I could do the last few miles at normal pace. I was pretty tired as I arrived home at nearly 3 am – normally this journey would take an hour and half it had taken about 2 and half hours on this night. Nigel and Alex had had an equally difficult journey home concluding in Nige slewing his car across the road whilst trying to park the car on the drive - he had to dig it out and apart from being blue with cold the air was a bit blue with expletives!

Hellesdon Wherry Scheme Xmas Party

Up feeling a bit tired, but after a slap up breakfast I was ready for the run over to Hellesdon at 10am. Arrived just after 11am and met up with Tina who briefed me to expect up to 150 in the big room. Actually the big room was smaller than I remembered – why is that? As I came out to back the car to the door, up rolls Mick so I guided him in first. As we started to get the gear in, Nigel arrived so we were triumvirate to go. Got the gear in and set up fairly quickly. We said hello to Dorothy and Nige took the opportunity to ask Tina if she would be wearing her Santa boots. 'Maybe' she said! Tina had a very good looking bunch of enthusiastic helpers and they had the room set up for lunch about the same time as we sound checked very briefly and quietly. Then she emerged in a very fetching Santa outfit complete with the long boots – getting a round of applause from Nigel.

I then made a huge mistake in asking Tina if we could be released to go to the pub next door (for beer and chips); 'cos when we got back we found we had missed being invited to Xmas dinner in the foyer with Tina and her beautiful helpers! As they were finishing their pudding and coffee, we opened up with our first set at about 2:30pm and played about an hour of lowish volume, easy listening, bantery material. I slipped in “Around The World” and “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” and Nige did a good “Phoenix” (he got special thanks for thsi from a gent in the crowd who enjoyed the jazzy feel) and we continued the running joke about Mick being in the finest Everly's tribute seen in East Anglia this year. In the break a lady came up and reminded me that she helped me pull down my trouser leg at the do earlier in the year! We went on to do another couple of sets featuring Mick doing an excellent Jim Reeves “He'll Have to Go into Anna Marie” and “White Xmas” accompanied by Nige and I doing some nice Foot Tappery busking and harmonising. Nige did a pleasant little country set which was much appreciated. The Searchers went well and actually got a lot up to dance. I slipped in the other couple of Everlys and we did enough of the party dance stuff to get the crowd well on side singing and dancing along. About 5:30pm our audience started to dwindle as the buses arrived to take them home. We started our close down a bit later with “Never Walk Alone, which Mick sang well considering he stretched his voice on it the previous night. Nige has identified a high phrase in this song which Mick needs some support on and will try to join in and double track in future. We were pretty pleased with the audience reaction; Nige and I had been a little concerned that, without Dave's joviality and character we might struggle; but all the feedback we got was very positive. We finished about 6pm playing out the final stragglers to “Saw Her Standing There”. Pack and load up went steadily and I took my opportunity to take my leave of Tina, stealing a peck on her cheek as I encouraged her to book us back for the next event. “Budgets Permitting” she said!

Hemsby Seacroft - Showcase

Still cold. I set off about 2:30pm and arrived at Hemsby just after 4pm to find Mick loading gear into his van. Mick had been on with his mate doing a 'For Everly' set in the afternoon and had set his whole PA up, but he was breaking down the mixer which we wouldn't be using. I got my gear in and met up with Nigel to discuss wiring up the Bose to Mick's PA. Each stack consists of self-powered Yamaha Bass Bins, 1 x RCF12” + horn and 1 x RCF 10” + horn. It is a big room and we decided to stick to 'Plan A' with each Bose feeding each RCF to give stereo separation. After trying out returning the reverb to the T1, I decided it was prudent and good enough to rely on the Bose for reverb and send just a dry master out mix to the RCF. Nige and I set the T1 master outs to post-master source so we could reduce the whole volume as necessary from the T1's. Lee the entertainment manager introduced himself and asked us to set up on the smaller stage at the front. This allowed us to put the Bose in a commanding high position on the main stage. Just as we finished setting up Joe Brown's Bruvvers arrived to set up their gear. They set up on the main stage but would be bringing some of their gear forward as we cleared the stage after our set. When we were ready for a sound check Nigel went out front with my long lead as we ran through “Sky High”. He said it was a very good, hi fi sound but we would need to reduce volume a bit. Lee also said it was “too loud” in passing! Nige and Mick set about adjusting the RCF's down and that seemed to do the trick. This left us running the Bose at about 12 o'clock on the masters with the Yamaha bass bins set to about half and the RCF 10” and 12” set to about a quarter. It didn't sound that loud on stage but the Bose are surprisingly effective at filling even a big room like this. We then had a couple of hours to kill before our set at 9pm. Nige and I looked for a bar selling chips but to no avail, so we returned to join Mick and watched the Bruvvers complete their set up of mainly old gear. The guitarist was finger picking an old Strat through a Fender Blues De Ville; he was very good and got a great sound as well. Eventually the bar opened and we had a beer and Nobby's Nuts, munched our pack ups and watched the audience gather for Bingo. I think there were about 150 in as the bingo started. Amusingly they put on a 'grumpy' bingo caller – that got a few laughs. Soon it was time to get changed into our Sky High gear: black shirts, black ties, black trousers, black shoes, black socks and white waistcoats. Then it was onto the stage for a 9pm start for our 45 minute spot. Lee introduced the band and off we went into “Sky High” doing an energetic performance. Despite a bit of nerves I thought we played this well. The on-stage sound was OK if a bit distant; but we got a significant round of applause as we finished and entered the drum beat for “Don't Worry Baby”. Nige was able to get a quick “thanks” out before we started the introductory “Aahs” a bit raggedly. Again this performance was a bit nervy, but vocals were generally together and we finished beautifully on the 3 part harmony earning a warm round of applause. We took a couple of minutes bantering to introduce the band. This was also nervy and the banter timing wasn't good with me forgetting to get myself introduced. But we did get applause for each band member and set off into “Heartbeat” confidently. This time we got a few people up to dance and as we got going with “Do You Wanna Dance”; the dance floor got quite busy. Mick got the 'hallelujahs' timed right to follow Nige's intro of a number from 'Cliff Richard'; but my timing and harmony on the 'hallelujahs' was a bit untogether – but I think the idea worked and we should make the effort to make this a running band theme / joke. Although “How Sweet” seems a good song for dancing; we lost most of our dancers as we got into that. It was a slightly nervy, tad fast performance but again the final vocal harmony was spot on and it too garnered a good round of applause. We lost them with Ace's “How Long”; in retrospect it is too sophisticated and modern for this audience. Nige wisely decided to pass on the Eagles “How Long” and we got underway with the Beatles. The banter was a bit off but the wigs did raise a titter. We performed this OK and the harmony on “Nowhere Man” was very good with Mick blending well. However, those dancers who came out for the start of the medley had melted away by the end. As I introduced the “Searchers” I invited the audience to dance and (lo and behold) they came out and filled the floor nicely as we played this medley adequately. “Merry Xmas Everybody” was a bit messy and didn't keep the dancers too well. But “Sweet Caroline” did the business with dancing, sing-a-long and arms waving. Noting it was coming up to 9:42, we called “Never Walk Alone” as our last number. This went well, and filled the dance floor. By now we were getting used to the sound, Mick gave a strong vocal performance and we were rewarded with strong round of applause at the end. The grumpy bingo caller, manning the DJ desk signed us off and then he asked the crowd if they wanted some more? 'Yesss” they roared (or whimpered?) so it was guitars back on to encore with “Johnny B Goode” which I must say went pretty well and kept the dance floor busy. In retrospect, if we had our time again, I would have put in another slowey and maybe a couple of Everly's for this audience. I do think “Sky High” was the right high impact opener to make people take notice and the follow up mellow contrast with “Don't Worry Baby” worked well, but we would have been better replacing the sophisticated “How Long and How Sweet” with something older, sing-a-long and better known. We quickly changed and threw ourselves into clearing the stage. Getting the gear off the stage took only about 10 minutes. Then packing it up took another 15 minutes, not bad for a bunch of old crocks! Nige got a report from some people he knew in the audience that we were way too loud – oh dear! We carried on loading into vehicles, Micks van was jam packed at the end and he could hardly shut the door! By 10:30pm The Bruvvers were now ready to go and they played about an hour of rock'n'roll standards. Very competent, professional performance but I'd have liked to have seen some of the old Joe Brown hits. Towards the end of their set I decided to head off home for an early night - but it was still midnight before I got in. Mick had a word with Lee the manager who was very keen on his 'For Everly's' tribute duo – the finest tribute he'd seen all year! But it turned out he was less keen on 'Sky High', we think mainly because of the volume. Mick explained we had been trying out a new PA and had learned from the experience. In the end he left him to take some soundings from the audience; but we remain hopeful.

