Broad Farm Flegborough

I set off at 5pm expecting Friday night traffic, but the roads were quiet and, even though I got stuck behind a tractor for the last few miles, I was parked up outside the hall at 6:20pm. It was a sunny evening and I took my time going into the hall to get the back doors open. I had most of my gear in by the time Nigel arrived; and he had most of his in by the time Dave and Jen arrived. Dave had been taken ill in the week: a suspected low blood sugar episode compounded by overdoing it at the gym. At one point it had been suspected that he had had a mini-stroke and he had been taken into hospital in an ambulance! But he had been taking it easy since and he looked OK on the night. We got set up rapidly. The stage has a very low ceiling and, after trying the Hawketts Lean © and finding it didn't work, Nigel tried to copyright a variation on the 'lean' on by setting his Bose up in the front edge of the stage and shuffling it into position. Unfortunately for him, I had spotted this and quickly registered the 'Mog Edge' ® method of assembling Bose in low stage ceiling conditions. He refused to pay my license fee, saying I owed him for at least a few 'Hawketts Leans' © over the last year! The mic and guitar sounded a little boomy to me so I took a dB out of the bass on both. I set up with master at 12 o'clock noting I had loads of headroom for mic feedback. Then I took a bit of time out to listen to the bass drum amplification. It gave a good thump on stage but carried a little less well out front, so I gave it a bit more volume on the T1. The room was filling up so we didn't bother with a sound check and went to get changed into the black'n'white for an 8pm start. Opening up with “Foot Tapper into Just One Look”, the on-stage sound was very good I thought. I felt a little cramped where I was on stage and resolved to pull my mic stand and pedals back a few inches when I got chance. We played through a fairly typical set 1, lots of banter, a good effort at the Beatles (and it earned a good response) and we wrapped up with a fine performance of “I Believe”. Set 2 we started with “Let There Be Drums”; Dave lengthened it out which led to some confusion but otherwise it was OK and well received. Nige kindly introduced me as a rock star from the Checkmates and we did a good “Eyes” which got some chaps behind my right shoulder singing along lustily. Next up we did “Apache” with some kids joining in for the Shadows walk. This went down well as usual. We rattled out the “Searchers, Do It Again and The Eagles” and we started to get a bit of dancing interest. We got a great reaction to “Alice and Halfway” and Elvis's appearance and “Sweet Caroline” had them singing nearly as loud as the band. We kept the dancers on the floor with “Shine” and then wrapped up with “Love is all Around”. Set 3 was mainly party dance. Dave extended “Amarillo” which was a bit confusing but it all went down very well and we had them congaring round the room in “Locomotion” so I extended that. After “Hi Ho” we did “All Right Now”. This doesn't get aired that often but it got a good reception with lots of sing-a-long and I was delighted to get some applause for the guitar solo (even though I had cut it down a bit). Next we did a short version of “Unchained” which filled the floor and then followed up with “American Trilogy” We wrapped up with “Pretty Woman” and then I took us straight into a “Johnny B Goode” encore. A good night overall. I thought we had worked the audience well and at the end we had lots of good comments from people that had enjoyed themselves. The management seemed well pleased and we got got packed and loaded fairly quickly both Nigel and myself using the 'Mog Edge' ® method of disassembling the Bose. Following a quite run home I was in bed just after 1am.

Skeyton Village Hall

Ms J decided to accompany me on this one. We had an early start 'cos the message from Dave was we start playing at 7pm. But we had such a good run over we were first to arrive. It was a pleasant evening and we parked up in front of the gates and waited 'til 6pm when Dave arrived. He got on the phone to the organisers and within a few minutes a chap in big 4 wheel drive arrived to unlock the gates. But by the time we got the hall door open it was well after 6 pm and the guvnor said 8pm start would be fine! Meanwhile Nige had quickly got his gear in and was demonstrating the 'Hawketts Lean' © method of setting up a Bose in a confined ceiling space. I was so impressed I gave it a go. It tested my dodgy shoulder a bit but was definitely easier than the 'Assemble off stage and lift' approach. We set the lights up on the window sills to give colour wash across the small stage. Meanwhile a steamroller had arrived from a nearby rally; and then we were treated to the sight of a long column of tractors passing by on their way home.

