New Years Eve at East Runton Seacroft

Nige and I had had a lot on our ‘plates of life’ for several months and New Years Eve had finally crept up on us. I always find New Years Eve is less about performance and more about crowd control and I couldn’t help thinking sadly that this would be our last performance. We were on with a DJ and I hoped that would work out well – we had mixed experiences of working with DJ’s in the past! Jacqui kindly offered to accompany me on the 'Foot Tappers Last Stand' as she called it. She had arranged we call in to see Dan and Michele for a New Years Eve meal in the afternoon. So we set off early in quite misty conditions to drive to Dan’s via Swaffham. It was steady going and we arrived at East Runton about 4pm. We enjoyed a slap up feed and I was excused the washing up so I could go to the gig only about half a mile away. I arrived at just after 6pm to find the barrier already up and Nige already there starting to unload. He had done the meeting and greeting with Sarah (the manager and chef) and got a green light to work things out with the DJ. He had been suffering from a migraine and hadn’t had anything to eat, so I was pleased to donate some sandwiches Jacqui had prepared before we sealed the meal deal with Michele. Next to arrive was Rollo the compere / DJ for the night. We recognised each other from Searles holiday park and he immediately set to work to clear the stage of DJ gear and set up just off stage on the right hand side. Rollo was just great at working out our performance plan for the night. We would start at 8:45pm and do three sets including the crucial 11:30 – 12:15 set. We asked Rollo to compere the countdown at midnight - so all was set. Greg arrived at 6:30pm disappointed not to be first to arrive (he had missed my email bringing timings forward half an hour)! The Xmas tree on stage meant it was a bit of a squeeze and my mic ended up being a bit too close to the Bose for my liking, but we eventually got sorted and left the stage for a beer. Folks had been queuing up outside the club house and they were now let in to fill the concert room up and start brewing a jolly atmosphere. The changing room is also the washing machine room and it was very steamy with the tumble drier venting into the room - I opened the window but then it got very cold, so we got changed into the white shirts and black ties in the steam. As we came out Trevor from the Sheringham High School gig came up to wish us well and then we took ourselves off to the games room and set up camp on some leather settees. A few minutes later Dan, Michele and Ms Jacqui arrived and we passed the time with them until showtime. We took to the stage on time but Greg had lost his drum sticks so there was a bit of a delay before Rollo introduced us and we got underway with the usual “Foot Tapper” Intro. This went well (if a tad fast), the instrumental sound was fine and we got a good reception from a full room. We did our customary intro of the band members; I explained that Nige spoke the local dialect if any translations were needed and that Greg was very young as drummers go and I was to be regarded as their ‘wicked uncle Mog’ keeping them working and under control! This banter went down well and the evening looked promising. We carried on with a typical set 1 show flow. I was having a bit of trouble with feedback on my mic and I purposefully avoided anything too complex. We included a short waltz with “Around the World” and a final airing for “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” with the red hats. We approached the end of the set with the Beatles medley which went down very well and finished with “Words” which brought quite a few slow dancers onto the floor. Rollo took over and we took a break decamping to our leather settee zone. Greg couldn’t resist a trip to the buffet and despite Nige’s old warning about ‘keeping hungry to play gigs’ ringing in our ears, we soon all joined in tasting some excellent party food. Everything was running a bit late but we were trying to get timings back in track so we were soon back on for Set 2. We opened with “Flingel Bunt” and followed up quickly with “The Searchers”. We had quite a few up and dancing so Nige took us on into “Do It Again” which went pretty well considering it hadn’t had an airing for a while. Greg had requested “Under the Moon of Love” so we set off into that next. Despite having the words and chords open in the book front of me, I had a bit of trouble remembering the verse run down chords but we got there in the end; and rhythmically it was fine and kept the crowd dancing. We took the set on with “All Shook Up” and the audience dutifully sang the answer backs on the punch line. Nige took things on again with “Lets Dance – Mony Mony” and then it was time to slow it down a bit. We did the Shadows walk for one last time with a couple of reluctant lady volunteers.

Then I announced “Halfway to Paradise” Nige did his manly answer back in the middle 8 so, for the last time, I stopped the band and made him wear the blonde wig to sing it like a girl! We were close to time now and I called for “Sweet Caroline” to finish: a good call ‘cos we got a lot of people up dancing and singing along as we finished the set. Rollo took over smoothly and we took another break until 11:30pm. We came back on to resume with Sir Cliff’s “Do You Wanna Dance” which got a few people up to dance then we went straight into “Amarillo - Hey Baby – The Twist – Hi Ho Silver Lining sequence. This filled the floor and got them singing along nicely, There was just time to do “Hippy Hippy Shake and Rip It Up” before we started the New Year countdown with the appropriate song: “Midnight Hour” at 4 minutes to – fortunately Nige spotted I was about to start in the wrong key and gestured me into the correct one. As we finished we had about a minute and a half to go and Rollo took over marshalling the crowd into a circle. Ms J was invited to join in as well. Then we did the countdown from 10 arriving at a mass ‘Happy New Year’ a few seconds late by my radio synchronised clock!




Then we started up “Old Lang Syne”. The dance floor was heaving and Greg wisely declined to speed it up much for fear of injury or riot. As we finished Nige took it on quickly to the “Hokey Cokey and Knees Up Mother Brown” and the job was all but done. We just needed a couple of numbers to finish. Nige called for “Saw Her Standing There” which went a bomb and I started “Johnny B Goode as our last number. We brought that to a fine climax for Rollo to take over and for us it was all over. We all wished each other and Rollo a ‘Happy New Year’ then we fought our way through the crowd to regroup in the foyer, getting many a well wish en route. We posed briefly for an emotional group hug then it was off to get changed.




When we emerged, Rollo was still DJing about 20 dancers who had stayed on so we kept clear for 10 minutes while he wound up proceedings. As we came back into the hall one couple wished me all the best saying the band had been just brilliant doing songs they remembered and playing and singing so well! Well it had been a good night to finish on, we had had some good gigs in the last few weeks and we could hold our heads high for a job well done. Then it was pack’n’load. A few minutes later Rollo was on his way. We bantered away a bit as we packed up – with echoes of Shakespeare’s ‘when will we three meet again’? Greg got away first – he had a young persons party to go to in North Walsham and he even declined a Werthers original in his haste to get off. Nige and I finished load up and went to sign off with Sarah and Sally who were nearly ready to close. We all agreed it had gone really well and wished each other all the best for the New Year, then Nige and I trudged back to the vehicles for a final handshake. As we set off about 2am. Ms J and I decided to go back via Norwich and made reasonable time because the fog had lifted. We finally got in at about 3:40am tired but pleased with the job well done.

Norfolk Centre Caravan Rally - Old Buckenham High School

Earlier in the day Greg had intrigued me by email announcing there would be a surprise at the gig? Carl elected to accompany me after I told him it was free beer (in the shape of cans of Carsberg). We set off in good time in very misty conditions and made slow progress to Attleborough on the A 11. There we took the Diss road southbound. It was very hard to see road signs in the dark and mist and I missed the turn for Abbey Road at Old Buckenham. Unwisely I decided to take the next turn left and see if it brought me back – it didn’t! We ended up in a dead end and we had to turn back. Finally got into the school and found my way through to the main hall where I met up with Willy the promoter. A couple of burly fellows volunteered to help us in with the gear so we set off back to the entrance and had just started to get organised when Nigel arrived followed a few minutes later by Greg. Greg revealed the ‘surprise’ by handing me a packet of Werthers Originals as the prize for being first to arrive. The gear was got in very quickly. It is a very big high stage in an echoey main school hall but no significant resonances. We were able to set up in great comfort toward the front of the stage with me reverting to my old position on the left. I set up a mic and agreed times with Willy and he showed us a large disabled toilet which we could use as a dressing room. We had a few minutes to relax in the canteen and, after a can of beer, one of the ladies there offered to make me a cup of tea – just the job. A chap called Colin came over to say how he enjoyed the band last year and could he request a country song. I agreed we’d do “Crystal Chandeliers” for him and started to glad hand another well wisher. This delayed me setting off to get changed with the boys. A few minutes later I found my way to our luxury disabled toilet dressing room to find Nigel and Greg already there with Colin the country requestor who had decided to pop in for a wee (he admitted not knowing there were several other toilets down the hall). So we stood around and bantered a bit while he relieved himself! Then we got changed into the black shirts and white ties and took to the stage a few minutes after 8pm to open up with our usual “Foot Tapper, Just One Look, Heartbeat” opening sequence.