Caister Social Club

Cold day. Martin Depping. Journey over involved a 10 minute delay for an accident on the A47, otherwise it was good going and I still arrived on time to find Nigel already there. He had been over to Plug studios to pick up his Audix mic left behind on Thursday – he was lucky it was still there! PJ apologised in advance for the expected low turnout due to pub re-opening session nearby. We managed to all get set up on the small stage and waited for an audience to arrive. By 8:45 pm there was a table of 5 lads and PJ. So we opened up and enjoyed a bit of banter with the lads until they cleared off about 4 numbers into it. That left PJ and a chap he was talking to. We completed the set playing to these 2 and took a break. PJ came over and said the band sounded great and apologised again. Off we went with set 2 playing a few try outs, including “Sky High, How Long (Ace), How Long (Eagles), How Sweet It Is” with Martin on lead vocals. It all worked quite well considering we hadn't played them much before. Actually it was a good sound on stage and we all found it quite pleasant to play and try out things. Our final set was more of the same: trying out things and taking our time I think I did “Honky Tonk Women”, Martin did “Walk of Life” and Nigel did “Hippy Hippy Shake”. We finished with “Johnny B Goode” and a couple came into to dance so we extended it a bit with bass and drum solos and it was well appreciated by the 4 people in the room! But that was it – time to pack up and make our way home. Had a quiet run home getting in about 1:30am

Practice at Plug Studios

Got away a bit late but made good time over for an 11am arrival. The first thing on the agenda was to test the Bose T1 into Mick's PA rig. Nige uncovered a pre-master volume software switch in my T1 and we ran a stereo Jack to XLR to Micks rig to give a balanced signal to minimize hum. This worked very well; so experiment over we started practice. Things went generally smoother than the previous week. We switched and sorted some vocal parts, added a bit of comedy with some Hallelujahs in Sir Cliff's “Do You Wanna Dance” and finalised running order for the show case as follows:

1. SKY HIGH straight into
2. DON'T WORRY BABY

Band Intro
3. HEARTBEAT

Drum Intro & voice over + Hallelujahs
4. DO YOU WANNA DANCE
5. HOW SWEET IT IS

Bass start, then Drums then Guitar
6. HOW LONG (has this been going on)
7. HOW LONG (Eagles)

8. BEATLES MEDLEY
- Eight Days a Week
- Can't Buy Me Love
- All My Lovin
- Nowhere Man
- I Feel Fine
- She Loves You

9. SEARCHERS MEDLEY
- Sugar and Spice
- Needles and Pins
- Walk in the Room
- Don't Throw Your Love Away

Guitar Intro
10. MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY
11. SWEET CAROLINE

Final Number Vocal Starts it
12. YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE

Encore only if needed
13. JOHNNY B GOODE

We kept at it until voices were starting to croak by 4:45pm and with a quick pack up hoped to be away ahead of the traffic. Alas traffic was bad and I had to divert onto the Fakenham Road to make progress, but eventually got home about 6:30pm.

Trimingham Caravan Park

Had a good run on a cold night to meet up with Nigel and Martin (depping). Andy arrived to let us in about 7:10pm and we got set up with the conventional gear easily enough. I had removed the enhancer from the PA rack and Nige and I took our time to get the best result we could from the PA using just the Mackie EQ. It did seem punchier; but still limited by feedback mainly because we angled in the EV on Nige's side to give some foldback. Nige borrowed my long lead and went right out as we played “Brown Eyed Girl” for a sound check. He reported a good balance but quiet; even though it sounded pretty loud on stage! Andy got us a beer in and we got changed into the black 'n' black for an on time 9pm typical Foot Tapper start. Usual limited audience reaction so we worried less about continuity and put more effort into performing a good variety of set 1 material including "Rocking Around the Xmas Tree" (a bit fast) and finishing with “Words”. Set 2 was a bit more interesting as we peppered it with numbers for the Sky High show, including: “How Long Ace, How Long Eagles, How Sweet It Is and Sky High”. I elected to start on the 12 string with “Travel Lodge” which went well enough and I stayed on the 12 string through the Searchers. But as we had a few up and dancing, Nige called for “Do You Wanna Dance” which I had to play on the 12 string (solos and all) and then “Amarillo” before the dancers left exhausted and I could change guitar! Between sets I had a word with Dave the owner and it seems all the bookings are taken up for 2010 – he said he'd try and get Andy to book us for a party night though! Set 3 had some interesting pieces including, "White Xmas", "Merry Xmas Slade", “Honkey Tonk Women” and “Spencer Davis”. I elected to sing “Keep on Running” and the key suits me quite well – only trouble is I need to learn the words! Wrapped up with “Walk Alone” courtesy of Martin and packed up for the long run home getting in about 2:45 fairly tired.

