Toftwood Social

Good run over on a warm sunny September day. Met up with Nigel and whiled away 10 minutes before the club opened. Got set up, quite a lot of room. Nige and I did a bit of glad handing. Not many in by start time. Usual start. Low volume gave a good on stage sound but the guitar sound was wrong. I was getting an unpleasant distortion and was fairly distracted trying to sort it out which resulted in a nervy start with odd things going wrong. But we were generally going down well with the small crowd. Finally fixed guitar problem in “Easily Fall In Love” - that volume knob on the Roland FX had shifted to max again!! With the sound fixed we carried on with Apache. No takers for playing our tennis rackets so I went out front for a solitary Shadows walk. But out there I could hear a really good sound boys! We did some country successfully and once again Martin delivered on the big numbers. So, despite the small audience, we did a good job. The guvnor acknowledged it was not our fault there were only about 40 in and complimented Martin on his vocals – he liked the mimicry. Uneventful ride home to face an early start the next day for our long planned rail trip to Spain.

Band Meet at my House

Management Session:

• Nige has secured a birthday gig at Honing Village Hall at and April and needs to send out a contract. ACTION: Mog to review contract pro-forma and send to Nigel.
• Tina Peck called re' Hellesdon afternoon do in December – she is looking for a venue within about 15 miles of Norwich. ACTION Nige to provide a list of halls he knows (if possible with contact numbers) for Mog to forward to Tina.

Music Session:
New Songs for the List:

• We Don't Talk Anymore – Cliff need to decide who does quite high vocal
• Achey Breaky Heart – Nige to sing lead Key G

Work in Progress

• Let It Be Me – check chords at end middle 8
• Words – Mogerise the Arrangement improve on road
• Move It – clarify breaks improve on road
• Easily Fall in Love - clarify ending improve on road
• Walk of Life - improve on road
• Here I Go Again – Mog to memorise words improve on road
• Get Back - more research
• Phoenix – solo to complete improve on road

Barford Village Hall MacMillan Nurses Fundraiser

Lovely warm sunny day as I set off about 5:15pm. A very smooth run through Thetford, A11 to Norwich, A47 for one junction then off onto the Watton Road. So I was parked outside the hall at 6:15pm.

Nobody there, but I 'cased the joint' and concluded load in would be through the main front door. Nige arrived next and then our client, Gail, emerged from a lorry parked on the playing field to open up. Its a small hall and we started to set up on the floor with my Bose in a corner. I took some bass off the mic and guitar on the T1 equaliser to avoid corner boomyness. Our dep Martin arrived and we agreed to go for lighting as well. Martin set up his drum lights and also a light rope on the floor in front of the band. I wanted to avoid problems with low light on my set list, so I set up a LED PAR can on the floor and it all looked very Chrismassy.