The onstage sound on my side was just perfect. I could hear lots of musical subtleties from the Bose and it made for a better performance. The audience were very obliging giving us a good reception and, by the time we did the Everly’s “Walk Right Back – When Will I Be Loved”, we got some dancers going. We donned the red hats for “Rockin Around the Xmas Tree” and that got a very good response so we did a bit of rock’n’roll with “Blue Suede – Whole Lotta Shakin”. At this point we did our country request with Nige doing the false beginning a few times: starting with “Lilly the Pink” then “Sundarise” and some more obscure ones before we finally got underway with “Crystal Chandeliers”. The floor filled nicely with dancers and Nige took us on into “Cheating Heart” to give ‘em a run for their money! We gave them some slowies in the shape of “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and the Monkeys “Daydream Believer”. We donned the wigs for a well received “Beatles Medley”. It was all going down very well and we were confidently bantering and performing. I announced “Take It Easy” and took it into a slightly slower start. The slight easing in tempo gave me a few extra milli-seconds to make the harmoniser and guitar changes more confidently and resulted in the best we have played it. We got a warm reception from the audience which was most pleasing. We finished the set with “Words” and took a break while Willy did the raffle. Carl confirmed that the good on stage sound also producing a really great sound in the hall. Then that nice lady in the canteen offered me a coffee and I took a request from another lady for a Rolling Stones number. Some more ladies came over to ask if we could do a tango and even showed us some steps! We returned to the stage to open set 2 with Ace’s “How Long”. We hadn’t done this for a few weeks and it took me a while to get into it. But Nige was confident and in fine voice, Greg had a nice 16 beat rhythm going, the guitar solo went well enough and our performance must have sounded good in the hall ‘cos’ we got some ‘whoops’ of appreciation as we finished. We carried on with the Searchers which got the dancers going again and then I did “Jumping Jack Flash” as the Rolling Stones request. This was pretty good rhythmically but Nige and I were feeling our way through the chords for the first verse. As we came to the second verse I forgot the words and had to make something up not unlike the first verse again. I didn’t play a solo as such but we did a funky rhythm build up back to a repeat of that verse I couldn’t remember! It got a surprisingly good reception. Willy asked us to ease off on the volume and as it happened I was planning to do a strictly session with "Around the World - Lady is a Tramp" so that allowed a perfect lowering of volume while we did the waltz and quickstep. Next up was “White Xmas” so we donned the red hats and the slow dancers came up to do their bit.

Actually Nige and I finally got the vocals much as intended and it worked very well. We continued with “Raining in my Heart” to keep the slow dancers going and that went down really well as well. I took the boys on into “Move It – All Shook Up” and we started to get a lot up and dancing, so Nige took them on through “Lets Dance – Mony Mony”. We concluded the set with our usual “Halfway – Wonder – Sweet Caroline” sequence which was perfect sing’a’long for this audience. As we came off for the break a younger chap came over to tell me the band was tremendously good – he hadn’t expected anything like that and he was amazed at our versatility. We had a few minutes off and came back on to open the third set with a request for “Summertime Blues”. This got them dancing from the off and we followed up with the “Amarillo – Hey Baby – Twist” sequence to get the crowd in party mood. I warned the crowd we would be rehearsing New Years Eve at 11pm. So we got them all set up in a circle for a countdown at a minute to 11. Then we wished them a ‘Happy New Year’ and set them off singing and dancing to “Old Lang Syne” in key of G and then on into the “Hokey Cokey” in key of C. Nige started the Hokey Cokey an octave low but soon got it right; otherwise it all went very well and we carried on playing mainly dancey stuff up to 11:30pm when I announced “Johnny B Goode” as the last number. We rocked that to a conclusion getting enthusiastic applause and shouts for ‘more’; so I called for “Merry Xmas” as the encore. We played that pretty good and finished to more wild applause. Willy came up to talk the evening down and we made our way off stage to a heroic reception from well wishers from the audience. Despite the uncertainty over the band’s future I was asked for cards by several people including a fellow musician who thought we would be great for the holiday parks at Hemsby (he took all my spare cards). Willy was keen to book us for next New Years Eve, but I explained the price would be very high and, with uncertainty over the bands future, it would be best to think about it for a couple of months. Pack up went OK with Carl helping on some bits, then the brawny fellows from the club helped us out with the gear. We loaded the vehicles, I passed round the Werther’s originals, we shook hands and we hit the road. It was very misty as we set off. I chose to head back via Diss. This turned out to be a ‘long and winding road’ so we made fairly slow time in the mist only getting home at about 1:30am. On reflection I thought we had played and performed really well at this gig and the sound was obviously spot on. One of our best efforts in the year I thought – it’s strangely all coming good at the end of the band’s life cycle!

Norwich Ramada Jarvis Hotel

The weather was still very cold as I loaded up. We were playing a Xmas Eve dinner for guests at the Norwich Ramada. The brief from our agent, Mark Buller, was: arrive by 5:45 so we could be set up by 7 pm when the guests arrive for dinner. I set off at 4:30 pm allowing plenty of time to cruise over. I’d got a couple of miles to the roundabout near the sugar factory when i remembered I hadn’t picked up my sandwiches - Shock Horror! So I went right round the roundabout and set off back home. I rang up Ms J on the way and Carl was waiting outside the house with them. As I arrived I opened the passenger window and he threw the bag of food onto the passenger seat as I passed by at about 2 mph! I soon got back on route but things were running slow up to Thetford. Once on the A 11 I got up to cruising speed and made good progress to Norwich. As I arrived in Norwich the traffic was still light, but frustratingly in my way a lot of the time. So I was a few minutes late as I parked up outside the Ramada ‘City Suite’ where the event was being held. As I got out the car up comes Nige. He knew the layout of the gig from the old days and we were able to load all the gear into a big goods lift. We had all of our gear upstairs when Greg arrived. Nige went off to help him while I started set up. Just got the mains wiring in place when up comes our compere and agent Mark Buller.

He advised us to mix friendly chat with easy listening and some lightweight dancey material. We wouldn’t be playing until about 9pm so he suggested we got changed and spend time in the bar. Great acoustics on this stage. We finished set up and loaded the bags into a very cold store room where we got changed into the white shirts. We had a word with a few early arriving guests as we came out, then we headed to the bar. The people we spoke to seemed up for a mix of 50’s 60’s 70’s - things boded well.

The bar was very quiet and we were soon making ourselves at home and enjoying a beer. After a while Nige went out for a smoke and came back to report it was snowing - we had another beer! Mark came round to pick us up about ten past nine and we got on stage ready to go by 9:15 pm. Mark gave us a fantastic introduction so it was about 9:20pm as we opened up with “Foot Tapper”. It was a really good instrumental sound on-stage and we got a warm reception from a fairly full room. I introduced the band and we carried on with “Just One look”. The vocals sounded great and I could see we had the volume pitched right for the audience. We worked through “Heartbeat” and I announced we would do some songs from some well known brothers with a weight problem – the “Heavily Brothers” quipped Nigel. As we got underway with “Walk Right Back” the dance floor filled and stayed full through “When Will I Be Loved”, so I took the boys on into “Cathy’s Clown”. I meant to stop after that but Nige and Greg carried on into “Bye Bye Love” and the crowd loved it – it had turned out to be a fortunate band judgement to play an extended Everlys medley. Next up I tried “Around the World” as a waltz but there wasn’t any dance interest so we kept it short. But they did sing’a’long and gave it a good round of applause. At this point I asked the boys to don their red hats ‘cos we were gonna do a Xmas song – “Rockin’ Around the Xmas Tree” This went very well and Nige called for the Beatles to continue the entertainment angle. So we hatted down and wigged up. The audience reacted well to the Beatles intro banter and even answered back ‘John Lennon’ when I invited the people in the expensive seats to ‘rattle their jewellery’ We got underway with “8 Days a Week” and, surprisingly, the dance floor filled again. Most of them stayed with us as we bashed through the medley and it got a great round of applause. We bantered our way through the Monkees “Daydream Believer” and Ferry Across the Wensum”. We had a few slow dancers up and Nige took us on into “Raining in my Heart” which filled the floor. Then tried out some rock’n’roll with Sir Cliff’s “Move It” and “Blue Suede Shoes – Great Balls of Fire”. After rocking them around the dance floor we got them to take a break while we did the “Halfway-Wonder-Sweet Caroline” sequence to a good singalong response. I was thinking about the next number to get the dance floor busy again. I had lined up the Searchers in my mind but it was getting close to an hour and just then Mark signalled last number. I made a quick judgment to carry on with the “Searchers” as our last number for this set - this turned out to be a good call. The dance floor was packed, the band was playing with passion and I sensed that the audience loved our medlification of the hits. As we left to loud applause, Mark took over smoothly and started his Xmas Eve competition. We took to the bar for a round of tap water! We re-grouped at 10:30pm thinking most people would drift off after the competition; but to our surprise, they were still there looking hungry for a dance! So I briefed the boys to open with “Amarillo”; Mark did his introduction and we were off. Still a good on-stage sound and the dance floor filled nicely. As we finished I took the boys into “Hey Baby” which turned out to be the right choice. The audience, particularly the ladies, sang the chorus with gusto and nicely in tune. We ran on into the “Twist” and I altered a spoken ‘whats that up there’ line to ‘Is it a Santa Claus?’ to get a great ‘Yesss’ response! Nige slipped in “Lets Dance – Mony Mony” to keep them going. We played on with some more audience involvement pieces including “All Shook Up” and “Apache”. A couple of ladies came up to do some strictly come Shadows Walk dancing with me. Unfortunately I was a bit too vigorous in the last verse and I played a few ‘avant garde’ jazz notes by mistake as my Hank Marvin glasses fell off my nose. But we got through to the end in good order after that incident and we got a great response from an appreciative crowd. We did don the red hats to do “White Xmas” as a slowie but there weren’t many takers for slow dancing so we kept it short again. I wanted to do an Eagles number so we could run the Norfolk eagle banter, but I picked the wrong number with “Peaceful Easy Feeling” because that late in the evening I had real trouble hitting the high vocal notes and ended up resorting to a weak falsetto. But we still got good applause for it. I was surprised to see it was coming up to 11:30pm already so I called for Johnny B Goode as the last number. We rocked that through doing a drum and bass solo as well as a few guitar solos. The crowd had danced it through with gusto and there was a good enough response for me to call for Slade’s “Merry Xmas” as the ‘planned encore’. This went pretty well (actually I thought the best we have played it over the years) and they were still shouting for ‘more’. At this point Mark took over as compere and asked us to do one more. A lady dancing nearby asked for “Rock Around The Clock” and off we went straight into it. Since Nige took over this song I have always been caught out surprised at the ending because his ending comes up (like the record) without a repeat of the last line. After many months of only getting halfway there with the twiddly guitar ending, this was the night I got it right!!! As we came off several people came up to congratulate us on a wonderful night, saying how great it was to hear so many memorable old tunes. Mark was pleased with the good job done and we went off to get changed leaving Mark to play out the last 15 minutes with some disco. We noticed Mark had a bit of a problem with a speaker cutting out but it was too late for him to do anything about it really. As he finished we started pack up and Nige acquired some supermarket trolleys from the kitchen so we could move the gear into the lift in just a few movements. We soon had the gear down and in the cars and shook hands to a gig well done, and wished each other a merry Xmas. There was a light covering of snow on the cars but the roads were clear as we got underway. Just as we left my daughter, Claire, rang and asked me if I could pick her up in Bury on the way home – no problem I said I’ll be there in an hour! But as I got out of Norwich I ran into fog mostly OK to continue at 70 mph, but some patches I had to slow down for. I was able to test out the inbuilt hands free and voice recognition phone technology in the car to call her as I approached Bury so she could be waiting outside the night club ready for me to pick her up. It all worked perfectly and we were home by 2 am.

