Norwich British Legion

Got away a bit later than planned because I couldn't find my spare black shirt straight away. Arrived about 7:20pm to find Mick and Nige already there. Mick had brought the manual for his headset mic and they soon got to grips with it and got a good sound going. I was occupied tuning up and I also tried to set up a recorder to take feeds direct from the Bose to record the band. Ran out of time to test it out as we had to get changed. The white waistcoats are getting a bit grubby – don't know if we can wash them? Also I think we would still benefit from some red ties. We opened up at 8pm with “Flingel Bunt, Just One Look and Heartbeat” then ran some changes with the repertoire including fairly good improvisations of “Peaceful Easy Feelin”, “There Goes My Every Thing” and “Folsom Prison”. Nige popped in “You're My Best Friend” as a country barn dance number. All went down well - we either amused the audience or got them dancing. About two thirds through Nige started to suffer from a committee man who was sat near his speaker asking him to 'turn it down'. As he complied the mix went out of kilter leaving us with low bass and vocals. I eventually twigged this was happening and dropped my volume to match but then the crowd on my side said 'turn it up'! Fortunately time was up. We wrapped up with “Apache” and took a break. In the bar we met up with Mickey Bream who was visiting the club; he confirmed it was too low in volume and we resolved to push it up on our return. After the bingo some folks had left but we still had a fair sized audience to play at as we opened up with “Under The Sun, The Searchers, Do It Again and Take It Easy” on the 12 string. All went well and we had a full dance floor so we got into the “Moon of Love” sequence. As we got to “Yellow River” Micky B gestured his goodbyes and I lost the chords - grrr can't stop the hands playing it in C! As it was an early finish on the Sunday we decided to play through to the end without another break. We played on with quite a variety on the repertoire to avoid lots of repetition from Saturday. Mick needs to pick up the drum break in “Shakin All Over”, but to compensate he made a good attempt at “Shang-a-Lang”. We said our goodnights with Mick singing “Wonderful Tonight” and then did a good rendition of “Hippy Hippy Shake” before the final “Walk Alone”. Mick's voice was a bit shredded by then so I pitched in as a half track unison on the final verse to fill it out and we finished to a great response from the now slightly depleted crowd. As we packed up I reflected that the weekend had gone well. We had coped with the tech issues of electronic drums and headset mic. We had given measured performances at low volume and entertained the crowd. And we had been pretty relaxed ourselves about it all. Sure; we have some problems remembering songs, and with general consistency and continuity; but not so bad that an audience notices that much. In fact I noticed that at this gig the dancers took advantage of our short moments between songs to have a little chat and get their breath back. We got packed up in good time and I had a fair run home getting in at 1:15am. Ps Tried to listen to the recording the next day. It hadn't worked – I must have failed to hit the record button correctly!!! Next time I try I must allow more time to set it up.

Norwich British Legion

Back from the US on Monday into British weather at 2 degrees and a snowstorm on the M25 to contend with. In theory I shouldn't be jet lagged, but I keep dozing off – must be old age! By Saturday I had noodled a bit on the guitar, set out some thoughts for repertoire and felt up to speed for the gig at Norwich British Legion. I conferred with the boys in the day and we concluded Mick would be best served trying out his Roland TD3V electronic kit and his new Behringer headset mic. Set off for Norwich about 5:20 pm and arrived about 6:30pm after a quiet run to find the place locked up. Nige's car was already there but he had gone round the front of the club to wait for the doors to open. Mick arrived and we surveyed the building and looking through the window we saw Nige strolling around in the concert room – but it took him a few minutes to find the man with a key! Mick had brought his RCF12's along in case any extra monitor sound was needed; but I outlined plan A which was to take left and right feeds from the kit brain into each Bose input 4. Nige suggested we start with Utility Flat settings and we quickly knocked off most of the bass and boosted the highs to get a rough live mix for the kit. It sounded loud on stage but didn't project as well, so we fiddled a bit, but eventually we stuck at a variation that seemed to work. Nige tried to set up Mick's headse mic, but there was a big problem getting volume and tone out of it, so Mick reverted to a mic stand and trusty Shure SM58. By then there was only time for a quick beer and change before were on at 8pm. Started off with Foot Tapper and the drums sounded fine. We followed up with “Just One Look” and you could hear the vocals much more clearly than normal. I put this down to the electronic kit not competing as much in the mids as an acoustic kit. The other advantage is that when we were asked to turn it down a bit, we just had to pull the master volumes down a notch. The downside is its slightly more difficult to feel the beat and from time to time I had a bit of trouble getting out of time; all the more so because playing at such a low volume there is not much 'give' in the guitar sound. After “Heartbeat” Cathys Clown/Bye Bye Love and Beautiful Body”, we played quite an easy listening lightweight first set which included Mick's rendition of a Jim Reeves: “Hell Have to Go – Anna Marie” medley, Mick doing the “Lady Is a Tramp” (which suffered from a clash of understanding between me and Mick on the arrangement) and Nigel's Country session with added Mick on “Rambling Rose”. There was also room for some rock'n'roll. By and large I must say we had quite a bit of success in getting dancers up, some of this was down to the choice of material, but a lot seemed to be down to the easier pace at which we took things than previous outings here. The audience kindly overlooked or forgave a slight lack of continuity and consistency and we were very well received. The set finished with a curtailed Beatles medley as the guvnor turned on the lights for bingo. In the break we met up with another Mick doing a solo singer spell in the bar and Nige and I quaffed another beer. After bingo we resumed with “Under the Sun”, Tambourine Man, Searchers, Do It Again and Lying Eyes” all on the Fender 12 string. This kept pretty good tune and the band managed pretty good continuity and gradually filled the floor with the crowd naturally dropping into a barn dance as we opened up with Mick doing “Lying Eyes”. Mick and Nige cunningly called for the full 6 minute version which fully exercised all the permutations of the barn dance. We slipped in “How Sweet It Is” then dropped the pace with “Halfway” (fumbled the start) and “Wonder of You” before picking it up with “Sweet Caroline, “HI Ho”, “Do You Wanna Dance” sequence to a finale with “Words”. All very well received. In the break Nige had attracted the attention of one of the audience who thought we were very good and passed on her 0800 number! After a short break we resumed with “Price of Love” which I was keen to air. We got a good rhythm going but I need to work on the harmonies a bit. Also I think it would benefit from being partnered with a similar driving number? We carried on with “Dance the Night Away” and then into “Amarillo, Hey Baby, The Twist” before trying “Ferry Cross Mersey”. Mick did a great job with the vocal and the band got a good feel; and the audience sang along and gave it a good round of applause. Feeling confident we risked an airing of a completely unrehearsed “Runaround Sue” - not bad for a first attempt! We did few more numbers and then finished off with “Walk Alone” which got a sufficiently good reception that we obliged the shouts for 'more' with “Johnny B Goode”at 11:50pm. Although it had been a long night it was an easy pack up because we only took guitars home. I was soon on the road and home for 1:20am.