By this time, Gail's co-organiser Peter had arrived. Peter was optimistic about turn out having arranged for a lot of flyers to be distributed. Time was marching on so we wolfed down a beer and went to get changed in the storeroom next to the performance area. There were only a few in the hall by our 8pm start, so we started off with a couple of instrumentals. “Flingel Bunt” and “Walk Don't Run” to try and attract people in. Despite the Bose in a corner it was a pretty good band sound I thought. We got a couple more people in so there were about 7 in the hall (including the bar man) as we opened up with the usual set 1 start. But as it progressed some more folks did come in and, what they lacked in numbers, they made up for by dancing, applauding and laughing in all the right places as we performed a typical set 1 with bits of added banter. It went well musically and continuity wise with a couple of exceptions. Somehow I managed to get the boys lined up for the Everley's “Walk Right Back” but then started Cathy's Clown – sorry fellas! Then we announced “Words”, but I had lost mine? Nige lent me his and he looked over Martin's shoulder and we played it through to a good response. The rock'n'roll spot went well I thought. We did both the Seasons and Beatles medleys and we wrapped up the set with the Everley's “Dream”. I thought this sounded good vocally but I was so concentrating on singing through the key changes correctly, I found my hands were wandering through the middle 8 chords somewhat incorrectly! We resumed for set 2 with me on the Fender 12 string playing “Travelodge California” and then followed up with the short “Tambourine Man”. For some reason I had had a bit of trouble getting the sound right but then as we began the Searchers medley it started to go a bit out of tune as well. Never mind I thought, I'll fix that before the Eagles. The Searchers went really well, we had all 20 people on the dance floor so we carried on with “Do It Again” and then straight into the Eagles! It was during “Take It Easy” that the tuning slipped quite bad on one of the B strings. The G was also a bit dodgy so I realised it was not going to be a quick fix. I called for a stop to change guitar before “Lying Eyes”. Nige covered with some encouraging banter about the difficulty of playing 12 string and then we carried on with a dancey set through “Moon of Love etc”, “Crazy Little Thing”, “Johnny B Goode” (complete with rampant Drum and Bass solo breaks). Somewhere in there we did “Wonder of You” and “Sweet Caroline” then we wrapped up with “Love is All Around”. During the break they had a raffle and I won - but I wizely elected to put my prize back in. After a brief break we started set 3 with a request for “Let There Be Drums”. Martin hadn't played it with any band before and he did it really well: perfect timing through the verses and run ups before he went into a well judged solo that came out on a rhythm that Nige and I and could easily bring into the run ups and on to the final verse to close. It earned a massive round of applause considering there were only about 25 in the room at this point! Then it was “Dance the Night Away – Do You Wanna Dance” and into the party dance “Amarillo” to “All Right Now” sequence. Then we entered a boy band interlude with Boyzone's “No Matter” which I thought we got well vocally this week and then followed up with Take That's “Shine” which also went really well considering my bad joke about Lidll. It was approaching midnight so I called for “Walk Alone” to finish. Martin sings this so well it got the audience joining in for the big climax. We had such a great response we encored with “Saw Her Standing There” to finish a long night just after midnight. I think we must have played nearly 3 hours with good continuity – not bad with a dep! Martin had fitted in and sang brilliantly (as we now expect!) People were very enthusiastic and complimentary as we packed away. It was such a shame there weren't a few more attending. We were sorry (and a bit guilty) that they were losing money on the dance but we hoped they would make up for it on the Sunday Fun Day. It was a bit chilly as we retrieved the cars from the field in formation and began the load up. After a good night chat with Peter, we finally got away about 1am and I was home by 2am.

Band Meet at Mog's House

Thursday 10th September 2009. Nige came over for a Band Meeting at my House. I had drawn up an agenda: Start with management stuff and then address music issues.
1. IMMEDIATE GIGS
+ All looks OK – I had written to Steve Axton to confirm Wyverston and the contract had been received back that week.
3. LONGER TERM
* Recruit Drummer – ideally with at least some vocals. We are in no rush so no immediate action
* We confirmed we were happy with a Three Piece band, but we might look into deploying a small keyboard or some techy tricks to widen our palette.
* Music Aims: Versatile and popular. We want to extend back and forward in musical era from our natural base in the 60's and 70's. We are biased to say 'Yes' and have a 'Can Do' culture, trusting each other to know when something isn't working.
* Gig Frequency and Dep Policy – Mog has marked some band off dates in 2010 the policy is to carry on taking gigs and fill the rest of the diary for 2010. Nige can put himself out to Dep or get a Dep when Mog is away.
* Review Band Name and Image – We need to look at this once drummer recruited
2. MANAGEMENT - We agreed to jointly manage the band and make both sets of contact details available to venues and agents.
Dealing with Agents and Bookers: ACTION Mog to contact Broadland, ACTION Nige will approach Brian Russell, both to think about Gemini.
New Gigs:
*New Years Eve. ACTION Nige to call Andy at Trimingham, ACTION Then if no go there both to contact Agents: Broadland, Gemini and others
*ACTION Nige and Mog: 2010 gigs club contact programme to be worked up. Mog to look at Suffolk opportunities
*Web Site gigs and add Sound / video bites. Needs a new web site so will wait until drummer recruited
* Web Site Changes short term fixes: ACTION Nige to lead Mog to help as needed:
Tribute to Dave plus statement re' future
Contact Details
Juke Box Update
* Other Marketing Collateral Photo's Cards: ACTION Nige to produce some cheap cards without photo's for immediate use. ACTION Mog to produce some marketing collateral to address the issue of publicising the band before a drummer is recruited.
+ Mog to continue to manage finances. We agreed Kitty to remain frozen (apart from odd bits of small change) until long term is established
4. REPERTOIRE MANAGEMENT
* Agreed to continue the “Can Do” policy on repertoire suggestions
Mog happy to continue to manage database and schedule material for rehearsals
ACTION Mog to Organise Song Lists by Style – following on from database re-org.
5. MUSIC
Mog to look at Nige's Midi Cribs as a means of improving music analysis efficiency
Hollies Medleys
Agreed Short term fix to “Here I Go Again” Mog to sing lead.
Longer term addition or replacement is “Yes I will”
Hollies Sloweys: “Air that I Breathe into He's my Brother” for further research
Agreed Beatles and 4 Seasons Medleys can continue with two voices if need be.
Everlys “Dream” fixed Mog to sing down after key change.
Agreed to also put in “Let it Be Me” as a quick win.
Walk of Life – Mog to learn organ parts and harmonies. Nige to consider continuation into “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” Macca style.
Moon River – shift Key to A for Mog vocal
Sweet Caroline – Try Mog on it in A, Bb or B Mog to advise.
Get Back – Orig Key A but try E for Mog to learn?
Try Hey Jude C? as a slowey for Nige
Something - to try out some time
Take it Easy into Lying Eyes - Mog to lead.
Country: agreed to drop: My Best Friend and add a Solo in Cheating Heart
Status Quo – Agreed to drop Caroline and present “The Wanderer” with Nige vocal as a standalone Quo song (also doubles as a stroll dance by Dion!) The other medley will be Rockin All Over World (Mog Lead Line) into Whatever You Want (Nige to do Lead Line)
Old Fashioned Way – Mog to learn p.s. It was Sacha Distel the French jazz guitarist who Raye played with!