Wensum Community Centre Norwich

Ms J decided to come along. We had a good run over in cold, slightly damp conditions in the S-Max to Norwich. As per the last few visits I missed the turning for Hotblack Road but this time when I turned back I missed it again; so I came at it the other way off the Dereham Road finally getting to the gig at 6:45pm to find Nigel already parked there. As we got out to say hello, Richard the promoter arrived to open the club. We got the gear in quickly to keep the heat in the hall. It’s a boxy stage and I set about putting a blanket and the gear covers around the back and corners, and the acoustic tiles over the front valance, to absorb some of the adverse sound reflections at this gig. By the time Greg arrived I was set up on the right with the Bose well back. As I started my soundcheck Nige had a listen out front. He thought it was too quiet and he and Greg inched my Bose forward to give it more dispersion. Even though Nige was chesty on the night, I was let off shifting things ‘cos my sciatic leg is still troublesome - one of the benefits of being the ‘old man’ in the band! Satisfied with set up we settled down for a beer when Jen arrived with her daughters Suzy and Theresa along with Dave’s ex wife Valisha, their daughter Laura and her man Pete.

This was an excellent boost to our audience making well over 30 in total. We got changed into the white shirts and took to the stage a few minutes late to open with “Flingel Bunt”. The on-stage sound was poor as expected and I had to fiddle a bit with my settings through the first few numbers. Alan Cannell and Hilly arrived a few numbers in. Unbeknown to Greg, part of Alan’s reason for visiting was to check him out as a potential drummer for his band ‘Shake rattle and Roll’. Meanwhile we continued with a relatively dancey set 1. In fact the only mid-set slowey we did was: “Ferry Cross the Wensum”. After the first few numbers we had quite a few dancers up: these were people who knew how to dance (particularly the modern jive) and I adjusted the set to cope; bringing in “All Shook Up” and “Rockin’ Around the Xmas Tree” (complete with Santa hats) to keep things rock’n’roll. We followed up with a wigged “Beatles Medley” getting a big round of applause. Things were going reasonably well and I slipped in “Take It Easy”, which got a good response. Then we finished with “Words”. During the break we had a bit of socialising to do: the younger ladies were knocking a few drinks back and were dressed up Christmassy: with glowing earrings, antlers etc. While we were off, I was approached by one of the dancing chaps who had a few requests. Great - we could do most of them and I promised we would slip them in the next set. We opened with Raymond Frogatt’s “Under the Sun” dedicated to Dave. This was well received and we carried on straight into “Tambourine Man”. This too went down well and we got stuck into a good performance of the “Searchers Medley” before starting a sequence of requests starting with “Love Potion No Nine”. We played this close to perfect then carried on with another request for “Brown Eyed Girl” in a slightly cha cha cha rhythm. After a little break while we established the key, we continued with yet another request for “Under the Boardwalk” which filled the floor nicely. Next up was a relatively unsuccessful attempt to do “White Xmas” in C in which Nige and myself were confused as to who was singing Bob or Bing’s parts. Must discuss it before the next outing! I took it up a bit tempo wise with “Move It”. This filled the floor again and we followed up with another request for “Rock Around The Clock”. We continued with the two requested Johnny Kidd and Pirates numbers: “Shakin All Over and I Can Tell”. These went pretty well and kept the dancers going but we only had a few minutes left on my set timing so we went into our usual set 2 closing sequence with: “Halfway to Paradise, Wonder of You and Sweet Caroline”. Despite my pushing it, we again started to rally before the final guitar break in “Sweet Caroline” – we managed to look around and I think Greg has got it now! We came off to great applause and took a long break for the raffle. The band didn’t win but I one of our band of supporting girls did. The girls had enjoyed several drinks by now and were getting ‘quite lively’. Greg enjoyed a long chat with Theresa and Jacqui did a bit of counselling for most of them. Richard came over as we resumed for the final set, he requested “Johnny B Goode” and could we keep it going to 11:30pm. No problem I said and we opened up with Sir Cliff’s “Do You Wanna Dance”. Greg got the start and tempo spot on and the dancers filled the floor. We carried on with “Rip It Up, Hippy Hippy Shake and Hi Ho Silver Lining” to keep things going then I called for: “All Right Now” ‘cos I had the guitar FX already set up. This went well and kept quite a few on the floor. Next up was “Pretty Woman” dedicated to the ladies. With confidence high we had a go at “Uptown Girl”. At the last moment I realised I would need the music for this and was busy turning pages as Nige and Greg got underway. I ended up joining in without the music and, we were soon at the dreaded middle section. I got hopelessly lost and played some howlers – sorry boys! About halfway through I got on the right page and we played the second half of the song in good order. Good job most people had had a drink and didn’t notice too much! Actually, I looked up, and I could see the audience had thinned out quite a bit after the raffle, and we were close to time, so I called for “Johnny B Goode” to finish. As I started the intro riff, Richard came out to have a dance. We rocked along nicely and as we ended there were a few lacklustre shouts for more. But there weren’t many paying people left so we decided to call it a night. Theresa and Laura came up and asked if they could sing something, so I said OK and left them to it on my mic. They’ve got nice voices but had had too much to drink to do anything proper. Meanwhile we got changed. The word had got out that the band was splitting up and we had to field a few discussions from well wishers as to why and when. Richard said it was a pity because we were such a good band. Apparently, in the early days of the club’s re-launch Dave had helped him a lot with ideas and advice and he was grateful to the band for a great re-launch a few years ago. We finally got packed and loaded at just after 12:30am. I handed out Xmas prezzies for the boys, thanking them for their loyalty (and saying don’t get me anything please lads!) Greg needed to be directed to a garage to fuel up ‘cos he was on empty. Jacqui and I got away next. We had a quiet run home in the cold with occasional patches of freezing fog. Finally got to bed about 2am. We have a weekend off now before we have to all pull together for the last few gigs.

