Practice at Live Wire Rehearsal Studios Norwich

We had booked 3 hours in an equipped rehearsal room with the facility of recording the final hour. Usual good run over to Norwich in light traffic on a warm sunny evening. I navigated to the location easily enough but had a bit of trouble finding the actual business unit. When I got there, I met up with David the manager (an old rocker by the looks of him) and he showed me the room. Its about 10 foot square, well soundproofed and equipped with Crate and Ashdown guitar amps, a Pearl drum kit and a Crate PA. There is a red light near the door which comes on for the final hour’s recording. I got David to put up an extra mic for Dave and then Dave and Nigel arrived. Nigel and I spent some time trying to get a decent sound from the Wharfdale mics but still ended up with a bass heavy sound. I was using both my PRS guitars and ended up with a brittle middley sound, adequate enough for practice but not recording quality! Nigel also had a bit of trouble getting the bass listenable but eventually we settled and ran through “Hotel California” Then we got down to a long spell of work on the Beatle medley. It started getting a bit hot in the room and Dave found it difficult to concentrate, but we did get it sorted - only trouble is remembering it for the next outing. Next we played “Something” a few times, then “Can’t Get Enough” before spending a big chunk of time on the Status Quo medley. Although we were able to improve it in places, it was clear Dave and I needed to listen to the originals to make real progress. Nigel kindly volunteered to try and edit the Mogerized song sheets for this and the Beatles to clarify the changeovers. We wrapped up with a run through of “Can’t Help Fallin In Love”. The red light hadn’t come on but they had recorded the last hour ‘warts and all’. Pack up was easy, but as I came out Dave pointed out Nigel’s car disappearing down the road. Apparently he had tripped over a kerb and dislocated his finger as he fell against a wall; and he was driving off to get it sorted as soon as possible. As I drove home I listened to the CD, the sound quality was very boomy and the performance was a bit rough for any commercial use, but I suppose we sang in tune and played together OK ish; so I’ll keep it in the trophy room! Next day Nige’s finger was strapped up. It looks like he’ll be OK for next weekend. We agreed that this session had not been a success. Dave gets overheated easily and we need a bigger room with better aircon. But the experience was useful and we might try a different place.