Practice at Plug Studios Norwich

Met up with Nige and Mick at Plug for 11am. We set up my Bose for testing outputs to feed into Mick's PA. We did the test into the house PA and confirmed that the bass output would only be suitable for very low Bose processed frequencies. It worked best taking the T1 Master out into the power amp in section. I will have to return the reverb to input 4/5 on the T1 so we can provide a full vocal mix to Mick's PA. Nigel and I had talked about taking each Bose output separately to each side of Micks PA. But, given the description of the hall at Seacroft, I think it would be best if we can mix it to mono first. I'm not sure how we can do that without using Mick's mixer though?

Getting on with some practice we started to work through the 'showcase' set. In general we had some trouble with high singing. We need to bear in mind that as we begin to work together more often on these numbers the voices will flex better – so it is not a good idea to bring down the keys just yet!

Sky High: We added Nige and me on “aaahs” in the Chorus. Mick had trouble hitting the F on “Sky High---” so we agreed he would aim for a low A whilst Nige went for a low C and I went for the High A. Good enough to get by but I would rather fix it so Mick and Nige sings the C and high F under my high A . We adjusted the ending to repeat the Link Intro and end on a final stab on Am. Otherwise this went very well – tight and dynamic.

After the Sky High stab, the idea is for Mick and Nige to immediately pick up the drum and bass G intro for “Don't Worry Baby” I would suggest that this is a short 2 bars unless we are announcing over it. We sorted out harmonies based on top of Nigel's Mike Love type bass vocals which are characteristic of this song. Mick will need to listen to the Beach Boys phrasing on the lead line, hard to do and drum but worth the effort. We agreed to end it by repeating the Intro and then Rit Rallying to an accapella end doing a final “don't worry baby--”

Do You Wanna Dance: Mick sets up the Cliff type catchy snare intro and beat. Tempo needs to be not too fast to encourage dancing! We agreed Mick Lo Nige Lead Mog Hi on the harmonies. Ending with the final Chorus and “Oh Ba-by” Stop “Do you wanna dance” Drum Roll to end on G

Heartbeat: Mick to Count in (slightly faster than Buddy Holly heading to Nick Berry tempo) Mog to do first verse solo. On the Middle 8 Mick Lo and Nige Hi “aahs” “Wap Wap Wap” then all sing the final “Heart Beat why do you miss when my baby kisses me” Mick Lo start on D. Verse 2 Mick Lo Nige Hi on “Heart Beat” 's

How Sweet It Is: Mick Lead, Mog Close Above, Nige Hi Above (Carly Simon Lines) First Chord is C Maj 7. Mog to sort out Solo and Mick to Accent Final “I wanna stop” in half verse following. Ending on Final Chorus Rit Rally on Last “How sweet it is to be loved by you--”

How Long (Ace) went well. Mick Lead, Nige close above, Mog Hi Mog to sort out 16 bars of solo over Bm

How Long (Eagles) Nige and Mog to play E F# G G# A under “rock yourself to sleep” in Chorus Otherwise OK but with some room for improvement as we get familiar with key and playing together.

Beatles Medley: More work on Vocals and some harmonies to check. Mick to sing lead line on last “Yeh Yeh Yeh Ye—h” on She Loves You Nige will do the hi line and Mog will pick up the 6th note on the last Yeah.

I plan to write all these changes up in my Mogerised arrangements. At 4:45 we cleared the room in about 15 minutes and loaded up for the off in rush hour. I followed Nige to the A 47 and dropped down to the A 11 from there. A bit knackered after a hard days work.

Wensum Community Centre

Got away at about 5:45pm and had an uneventful run over to Norwich on a dark, cold night. Sufficiently cold for me to get my Winter anorak out! Arrived about 6:45 pm and a few minutes Nigel rolled up (in just his shirt?) just as Richard the entertainments manager appeared to open up. We had just started to get the gear in when Martin arrived to dep for the night. I took the trouble to set up the Fender 12 string but both guitars needed a bit of tuning – probably the cold weather! We did a bit of a soundcheck with “How Long Has This Been Going On” which went surprisingly well. But by about 7:50pm we were all set up and ready for a beer – thanks Martin! Some folks from Norwich WMC came to support, but noted that Mark James was on at the WMC so quite a few of the ladies were staying there! We opened up at 8:20pm to do about an hour of our usual sort of stuff and, although it wasn't crowded, there were enough in the concert room paying attention to keep us on our toes. Generally our lightweight set 1 wigging and banter went well, but there weren't many takers for dancing. After about 50 minutes we wrapped up with “Words” and took a break for another beer – thanks Nigel! Resuming set 2 we started with “Travelodge California”. I muffed a bit of the early part of the solo, but that aside we played it pretty well. The surprise 'accented' ending must have confused the audience who only started applauding as we shaped up for the next song. A number of people had been talking to us about Dave (and the tribute) so we did “Somewhere Under the Sun” as a dedication. I stuck on the 12 string through the “Hollies” and “Searchers” medleys but I think I changed back for “Do It Again”. Played on to an old Foot Tappery type climatic end through “Sweet Caroline”, “Wonder of You”, “Crazy Little Thing”, Johnny B Goode to finish with “Love is All Around”. I had a bit of trouble remembering this one but got there in the end. In the break I asked Martin to have a go at “Let There Be Drums” to open Set 3. That got a great round of applause and we got a few up dancing as we did “Dance the Night Away”, “Do You Wanna Dance” and “Amarillo”. As things were going well I called for Ace's “How Long”. By using a pick Nige got a great bass sound just like the record and we got the vocals so well we couldn't resist repeating the chorus several times at the end. And it went down real good with the audience, so we continued to pick and mix to another climatic end with “Unchained” and then “Walk Alone”. This went down a bomb as usual. I had primed Nigel for “Hippy Hippy Shake” as the encore so we tore into that and then Nige threw in “Saw her Standing There” for good measure. A great ending to a good performance. We had some fine complimentary remarks as we packed up – 'a class act' seemed to sum it up! Richard was apologetic that he couldn't get more people in from the bar to the concert room, but said that the sound had carried well into the bar and people there really enjoyed the band. Packed up and loaded by about 12:40am and home by 1:30am well satisfied with the night.