Caister Social Club

It had been been very cold and snowing so much of the UK has been bogged down in traffic disruption. A few inches of snow had fallen in parts of Norfolk so I decided to plan for a slow journey and set off at 5pm in the S-Max. Although there wasn’t actually much snow in Suffolk, it was still slow going to Thetford. But once I was on the A11 I could let the car have its head. By Wymondham it was still good going but I was now gaining time so I eased back for the rest of the journey, timing my arrival at the gig at precisely 6:28pm as I had promised the boys! Nige arrived shortly after and we soon got the gear in the hall and the door shut to keep the cold out. They have a very efficient heating system here and we were soon basking in warm conditions as we inspected the stage. It had been tidied up since our last appearance and parked on the right there was a large wooden sub-stage that Nige and I shifted onto the newly refurbished dance floor (hope we didn’t scratch it) to act as an apron for the main stage. Looking around the club it was clear that new carpets had also been laid and the place looked tidy and well lit. So we were beginning to hope for a good evening as we set up. I set up forward on the apron leaving plenty room for Nige and Greg to set up on the main stage. We heard Greg hammering on the door so we let him in (he’d been delayed with credit card problems at a filling station), but he soon got set up. We didn’t sound check as a band, but just by bashing away individually it was clear that the curtains round the back and sides of the stage were highly sound absorbent. This made for a very clean and dry sound, but we had to bring the volume up on the Bose to compensate for sound lost to the curtains. I was still not completely happy so I gave a bit of top and bottom boost to the mic sound as well. We managed another beer and I had a word with PJ the promoter about the playing times. He wanted an 8:40pm start and we were to stop for bingo at 9:30pm. He was optimistic we would have some people in and he briefed me to inform them about the newly refurbished dance floor to get them to use it! Nige came back from a smoke to report that some drunken youths had been evicted from the other bar for being ‘leery’ and they had damaged an invalid scooter on the way out. I quickly nipped out to check our cars were OK – they were! As we went to get changed (into the white shirts) there were still only about 10 people in the room so it didn’t bode well. But we got underway - with “Flingel Bunt for a change. This went well and Greg got the drum breaks pretty darn good in the middle. We had a good on-stage sound and the audience looked like they enjoyed it as we got some good applause from them. That set the pattern for set 1. No dancing but whatever we did we got good applause from this small audience, and we even got some response to our banter. We went on to play a typical bantery set 1. After “Peaceful Easy Feelin” they gave us a big round of applause so I made a note that they like the Eagles. A couple of numbers later I called for “Take It Easy”. Oh dear – we hadn’t done it for a couple of weeks and I got hopelessly lost in verse 3 and ended up doing an ad-lib repeat of verse 1 into the coda. Still the boys followed me very well and the audience gave up a good round of applause! We ran towards an on-time finish with a well received “Beatles Medley” and closed the set with “Words” which did actually get a few up to dance. We came off to rousing applause from an audience of about 12 including PJ the promoter. Surprisingly, folks were keen to compliment us on an entertaining set of music they liked, that was well played and sung. PJ said the Beatles was excellent and his mate said that I sounded like John Lennon - can’t be bad! One wag pointed out that “Words” was actually covered by Boyzone not Westlife but he also said we did a great job! Bingo went on for a while and as we sat through it the subject of band plans for the New Year came up. As 2010 had progressed Nige and I had sub-consciously avoided taking any commitments for 2011 because I think our confidence had been rocked in the Summer when Ray left and, after several years on this circuit, I was getting tired and thought I needed a break. Jacqui’s sister’s illness was the ‘last straw’ for me – Jacqui and I would need to spend some quality time with her next year. Nige and I both agreed that Greg coming into the band had been a breath of fresh air and we were now a lot happier with the musical state of play. But, on the other hand, quite a few of the clubs we were playing weren’t getting the audiences necessary to support a band and the booking prospects for the band next year looked dire. My view was that Greg and Nige would be best served looking for permanent positions in another band/s - although it didn’t look like there was much in the way of opportunity in the current gigging climate? Perversely, there were a few clubs (e.g The British Legion) that really liked our band and would miss the Foot Tappers / Sky High. I left it that, if Greg and Nige hadn’t found regular work by the time I returned from New Zealand in March, then I was up for playing some gigs if that worked for them. We would, of course, recommend Greg if anyone asked for a reference. After this downbeat discussion we then had to psyche ourselves up to play set 2! We opened up with “Under the Sun” then progressed through “Tambourine Man into the Searchers”. We were playing well and the small audience were still responding well. We played for about 40 minutes to finish with our usual set 2 closing sequence of “Halfway to Caister – Wonder of You – Sweet Caroline”. Something weird has been happing in “Sweet Caroline” the last couple of performances. We start to slow and rally just before we go into the guitar solo? This time I forced the pace a bit but it was still a bit messy for that few bars. Anyway, playing quality was now academic because after giving the band a great round of applause, our audience came up to thank us for great performance but they had to leave now. They went to great lengths to explain that it was not our fault, the club had some ‘issues’ to sort out and we were not to blame or take it badly. In the break I asked the bar man if it was worth continuing to play. He said yes – because the bar was reasonably full and they were listening to the band. So we resumed to play to an empty room. We decided to air some rarely played songs starting with “Travel Lodge California”. As it hadn’t been played for a while I was delighted that we got through our cut down version of “Hotel California” so well. Next up was the Everlys “Price of Love”. I thought this went well with a driving beat and we had the vocals pretty well synched even if some parts really tested my ability to sing so high without falsetto (up to Ab). Next Nige did a great “I Can Tell”. After my choice of “Rip It Up” we did Greg’s request of “Uptown Girl”. Nige sang and played it well and Greg obviously knew what he was doing, but I let the side down with some muffed chords in the middle sections. Still overall it was surprisingly good – maybe we should pop it in the show for the last few gigs? “All Right Now” went well and after the guitar solo Nige and I left Greg to play a drum solo for several minutes. While we were sat out front we could hear the quality of drum sound – it was very good, but the bass drum sound (miked up through my Bose) was outstanding. Nige and I came back on to play the final phrase of the solo and the last verse. It was time to wrap up and I volunteered “Alright Mama” to give the guitar solo an airing. So we finished in reasonably good heart to no applause or reaction, but the job was done and we had been paid. We could pack up quickly without dealing with people. Even so I was a bit slow taking the gear down compared to Nige and Greg – blame it on the sciatica! The boys did help me to load and we were soon set to go. It was very cold as I set off. There were some snow flurries on the way home and I took it relatively steady. Even so I got home about 1:30pm - not too bad considering. The snow is much worse North of the A 11 and Nige reported that his journey had been colourful with lots of blue lights attending mishaps.

Dinner Dance at Barn Ruche Near Watton

Carl elected to drive me over in the Galaxy on a cold, foggy evening. The fog was bad enough to keep speed down after Thetford so it took us a full 50 minutes to get to the gig, but I’d allowed a bit of contingency so we were still there just before 6:00 pm. I walked in but apart from the kitchen there wasn’t anyone around. However, I could see a poster confirming the gig so we went into the concert room to get things started. The concert room was dark and we couldn’t find the light switches but I got the concert room door open and had just started to load in when Nige arrived. He set up a portable light over the porch so we could at least see to load in. As we started load in. the manager (Sean) arrived and switched on the lights for us. There is no stage here and looking at the size of the dance floor we decided to set up compactly in the corner to give a bit more room for dancing. We soon got all the gear in and set up nicely making good use of the acoustic foam to damp down corner resonances. It was after 7pm when Nige and I looked up and then at each other to voice the question: “Where is Greg?” Nige got on the phone and eventually got hold of him in Dereham. He was delayed in the fog and feeling sick. Nige talked him back onto the route and he arrived about 7:30pm but still feeling rough. We got his gear in before the dinner started and then we had to exit to the bar for a couple of hours. After a while Greg started to feel better and I sneaked him through to the hall to quietly set up his kit as the diners hit the pudding. So apart from some minor drum adjustments we were set up ready to go. We finished our beers and went to get changed. The big changing room upstairs is used for brass band practice and there are many bits of memorabilia (e.g. old drums) there. We got changed into our white shirts, black ties, waistcoats and trousers so we were ready to perform when called. The dinner finished about 9:20pm and Greg got the message ‘the floor was ours’ so we took off to do our bit. We made the usual start with “Foot Tapper, Just One Look, Heartbeat” and then the ‘Heavily’ Brothers with “Walk Right Back – When Will I Be Loved” The on-stage sound wasn’t great but manageable. However, we were getting warm applause from our audience of about 50. No takers for dancing early on, so we bantered our way through to the obligatory waltz with “Around The World” which I thought would fill the floor – but still no dancers? “Blue Suede Shoes – Whole Lotta Shakin” was well appreciated but still no one came up for a dance? Ploughing on with my intro about the ascent of man into the Monkees “Daydream Believer” we were surprised to see people coming up to dance en masse and they stayed there dancing though the Beatles and our finisher: “Ferry Cross the Mersey”. A good first set I thought! We took a ten minute break and resumed with Ace’s “How Long”. This got people up’n dancing and we kept them there as we progressed through “The Searchers Medley and Do It Again” with Nige stepping in to do very brief introductions as we kept things going. We had great response to “Move It and All Shook Up”. Nige took us on into “Lets Dance and Mony Mony”. At this point I called for “Words” as the slowey at the right place and time. This filled the floor so well we did the extended version. We carried on with “The Twist” then I called for “Hey Baby”. Nige and I got at cross purposes on the key and we ended up in the key of A which is no longer familiar to me! As I thumbed through my crib sheets to find the chords for the second middle eight we carried on with some mistakes on my part as I transposed the key of G to A. However, the crowd were in a party dance mode and we got them to sing the refrain: ladies first, then the men and then all together. I called for “Amarillo” as we finished. There was something odd about the beat on this. I’m sure Greg would be doing the authentic version but it’s not that dancey – might need to settle for something more disco beat there? We we did a short “Unchained Medley” to fill the floor with romantics, then we called Johnny B Goode as the last number to ‘rock them to bed’. We finished to a great round of applause and encored with a short “Wonderful Tonight” to close slightly over time at 11:35pm. It had been a successful night and quite a few came up to thank us. Greg was looking a lot better after his groggy start. I was pleased to have Carl assisting as we packed up ‘cos my sciatic leg was hurting a bit. It was still cold and foggy outside as we loaded up. We got underway about 12:30am and there were some dense patches of fog on the way home slowing us down to 20 mph in places. We finally got back about 1:30am – earlier than a trip from the Norfolk coast though! Next day Carl took the Galaxy to Manchester ‘til Xmas so I’ll be using the S-Max or Focus for the next few gigs.