Wreningham Village Hall Dance

I had to be on best behaviour because Jacqui was accompanying me. We set off under clear skies and a cool wind about 5:30pm and all went well until we got to Long Stratton. As is usual with this gig I missed the turn and had to navigate by the sun taking a circuitous route along farm tracks and country roads until eventually we found our way to Wreningham. Dave and Jen were already there and pleased to see Jacqui. I soon had the gear in and was just setting up when Nigel arrived - not too late considering he had advised me he might be delayed. Set up was largely uneventful, but I noted that the electricity has a bit of a hum on it, but not bad enough to affect the show. Although everything worked Nigel and I were to find out later that Dave had used the wrong mic setting up his Shure SM58 Beta rather than the Audix OM5. I gave Dave some updated sheets for the Beatle medley and they promptly got lost. We had just cobbled a hand annotated version together from the old ones when Jenny found the new sheets in the dressing room! I decided to try and video the band to see how it compared to the previous years gig at this venue. This time I set the vidcam up on a tripod by Jacqui on my side of the hall. We got changed into the red shirts’n’black waistcoats with white ties because Nige had lost his at the last gig? There must have been about 70 in the room as I ‘faffed’ around a bit getting the tuning right just before show time. Dave and I had a brief conversation about how we would go straight into “Just One Look” after “Foot Tapper” then the clock ticked over to 8:15pm and we counted in the start. Immediate shock/horror as Dave started with “Just One Look” while Nige and I opened up with “Foot Tapper”. Eventually we all got behind “Just One Look” but our performance of the song never really recovered from the bad start. So when we finished it we explained the mess up to the crowd and then played “Foot Tapper” as a restart! There was a lot of good dancing right from the off and it was a pleasure to play to a floor full of dancers nicely in step with the band. I thought Dave and Nige’s mics were a bit low in the mix but I put it down to an artefact of the hall and concentrated on doing my best with a brittle on stage guitar sound. The band was making good continuity between numbers and with sharper banter than usual we progressed rapidly through a normal set 1 show flow. We got good applause for everything we did but got a particularly good response for the Shadows Walk where I had a line of 7 dancers doing the walk in front of me. Like the previous week, while I was out front I could judge the sound and it was great! So, with lots of people dancing to the music and listening intently to the banter, all went well until the Beatle medley. Here we had a good response to the pre-song ‘mop top’ banter and the sequence started well enough and continued OK through to “All My Loving”. I thought this bit was a tad fast and I did fluff a chord in the middle 8 but the solo following it went well. Unfortunately, as we finished on an E chord for the start of “Nowhere Man” the band were ‘nowhere’ to be heard! After what seemed an age (about 10 seconds in reality) we finally got going with the acapella start, but with voices fading in and out? Somehow we got through the rest of the song to the solo (which went well) and then we transitioned smoothly into “I Feel Fine” where again I played a wrong chord in the middle 8. But again the solo went well and I stopped firmly on the Bm expecting a drum roll into “She Loves You”. After another age Dave got going and we swang through the song with backing vocals fading in and out and the odd timing hiccup but at least we reached the end together (sort of). We thought it was a bit of a shambles and we were surprised we got a good round of applause at the end: but it is work in progress, the gaps were only a few seconds in reality, and the crowd may have had some sympathy for us? Unperturbed we cracked out a good Hollies medley, filling the floor and earning some strong applause. The rock’n’roll selection of “Rock Around the Clock” and “Summertime Blues” went well (even had Jacqui and Jen up and dancing) and these songs concluded the hour, so we closed with “3 Times a Lady” which brought the waltzers out in force. We took a short break to don the Chinese Waiter uniforms. During the break we had a couple of requests, one being from a gentleman of oriental persuasion who translated the Chinese writing on the dragon shirts to something like ‘mercury in the heavens’ to which I quipped “you mean head chef”! Anyway we got back on for Set 2 starting with “Let There Be Drums” to introduce Dave and following up with Dave introducing me as an ex-Checkmateer to sing “Eyes at Me For”; both these performances were well received and drew enthusiastic support. Just need to work something up to introduce Nige next. During a typical set 2 we did brief performances of requests for “Under the Boardwalk” and “Love Potion Number 9” which Nige sang well despite my patchy chord comprehension! We also did a brief instrumental ‘Cha Cha Cha” in A for the dancers. Elvis made a double value appearance singing “The Wonder of You” and ”Falling In Love”. We extended the set to an hour by doing “Shine”, the “Bay Cities”, “Crazy Little Thing” and “Johnny B Goode” The playing was getting a bit ragged by this point so it was the right time to wrap the set up with “Love Is All Around”. During the break we had a birthday request so we opened up set 3 with that and then carried on through the party dance sequence to “HI Ho”. Then we did “Unchained” and, spotting the dance floor was full, we sashayed into the longer version of it. Next up was a good rocking performance of the Spencer Davis sequence only marred by a couple of guitar errors. We still had a bit of time to go so we did a sequence of band calls including: “Midnight Hour”, “Shaking All Over”, “Be Bop A Lula”, “Great Balls”, “Saw Her Standing There”, “Pretty Woman” and “Dance the Night Away”. We announced this and then as we got going I realised I couldn’t remember the first line, so I asked Dave to do the first verse. Then he forgot the last line, so I took over and we shuffled our way through it quite nicely from that point. I was pleased to get the guitar solo right for a change! Soon it was midnight and we wrapped up with “Wonderful Tonight” finishing to a good reception from about 30 or so with the stamina to stay right to the end. Christine (the organiser) seemed pleased despite competition from other events restricting the turn out. She mentioned that not many bands could play the 3 x one hour show she asked for. Also we received several compliments: Dave and I were singled out for doing the drum show and the Shadows numbers respectively; and I had to give a bit more detail on the Checkmates connection to a chap who had seen them live in 1961 at Nottingham University. I explained that he had seen my old gaffer drumming mate Raye Du-Val when he was a young man – he’s now in his late 70’s and still playing! Then it was pack up. As we packed up we spotted Dave had been using his Shure SM 58. The Bose is optimised for the Audix OM5 so using the wrong mic explained the problem with Dave’s vocal sound! Nevertheless, we celebrated a mainly successful night (albeit with some ragged edges) with some diet coke. As is usual at this gig I missed the turn for Long Stratton and ended up navigating across country to Diss. So it took over an hour to get home on a cold night. Poor Jacqui was exhausted, but the next day she gave me a report sheet to append as follows:

JACQUI’S HALF TERM REPORT:

Dress: A pleasure to see the boys smartly turned out for set 1. The red shirt and black waistcoat combination looks professional and is nicely complemented by the white ties. From set 2 the band looked a bit uncouth but I understand the reason that Dave needs to get into something cool and unrestricting. Why don’t you try just Dave making the change into the casual shirt with Nigel and Adrian staying smart, perhaps changing into white or black shirts with a change of tie to keep the image fresh. This would make the band look professional but promote the idea that the drummer has lots of hard physical work to do! Overall mark: B

Sound: Much better live than it sounds on the video. Hard to fault the sound, harmonies significantly improved since the last time I attended a gig. The band is much tighter than last year and tempos are less hurried making it easier to dance. Overall mark: B+

Presentation: Best I’ve seen the band do but would benefit from some more props e.g. Elvis Top, Sir Cliff Glasses / Wig etc. Overall mark: B+

In conclusion: Very well done overall B a good report well Deserved (note the D word Nigel!) looking forward to my next gig.

Mog concludes. I looked at the video of set 1 the next day and, apart from the cock ups, it was surprisingly good. The guitar bass and drum instrumental sound was great. The banter was clear, efficient and well timed. The main downsides were the vocals from Nige’s Bose which were low in the mix, particularly in backing situations. This could have been because the video was nearer my Bose, but I suspect it was due to a combination of Dave’s wrong mic and Nige needing to sing up a bit with the backing vocals. He sounded good and loud singing lead on “Beautiful Body” so I think the basic set up is fine.

Practice at Skeyton

Made good time over in cloudy conditions. Dave and I ran through “Shine” backings until Nigel arrived and then we did some warm ups with:
Hotel California – a good rendition, the restrung PRS is easier to play and sounds great.
Shine – improving.
Eyes at Me For – the backing is now becoming ingrained; well done Dave and Nige!
Crazy Little Thing – got the boys interested in doing harmonised answer backs. Nigel ended up doing the high lines.
Let There Be Drums – Dave had retuned the kit for a great drum sound and had clearly put a lot of time into thinking through the build up. I tried counting 4 bars between the rising power chords to get some structure to it.

We then spent a lot of time working “Nowhere Man” and “She Loves You” into the Beatle medley. This finally began to work and we agreed to risk it on Saturday!

Spent another block of time reworking the “Status Quo” medley and wrapped up with “Something” Both these are considered roadworthy, but there is plenty of room to improve individual parts. Had a good run home on a dampish slightly stormy evening; getting in about 11:45pm.

Sheringham High School Camping Club Flag Lowering Ceremony

Set off in good time in fine weather, but by the time I got to Fakenham it had clouded over. I was eating my tea en route and stopped briefly at Fakenham to shake some cake crumbs off my pullover. Later on I found that Nigel had gone by just at that point; spotting a car that looked ‘a bit like mine’!. Resuming the road trip, I got to Holt and ran into a sea fog – it was quite misty for the last few miles. Met up immediately with Dave’n’Jen at the school and Trevor (the organiser) let us in; then Nige arrived so we were quorate. It’s a big hall and stage so plenty of room to set up and within half an hour we had it all up and running.