Watton Barn Ruche Ladies Night

We had a bit of confusion with deps and illness and finally ended up with Mick depping on the night. I arrived in good time at the gig on a dark, stormy night and had just pulled up when Mick arrived. We were directed to the back door and started to get the gear in through a mighty deep puddle. When Nige arrived he only had his Crocs on and soon got wet feet! By the time we had the gear in the floor was awash and I had to borrow a mop to clean it up before set up. Mick and Nige set up on the floor mainly to the right of the door so I set my Bose up to the left of the door leaving a bit of a gap to the door for emergencies. There was plenty of room so Mick decided to put up his lights as well. That involved quite a bit of lead running, but was worth it because they made quite a difference. Mick controls the lights from a floor unit I think. I met up with the Worshipful Master (a jolly Scotsman) and agreed times. We had along wait while they got through dinner, so we enjoyed a quiet drink and chat in the bar. Got changed into the black shirts with black ties and white waistcoats – made a change! It was about 9:50 when we started up with “Foot Tapper”. Mick caught the groove quickly and apart from a bit of an abrupt end it went very well. We continued through the usual set one easy going stuff and we were getting a good reception. Dancing was intermittent but they had just finished a big meal. The bits of banter we did went down generally well and the Beatles wigs got a bit of a laugh. I worked out towards the end of the set we needed slowies to get them dancing and we wrapped up with “Words” which filled the floor nicely. Because we were short on time, set 2 was only 45 minutes. We did an interesting “Searchers” where Mick took us on through the key change to A in “Needles and Pins” and then we had a job to get out and back to F to do “Walk in the Room”. But we handled it professionally without breaking down. We took a short break before wrapping up with a final 20 minute party dance sing-a-long, including a request for “Pretty Woman” which Mick sang well. It was after midnight as we closed with Mick singing “You'll Never Walk Alone”. This brought the house down, so we did do an encore with “Wonderful Tonight”. The Master was well impressed with the band and announced we would definitely be coming back to one of their do's soon. Quite a few members of the audience came up to say how much they had enjoyed it and we handed out several cards for prospects. Pack and load up was like working in a paddy field 'cos the puddle was still outside the door. Still we got away by about 1am pleased with a good night. I had expected Mick would fit in easily but the performance demonstrated more than that: showing strong vocal and entertainment potential once we get some rehearsal time in.

Dave Lemon's Tribute Dance at Green Park Centre Wicken Green Village.

Had a good run over with Jacqui and Claire aboard and Jack and George following. The Green Park Centre is on an old US air base and much of the site is dilapidated. One minute you are in the civilised Norfolk countryside, the next you are in this scene of devastation reminiscent of 'Mad Max'. Anyway we de-car'd and strolled past the burger bar bumping into Jenny who looked very well considering. Going on into the building I found Nigel and Charlie (and his mate Rick) working on the PA.



They had been there since 9:30am and were just about to power up. Just off the stage, and touchingly, Steve was in the final stages of setting up Dave's kit and some wigs as a display, we had an emotional man hug! Next I found Alan and said hello - he seemed in remarkably good shape considering his recent ailments and was quietly confident all would go well! Some country boys had started to arrive; including 'Boomerang' who had travelled up from a gig in Hampshire! They started tripping over Charlie's multi-core and soon got him to shift it to run over the over the door to the artistes dressing room – a good move I think! I brought my guitars and bits and pieces in and started to wire up the CD player and radio mic. Met up with Bobby Graham who gave me his backing track CD so we could test it out and it all seemed well. Next up we set the radio mic receiver on top of the CD player. When I tested this out I made a mistake asking Charlie for too much middle on the radio mic for Claire's announcements. Of course, Claire is a radio personality not a rock'n'roll close mic user and because the JTS rapidly loses bass proximity, we had to go back to Charlie's original setting - doh! Claire went off to interview artistes and I went over to see how Ms J was doing. I found her with Jenny and Hilly doing a roaring trade selling entrance and raffle tickets. In fact the hall was filling up rapidly and it was clear there would be a shortage of tables and chairs. Jenny and Martin set off to organise more furniture while Steve organised a big pot for the raffle tickets. Then Dan and Michele made their entrance - having been to the wrong Green Park (Rural) Centre first. Poor Michele was suffering from a bit of a cold but said she would still do a few numbers. Meanwhile Gordon James was due to be first on at 2pm, time was getting on and he was nowhere to be seen? With about 20 minutes to go he appears armed with a suit and a CD. We quickly sorted out his song sequence and he went off; I thought to get changed! After a few minutes time was marching on, and he still wasn't ready for Claire's 'cue' but eventually I found him the 'queue' for the bar. So I said 'leave that to me mate, you go and get sorted for your start!' So I got his drink and looked round - he had gone missing again! It turns out he was outside having a smoke... Finally he was ready to go, Claire started her welcome announcement, cue'd Gordon on and he starts up only a few minutes late – we were off! And from the off Gordon sounded the best I've heard him. Charlie had got a great vocal sound and the CD backing was clearer than Gordon's usual mini-disc set up. He got a big reaction from the capacity crowd appreciative of a close to on time start and soon had the country folk up and dancing. All went well through his set, and as he completed his spot, the afternoon settled into a pattern of Nigel / Rick setting up artistes, Claire introduction, artiste on for 20 or 30 minutes. My role being co-ordination and direction. Here is our Running Order and Compere's notes as directed by Alan, padded out by Nige and adjusted by myself:

RUNNING ORDER
Gordon James (20 mins) (2-2.20)
Gordon and Dave were friends in Weybourne as children and got up to many escapades together. One was Dave falling out of Gordon's boat. Gordon would sometimes do a couple of numbers with the Foot Tappers when he attended a gig.