Video Test

Just wanted to test upload of movie files from the Omaha rally in September. Heres my guitar solo to "Whole Lotta Shakin"


Keep your comments clean!

Sheringham Tyneside

Ms J has gone to Bristol for a family celebration so I was on the ‘sausage in a bun’ at lunch. Decided to use the S-Max ‘cos the Galaxy was all set up to take over to Bristol on the Sunday. Uneventful drive over to park up next to Nige who was already loaded in. In fact when I got in the club everyone (Nige included) was watching Norwich beating Reading 3-1 in real time on Sky. A wag said “Shut that door” and from that moment all seemed to go wrong for Norwich who were suddenly a man down, the manager was sent from the touchline and Norwich were heading for a 3-3 draw! I quietly got set up hoping I wouldn’t get the blame. Nige and I used our bits of acoustic tiling to successfully reduce the resonant corner. Greg arrived with a bit of a sniffy cold and almost had a JD and coke to relieve the symptoms - but settled for iced water instead. As we completed set up I gave the boys a demo of the sounds available on the guitar synth - I made a mental note to set up an organ patch an octave higher so I can play organ parts low on the neck. There were probably 25 in the concert room and adjacent bar as we kicked off in our black’n’whites with the usual start. The on stage sound wasn’t that great and there wasn’t much reaction as we finished “Foot Tapper”. We carried on with a slightly low key set not getting much response from what I would describe as a world weary audience. Some supporters did arrive in the shape of some people Nige knew, and that livened things up a tad. After the break we resumed with “Take It Easy” but still not much reaction. We continued with “Under the Sun and Tambourine Man” and surprisingly we started to get some warm applause – maybe the drink was taking effect? We continued to play a typical set 2 to a reasonable response and even a bit of dancing to “Move It and Lets Dance”, but they faded away exhausted in “Mony Mony”. So I called for a slowey in the shape of “Wonderful Tonight”: this filled the floor and they looked so cuddly I asked Nige to continue with “My Girl”. We did a pretty good job of that but I need to tighten up the guitar on the stop beats at the end of the verses: e.g verse 1: dit dit - da da da da. As we were in sight of the finishing line I took us into the “Halfway to Paradise, Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline” ending sequence to wrap up a fair second set. After the members draw the crowd had halved to an uninspiring 15-20. We opened the third set with “Flingel Bunt” and I had a walk out front. As always I was surprised by the quality of the sound out there; much better than on stage! Without much in the way of audience reaction we went through the motions for the last 50 minutes. I quite enjoyed doing our “Spencer Davis” mini medley for a change, but the final half of the set became a bit of a chore and we were all glad to finish with Johnny B Goode at 11:30pm There were only a few left in the room and I was quite surprised to hear a couple grumbling about ‘an early finish’! But Nige put the muzak on and we set about changing and packing up. It was chilly out and I was glad to get on the road for the trip back. Despite a bit of fog I made it back in about 90 minutes via Swaffham; getting to bed about 2am. Next day I was up early to drive to Bristol in the Galaxy for my nieces big 30 lunch.

Sheringham Social Club

Pretty tired all day – I had played squash and done a gig the day before and was now paying for it. I set off about 5:15pm and parked up on the pavement at the club at 6:40pm. Parking was a bit tricky because there were road works on the roundabout with traffic controlled by lights set up on the road in front of the club. Nige had managed to park up on the other side of the road. We entered the club together and he got the beers in while I had a ‘jimmy’ and then opened the stage door. We had all the gear in by the time Greg arrived and, with perfect timing as I moved off to head to the car park, he came into the spot I vacated on the pavement. Nige and I decided to revert to the ‘old’ stage placements so he could conduct the ‘drunken choir’ in the alcove on his right. We had a bit of free time after set up to practice timings on “Blue Suede Shoes” and adjust the harmoniser to come up in the mix. After another beer we took a long walk to the very cold junk (or committee) room at the back of the club to get changed into our black shirts with white ties. On our return I made a donation to get 3 poppies to complete a smart appearance. There were about 25 in the room at 8:45 pm as we took to the stage to open up with “Foot Tapper” and then the usual opening sequence. We had an immediate good on-stage sound and good response from this small crowd. We adopted banter mode from the beginning as we carried on with our usual opening sequence and, by and large, we got a good response and even a few laughs. After “Peaceful Easy Feelin” we tried “Around the World” as the slow waltz to test out the dancing: no takers - so we kept it short. Keeping a ‘strictly dancing’ theme going we carried on with “Lady is a Tramp” as a quickstep – well received but still no dancing. “Blue Suede Shoes” went well with Greg and the band spot on with the stops – but no dancing; so we upped the bantering. In the end we did so much banter that I could see we would be running out of time, so I ran us into set closure with “The Beatles”. Coming back on for set 2 we opened with “Take It Easy” and got through it without any significant mistakes. We carried on with “Under the Sun” which was very well received; and then the Searchers which also went down well. We finally got some dancing going with “Move It” but we wore them out as we continued into “Lets Dance” I had a bit of problem getting the organ sound right in this and I was well put off my stride – sorry boys! We entered the closure sequence with “Halfway, Wonder and Sweet Caroline”. In the break we popped across the road to the Tyneside to catch Alan’s band ‘Shake Rattle and Roll’ finishing their set with “Honey Don’t”. It was warmer and probably a bit more crowded there. Met up with Jen, Hilly etc and said hello to Alan and the band before we had to head back for our final set. As we came back in a chap in the audience came up to request “American Trilogy”. We had had to turn down his first request because we didn’t know it, so I said I’d give “American Trilogy” a go if he got the audience to sing along. We took to the stage and opened up with “Flingel Bunt” and then “”Do You Wanna Dance”. I was thinking about American Trilogy and made a few small mistakes; so after these finished I thought it best to get the request out of the way and go for it. So off we went. I led the way with guitar and vocal and Nige was conducting Greg on military drumming. Actually it went quite well. In the heat of the moment I couldn’t risk the change from strings to flute for the solo without Greg doing the covering drum roll, so I did it on strings and guitar. And I chickened out of doing the final high vocal line full chest voice as I settled for a head voice and backed away from the mic. but having had the experience, if I was to do it again, I would try the flute sound (worse case there would be a quiet couple of bars lead into the solo) and the full bore chest vocal high line. However, as it was, we got a rip roaring applause for it and I felt good about meeting the challenge. Nige followed up with “Brown Eyed Girl” then we fitted in “Rip It Up” which got some dancing going. After this our audience started to thin out a bit, so we threw in some change numbers with “All Right Now, Midnight Hour, What I Say, You Really Got Me”. Jen had come over from the Tyneside as we started to wrap up with “Johnny B Goode” - complete with cracking drum and bass breaks. This was very well received with some shouts for more. So I called on Nige to encore with “Walk Alone”. I made a bit of a hash of this ‘cos I was distracted getting the string sound right. But it went down well with the few remaining and Nige had to put the muzak on to distract from further shouts for more. I was tired as we packed up and had to cadge a sip of Greg’s water to relieve a hoarse throat. Reflecting on things, although I made a few mistakes, I thought the band had been quite a bit tighter over this weekend and we were working well as a unit. However, the low audience turnouts were a cause for concern and probably a warning sign of the times for clubs like the Social Club. It was cold outside and I was pleased to be loaded and on the road with the heating on. I drove back via Swaffham and the temperature sank to -2 C as I passed through Thetford Forest. I got in about 2:20am very tired the next day.