Laura, boyfriend Peter, her mum Valisha and various friends of Dave arrived in support. It was approaching 8pm so we went off to risk getting changed in the kitchen. The risk being we might get molested by the ladies cooking in there – or was it that we might get asked to do the washing up! Eventually we were all dressed up in the black'n'white and took to the stage to open with “Flingel Bunt”.

The sound was OK but I made a few unforced errors; I think due to lack of home practice in the week. Dave suggested we continue softly with “Lady is a Tramp”. I thought we played this pretty darn good, considering we hadn't done it for ages. Dave set a nice pace, Nige had a very full double bass sound as he did the business with a fine set of walking lines that only required a little extra fill from the guitar to generate a modern jazz rhythm section band sound. Dave did a good vocal and I managed to get 90% of the solo right, just forgot to do the sign off line and played chords instead. The audience were tapping and jiggling along to it - all in all a very good effort! Keeping the jazzy flavour, I called for “Girl from Ipanema”. Nige took a bit of a risk busking this more complex number on the bass but, although I could tell when he was straying off message, the audience were blissfully unaware as they bossanoved in and out the hall to the BBQ or bar. Dave was not as relaxed as in previous weeks and wanted to get quickly on; so we agreed to play it safe doing the normal opening sequence from “Just One Look” to “Beautiful Body”. Then we had a bit of a gap, while Dave and I decided what to play next, which Nigel filled nicely with a monologue about the regulatory body 'Off Tap' supervising the Foot Tappers. We finally got going with “Brown Eyed Girl” and played it well enough – nearly got the entry into the bass solo right and the end of the song was close to spot on! Next up was “Only You”, Dave managed to get us to seamlessly miss a verse out – I was quite impressed. After “How Long”, which Ms J said was a very good, we did the Beatles. Not as smooth as the previous night and some vocal drop outs in “Nowhere Man”. Overall it was a bit sloppy, but nothing too fatal. We also did a patchy “Seasons of Gold”. It was going really well until I tripped over my fingers to momentarily throw the timing in “Lets Hang On”. We carried on to the break in this sloppy, patchy way: some numbers were OK, some a bit hurried some were marred by mistakes and some had both problems, e.g. Rockin Robin. We had a break for a BBQ (I donated mine to Jenny) and then we came back on to start set 2 with “Walk Don't Wipe Out”. We did a few birthdays including Valisha's and Tim. Tim has learning difficulties and was being looked after for his birthday weekend by Laura's boyfriend Peter – a very kind gesture from a good young fellow! Resuming, I had wanted to give the 12 string a go because you risk losing the touch not playing it for several weeks. So I changed guitar to play “Mr Tambourine Man”. Dave got Tim up to play the flashing light tambourine and then we followed on with 12 string right through the Searchers into “Do It Again” and then into the Eagles. I was happy enough with the sound during this sequence but, as I feared, I had a bit of finger trouble 'cos I wasn't used to the guitar. Dave went for “Alice” next and then (omitting Elvis) straight into “Sweet Caroline”. We got some good audience participation in both of these and we had a few up to dance as well. We kept the dancers as we went to “Shine” and then played out the set with “Love is All Around”. It was a local gig for Dave and with many of his mates there he had been a bit manic on calling songs (fair enough it was his gig really). But we hadn't experimented very much since the start of the show and, although we were going down well enough, I thought we were a little below par - in need of a stimulus. The lady in charge of the raffle decided to do without a microphone (she really didn't need one as she 'hog called' the numbers out in a way that would make most men fearful). We came on to do a short third set with “500 Miles”. I had heard the Proclaimers