Terry Edwards & Boomerang + Christine (40 mins) (2.23-3.06)
Dave played with popular country band 'Boomerang' many times. A studio recording CD of Terry and Boomerang with Dave as the drummer is available for purchase. Christine was lead vocalist in Dave's early/first? band 'Crystal Wood'. She is a well-known solo country singer/keyboard player. As Christine will appear halfway through Boomerang's set they will introduce her.

Bobby Graham (20 mins) (3.09-3.29)
Bobby has been a friend of Dave's for many years. They played together in 'Mississippi Delta' Last song: 'We won't forget you'

Winston The Singing Farmer
(20 mins ) (3.32-3:55)
A local legend. Dave played at Winston's farm a few years back with Alan Cannel and John Derek in the band 'Stealer'. I switched Winston up from the original order because Kenny and Hustler were delayed en route.

Kenny Lee & Hustler (4.05-4.25)
Kenny and most the boys took to the stage with a stand in drummer, 'cos their drummer was delayed. Anyway he arrived about 3 numbers in and did his bit. Dave has been friends with the band for many years - spending many hours chatting about music and bookings with lead guitarist Mick Breame. Dave and rest of the Foot Tappers played at Kenny's wedding bash in 2008 Last song: True Love Ways

Hi Definition (4.28-4.58)
A new band for 2010, four friends of Dave: John (lead guitar) lives in the same North Walsham street; David (keyboards, guitar) played with Dave in Tequila Sunrise; Mark (bass) may even be a distant relative; Martin (drums) went to the same school as Dave. When Dave saw Martin learning the drums on the suitcases and saucepans , he let him have a go on his kit - It was the first time Martin played a real kit. Special thanks to Martin for standing in as dep with The Foot Tappers so well. Last song: Crocodile Rock

RAFFLE (4.58-5.05) Alan had cunningly arranged for the ladies to draw the tickets and stuck them to the prizes, so we gained some time as self service of prizes could go on while the event continued.

Michele Summers
(20 mins) (5.20-5.40) Poor Michele was suffering with a cold so reluctantly thought it best to contract to a 3 song set. Rather than find a way of amplifying her guitar, Winston kindly lent his. Michele elected to start off with just a guitar and no backing with "Wind Beneath My Wings" and that went very well considering the cold. She had asked for the backing track for “Old Fashioned Girl” but we had a problem pausing the player so she continued without and it sounded just fine. We finally found a way of getting tracks cued and she finished with the song she did for Dave and Jens big 15 wedding anniversary: “Evergreen” complete with backing track. Michele's little spot made a nice complementary contrast to the other stuff on the show and was much appreciated by the audience now settling down to their tea.

Tequila Sunrise
(20mins) (5.43-6.13) One of the area's top country bands. Dave played with these for quite a while in the past. Last song: Six days on the road. Nigel particularly liked these boys and they certainly got the country dancers going.

Marc James
(20 mins) (6.16-6.36) A good friend of Dave's, often called in on Foot Tapper's rehearsals. Marc did a fine set and afterwards I approached him after to come up and do a few with the Foot Tappers. on our musical tribute to Dave section.

Shake Rattle 'n' Roll + John Jarvis
(40mins) (6.39-7.24)
Shake Rattle 'n' Roll are a top rock'n'roll band. Alan Cannell (lead guitar) is Dave's brother-in-law and the 'Main Man' organising the event. John Jarvis will come on halfway, so Alan will introduce him. For info, he is best known as Norfolk's Big 'O', lead vocalist with East Coast Rock and currently 60s duo Fick'n'Finn.

Foot Tappers
(30mins) (7.30-8:00)
Nigel and I took to the stage with Marty Baldry of The Peppermint Men on drums (thanks also to Marty for depping with us at Norwich). We rattled out “Foot Tapper and Just One Look”. The guitar sound in the monitor was loud and distorted, but I assumed (rightly) that Charlie would have it OK out front because we got a great reception. The three of us then donned the wigs one more time for a Beatles medley. I mistakenly missed out “Nowhere Man”, but the boys followed me courageously! We then rearranged to bring on Dave Brooks (ex-Tequila Sunrise) now bass player with popular 60s group 'Kenny and The Beat Merchants' and founder member Dan on guitar - playing my spare Godin. Opened up with “Heartbeat”, a bit lonely vocally without Nigel but it got them dancing. Then Dan and I went forward in our original waistcoats to do the Shadow's walk to “Apache”. This got a huge reception and whilst that 'thundered on' we rearranged to bring Dave Ainsworth up on bass and put Dan on vocal to do a dedication of “Under the Sun” to Dave. Got off to a weird start to accommodate Dan's slightly delayed arrival at the mic, but we got through the verses OK. We gained a bit of time as Dan curtailed the solo's and we rallied to an end. I was pleased to bring Nigel back on (with an unplugged guitar to hide behind) so we would have his harmony vocal for a slightly slower “Lying Eyes”. Maybe I got it a tad too slow but it went down well enough as a country crossover piece. Both the Daves had done a fine job on bass, but it was now time for Dave Ainsworth to depart and Nigel to get back on bass for the finale. Earlier in the event I had asked Marc James if he would come up and do lead vocal on the finale and he duly obliged by coming up on stage to join us. We got underway with “Sweet Caroline” and Marc did a great job belting out a smooth vocal Dave would have been proud of. And with strong backing harmonies it went down just great with the crowd. I asked Marc to stay and help us do “Unchained” as our dedication to Jenny. We know this would be hard for Jenny because Dave always dedicated this song to her, so we did the short version with one middle section running to an emotional end. I asked Nige what the time was? – 8pm he says, time to wrap up says I. So we got the crowd primed to do “Walk Alone” with us. Marc started it off and we joined in (still reading the chord sheets I'm afraid) and we brought the show to a huge sing-a-long climax. Marc was just perfect standing in on lead vocal and I shook his hand and thanked him profusely for standing in to help us out with those big finale numbers. Note: We had hoped to bring on Charlie (of Zebra Express) to do a number. Charlie depped on bass with the Foot Tappers several times. Of course Charlie was providing the PA and he wouldn't risk leaving the desk – good man!