Seacroft - East Runton

A wet dark Friday, so I set off ten minutes early anticipating a slow drive over with added fireworks. And it was. I arrived at the gig at 6:30 just after Nige who had got the key fob and kindly stood in the rain and wind without a coat to let me through the barrier. Hardy folks these Norfolkmen – he doesn’t usually wear a coat ‘til Christmas. We got loaded in quick because of the rain and we had just started set up when Greg appeared. Nige set up on the left and I fed the power from my side because the power sockets on Nige’s side weren’t working. I took a look at the light mixer while I was down amongst the electrics and set up a gentle purpley wash for the stage. Set up went well and we went to get changed. Shock horror – one of my black shoes was missing! I concluded I must have left it at Lowestoft and decided to play in my casual browns but they really didn’t match our smart black’n’white look. After a beer, we got fired up for an 8:15 start playing to about 25 people. After we opened up with “Foot Tapper”, we wound down the volume a little and we got a very good on-stage sound. The audience was quite responsive so we switched immediately into bantering mode and set about a typical entertainy set. We did give “Around the World” a go to test the dance potential but no takers for a waltz or slow dance. In fact we only got one couple up to dance in this whole set they did a long jive to “Blue Suede – Great Balls”; so we gave them a round of applause! But, despite the low numbers, we were gradually winning this audience over with our lightweight banter and easy listening song selection. We had talked about some timing improvements to “She Loves You” before we started and we put them into practice with a well received “Beatles Medley”. After that we finished the 47 minute set with “Words”. After a 12 minute break, I hurried the boys back on for Set 2 at 9:20pm. We started with “Take it Easy”. It seemed to be going alright when I lost the brain cell containing the words to the second verse and had to improvise a rehash of verse 1. Still it went down really well and we got a rousing round of applause. We carried on with “Under the Sun” and the “Searchers” continuing to receive a great response. I continued a bantery theme about ‘shaking’ as we continued with “All Shook Up” – trouble was the brain cell I lost also contained the first middle 8 of this song so I had to sing the second middle instead. But the audience joined in well enough with the ‘all shook up’ punch lines so we were happy with the outcome. While I was set up for rock’n’roll we did a request for “Be Bop A Lula” which went quite well considering we hadn’t done it with Greg before. As the Eagles song had proved popular, I called for “Peaceful Easy Feeling” explaining that Nigel was a ‘twitcher’ and had assured me that the Eagles group were named after the famous Norfolk Eagle – he obliged with an impersonation (of a chicken)? We ran through the “Halfway- Wonder – Sweet Caroline” sequence to a great response. Still a bit short on the 45 minutes so I called for “Wonderful Tonight” as the set closer. There were a few dancing to this, but the small crowd had thinned a little more, so I only allowed the boys a few minutes break, resuming at just before 10:15pm with a well received “Ace - How Long”. I slipped in “Shaking All Over” to keep the ‘shaking’ banter going. People still weren’t dancing but remained quite attentive and appreciative so next we did an entertaining strictly dancing Shadows Walk demonstration. Nigel drew attention to the unsuitability of my brown suede shoes for such a demo and we had to explain about the missing shoes. We started the number and I was unhinged to realise I had accidentally selected a rock’n’roll solo setting on the guitar FX rather than my usual echoey Shadows setting. Still there was no way to change it so I had to plough on as best I could. The audience didn’t really notice and gave up a rousing round of applause as we finished. We carried on bantering our way through a varied repertoire selection for about another 15 minutes including: “Move It, Hippy Hippy Shake, Midnight Hour”. We began the closure process by dedicating “Pretty Woman” to the ladies. Nige asked if there was a song we could dedicate to the men? I quipped that he might be a men’s man and Greg was either a boy’s man or a man’s boy but I was definitely a ladies’ man so it would be “Pretty Woman”. This banter actually got quite a laugh and we performed the song probably the best we had done to date. I announced we would them rock them to bed in their centrally heated caravans with our closing song “Johnny B Goode”. This rocked through very well and Greg did an impressive mix of light and shade on the drum breaks. We finished to a great round of applause from the 15 or so people left. But it was late and we didn’t have the heart for an encore, so Nige switched on the muzak and we departed to get changed. As we left to get changed a few people took the time to say how much they had enjoyed the show and one couple picked out Greg’s solo break towards the end as one of the highlights – well done Greg! And actually it was a good night for the band all round. We got changed and packed quickly and set off about 11:30 pm. I came back through Cromer and Norwich and had a good run home getting in at just before 1 am.

Lowestoft Ex Srvicemans Club

I still have the use of the Galaxy until Carl picks it up, so I thought I might as well get some more use out of it. Set off about 5:25pm aiming for a 6:40 arrival. It was relatively slow going though and I let the sat nav take me through Lowestoft. It took me West to join the A12 North of the town before turning to head South. It (or I) missed the turning for Alexandra Road and I ended up coming up my usual way via the pedestrianized zone off Gordon Road. I arrived to find Nige already there and we set about getting the gear in on a dark blustery night. Because of the small stage we decided to go back to old positions with me on the lef so Nige could use the pool table for his computer prompter. I set my Bose up well into the back corner. We needed to be set up by 7:30pm so they could start the Bingo and by 6:50pm No Greg? Nige called him to see where he was. It turned out he had been well lost in Lowestoft for half an hour but was just arriving. By the time he got his gear in we were trying to soundcheck. I was suffering high pitched feedback from my Bose in the corner position. The lack of space and Greg setting up made it very difficult to deal with the sound issue; and they wanted to get Bingo underway so we decided to abandon setting up until a break in the Bingo. Part of the problem was the resonant stage feeding vibrations up the mic stand which kicked off feedback. I tried to move the mic stand off stage, but the wiring was so tight I couldn’t do it without starting wiring afresh so I decided to put up with it and reduce the top on the mic mix. This helped but delivered a slightly ‘honky’ vocal tone - good enough for rock’n’roll I consoled myself! We got changed into our black gear, white shirts and black ties in the corridor and we were walking in line through the concert hall heading to the bar, when the Bingo caller saw us. Bearing in mind it was Halloween weekend and the place was done out ghoulishly he quipped: ‘watch out - the morticians are here’. We bowed and continued to the bar for a much needed beer. Here we met up with Graham the singing taxi driver. He was pretty good at Elvis in the bar so we jokingly suggested he have a sing with us later. Then it was showtime. We took our places for our opening with “Foot Tapper”. It was very cramped and I wasn’t looking at my guitar neck as Greg counted us in. Consequently I started in the wrong key and had to quickly slide my hand down the neck to get into C as we played the first few notes. The sound wasn’t great but we got a good response from a half full room of people over a certain age. After the first few songs, we settled down. There wasn’t much dancing going on until I called for “Around the World”. This waltz filled the floor. Vocally it sounded better than previous outings so I extended it a bit. As we ended I was looking for another waltz to follow up but the dancers started to disperse. We finally got going with a smooth version of “Phoenix” and some of the dancers came back. We carried on with some gorilla talk to introduce “Daydream Believer” and then some rock’n’roll in the shape of “Blue Suede - Great Balls” which went well enough but only got a couple up dancing. We went back to sloweys with “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and only got a few dancers up this time so I called for the “Beatles” as entertainment to close the set. This got a good response and we took a welcome break on what was proving to be a difficult night. After the break we resumed with “How Long” by Ace which we played well. Next up I took the boys into “Tambourine Man” which went down well. Carrying on with the “Searchers” we got a bit more passionate and were rewarded with a good round of applause. I slipped in “Move It” and “All Shook Up” to get some dancing and audience interaction going. It was hard going because, although it was only about 10:20pm, many of the ‘old uns’ were getting their coats on to get the last bus. “Raining in My Heart” filled the floor, so we extended that. After a well received “Folsom Prison” country ‘request’ (debuting Greg’s train drums), I announced “Halfway” I was only halfway through it when I spied Graham the taximan, so I invited him over to sing it. This livened up the audience quite a bit so we kept him at it while we did “Wonder of You” to finish the set. As we came off Graham asked if he could do another: ideally “My Way”? Not knowing the chords we negotiated “Green Grass of Home” for the resumption. In the meantime a different Graham had come up to request “Hotel California” – ‘no problem’ I said. So we took to the stage for the last set opening with “Travel Lodge California” so named to reflect our minimalist arrangement which misses a couple of verses. Graham gave us a good reception for that. We fitted in a good "Brown Eyed Girl" then we brought up the other Graham to do “Green Grass” – it was a bit disjointed, but entertaining nevertheless and he got a good round of applause. So now he called our bluff by insisting on doing “My Way”. I worked out his key was D and Nige and I set off on a busking session with extremely avant guarde jazzy chords from me! Mercifully it was soon over and we were able to continue with “Crazy Little Thing” as called by Nige. Looking round I could see it was time to finish, so we set off into an extended “Johnny B Goode” to close. Greg surprised us with a very fast drum break and we finished to good applause; but thankfully no encores because Greg had to be away quick to get to a party! We got changed and I couldn’t find my shoes. It turned out some wag had put them on top of a cupboard – I knew no none would pinch them! As we packed up I reflected on how well we had done to turn what was looking like a poorly attended chore into a poorly attended success. The management were well content. It turned out a bus load of the usual audience had been away to a Halloween event and that accounted for the poor turn out. We spotted some of them in fancy dress as they were dropped off nearby. We got Greg off in double quick time – but Nige had to chase after him with the suit bag he nearly forgot! We got loaded and away just before 12:30am. I had a quiet run home getting in just after 1:30am.