doing this on the radio on the way over and it was significantly faster than our usual speed (my fault - I slow handed the arrangement when we learnt it originally). Anyway, I pushed the speed up and it definitely worked better. The audience caught on the comic relief mood and there were quite a few on the floor as we transitioned into “Amarillo”. There were several up and doing Peter Kaye's march and then they did all the right things in “Hey Baby”, “The Twist” and “The Locomotion” - where they conga'd out of the hall into the field and back.. As they were obviously enjoying the party dance sequence I took the boys on into “Hi Ho” and the crowd did the arm swinging sing-a-long bit. A slowey was needed after that, we obliged with “Unchained” and filled the floor with romantics. Time was marching on so we signed off with “Pretty Woman”. The audience was surprisingly enthusiastic as this finished so I took the boys into a fast rock encore with “Saw Her Standing There”. Immediately the band energy stepped up a gear and we rocked through that nicely, Nige and I got the solo together – thumbs up! I led the band straight into “Johnny B Goode” - another great performance. As it finished, Dave caught the mood well, and called for a final bash with “Great Balls” which we rocked through tightly. After the lacklustre middle set, the final set had been surprisingly energetic and together, and we were happy bunnies as we left the stage. Despite my feeling we were under par in the middle of the evening, Ms J commented that we had improved quite a bit since she saw us in April – 'way above the standard needed for this gig', she said. Lots of favourable comments as we packed up. Although attendance hadn't been as large as the promoters hoped, they had made some money and were pleased the event had been a success. With lots of helpers, pack up went smoothly and J and I were on the road well before midnight, getting in at 1:10am.

Seacroft East Runton

It had been a bit stormy, but I set off in clear conditions about 4:45pm. I soon ran into a bit of a Friday night tailback at Thetford so I pushed on a bit quicker to Swaffham once I got through. There was some heavy rain between Swaffham and Holt and I found myself aquaplaning at one point so I eased back and eventually rolled into East Runton bang on 6:30pm Dave was already there unloading. He looked in good shape fitnesswise and we had most of the gear in by the time Nigel arrived. Set up went well apart from a loose mains plug into the reverb unit – its very crowded with untidy wiring in the back of that rack and I had to get my torch out to refit it. While I was face to face with the unit, I reminded myself that when I get a mo' I need to adjust the internal software equaliser in the Lexicon reverb to take some of the top off the processed signal – just add it to the list of things to do! In the week there had been a bit of a rumpus with the agent about dropping the presenter / bingo caller / childrens entertainer role at the club; but apparently they were very keen to retain the band. Co-incidentally Dave's old mate (and a presenter) John Chandler and his mates Thick and Thin (a duo on the circuit) arrived to see the band and have a meal. We got changed into the red'n'black and appeared spot on time to open up with the usual start to a very well filled room. We were playing it safe repertoirewise and the banter controls were set to high as we ran though a usual start. We got a good response from the off with lots of warm applause and even a bit of laughter in the right places. It was a fair sound on stage, but I felt we were a bit loud and Dave's vocal seemed a tad low in the mix; but by the time we got to the Beatles we seemed to have it about right. I thought we did a pretty good Beatles routine, nicely paced, no major errors - and the audience clearly appreciated it: they gave up a great round of applause. We continued through the usual set 1 medleys and songs for an hour. There was a bit of dancing here and there but on the whole it was entertainment biased. We wrapped up with “I Believe” to a great response. A very good first set I thought. Nige