Finally Jenny and Alan came on to thank everyone and close proceedings. A lot of money had been raised for charity. Jen gave a brave and tearful thanks to all for coming and to Dave for 18 years or marriage and then the event was declared closed.
We packed up our bits and pieces and were away by just after 9 pm. The others had to soldier on to after 10pm to get packed and loaded up. All in all a great send of for Dave that will bring some closure to many.

Wyverstone Village Hall Fundraiser

My old road manager from the 70's, Jack Hale (now a Reader at Newcastle Uni), and son George came over for the weekend, so I put up a couple of back seats in the Galaxy and loaded them and Jacqui in to make the 30 minute journey to the gig. It was very dark in rural Suffolk as we made our way and we thought there must be a time warp when we passed the village boundary sign for 'Stowlangtoft', not once, not twice, but three times. Arrived to find the hall open and Nige and Alex already there. With assistance from Jack and George we had the gear in very quickly. Met up with Steve and Stuart the organisers who were in good form and quickly got the hall stage lights fixed - they had to replace some bulbs. There is plenty of depth on this stage and I briefly considered using the 12 string but bottled out in the end. Set up went smoothly until I tested out the reverb. I hadn't realised how sensitive the Bose analogue input is in the reverb chain and you have to have the analogue input set to at least one quarter. Eventually things tested out OK and we got changed for an 8pm start. Started off gently with Foot Tapper etc and after a bit of jazz with “Phoenix and “Lady is a Tramp” we quickly moved onto to the Four Season and Beatle medleys. We got a surprisingly good response to everything we did, but particularly the rock'n'roll when we did “Blue Suede Shoes running into Whole Lotta Shakin”. Did “Move It and Easily Fall” by Cliff. We played for about an hour and took a break for some beer and buffet and then got on with set 2. Started with “Under the Sun, Tambourine Man, Hollies, Searchers” - all familiar stuff. We did risk the Eagles “Lying Eyes” but slipped back into to rock'n'roll before wrapping this set up with “Johnny B Goode” and “Dream” (a tad fast). After another break for the raffle and roll a coin at the bottle, we got on with a long 90 minute set 3. Steve did offer to pay more for extending the set but I said 'no! – donate it to the charity'. We started with “Dance the Night Away, Amarillo and Hey Baby” Then Nige slotted in a surprise with “Spirit in the Sky” - took me a minute to get sorted on guitar but it went down OK. Further along the way we rocked things up a bit doing: “Midnight Hour”, “All Right Now, “Can't Get Enough” and “Really Got Me”. We had had a few requests for things we couldn't do, but someone finally requested something we could have a go at: the Stones! So we rattled out improvised versions of “Honky Tonk Women” and “Jumping Jack Flash”. Nige put some up tempo dancier stuff in with “Hippy Hippy Shake, Lets Dance and Mony Mony” and then inevitably we had a request for some Quo; so we rattled out “Rockin All Over the World, Whatever You Want and Caroline” all a bit improvised 'cos we hadn't done them for ages! We finally wrapped up with Nige surprising me by singing: “You'll Never Walk Alone” - he did pretty darn good despite my taking a minute to find the music! This was followed by lots of applause and shouts for more, so we did a final encore of “Apache” with a couple of girls playing tennis rackets. It had been a great night and Steve was well chuffed with the result. Jack and George seemed to have had a good time leaving behind the wreckage of several beer bottles. We got packed and loaded quickly with the extra help and it was freezing outside. Made a slow and peculiar journey home in the mist and cold, only going through Stowlangtoft once and getting in about 1:30am.

Photo Shoot at Hindringham Village Hall

Nigel had arranged with one of his clients, Gary, to do a Photo Shoot for the new band. I was a bit delayed gathering last minute bits and pieces and only got on the road just before 9am. Pleasant sunny day albeit it a bit chilly. Despite diverting over the Nun's Bridges in Thetford to avoid lorry traffic in the town I had a very slow drive over to Swaffham. Ended up having to call Nige to declare a 20 minute late ETA, but when I arrived they had only recently finished setting up background and camera so not much wasted time. Gary took some shots of Nige and Mick for their Everly's duo that would be operating while I was away. Next we did various band type shots featuring Mick's snare drum, my PRS Hollowbody and Nige's Hofner Bass. Then we did a few individuals with Beatle wigs and Mick got dressed up as Freddy. As we packed up we decided to default to “Sky High” as the new name unless there was a strong reason not to. Gary and Nige went off to load up the pictures onto a DVD and Mick and I set off on our separate ways home.

Alan and Jill Golden Wedding Wymondham Ex Services

It was cool, still and foggy on the way over, but I made good enough time getting to the gig just before 6:30pm. The club is hard to find and you get to the load in doors by driving down a narrow path to the back. Once in I was pleased to see it is quite big ex cinema type hall with a great vintage red décor. Had my gear in by the time Nige and Alex (depping) arrived, having also experienced some bad patches of fog. The sound limiter at this gig has quite a reputation - it is set too low and we had been advised by the Peppermint Men to look at alternative power. I surveyed the possibility but thought it would be a long run and hard to hide the lead so we decided to give it a go with the limiter. Actually it sound checked well enough and our celebrating clients, Alan and Jill, had told us they preferred it quiet. They kindly gave us 2 beer tokens each. At 8pm we got off to a quiet start but once again Alex surprised me with his abrupt end to “Foot Tapper”. But there was little reaction from the few people near to the band so we carried on with a fairly lightweight set 1. The only thing that got a reaction was some rock'n'roll later in the set so we extended that a bit running “Blue Suede Shoes” into “Whole Lotta Shakin” quite successfully. We didn't experience any limiter problems in the first set and took a break at 8:45pm as discussed to allow a long break for the buffet. We were invited to partake and I had a couple of things which were very tasty; Alex had a good helping! (noticed a leak from the roof near the buffet) We resumed set 2 with a background instrumental loosely based on “Albatross” before resuming normal operations. By the time we got to the Shadows walk we had a bit more interest in the band and we got 2 young girls to come up and play the tennis rackets and do the dance. This got a lot of attention and the massive applause at the end cut the power off. It took about 2 minutes to power up again. Took another short break and then we got on with Set 3 which was a lot more dancey. Nige did a lot of improvised singing as we extended rock'n'roll to include things like: “Great Balls, Lets Dance, Good Golly Miss Molly, Jailhouse Rock” Unfortunately the band volume and applause started to bring the limiter in which shut off the power momentarily. Alex could keep the rhythm going and we could shout and then we'd resume as things powered up again. We wrapped up to a warm reception with “Wonderful Tonight”. Our clients were very happy with show and we had a sense of achievement for the way we dealt with the limiter so, all in all, a good feeling at the end of the night. It was still a bit foggy on the way home but I wasn't delayed too much getting in just after 1am.