Norwich WMC

We had Marty from the Peppermint Men depping on drums. Jacqui and I had been staying with Steve and Alison at East Runton and after a nice lunch at the Village Inn at West Runton I had lost track of time. So I had driven over from East Runton to drop Jacqui off with about half an hour to spare before I set off for Norwich. Then as I approached Norwich I had to divert down the Watton road 'cos of a crash on the Newmarket Road. I eventually arrived to find Nigel and Marty already there - with Marty being attended to by the RAC because of a key stuck in the lock. As usual it was a bit of a struggle getting the gear up St Gregory's Alley especially 'cos Marty had a massive wheeled flight case that needed all three of us to hump it up the stairs. Set up went fine, we could get the Bose well back and we were delighted when Marty unveiled his bass drum showing three pictures on the front: a 'foot', a 'tap' and a 'purse'! This puzzle was to be an endless source of amusement to the audience who delighted in explaining it to one another. This club had been one of Dave's favourite gigs. He knew so many people here and, heart wrenchingly, several of the audience had turned out this evening wearing the badges of Dave from the funeral. With Phil the guvnor being on holiday, I sought out a responsible looking lady to confirm the start and end times (8:30 -11:30); but forgot to ask when the bingo was!! We were running tight on time as we got changed into the black with white ties and despite best efforts were a few minutes late striking up with “Foot Tapper”. Marty settled into a great groove from the off and the on-stage sound was very good. All must have been good out front as well, because we immediately had several dancers up and, as we finished, we had to pause to take some applause before continuing with “Just One Look” which also went well. Marty joined in singing some nice falsetto harmonies and the band sounded just great on-stage. Nige and I did a band intro, thanking Marty for standing in and we said a few words to mark Dave's passing and explained how he loved playing Norwich WMC and how much we missed him here. We resumed with “Heartbeat” and Beautiful Body” and carried on with the usual flow getting a good dancing and applause response all the way. I called for the 50's medley at one point and it got a bit of sing-a-long going but I sensed it's time to review this. I've been doing it for about 15 years as a stop-gap for audiences of a certain age and never had time to arrange it properly – so that will go on my 'to do' list. What was really working on this evening was the 60's stuff: Marty was really comfortable with it and some pieces gelled really well. We did a very good Beatles routine, but the one that I remember as being truly excellent was the Searchers medley. Timing and accents were just great, the harmonies with Marty joining in were full and tuneful and the band sounded in great form. The audience also seemed to sense this was a watershed moment for the band as they filled the dance floor and gave us a massive round of applause as we finished it. By 'watershed' I mean the moment Nige and I stopped 'fire fighting' the loss of Dave and began to move on in our own right. The successful evening continued: Nige did a wonderfully jazzy “By the time I get to Phoenix” as a slowey, I came up with “Move It” again and we did the country session with Nigel coaxing the audience up to do a barn dance worthy of the 'Legion'. In fact as the evening wore on it was clear that Nige had stepped up nicely to role of leader for this gig – he was reading the audience well and filling any banter gaps that needed filling and he looked like he was enjoying singing and playing. We did a good 'I want girly harmonies' routine on “Halfway” with Nige ending up wearing the blonde wig – very attractive he looked too. I'll have to look for something less fetching!Towards the end I went out for a bit of a Shadows walk with the audience to “Flingel Bunt”. Although the dance was a bit uncoordinated, out there with the crowd I could hear how good the band sounded and what a great groove we had struck. We finished off with “Wonderful Tonight” at 11:30 and although we did one planned encore “Saw Her Standing There”, the audience was so truly enthusiastic that we switched the amps back on and wrapped up with “What I Say” to round off an excellent night. Marty had done really well. He is a fine personality and he was just great to work with. He certainly helped Nige and I to raise our game on the night. Packing up was the usual struggle but finally we loaded Marty's big flight case and I took my leave of the guys to head off home – tired; but very happy with the way things had gone recently. I felt I was now able to move on from the loss of Dave and start thinking about my banding future. I got in touch with Nigel the next day and we agreed we were ready to commit and get 'our' band going later in the year. We know Dave is irreplaceable but we truly believe we can get the next evolution of the band functioning in a way that Dave can look down and say 'those boys done me proud when I was with 'em, and they haven't let me down as they continue the fight to entertain the good folk of East Anglia!'. Only off-note from the weekend was the news that Marty had got a parking ticket while we were loading – sooo unfair I hope he appeals!