and I set Sarah (the entertainments manager) up with one of our mics to do the bingo. It was her first time and Dave had given her a bit of coaching, but she was still a bit nervous. I went over to the bar to check the sound. It was very clear and although she started fast she soon settled into a good bingo rhythm. At the bar I was talking to a chap who was very impressed with our Beatles rendition and promised him we would do some Buddy Holly in the next set. Jen arrived as John C and co said goodbye and we got changed into the white'n'black for our set 2 resumption with “Let There Be Drums”. Another great response! Then Dave and Nige introduced me as an ex-Checkmate to do “Eyes at Me For” and we got some good sing-a-long going. I wanted to get Nigel to do something, so I called for “Do You Wanna Dance” which went OK. I missed a guitar solo cue and the beat may have been a little fast but, as per the previous outing, we got several girls up and dancing to this one. Dave continued the dancey theme by taking us straight into “Do It Again”. I called for the Eagles after that. Hard to define what the problem was but the band had just started to sound a bit ragged to me. But I looked round and there were enough shiny, happy faces in the audience and band to re-assure me all was well enough. The seated audience was beginning to thin a little as we started our Buddy Holly medley request but it brought several up onto the dance floor. Although we seem to have lost a pair; by using my old Hank glasses we were all able to get our Buddy glasses on, banter it a bit and then play through “That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue and Oh Boy” (with good audience answerbacks) in good order. While we had some dancing candidates on the floor we got a couple up to do the Shadows walk. This went down very well as usual! Next up was the “Halfway, Elvis and Sweet Caroline” sequence played to very good receptions. I called for Shine next, but Dave heard it as Shang, so he took us fairly smoothly into “Shang-a-Lang”. We have a problem here, because the Bay Cities is a sequence that the audience tends to really like and dance to. We could certainly make more of it in showmanship terms, but it seems surprisingly difficult for the band to play it. The main problem is we have a uncertainty over who is singing what. Believe it or not the lead vocal is quite demanding in breathing terms and Nige (who did it originally) and Dave keep swapping vocal parts. I do the high line. Also I think there is some problem over rhythm. The net result being that we play it: the audience likes it and gets up to dance, but the band looks unhappy doing it? For what its worth, my view is: on this circuit the Bay Cities is a good fit for these audiences; they like the version we do already and surely it wouldn't take much effort talking it through at sound check to get it good enough to also satisfy the band. But, playing it safe, we stopped after a ragged performance of Shang-a-Lang (omitting “Bye Bye Baby”). We then got going with “Shine” complete with some 'Morrisons' supermarket banter also interacting with the ladies that run the on-site shop. After the obligatory “Amarillo – Hey Baby” we did “Unchained” as the big sign off slowey. This filled the dance floor as usual and we got a healthy response from the remaining crowd, with sufficient shouts for 'more', that we encored with “Pretty Woman” and “Wonderful Tonight”. We had several people up at the end saying how much they liked the show and the management were well pleased with the night. So it seems we are in a situation where we play a bit below par but still go down well – good to know that. I think some of the below par performance is due to my not being able to put much into the band this Summer due to all the refurbishment disruption at home. But I can see some light at the end of the tunnel and hope to resume with a strategic review of where we are heading and with what repertoire by the end of Summer. With some help from the others I was packed up and away by about 12:15 am. I decided to go back via Norwich and got home after a fast run about 1:45 am.