I put a bit more oomph on the bass drum but Nigel and I agreed to stick to normal mid-point master volumes for this gig. Everything sounded fine on stage but we didn’t bother with a sound check and I left our music on to fill in the time to the flag ceremony at 8pm. Unknown to me, Nige had set up his own dressing room by the side of the stage while Dave and I used the boys changing rooms. Despite some gay dressing assistance, Dave had trouble getting into his white shirt so we agreed to switch to red. Now I thought Nige was outside trying to find the changing room so I set off to look for him - but to no avail? In the end I did find him at the side of the stage ready to go in his white shirt. I hurriedly explained the change in plan and we both set off to get changed into the red’n’black. Meantime Dave had got dressed in the red with white tie! Rather than relay another change, I concluded it would look good for me and Nige to stay in black ties and Dave to wear the contrasting white so we agreed to just get on with it and hit the stage just in time for a prompt 8:30ish start looking to finish by 9:30pm. We opened up as usual and we got a great reception for “Foot Tapper” and “Just One Look”. But following on with “Heartbeat” I could see Nige was struggling to track down a bassy resonance. I tried to help by bottom cutting the guitar and bass drum in the mix on my side; but I’m not sure he got to the ‘bottom’ of it! Nevertheless, the band was being received very well and we knew we were in for a good night when we heard the audience singing along enthusiastically with “Good Luck Charm” So far so good: so we decided to play some country to meet some requests we had had for a slow foxtrot and waltz. Dave knocked out the “Cheating Heart” medley and followed up with “He’ll Have to Go” as the waltz. With Nige throwing in "Jambalaya" as the quickstep the dance floor was full of happy ‘strictly come’ dancers. Conscious of the time we moved on to “How Long” and got a great reception for that. Next up we had Sir Cliff of North Walsham and then we did a great Shadows walk with the organisers on rubber guitars. I set up a long lead to go out front and I could get a fair way out into the dance floor and I must say the band sound was very impressive. The walk went so well Dave led us into “Flingel Bunt” to do a reprise. Getting back on stage we played “Seasons of Gold” and the dance floor filled nicely and we got a very warm round of applause at the end. We fitted in “3 Times a Lady” as a slowey and carried on with the Beatles, Hollies and “Rock Around the Clock” before wrapping up with “I Believe”. All this went down really well; lots of dancing and applause is just what budding rock stars like! Only snag was Nige and I were not happy with the on-stage sound. He had his resonance and I had a brittle, slightly distorted guitar sound. The distortion is an illusory artefact of being about 5 foot in front of the Bose – the real sound out front is as clear as a bell. But there was little we could do about it and by all accounts, and my own experience with the Shadows, the sound out front was superb! Had a long break for the Easter Bonnet parade which we judged in triplicate (I was Simon Cowell, Dave Piers Morgan and Nige was Amanda!). We found several worthy winners in the junior and senior competitions. Getting back on for set 2 in our hari kari shirts, a wag quipped: “you can’t go on ‘til you cook that Chinese meal I ordered!” We opened up with a well performed “Let There Be Drums”, Nige and I were spot on with the run ups and again the audience loved it. Seeing we only had about an hour to play and the audience was in party mood, we played through the dance sequence from “500 Miles” to “Hi Ho”. This sequence was fraught with small errors but enthusiastically played and received. It was clearly the right time to do “Unchained” as we filled the dance floor with romantics and it was also the right time to get the tartan hats on for a “Bay Cities” revival to follow to fill the floor with ‘teenie boppers’. We carried in with “Shine” which was a bit better vocally, but my hands wandered away from the right chords in the second verse. (plus we need to tighten up the ‘stop’ in second verse). However, it went down a bomb as did “Love is all Around” to follow. We were coming close to time and we did a successful “Pretty Woman” to start the closing sequence. We were looking to do some encores and a youngster in the crowd shouted out for Quo’s “Rocking All over the World” so we duly obliged. After a bit of confusion over key and tempo we settled into a more correct slower groove as I sang this and were rewarded with some good ‘Quo’ dancing out front. Dave and Nige led us into “Great Balls" and as we finished I went for “Crazy Little Thing” and followed up with a really rocking version of “Johnny B Goode” to finish the evening on a high. I wanted to do one more slowey, but Trevor and Dave had already done the closing remarks, so we left the stage with some of the crowd shouting for more but the job very well done. We had had our concerns regarding the on-stage sound and lots of unforced small errors, but many of people came up to compliment us on a great show and Trevor was really chuffed we had kept the crowd entertained all evening. We were packed and away by just before midnight. Rain had dispersed the fog and it was a little warmer for the steady drive home getting in about 1:30am.

Broad Farm Caravan Site Club House Flegburgh Good Friday Show

Set off about 5pm expecting traffic delays. But I had a very smooth run over in fine weather and arrived at the gig about 6:20pm to find Dav’n’Jen already there. So I parked up near the load in door and Dave and I went to find some one to let us in. We soon had the OK. Basically we have to shift a seat from in front of the load in door, remove two bolts and “hey presto” we open the door to see Nigel chatting to Jen. (Nige had also had an easy drive over and arriving about 30 minutes early had been for a walk round the broad). I delivered the bolts to the lady in charge as requested and we began the load in. The club is redolent of the 1970’s and it is quite gloomy - until I found a spot light to light up the stage. The ceiling above the stage is quite low and I quickly offered up my Bose and concluded that we would be able to just fit them in. Bad mistake – ‘cos when I came to assemble the system for real it wouldn’t go. I did manage to get the top half on by assembling it into a light socket from which we had removed a bulb, but couldn’t move it from there to position it on the stage. In the end Nige and I set the system up off stage and carefully edged it up and onto the stage where I could slide it into position with about 5 mm clearance from the ceiling. We had to do the same with Nige’s but after that set up went fine. I remembered to reset the Roland FX output back to ‘line’ from ‘combo’ which I had used at the previous gig; and I also remembered to re-load the ‘FootTapper Current’ mixer settings to replace the ‘Practice’ settings we had used at Palgrave House.