Trimingham Woodlands.

My replacement vehicle for the Galaxy arrived on the Friday (unfortunately with a manual gear box) and I decided to try it out on this gig. The seats fold down to create a flat load area that is only a bit less in area than the Galaxy – just the job! So Jacqui and I set off in the morning to have lunch with Dan and Michele at the Village Inn West Runton. An increasingly wild and wet day unfolded as we got North of Swaffham. By then I had got used to the idea of a clutch and gears again and the new car is very quiet, warm and comfy. I left Dan’s about 6:20 for the gig and arrived at 6:40. It was very stormy and I parked up in front of the stage door under a chestnut tree that was thrashing around in the wind. I got one of the bar ladies to open up and had just got my suit bag in when Nigel arrived. We had most of our gear in when Greg arrived and he soon got his in and we were able to close the door and shut out the storm. Load in is straight onto the stage. The club is bigger than I remembered and it is nicely decored indeed. Set up went well. The club has no stage lights but Nige had remembered to bring our wooden light racks and, because the stage is big, we were able to set them up out of our eye lines to deliver a reddy orange stage wash that slightly silhouetted the band. It was still dark on my music stand so I set up the clip on stand light. We were ready to go with quarter of an hour before showtime when Jen arrived. I explained that Dan and Jacqui would be along later and we got changed into the white shirts. We opened up with the usual starting sequence which went well until Greg missed the change to “Bye Bye Love”. It was a very good on-stage sound. I put this down to the fact the Nige and I had drawn the curtains at the back to absorb sound reflections off the back windows. The place was only about a third full but the audience were very generous with applause and quite responsive to our slightly off-beat banter. Dan and Jacqui arrived as we opened up with a ‘modern’ number: “Peaceful Easy Feeling”. I think because it is a big room, we had been playing with a bit more attack than usual and we stepped this up a bit more as we got into this song. Using the harmoniser we got a fullish sound to the vocals and the whole thing worked really well and earned a good round of applause. We changed tack with “Blue Suede into Great Balls” but that seemed to go down just as well. I called for “Ferry” as a slowey to see if there were any romantics about but no takers so, carrying on in entertainment mode, we did the Beatles. Again we attacked this a bit stronger than normal and got a good result with a great round of applause as we finished. We finished a bit early with a good performance of “Words” and took a break to meet up with Dan and Jacqui. Resuming for set 2 I called for “Take It Easy” as the opener. This song is very demanding for me because I am switching the harmoniser in and out, singing lead, changing guitar sounds and it is a complex arrangement. But I think I am beginning to get somewhere with it and just need to play it through with the band a few more times to get it thoroughly engrained into the feet, voice and fingers! Nevertheless it was well appreciated by the crowd. I had intended to go from this into Ace’s “How Long” but my eyes skipped the cue; I announced the “Searchers” and the thought got lost. We had some dancers up to the Searchers but we soon wore them out. It was time for a bit of audience participation! We invited Dan up to play bass on “Mustang Sally”.

Nige tried to sneak off, but I made him to come back and sing it! We played it well enough and I think the audience was impressed as they gave up a good round of applause. We continued with a sequence including “Move it, All Shook Up, Love Potion 9 and Moon of Love”. Not many takers for dancing but Dan took Jacqui and Jen out for spins on the dancefloor as we ploughed on. We hadn’t done “Moon of Love” for a while and whilst Greg got the start spot on, we arrived at the drum break in the middle and he was some what surprised and had to improvise his way through it – he did it well enough I don’t think anyone noticed! We aired “My Girl” as the mid set slowey and made a pretty good job of it and were rewarded by a few dancers getting up to have a slow dance. We did the closing sequence of “Halfway (Nige had to be wigged up for a gruff voice), Wonder and Sweet Carol – ine” to finish the set with the audience singing along. Dan had to take his leave after set 2 and the audience had thinned out a little. I thought it would be an opportunity to try something different so I called for “Hotel California” to open set 3. Apart from a few muffed notes in the solo, it went pretty well and we got a great response from the remaining audience. Dan had requested “Brown Eyed Girl” but he had gone home? We did it anyway! I muffed the guitar start as my attention was drawn to fixing the reverb settings which weren’t quite right. But Greg got a great rhythm going and we had a few scattered couple dancing away happily to it. We rightly decided to omit all the party dance stuff and picked out rockier numbers including “Hippy Hippy Shake, Rip It Up, Summer of 69, All Right Now” These went down surprisingly well and I called for “Midnight Hour” as a change. Again Greg got a great rhythm going and we kept a few folks dancing. I noticed it was coming up to time so we drifted into closure with a rocking version of “Johnny B Goode”. Greg missed the cue for drum break in the middle but the remaining audience didn’t notice and loved it as they rocked in the aisles. There was a half hearted shout for ‘more’ as I signed off but Nige had negotiated an 11:45 finish to suit the bar staff so he had the jolly good idea of putting some background musak on which was a good compromise. Pack up went well enough, Nige and I decided to take a set of lights each. Load up was also OK as the storm had abated. We all said our goodbyes and Jacqui and I set off back via Norwich. We took it easy as the car is still ‘running in’, but we had a good trip achieving over 45 mpg! Jacqui said the band had sounded really good and it was also good to hear us attacking the repertoire a bit stronger than usual. Overall a very good night for the band.

Sprowston Sports and Social Club Norwich

Back from Spain and the bad back had cleared up nicely. I hadn’t played at this club before, so I Googled and streetwalked it to be clear as to where it was. Set off about 5:10pm and all went well until just after Thetford where the A11 was closed and I was diverted on country roads to East Harling and then back onto the A11. It was getting dark as I approached Norwich and by the time I got to the Wroxham Road it was a dark evening. But the street lights and signage was good enough to get me onto Blue Boar Lane without missing a turn and the Club was an easy find. Despite losing a bit of time en route I was first there at 6:30pm on a chilly evening. The bar fellow showed me the back way in to load straight on to the small stage and I had just got a couple of things in when Nige appeared. Greg rolled up a few minutes later and we soon had the gear in. Although the stage is small it is deep. We had to place the Bose inside some low ceiling beams but right at the back so Greg had plenty of room to set up in front.

Greg had brought along a TAMA gigging kit he had acquired in the week. Nice looking kit coloured ‘girly pink’ I suggested, but Greg would only respond to ‘manly pastel red’. Set up went well until I forgot to test out the reverb. When I did remember, the mains lead to the reverb unit had pulled out, so I had to fiddle in the back of the rack – uttering an expletive that shocked Nigel! We had a beer and enjoyed some of Nige’s pictures from his recent tour with ‘Blitz’ – a gig at the Oasis Scratby actually! Tom the promoter came up to agree times etc. He said it was likely to be a quiet night ‘cos the club’s advert had failed to appear in the paper. However, he had done a big ‘Sky High’ poster in the club, but he didn’t expect many members to show up. We got changed into the black outfits – an easy decision ‘cos Greg had forgotten his white shirt cuff links. There were only about 10 in the room as we opened up at 8:35pm with “Foot Tapper”. The curtains at the back and sides of the stage absorbed quite a bit or extraneous noise and the on-stage sound was very good. The audience seems to like it as well as we carried on with a very typical set 1. I must admit my bantering was a bit over relaxed and obscure but we got some good response from the small audience which had grown to about 15 by the time we wrapped up with “Words”. After a short break we opened set 2 with “Under the Sun, Tambourine Man and the Searchers”. We actually had a couple of dancers up for a while during this session. Next up was “Apache”. I was putting on my Hank glasses and turned round to face the audience when, much to my surprise, I found Nige had coaxed a couple of blokes up to do the walk with the toy guitars. They were a bit ‘cak footed’ but they played along with the routine perfectly. While I was out front I noticed we had a really classy band sound (I had taken a bit of top off the guitar earlier and it definitely paid off). The ‘Walk’ went down just great with the audience giving us huge applause. Thinking we had broken the ice we settled into playing some safe, singalong rock’n’roll with “Move It and All Shook Up”. Sing-a-long was good but dancing remained very sparse so I called for “Halfway” to get us back into entertainment mode. This went very well with Nige doing his manly backing singing and getting the blonde wig for his troubles. We followed up with “Wonder of You” and “Sweet Caroline” which were very well received. I called for “Wonderful Tonight” to finish and a few couples did venture up to have a slow dance. In the break we had a request for a ‘Sir Cliff’ song, so we opened set 3 with “Do You Wanna Dance”. We tried to get some party dance atmos going with “Amarillo – Hey Baby – Hi Ho – Hippy Hippy Shake” but, although they were very well received, no dancing? We even gave “Summer of 69” a go but still no dancing; not even for “Unchained” Nige’s voice was getting a bit shot but he’s a trouper. Fortunately, it was approaching time so we settled into a finish with “Johnny B Goode” and encored with “Walk Alone” - we came off to some very warm applause. Actually Tom was very pleased with the band, its sound, our easy going entertainment and repertoire. He was just a bit sorry for us that there weren’t more there. Greg got an accolade being picked out as a quality drummer fitting in real well with the band. Tom said he’d like to give us another go as the ‘Foot Tappers’ with better promotion. The club can finance the occasional quiet night, but It does seem that a following is needed to play some of these Norwich gigs successfully. We packed and loaded and got on the road by about 12:30am and I was home for just after 1:30am. Voice a bit shot the next day.