Norwich WMC

I had had an eventful week with Jon and Carl popping in to see us en route to Spain, Elsie's funeral and, although the building work completed Monday, Rocky started decorating Tuesday! Dave had been in Skegness all week and I hadn't heard from him, but I assumed all was well and set off for the gig a bit later than usual at 5:50pm. I arrived outside the club at 6:45pm to find it was still locked up. Nige appeared. He had been driving round in the hopes of finding a parking space – to no avail. After a few minutes the club was opened by Mickey and Colin and we started the load in. We had all our gear in by the time Dave'n'Jen arrived. Dave had been on a removal job and professed to being a bit tired. We got the drums in in quick time and Nige and I set off to the multi-storey car park (at £1.60 a time). Meanwhile Dave found a space outside Pizza Express. By the time we got set up and tested, it was after 8pm. Laura and boyfriend and Gordon had arrived in support and Dave'n'Nige started to work the smoking yard. I suddenly realised it was 8:20pm so I went to get the boys organised for an 8:30 start. Dave was in full flow in the yard and I had to prise him away to get him to change. By the time we had struggled into our black shirts with new white ties (from Skegness) it was well after show time. In fact we were about 10 minutes late starting up with “Flingel Bunt” (to vary things). We carried on with “Just One Look”, “Heartbeat” and “”Good Luck Charm” as normal, but when we got to the Everlys, I called for “Walk Right Back” and “When Will I Be Loved” for a change. Not a bad sound on stage. Nige had placed his Bose slightly more centrally and it made a difference where I was. 'cos I could hear their vocals and the bass significantly clearer. Also I think the sound carries better to the hall from there – we had none of this “turn it up we can't hear you” banter from the audience! I don't know if it was Dave being tired, but the banter and the rhythm section was nicely relaxed and we were going down quite well with a crowd that knows us. I called for a slowey and after a bit of discussion we did did “Three Times a Lady”. We hadn't played it much over the last few weeks and I thought we performed it very well with a relaxed feel and vocals nicely synchronised. We got a few up dancing to it and I carried on with “Raining in My Heart” which went well despite me forgetting some words. I introduced the band and the audience clapped in all the right places – fantastic! Then we set Nige off on “Brown Eyed Girl”. I need to pay a bit of attention to the bass break and ending, but otherwise it was good and well received. We had talked about improvising Cliff's version of “Do You Wanna Dance” earlier in the evening and with a few people having a dance we decided to give it a go. Nige knew the words and took the lead line. In the chorus's Dave took the high harmony and I went for the bass line. The whole song ticked along very nicely; I got the essence of the guitar solos pretty well and we filled the dance floor. We carried on with the Eagles “How Long” which kept them dancing. As it ended and, while we had them dancing, I minimised the banter and we got underway smartly with the 4 Seasons medley - “Seasons of Gold”. This was also well performed and nicely paced, and we got some good applause as we finished. Next up was “Rock Around the Clock into Summertime Blues” which was again paced well. Dave called for the Hollies next and we were just finishing another good performance when up come Phil the concert sec to do the Bingo. “Did you start on time?” he asked. “Yes Dave was well into his shirt by 8:30” I quipped. There was a longish break for bingo and then we came on for set 2. I got Dave to start with “Let There Be Drums”; it was slower than of late only a teeny bit fast. But it went down very well with this relatively enthusiastic (but smaller than usual) WMC audience. Dave then introduced me to do “Eyes at Me For”, this went well and we had them singing along nicely. Next I asked Dave to do his Sir Cliff impression and I made the point that “in Cliff's early days he was known as the Elvis without sideburns” as I adjusted Dave's wig to fold the side boards away! Then we did the Shadows Walk routine, getting Hughie and Brenda up to do the dance to Apache. While I was out front I could gauge the sound. A very good mix; sometimes the guitar can be a little bit too powerful, but I thought we were perfectly balanced on this occasion. We carried on with the Searchers; the floor was nicely full with dancers, so we ran on into “Do It Again”. I think we had a brief break at this point while the raffle was drawn. We resumed with The Eagles and then “I Believe”. We hadn't played it mid set for a long time and I thought it went very well on the night. Next we did “Alice” - the audience at this club has been well trained by Nigel to keep it clean and they did the “Who the Heck is Alice” answer backs with some enthusiasm. Then it was “Halfway, Elvis, Sweet Caroline and Shine”. All well played and very well received. We followed up with “Amarillo” and went right through the party dance sequence to “Hi Ho” by which time it was approaching 11:30pm and the dancers were flagging a bit. So we did a long version of “Unchained” and Dave signed off. However, we got such a good response that we had to do an encore; so it was “Pretty Woman” followed by a rocking version of “Johnny B Goode”. Although there hadn't been huge attendance at this gig we had turned in a good performance with a relaxed feel and won the audience over. We had forgotten to do some things we had planned e.g. Nigel was going to do a toast to Henry Allingham the First World War veteran who had just died aged 113; and somehow we had run out of time to change shirts! But overall we had done a good job and we were happy bunnies as we packed up. By the time I got the gear downstairs, retrieved the car and loaded it was about 12:30am . I missed the turn for Westgate St on the way out and ended up going through some of Norwich centre before I took another wrong turn and ended up on the East side of the inner ring road. Still it was just a case of following it round to eventually pick up the A11 and then a quick run home getting in about 1:40am.