So we were soon enjoying a beer watching the room begin to fill. The clientele is holiday families so there is a broad mix of ages from tots through to grandparents. Dave’s mate Bobby Graham and missus Ann arrived. For some reason I started to call him Graham and continued this throughout the evening, I only thought about it on the way home - what a nit (someone should have told me!). Dave got dressed good and early into the smart red’n’black. Nige and I were soon also suitably attired and we were ready for a prompt 8:30 start playing to about 60 in the club. Only trouble was Dave and I got at cross purposes about starting – he thought I meant start with “Just One Look” and I thought I said ‘we’ll do some introductions at the end of “Foot Tapper”’. So Nige and I started “Foot Tapper” and Dave started “Just One Look”. Nige and I quickly got behind “Just One Look” and after I hurriedly reset the guitar and PA FX we breathed a sigh of relief. Despite the poor start we got a good round of applause for it, so I took a bit of time out to do a: ‘Hello--- Broad Farm’ and introduce the band. The audience responded well and we got on with a typical set 1 with added bantering. This suited a holiday crowd who were generally more up for entertainment than dancing. But we did eventually have a couple of girls come up to dance to Sir Cliff of North Walsham doing “The Young Ones”. Although Dave was playing the drums really well and singing good, he seemed a bit nervy with speaking and bit too quick to get things over with He got his scripted Shadows Walk intro a bit cocked up but then he compensated by doing a great ad-lib to coax some young lads up to play the rubber guitars. They did a fine job – the audience loved it and gave the routine a hearty round of applause at the end. We moved on through the various medleys and sequences getting a good response every time. I was just winding up for a big finish with a ballad after an hour when Dave called an abrupt set end as we finished “Rock Around the Clock” (I’m not sure why?). After a short break we opened up set 2 with “Let There Be Drums”; this went down really well, so well that Bobby Graham called out for more drumming with “Wipe Out” - so we did a bit of that as well! Then we resumed operations with the Searchers: I cocked up the first transition and later on I discovered I was playing a wrong chord in the bridge of “Don’t Throw Your Love” (so I vowed to put some extra practice time in on that medley!) We played on; largely following the normal set 2 list right through to Elvis and “Sweet Caroline”, getting a good response and even a few up and dancing. Then we announced the “Bay Cities” as a time to rediscover your tartan youth, and the dance floor filled nicely. After that it was time to finish off with a slowey and we did a creditable version of “Love is All Around” It was 10:30pm and we had just got off stage and were sorting out some ‘tap water’s’ when the governess came up and said: You’re gonna lose the audience – don’t you know we finish at 11pm tonight?” Oh dear – we had relied on the contract which indicated a midnight finish. So Dave mollified her and we got straight back on opening up with a request for “Shine”. This was the best yet in terms of backing harmonies – but still a way to go; anyway the audience loved it. We got some dancers up as we played straight through the party dance sequence from “500 Miles” to “Hi Ho”; then we did a short version of “Unchained“ as a prelude to wrapping up with “Pretty Woman”. Somehow we didn’t do the sign off right so I called for one more to finish with “Wonderful Tonight” to take us to an 11:15 pm finish and deliver a bit of extra value for money. Dave did a bit of glad handing and reported that the late stayers were pleased with entertainment - one old boy saying it was great to hear the 'old songs'. Despite the mess up on times, the governors seemed well pleased with the band and we got packed up in good humour and away by midnight. After a good run home I was in bed by 1:30am. Footnote: well I have had some feedback from some of you blogateers and blogettes out there that I am generally a bit negative with the blog. The truth is the band has been steadily improving over the Winter. Dave has worked hard on improving the drumming to capture the right rhythms and tempo of our vintage material. Nige has quietly sorted out some interesting Maccaesque bass lines and fitted in some quality harmonies around Dave and myself. Even I have learnt a few guitar parts better and taken on and improved the role of compere for the band. I think (Dave’s coughing nights excepted) we are all singing better than last year and the band is much more confident in dealing with audiences and entertaining them. But I remain hypercritical because I want us to reach our full potential by learning from problems and correcting errors wherever we can. I know Dave and Nigel feel similarly. The perfect gig for the Foot Tappers is waiting out there somewhere.