Norwich British Legion

Martin depping. Marita and Jacqui decided to accompany me and we had a good run over to Norwich rolling up at the gig at 6:30pm. Nige and Martin (depping) arrived just as I was opening the car and we reconnoitred the hall first and were a little surprised to find it open at the back. But Nige and I had a sixth sense things weren't right, and we went to the front to check we were expected before bringing the gear in. Shock horror! Someone had written a notice showing 'Just Kevin appearing tonight'. Nige resolved it courageously over the phone with Bob the entertainments man who gave us the go-ahead to get the gear in. Got set up OK and briefed Martin on the probability of a barn dance. Once again I elected to just use the 6 string. Got off to our usual start and a good reception from a full enough room. We soon had them barn dancing and then Nigel made a good call for Kevin to come up and do a couple of numbers with us. Off we went into “Three Steps to Heaven and Halfway to Paradise”.

In the middle of the set Jenny arrived to sit with Jacqui and Marita. She looked OK until towards the end of the set when Martin sang “Three Times a Lady”. She looked a bit upset at that one and had to leave the room for a while – Jacqui followed to look after her. After the Bingo we resumed with “Under the Sun” for Dave and (with the consent of the club) Nige informed the crowd of the forthcoming Tribute day. Having bravely put in an appearance, Jen said she would head off home after a couple of numbers. We played along set 2 and had a very short break to finish with a final 20 minute spot through to the end of the night which Martin wrapped up with a great rendition (again) of “You'll Never Walk Alone”. Lots of applause and shouts for more, but we were over time so decided to call it a night. The ladies helped me pack and load and then we had good run home satisfied with a well done weekend!

Caxton Club Beccles

Ginge (over from NZ) accompanied me on this gig and we set off in slightly stormy looking weather at about 5:15pm. We were first to the gig and had got most the gear in by the time Nige and Alex (depping) arrived.

Although I have seen smaller stages I elected to just use the Godin 6 string and put my energy into getting the harmoniser sounding good. When Nige and Alex arrived it was good to see Alex had most of his family with him in support. By the time we got set up the place was still empty, so we had a bit of a sound check, trying out bits of “Just One Look”.

At 8pm there were about 20 in and, with occasional visits from some hen party girls dressed in pink, the room looked well enough attended by the time we opened up with the usual start. Things went generally well from the off with lots of applause for just about everything we did. Not much dancing initially but the audience were attentive even listening to our banter quite well.

They liked the wigging up for the Beatles and, although there were no takers for the Shadows walk, it went down very well as usual. After a 15 minute break we got underway with Set 2 opening up with a dedication of “Under the Sun” to Dave. Followed up with a good sequence of “Tambourine Man”, “Searchers” and “Hollies” getting a great response from the smallish crowd. We used the harmoniser to good effect with “Lying Eyes” and it too got a very warm response. Towards the end of the set we rocked it up a bit with “Johnny B Goode” and it brought the house down and some blokes up and dancing. In the break we had a request for Hotel California, which we opened Set 3 with. It started well but lack of recent playing led to a messed up guitar solo. However, I extricated myself to get a clean ending and once again we got a good audience response. Towards the end we rocked it up a bit doing “All Right Now” and “Can't Get Enough”. We wrapped up with “Wonderful Tonight” to a great reception with lots of shouts for 'more' so we did an encore with “Saw Her Standing There”. Pack and load up went well with many hands helping me. We got underway about 12:30am and home for 1:30am satisfied with a job well done.

Plug Studios Norwich Try Out Session with Mick

I met up with Mick and Nige at Plug and we got set up in a largish practice room equipped with a Mackie PA and a Peavey bass amp for Nige – I was using my Mesa and had brought along my PRS 12 string in addition to my Godin. Nige and I elected to use our Audix mics which sounded OK through the PA. We opened up by asking Mick to 'dep' with us for a normal Foot Tappers start. All went very well, after “Foot Tapper“ Mick sang lead on “Just One Look”, the harmonies and the band sounded good and together. We played through a variety of things e.g. “Beautiful Body, Cathys Clown, Ipanema, Phoenix, Lady Is a Tramp, Blue Suede Shoes, All Shook Up, Beatles, Searchers, Eagles etc” Mick fitted in pretty good with it all and did a lot of the singing. We had a break then we tried out a bit of practice on Ace's “How Long” and a vocal arrangement of “Stand By Me”. Considering we hadn't had time to do real homework, this showed that we can work constructively together. We finished off with “All Right Now” to try out rockier stuff and then packed up and opened up a discussion. It was obvious there was a good musical fit so we had a long talk about how we might take it forward. There is a shared vision of a harmony showband that can earn in the £500 per night bracket. Mick is keen to get things going quickly and is prepared to work hard to make things happen. We agreed the bones of a project to create a new band, complete with 2 x one hour shows, with scripted comedy/entertainment routines, changes of outfit, dressing up and artiste tribute sections. The project would also put in place all the marketing collateral (photos, web site etc) and admin to allow bookings for next year to be negotiated. We explained our short term limitations, i.e. we are committed to deps up to Xmas, and then, apart from a couple of weeks in early Feb, I'm away until end February. We saw no reason why we couldn't get on with building the new band up to Xmas, but there was little scope for working together until the New Year. One possibility in the immediate New Year was Nige and Mick working as a duo. So, at approaching 1 am, we left it that we are agreed there is a good fit, we would sleep on it and then all discuss how we can take it forward whilst addressing the key issues of keeping Mick working through the Winter and getting the project underway as soon as possible. The next day Nigel and I 'chewed the cud' a bit and agreed that it was hard to see £500 gigs coming our way on the club and holiday park circuit unless we were a semi -name band. Weddings and Corporates which would pay well needed a re-engineering of the band to include female singer/s and hard dance sets. Over the next couple of weeks we agonised independently about what was best for the future and in the end we had a band meeting at my house where we had a good open and honest exchange with Mick about taking what bookings we could for 2010 whilst we looked to develop a higher paid long term future. Armed with that understanding we could look to immediately progressing things such as the name, photo's, repertoire etc and get promoting the band for jobs in 2010