Toftwood Social

With Jacqui away I had to make my own sandwich pack up, but having made it I decided to eat it there and then. That made me a bit late getting away, and with some fairly slow traffic en route to Thetford I pushed on speedwise to Watton and beyond. Despite a wrong turn into Stone Lane (the club is on the other side of the road!) I rolled into the yard at about 6:55pm to find Dave'n'Jen and Nige parked up waiting for the club to open. I got out the car said hello and the the club door opened – magic! The stage is on the left immediately inside the door so it was a quick load in. Set up was easy on the deep stage, Dave and I were a bit cramped for space because of the awkward shape at the front of the stage but there was plenty of room for the 12 string at the back so I set that up. We didn't bother with a sound check but I ran through some points with Nige and Dave – Dave showed me his 50's click sticks for “All Right Mama” and Nige and I walked through the solo to “Saw Her Standing There” Dave did a bit of glad handing while Nige got the beers in again. Terry and Maureen Edwards arrived in support with a few friends so we had to prise Dave away to get changed into the black with white tie. Poor Nige, he isn't happy with his black shirt which is looking a bit worn after several thousand gigs – I can see a trip to M&S mens fashion looming! The room was about 60% full as we took to the stage at 8:30pm. Dave did a bit of an introduction of the band then we made the usual start with “Foot Tapper into Just One Look”. I thought the on-stage sound was OK and the sound out front must have been good, because we got good applause. We carried on through a typical set 1 start through to the Beatles. I thought we played that well and once again it earned enthusiastic applause in its new early spot in the set. We followed up with “How Long”. I had thought this gig would be more about dancing but, although some people looked jiggy in their chairs, there was no dancing yet. But we were being received very well I thought. Next we did a fairly tight performance of “Seasons of Gold” with the banter and music going down very well. “Only You” was the mid-set slowey. I urged people to come up and have a romantic dance to the 'cod of love' (Dave) and we got quite a few takers. The dancers also enjoyed the banter and the mid-song stop for Dave to be wound up to get the big note. After that I made a judgement call that rock'n'roll would go well, so we set off into “Rock Around the Clock” into “Summertime Blues” and filled the floor nicely. I decided to follow up with “All Right Mama” to give Dave's clickety sticks a go, but by then the dancers were tiring and soon thinned out. We were playing it well enough but I decided to cut it short and get back to entertainment with “The Hollies”. We wrapped up bang on 9:30pm with “I Believe” which was very well received. Playing the rock'n'roll meant that we still had Cliff and the Shads and Buddy Holly routines to work in so I was already thinking hard about what we would put into the 45 minutes we had for set 2 as we left the stage. Following good practice I turned off all the channels on the T1 mixer. After a 15 minute break we re-assembled for set 2. I switched on my mic and the guitar, but somehow failed to switch the drum mic on. We decided to open with the Searchers with me on 12 string. The medley was very well received but no dancing, so I asked Dave to skip “Do It Again” and we did “Eyes at Me For” with added banter and sing'a'long. It seemed to go well with the audience so continuing the banter I