Checkmates Re-Union Gig at King Edward Hall Lindfield

I pulled a muscle in my back on the Friday – probably from too much coughing! Fortunately I was able to get an appointment with Louise, the local Osteopath, to check it out. With that, Nurafen and careful application of frozen peas I was feeling OK enough on the Saturday morning to load the gear. While I was laid up I took some time to set up the T1 mixer for 3 mics under a Checkmates setting. So we set off on Saturday morning in good partial cloud travelling weather, taking the A12 / M25 down to the Dartford crossing. Once over the river, we stopped at Clackets Lane Services for a stretch and then carried on in increasingly rainy conditions to Lindfield arriving about 1pm for lunch with old friends Jenny and Miles. I arrived at the hall at 5pm to meet up with Raye, Graham and his son Adam who I commandeered as my roadie for the night. Mercifully the rain held off until we got the gear in but as we were sorting ourselves out on the stage, the rain set in hard and wet for the night. I got Raye to set up slightly on Graham’s side. This allowed me to set up the Bose centrally next to Raye. Graham was using half his Trace Elliott rig and I was using my Mesa Lonestar. Setting up took a long time with a bad back, but equalising the mics was straightforward. Once set up, we had about an hour to run thru stuff and soundcheck. Then it was beers in and relax for a bit. Trevor from the Lindfield club was promoter for this event and told us it was well sold out! True to form the hall was pretty full by 8pm. We got changed into the green and took our places behind the curtain as Trevor did his intro; the curtain came back and it was showtime! We played and read the audience pretty well throughout the night and everything we did was very warmly received. They even got most of the jokey remarks (the clarity of the Bose paid off). This was how the sets outturned:
Set 1:
WHAT YOU WANNA MAKE THOSE EYES?
STAND BY ME
HEARTBEAT
WALK RIGHT BACK
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED
MR SANDMAN
BE BOP A LULA
APACHE did the walk
WALKIN IN THE RAIN
SINGIN THE BLUES
IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE
PUTTIN ON THE STYLE
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK
RAINING IN MY HEART
I BELIEVE
WIPE OUT
Set 2
Lady Is A Tramp - Easy Pace
SLOW BOAT TO CHINA
I WONDER WHOSE KISSING HER NOW
RED SAILS IN THE SUNSET
THEM THERE EYES
MONA LISA
MOVE IT
RIP IT UP
ALRIGHT MAMA
ALL SHOOK UP
HALFWAY TO PARADISE
F B I – did another walk
SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL wrong key do it in A in future!
MAKE BELIEVE
LET THERE BE DRUMS went well – we all remembered it!
Set 3
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE
WANDERER
SAW HER STANDING THERE
TWIST AGAIN
AMERICAN TRILOGY
ROUTE 66
JAILHOUSE ROCK did it in A Graham prefers B
UNCHAINED MELODY
JOHNNY B GOODE
LUCKY OLD SUN
EARLY IN THE MORNING
WHAT YOU WANNA MAKE THOSE EYES?
SHAKIN' ALL OVER
After 3 encores, we were pretty tired at the end. Pack up was very slow. Adam did a sterling job shifting my gear which I was thankful for ‘cos the back was aching a bit. Luckily the rain had abated for the load up and we shook hands and said goodbye about 12:30am. Only a short journey to Jenny and Miles house where we crept in like naughty teenagers and had a well deserved sleep. Next morning we elected to get off after breakfast as the weather was a bit wild and showery. We had a good run home via the M11, it only took about 2 and half hours.

Omaha Caravan Club Rally at Narborough Community Centre.

I still have a cough and feeling a bit weak but Carl elected to come with me to help with the gear. We set off in cold, gloomy, overcast conditions at 5pm and made good time to Swaffham where we joined the A47 for the next few miles North West to Narborough. The Community Centre is well signposted and we arrived just before 6pm and asked a lady behind the bar to show us the way into the hall. Here I met up with Val, the organiser. We got the door opened and had just started to get the gear in when Nige arrived. Nige brought news that there had been a murder in North Walsham and a man in his thirties was being held?? We agreed to give it a while before we contacted Greg to make sure it wasn’t him! (I found out later that the victim was Dave’s old card playing mate George, killed by his nephew apparently!!) The stage here is big but tatty. It’s a big, reverberant room and we set up Greg’s bass drum through my Bose to give a bit more depth to our sound. We soon got set up and tested out and with so much room I set up my PRS 12 string as well. The 4 of us then enjoyed a sit down cold meal: pate starter, ham salad and jelly and ice cream to follow – I did pass on the latter as my belly is getting big! We selected the away team dressing room to get changed in and, as it was a chilly day, we had the luxury of putting the heating on in there. After the Chairman’s speech we took to the stage in our black’n’white shirts looking like a team of waiters. Greg has a black tie and waistcoat now! We started up with “Foot Tapper” the sound was OK but I sensed we might be a bit loud, However, we got a fair response, so I introduced the band and we continued with “Just One Look”. The on-stage sound wasn’t that good and somehow I managed to mess this up by going to the end early – sorry Nige. I dropped the guitar volume a bit for “Heartbeat” and that improved the sound a little. We settled into a typical set 1 adding “Around the World” as a waltz and bit of country in the form of “Crystal Chandeliers” complete with Nigels false beginning with his ‘horsey’ Irish contender for the Eurovision song contest. The audience was a bit hard to read: we’d fill the floor occasionally then lose them with a similar song. But, by and large, they were appreciative and responded in the right places. We brought the set to an end with the “Beatles and Ferry”. In the break I was introduced to Pat who really liked the band and discussed the possibility of us doing a charity gig in aid of MS for a reduced fee sometime. I started set 2 on the PRS 12 string and we opened up with “Under the Sun”. Quite a nice jangly sound I thought so I called for “Take it Easy”. It’s quite a handful on the 12 string but we got through in good order. We got going on the “Searchers” next and by the end we had the dance floor reasonably filled, so Nige took us on through “Do It Again”. As I changed guitar the audience faded away and we ended up playing a goodish attempt at “Love Potion No 9” to just a handful of dancers. As it was quiet on the dance floor we set about a request for Apache by getting Hannah and Lisa to come to the front to do the Shadows walk. They were quite shy but their 5 minutes of ‘fame’ did them good I think. It got a great reception anyway! It took me a couple of minutes to get back on stage and ready to go with “All Shook Up” which went very well; but the dancers looked tired so I took us into the “Halfway - Wonder of You” sequence which had them all slow dancing and singing along. I followed up with “Hi Ho” to keep them singing; then, as we were close to time, we wrapped up with “Words” which was also very well received. After a 10 minute break we resumed with “Do You Wanna Dance”, then took them through “Amarillo – Hey Baby – Hippy Hippy Shake – Pretty Woman” to keep a party atmos going. We did “Unchained” as a mid-set slowey request and then set about our closing sequence with: ”Lets Dance – Mony Mony” and “Johnny B Goode”. This elicited shouts for ‘more’ so I asked if they wanted a slow or a fast one? ‘Both’ they said. But we were close to music license stop time at 11:45pm so we signed off with Greg’s choice of “Born to be Wild”. Pack and load wasn’t too bad with Carl’s help. Good job too because it was raining. Greg and Nige followed me in convoy as I searched out the A47 and we all went our separate ways as we approached Swaffham. Got home just after 1am, pretty tired and still coughing. The next day was Ms J and my Ruby Anniversary. We hadn’t arranged anything, but Carl and Claire surprised us by taking us out to lunch in Bury.