Trimingham Caravan Park

I set up the old PA in the morning for a test run. It was a good job I did ‘cos I couldn’t remember the reverb pre-sets and level settings. I hunted around for a bit of reminder paper that I was sure I had written them out on – to no avail. In the end I worked through all the pre-sets until I found the three contenders and played around with the level settings until it worked. I did write them out this time and stuck a version on top of the reverb unit. Panic over I loaded up, deciding to take the Roland synth and old Fender 12 string because I was still in the middle of adjustments to the re-strung PRS. It was a sunny afternoon as I set off just after 5pm. I had an excellent run over arriving at 6:55pm. 5 minutes later Nigel rolled up and few minutes later Dave arrived. We had to while away a few minutes before Andy arrived with the key and then we did some more talking, so it was about 7:20 pm by the time we were loading in. Set up took a bit longer with the conventional gear. Nige had a relatively easy time setting up hs Behringer PA amp with one EV 15 cabinet. The main Makie PA mixer is optimised for Shure mics and I asked the boys to set up with Shure. Once Dave had found his Shure mic, the PA sounded good and eventually we were ready for a soundcheck with “I Feel Fine”. Nigel had a stroll out front and reported a good balance, but maybe a bit loud. Using the Mesa Lonestar with the Roland GT10 FX was interesting. The combination gave quite a bright sound with a subtle middely enhanced harmonic valve sound. I only had to use the low power setting on the amp which demonstrated that the output from the Roland was higher than previous set ups with the Korg (and the Roland); and I think it was this higher output setting that drove the amp nicely to generate the subtle valve sound. I fired up the Roland synth and it definitely has a classy sound, so I was looking forward to a good sounding evening from my side! With set up concluded Dave introduced us to young guitarist Sunny who had brought his family out so see us. Jenny arrived just in time to inspect Nigel’s belly before change time. I reckon there were about 30 in as we got changed into the Kamikazi shirts and ready for a 9pm start. We opened up set 1 with “Flingel Bunt” for a change and following up with “Just One Look” we got the ‘turn it down’ sign from the bar. The next few numbers were relatively quiet anyway and we soon got into a good bantering and playing routine. But somehow we messed up on the start of “How Long” again? I need to find a way of switching guitar sound as I do the announcement so I’m ready for the count in! Dan and Michele arrived as we started “Seasons of Gold” making about 40 in the club (including band and staff!). Despite the moderate audience size, Sunny’s family and Dan and Michele kindly applauded above the call of duty! We soon got Dan up for the “Shadows Walk” which he did very well in spite of me swaying around a bit. As we ploughed on I felt that Dave and Nigel were louder than me on the PA and fiddled a bit with that but I never really got comfortable with the PA balance. I must say I missed the Bose ‘sound field’ effect where you can hear pretty well and very subtly what you and the others are singing. Dave was still suffering a bit with the cough and I thought the voices may have been a bit tired after the previous days singing. We concluded the set just after 10pm with “I Believe”. We had a short break and then did a shortish set 2, starting with the Searchers. I forgot to compensate for the low output from the Fender 12 string and found it hard work playing the guitar hard to fit in the mix. I was pleased to get back to the 6 string after the “Eagles” as we did a well bantered girly backing singer version of “Halfway” in which Nigel developed the gruff voice as his wig fell off in the middle 8! After an uncertain start we played a good “Wonder of You” with some nicely timed group dynamics towards the end. Dave needed a break after a patchy “Shine” so we took 15 minutes off to have a drink and say goodbye to Dan and Michele. Getting back on for set 3 we had about 45 minutes to play and I asked the boys to try something different. We started with an excellent performance of “Let There Be Drums” similar to the Sandy Nelson record. Dave played it really well and Nige and I held it together by looking at each other through the changes. Just needs a bit of a tighten up on the run ups towards the end. We followed this up with “Spencer Davis”. The tempo was right, the vocals were good; only trouble was I had a bit of trouble fiddling with the guitar sound through the first verse and Dave couldn’t find the words to “Keep on Running”; but all in all it was good – a nice change. I asked Nigel to lead us into “Can’t Get Enough” which went well until the end which I miss read, throwing an extra chord in. So far so rocky; we pressed on with the “Bay Cities and a better performance of “Make Those Eyes” than the previous outing. Dave made a good call for “Crazy Little Thing” where we all played the middle 8 perfectly wrong together – amazing group hysteria! But it brought some dancers up and then it was back to the rock with “Johnny B Goode” (got the solo right with the Mesa delivering sustain and compression), “All Right Now” and “Status Quo”. I tried to catch Dave’s eye to stop after “Caroline” but some girls had come up to dance and we all fell into “Rockin all Over” a bit raggedly and wrapped up with “Whatever You Want”. At the end one of the girls requested “Shine” which we duly obliged, turning in a better performance than earlier. Then it was time to wrap up with “Pretty Woman” – we got a surprisingly good reception from the crowd at the bar as we finished so I think the rockier set had been well received. It was a long pack up and I was pretty tired by the time we got loaded up. But once on the road, I livened up and had a good run home getting in by 2:30am and looking forward to picking up Ms J on her return from Bristol at a Sunday lunch meet up at Milton Keynes.