called for our resident child prodigy (Nigel) to do a tribute to Jacko with “Rocking Robin”. We got the start of this better, but it was a bit loose thereafter. It will tighten up as we continue to play it. I called for the Eagles next and that brought a few dancers up. I thought we played and sang the sequence well and it was very well received by the crowd. I made a bit of a bad call to do “Alice” next. For some reason the audience didn't want to play along much with this one and we only got some half hearted answer backs. “Halfway” went much better and Nige and Dave did a good girly wig routine in the middle 8. Then Dave took his time to make a great appearance as Elvis doing “Wonder of You”. We followed up quickly with “Sweet Caroline” and this filled the floor so then Dave made a good call to play “Do it Again” to keep the dancers going. That took us to after 10:30pm = time for the members raffle! So we took a break and changed shirts. So far so good; the band had been going down well and people reported a classy sound. That is apart from one of Dave's mates, who noticed I had forgotten to switch the drum mic on at the start of the set! During the break I was still pondering how to fit in Buddy Holly and the Shadows walk, but by the time the concert sec announced the band to play again, Dave and Nige were only just struggling out of the dressing room, so I started the riff for 500 miles and they eventually joined me and we did a bit of Scotch banter. No one came up to dance but they clapped along, so we announced “Amarillo” as the one to come up and have a dance to. This was only partly effective - only a few came up for a dance. We carried on into “Hey Baby” and got some good sing-a-long going, but still not much dancing. I was beginning to feel a bit rough at this point. I felt somewhat drained of energy and I was pleased when Dave brought Terry Edwards up to do a few songs starting with “Johnny B Goode” and then “Take These Chains” into “Lend Me the Pillow” and “He'll Have to Go”. Surprisingly, this all went down very well. Dave continued the country feel with “Your Cheating Heart” and then called for “Love is All Around”. By then I was feeling quite weak and found it hard to concentrate. Also, I couldn't get the guitar sound right and I was making quite few cock ups. Dave and Nige soldiered on with the banter and we may have done some other numbers but I can't remember too well (it turned out it was a disastrous outing on guitar for the Quo Medley). Anyway I do remember we did “Unchained” as a finisher, with Dave doing a big sign off for the band. But we got such a great response with shouts for 'more', that the concert sec' asked for an encore. We duly swang into “Pretty Woman” and then rounded proceedings off with “Wonderful Tonight”. Not often I say this, but I was pleased to finish. Pack up was a bit slow on my part, but eventually we were ready for load up. The boys reported it was raining quite heavily, so when I went out to unlock the car, I grabbed an old curtain and put it round my shoulders to keep the rain off. Nige and Dave thought this was hilarious! I was quite tired on the way home, but the next day I felt fine and we took Claire's friend Suzzie and Rocky out for lunch at Cannons; a couple of pints later I felt back to normal! Reflecting on things, I learned some lessons at Toftwood – don't obsess about dancing (I'm usually good at that!), slowies are sometimes all an audience of a certain age wants to do (I'm usually good at spotting that!) and we always have the option to play the country card at this kind of gig.