50th Anniversary Gig With The Checkmates at King Edward Hall Lindfield

I had twisted my ankle on the Thursday night and was too immobilized to make changes to the Foot Tappers PA so that confirmed a likely decision to take the “old Checkmates PA”. We set off in good spirits about 10:30am and, apart from a 20 minute delay at the Dartford tolls, we had a good run arriving with friends Miles and Jenny in Lindfield at 1pm. Had a nice lunch with them and then I helped Miles fix some TV wiring before setting off for the hall. I rolled up about 5pm to meet Raye who was already unloading his Sonor Kit. Graham arrived a few minutes later with his boy Adam who was roadying for the night. Raye looked in good shape and with Adam's help we soon had all the gear set up in a really well decorated hall. The Mesa was ready to go with the previous Foot Tappers outing settings so I turned to the PA. I was setting up the 'old” PA from scratch and took the opportunity to check out the previous weeks theory that you could cut out the enhancer by making a few equaliser adjustments. I switched out the enhancer and the compressor and it was an OK sound, but with a low wattage hi-fi power amp there wasn't much volume – couldn't even get it to feedback! So I switched in just the compressor set with near zero compression and used the make up gain stage on that to boost the vocals a few dB and then we got a more powerful sound. Interestingly by switching out the enhancer we lost the sub-bass frequencies that often cause more harm than good! The guys were getting bored by then, so we ran through several Checkmates numbers and some of the more complex other ones like “American Trilogy” and I made some minor adjustments on the fly – tending to boost the hi's and lo's a little. Adam reported a good PA sound and overall balance out front, so we tested it out for volume by boosting everything a bit more and blasted out Johnny B Goode. It sounded fine and Brian and Carol (the organisers) looked suitably shocked, so we carefully reset down a couple of notches to give ourselves a good starting level. By now it was 7pm, the bar was open and the first few punters were coming in the hall. Raye treated us to a beer and I settled down with a sandwich to rest my leg. Raye's old song writing mate, Chris (and wife Vera) popped into the dressing room to say hello and explain that they were going to try and take some pictures and video of the event – so could we assist by doing a bit of posing? “Yes” we said and they started off with a bit of 'fly on the wall' video in the dressing room as I searched for my gay pink comb which it turned out I had left behind. Then our wives arrived and said hello, fortunately no one said “break a leg”! It was showtime. We crept onto the stage as Brian drew the curtain shut and began his introduction, doing a voice over the 'pick of the pops' theme music to tell everyone: “it was 50 years since “Eyes at me for” entered the charts to peak at no 1 over Christmas and New Year; the last no 1 of the fifties and the first no1 of the sixties – its the Checkmates!” The curtain goes back and we open up with “Eyes” and the audience are all singing along with it, what a fantastic start! From then on we could do no wrong. We had applause in plenty, the crowd laughing at the banter and lots of dancing. About halfway through the set I put on the glasses, went out front and did a Shadows 'limp' to 'Apache' on the extra stage set up in front of the band. To be honest it looked and sounded much the same as the Foot Tappers but it seems this kind of thing is rare in Sussex because it just brought the house down! We resumed our set and played on to complete an hour with “Wipe Out”. In the break we had a request for a Duane Eddy instrumental. So I briefed the boys to do a short “Shazam”. I was a bit sweaty so we changed into the blue for the next set. Opened up with “Slow Boat” and then did the request for “Shazam” - again we were getting an incredible response! We played on through the Checkmates hits and a few others including “FBI” as another wildly received Shadows limp! To finish Graham announced “Let There Be Drums”. In the rush we hadn't had time to talk this through so we set out on this journey in improvisation mode. All went well until the bit where I take the tom tom down to the dance floor. I forgot to do the cymbal! But by then I was already playing along with Raye on his kit, so I had to detach myself a bit from that, move the cymbal forward and then finally take over from Raye who picked the cymbal up on his way down to the dance floor. Raye carried on drumming out front but I couldn't find any sticks for Graham? All we could find were some vintage looking bongo bashers so Graham had to manage with those! We joined Raye and the next section was a complete mess of improvisation cut short by Raye being forced away from the tom only to return with a massive set of sticks. Graham and I departed and left him to it for a minute while Carol came out in her nurses uniform and helped Raye to get laid out on the floor (still playing his tom). Graham came over with bass attached stood over Raye who then did the playing of the bass bit successfully! I got ready for the big resumption on the front stage and Graham joined me and Raye got back to his feet, counted us in, we managed the run ups OK and did the big ending well. The icing on the cake was Carol coming over to revive Raye and then Brian and a mate came in dressed as medics with a stretcher and stretchered him off – This was completely unexpected and I laughed so much my sides nearly split! After the raffle we resumed for the final set starting with Raye giving a valedictory speech about the band. The we opened up with “Great Balls” and continuing a fairly up tempo sequence through to “American Trilogy” which I was pleased to get pretty right on the night. After a couple more numbers, we started the closing sequence of “Lucky Old Sun” and the Raye went out onto the front stage with snare and cymbal to finish with “Early in the Morning”. I played safe on this and did the answer backs in lower (non – girly) register that usual and it sounded just fine! After a fantastic reception, Brian asked us to do an encore and we obliged with “Eyes” with everyone singing along! We did a lot of glad handing as the hall emptied then set about the pack and load up. With Adam's help we had the cars loaded for the off at about 12:30am and, after final goodbyes, we set off on our separate ways. Miles had left the door unlocked for us and Jacqui and I felt like naughty teenagers creeping into our lodging for the night. Next day we had breakfast with Miles and Jenny and then we set off to visit old friends Chris, Elaine, with their daughter Rebecca and recently born baby for Jacqui to coo at! Finally set off home about 1pm and got in about 4pm after a stop en route. All in all a very good weekend. I had been thinking about Nige doing the Foot Tappers gig at the Oasis and hope he had a good time. It turned out it was an admin cock up. Despite our dligent contacting of clubs and promoters after Dave passed it turned out the Oasis had been cancelled and replaced with a gig at Caister. But we had no record of that so poor Nige didn't get to play and the Caister gig had no band. Oh dear, we've had a run of bad luck just lately, we are due something going right – perhaps the drummer vocalist we are trying out with on Wednesday?