Seacroft East Runton

Martin was depping. Jacqui and I had been invited to stay with Steve and Alyson on Mill Lane. It was windy as we drove over and we had to divert to avoid a fallen tree at Ingham. Alyson kindly fixed it for me to have a sandwich and a chat with Michele and Harriet (who had got some heroic GCSE results) about 6pm after which I set off for the gig in good order. Only 5 minutes down the road, I was loading in by 6:40pm when Nige arrived. We were well set up by the time Martin rolled up and while the guys set up, I sought out the management to agree times. It turned out Sarah was away for a holiday, so there was some agony about who would do bingo. But eventually we agreed the band would start after bingo and do two longish sets. Nige put the background music on and we got changed into the white'n'black and sank a couple of beers. I had brought the tennis rackets for the Shadows walk and the wigs were to hand for the entertainment angle. The place wasn't that full as we got off to the usual start. From the off we enjoyed a pretty good on-stage sound and like the previous few outings Martin fitted in brilliantly and sang some great lead vocals. So the show unfolded nicely with lots of applause. We did achieve a Shadows walk complete with tennis rackets for guitars – 'this is how I learned to play' I said. 'Sounds like it' they said! One of my themes for the evening was 'songs from the shows'. I was getting a good response to this banter and I noticed we were getting a particularly good reception from the left hand side of the room. I couldn't see much because of the lights and it was only when we finished the first set that I found out it was Jacqui, Alyson, Steve and Michele. They all said how good the band was and how much they were enjoying it – very impressed! So we attacked set 2 with enthusiasm and, although the audience thinned out a bit as we came to the close, we could congratulate ourselves on a job well done. We wrapped up with “Walk Alone” which had the audience singing along lustily and we encored with “Saw Her Standing There”. There were still lots of shouts for 'More' but we had to wind down. As we packed away, several people came over to say how much they had enjoyed our professional show. Jacqui's group headed off back to open a bottle of wine and I said I'd be back with them within the hour. The club management were very happy with the evening and we were loaded for the off by about midnight. Fortunately, I remembered to go back to Steve and Alyson's house - there was always a risk that I might forget and end up at Bury St Edmunds to find Ms J missing! Over a glass of wine our friends were very complimentary about the band and suitably amazed when I explained how some numbers such as “Walk of Life” were completely improvised. Next day we had a good long walk to West Runton with the dogs, a slap up lunch in the Village Inn there and a pleasant walk back along the beach.