Seacroft Caravan Park East Runton

Dave asked us to arrive early so we could set up before Marc Buller did his bit with the Bingo. I left at 4pm, thinking I might call into Dan's for a cup of tea first. Got to the outskirts of Thetford in reasonable time in busy traffic but then I ran into a long tailback from, what I heard on the radio was an accident at the cross roads. So I did a U turn and made my way through town over the nun's bridges eventually crossing the A11 to take the A134 through the forest. After that things went fairly well, but it was about 5:50 pm as I arrived in East Runton, so I elected to go straight to the gig, getting through the barrier to unload just before 6pm. Nige wasn't much later and we had all our gear in before Dave rolled up with Laura aboard to assist as roadette. Dave was in much better health than the last gig thank goodness, but he was still finding it hard work to move his kit about. Still we got set up in good order by 7pm. The boys reminded me to bring the Fender 12 string in from the car and I set it up in some space behind Dave even though I could see it would be tricky to change over when we got going. In the end Mark decided to do the bingo in our break between 2 one hour sets, so we had half an hour to while away over a beer sitting outside in the sun - yes I did have my hat on! Gordon arrived in support and to have a chat with Mark the agent. We got changed into the red'n'black and hit the stage in good time. Mark did a good bantery introduction and then we were off with “Foot Tapper” and the short “Just One Look”. A fair on stage sound I thought, but maybe a tad loud? However, we got a good round of applause from a responsive audience so Nige and I introduced the band with the bit of banter where we forget to introduce Dave, this went well. We played on through to the Everlys and “Beautiful Body” with the banter controls set to high. Dave was timing his banter a lot better and we got quite a situation comedy atmosphere going between the three of us. No dancing, but I was surprised at how attentive the audience was – lots of response to the songs and banter. After “How Long”, which I messed up the guitar part, we picked our way through the medleys. First up - a good attempt at the Beatles I thought. The 4 Seasons was fine. The Buddy Holly medley was a bit ragged, but the 'wearing the glasses' banter went well and we got some audience answer backs in “Oh Boy”! Next we did an entertaining version of “Only You” with Nige and myself winding Dave up for the big note in the last verse. We brought the set to a conclusion with an OK job of the Hollies and then wrapped up with “I Believe” to a big round of applause. Mark outroduced us so it all looked very professional.













Mark set about the bingo with gusto, but the highlight for us was the beautiful Debbie doing the checks of the winners cards. As the bingo came to an end we got changed into the white'n'black so we were ready to take to the stage for Mark to introduce Dave (and us) doing “Let There Be Drums”. Dave took off with a different rhythm that he had planned to do. It seemed a bit fast to me and when we came to the run ups I knew it was a bit fast! But it went down a bomb with the audience. At this point I called for "Rockin Robin" as a dedication to Michael Jackson. The beginning needs some attention, but this song is quite popular with the audience so it might be worth some tidying up. Next we got Sir Cliff out to do the “Young Ones” and then followed up with a Shadows walk with a lady from Manchester and a young fellow playing the rubber guitars. This was a bit uncoordinated but very entertaining as I improvised some little jumps - and it brought the house down. We carried on with the Searchers and Eagles delivering a high quality sound that again earned appreciative applause. Next up was a well bantered audience sing-a-long of “Halfway to East Runton”. We did a great middle 8 stop when Nige did a gruff answer back and amused the audience by getting both Nigel and Dave wigged up to do the girly harmonies! Elvis arrived in the building and was followed by Neil Diamond. I called for “Shine” next and gave it a good intro about us advertising for Morrisons. Well the lady who had done the Shadows walk piped up enthusiastically that she had seen 'Take That' last week and we'd better do a good job! As soon as we started she and several other ladies got up to dance. We did a fair performance of it – not as sweet as the previous gig in the open air. We swang into “Amarillo, Hey Baby and the Twist” next to keep the dancy sing-a-long atmos going. There was a bit of confusion over the choice of slowey to follow up. I announced “Unchained” and Dave got set for “Love is all Around”; so there was a bit of a gap while I found “Unchained Melody” in the book for Dave. When we finally got underway, several came up for a romantic dance, and Mark came over ready to close the evening. We got such a great reception with many shouts for 'more', that Mark asked us to encore. We duly set off with “Pretty Woman” and then followed up with “Saw Her Standing There”. Nige and I had a misunderstanding over the guitar solo length again – we'll need to walk that through sometime! But as we came to the end we still had shouts for more. So Mark asked us for one more. We obliged with “Wonderful Tonight” and that calmed everything down. Dave held back on the middle 8 vocals nicely, but that exposed my croaky voice, so I'll need to give it more 'oomph' next time. That rounded off the night nicely. Mark was well pleased with the evening and our performance in particular. Pack up went smoothly and I was on the road for just after midnight getting in at 1:30am, a bit tired over the last 10 miles. Jacqui had to be up early the next day for a charabanc outing to Hampton Court.