Hellesdon Palgrave House Residential Home 30th B’Day Celebration.

Arrived 5 minutes early after a good drive over in cloudy, cool conditions, but then a good omen: - the sun broke through as I drove up to the hall. As I got out I could see Dave’s van coming down the next street so I waited for him to turn in; but he missed the turn and it was another 5 minutes before he found his way back! We got on the entrance phone to get Julie to meet us at the door and she directed us round the back to get the gear in. It’s a bigger room than Bure Valley and we would be using both the Bose, we just needed to shift some tables and chairs to get the band set up in front of the back window. Nige turned up as we were getting the gear in and we soon had things looking ship shape. In view of the limited room, I decided that we would play it without the FX and strings rack and just use my Godin XTSA. So this meant we would need to hand switch vocal echo, particularly for the big ballads. This would turn out to be trickier to do than I thought! Dorothy from Bure Valley arrived and we all gave her a welcome hug. Then we went to get changed in a large bathroom. We were dressing up with the smart white and black, but shock horror: Dave’s trousers split and he got in a right state about getting the shirt tucked in! So I told him to keep his black trackies on and wear the white dragon shirt outside them – we would make a joke about ‘wardrobe malfunction’. All this meant we were several minutes late starting up. We cut Foot Tapper short and got straight into “Just One Look” and got a surprisingly good reception. After the first few songs of the set I led the boys into the 50’s medley; the crowd were singing along and we got a really strong round of applause when we finished it. Sir Cliff and the Shadows made an appearance and we got Julie up to do a very good Shadows walk which went down a bomb with the residents. Dave was suffering a bit with the phlegmmy cough and, being a little anxious about continuity, he led us into an early rendition of the Hollies followed by, a welcome surprise for me, his announcement of Mr Tambourine Man for a change. During this we had a few up and dancing and we were pleasantly surprised as we followed it up with Seasons of Gold and the dance floor filled up – mainly with ladies of a certain age; but all enjoying themselves! We eased back to finish off with “I Believe”. I must say I missed the strings in the ballads but compensated a bit by using some echo in the guitar parts. After a break for Julie’s speech, cutting the cake and a raffle we opened up set 2 with a country session, doing Froggat’s “Under The Sun”, then a bit of Jim Reeves then into an improvised “Cheating Heart” medley in C. Dave cleverly came back to “Cheating Heart” at the end of the medley which rounded it off nicely. I did the the “Moggy wheres yor troosers” bit for 500 miles and they all clapped and sang along with it and “Amarillo” to follow. With Dave still coughing a bit we gave “Walk Don’t Wipe Out” an airing so Dave could flex his muscles which the audience loved. We had strict instructions to finish at 4:30pm sharp so we only had a short set to do and it was already time to wind down into the close with “Unchained”. The audience had been great throughout the gig and gave us a good round of applause as we signed off. Julie had reserved some slices of cake for us and her team of little helpers cleaned up the room as we packed up. We soon had the gear packed away into the cars and had a bit of a chat in the sun before we set off. For some reason I thought I was on the Fakenham road as I exited the estate, but I was actually heading out into the countryside North of Norwich. After a few minutes I realised and started to navigate country roads by the sun to head generally West. I eventually picked up the Fakenham road – but much further up it than I needed to be, so I set off across country again heading West to Dereham and eventually picked up the A47, where I decided to head back towards Norwich to pick up the A11 for a fast run home – a 25 minute diversion I think! Jacqui still in Bristol so it was a quiet evening in eating my frozen home made sausage surprise.