Toftwood Social Centre

Our first gig back after New Years Eve, and our first gig with Mick as a full time member (not dep). During January I had been on a worldwide holiday to Vietnam and New Zealand. I had flown in from Auckland NZ on Monday after a 36 hour journey and was still a bit out of sorts, but looking forward to playing again and having a beer with the boys! I had an uneventful run over to Toftwood in misty, relatively mild conditions but, as usual, I missed the turning for the club and had to turn round and come back. I found Nigel had just arrived and was waiting for the doors to open. Mick arrived a few minutes later and we just had chance to meet and greet before the door opened. Load in is easy here and set up went well considering we might have forgotten how it all works. Having seen a band in NZ that suffered from excessive bass frequencies on the guitar, I reduced the bass on the T1 to learn from that experience. This would give Nige a bit more space to play in the soundscape. Initially I had a bit of feedback on the mic; but I found by toeing in the Bose a little bit, I was able to clear it. Mick set up a Audio Technica radio mic to reduce wiring clutter. He was saying he might use a headset mic to get rid of the large mic stand he has. He understands the drawback being unable to back off the mic, but thinks he can control volume using his voice. Awareness is the key! Looking round there were quite a few in compared to our last couple of outings there, which was encouraging. Got changed into the black shirt, black tie and white waistcoat for an 8:30pm start. Must organise some red ties for variety. We set off with “Foot Tapper” this was OK until the end which didn't happen? Mick was set up a fair way forward and had trouble seeing Nige and me indicating the finish so he just carried on! After we finally finished it, we did some intro's and got on with an easy paced Foot Tappery start. Quite a good on stage sound. We did get a few takers for Mick's waltzy rendition of “He'll Have to Go” and generally we were going down well. We were pleasantly surprised to see Jenny and Hilda arrive. At the same time Nige wanted to take the show on a pace, so we did “Lady is a Tramp” and then I announced “Rock Around the Clock”. For some reason this got off to an incredibly fast start and what normally takes 3 minutes to play thru took about 2! After that I made a more relaxed start on “Blue Suede Shoes” and that got a couple of dancers up. Pursuing the rock'n'roll theme I opened up with “Move It”. Mick and I got at cross pieces on the beat but I just had to go for it. Once we got going it filled the dance floor nicely. We played on somewhat inconsistently with a mix of rock'n'roll and country and finished the set with “Words” Had a word with Jen and Hilly in the break; Jen is doing better and was delighted to have just got a Ford Ka to replace her big old Vauxhall. The ladies would only be staying for half an hour or so. We resumed with “Somewhere Under the Sun”. This got a good reception despite my fumbled guitar solo and we ploughed on through a more dancey set 2 than usual. The band was still a bit untogether at times and we overcame some unforced errors but, on the whole, the audience were liking what we were doing and quite a few were dancing. We reached a peak with an improvised version of “Lets Dance” and then as the dancers took a rest, I took the opportunity to have a bash at “Take It Easy”. My voice was well out of practice but I think with a few tweaks we can make this a strong part of our repertoire. More of the same for the third set with lots of dancing and a few rockier songs like “Alright Now” and a requested “Shakin All Over” which took a toll on my voice. We went for a wrap up with Mick doing a good “Never Walk Alone”; but we got shouts for more, so we encored with “Saw Her Standing There”. They still wanted more so we closed off with an enthusiastic rendition of the Spencer Davis sequence. I was dead tired packing up but, strangely, got more lively as we completed. It was cold outside but we had a bit of an inquest on why we had been a tad untogether, concluding it was down to Mick being too far forward to see what Nige and I were up to and general rustiness from being off the road for a month. Despite this we had gone down well and the guvnor was pleased. During the discussion I sensed we have some differences between us as to how best to improve band repertoire and performance; but I believe a bit of tension in opinions is healthy and we should be able to bridge those differences to improve our standing as a flexible, versatile band suitable for most types of gig. Driving home wasn't too bad, I was actually more awake then than I was in the third set. Got in about 1:30am and slept through to 10 am. Unfortunately I seemed to have gone down with a sniffy cold.