Tyneside Sheringham

Sunny and warm, we had been invited to stay over with Steve and Alyson so set off about 2:15pm for a 4pm arrival. Traffic was a bit dozy so this was about right. We had tea with Steve and Alyson in East Runton then Ms J and I set of for the gig about 6pm. We were a bit early so I parked up and we had a wander round Sheringham station to inspect a murder mystery train parked up there. As we came back Ray and his Jacky rolled up and I was just saying hello when Nigel arrived. So we got the gear in and set up. In the week I had acquired a Digitech Vocalist Live 3 and I spent about twenty minutes setting up my vocals on that. It seemed to harmonise well, but I set the harmony mix well down for subtlety. Nige and I had swapped sides and he was using a beer crate to isolate his bass bins, I used a bit foam acoustic tiling. It was worth it ‘cos there was no boom in the sound. We had a beer and got changed into the black and stepped onto the stage to open up with “Foot Tapper” at 8:30pm for a one hour set. Not a bad sound on stage I thought. I used the harmoniser in “Just One Look” and thought it fitted in well. Only snag was that being on the ‘wrong’ side of the stage I had set my pedals up in the wrong locations, so my FX, guitar and harmoniser changes were a bit unco-ordinated! The harmoniser was a bit less effective than I thought it would be in “Peaceful Easy Feelin” but this was down to me attempting to drop my harmony down from my usual high line and not being too sure of the lines – nothing the audience would notice though. There weren’t many in. A few came up to dance when we got Ray to do his “Living Doll” bit and I took us on into “Move It” successfully to keep them there. But it was quite warm and they never really got into dancing. About halfway through the set a ‘lively’ Jenny and Valisha arrived; didn’t recognise them at first: Jenny has gone blonde! Anyway the band played on finishing the set with “The Beatles, The Searchers and “Words”. We had a 15 minute break which I sued to re-organise pedla locations as best I could – never quite got it right however. We returned to open up with “Flingel Bunt”. I do notice that this is quite a catchy 60s rhythm, often you can see people jiggling around to it even if they don’t actually dance. We continued with “Under the Sun, Tambourine Man” and then I called for “Eyes at Me For”. I thought this went well enough but there were not enough people in the room to get an audience response session going. During “Halfway” Nige did the gruff voice routine, so he was soon blonde wigged up and asked to do ‘girly’ harmonies. Ray tried out his ‘old adverts’ routine getting a bit of response. After 45 mins we took another break. When we resumed most of our audience were outside enjoying the balmy evening so we opened up with “Uptown Girl”; Nige sang it very well and I got some of the backing vocals right with harmoniser. We still get a bit caught out by the middle section, but definitely worth persisting with this songs development on stage. We started to pick and mix through some material that is not aired that often, including: “Midnight Hour, Honkey Tonk Women, All Right Now, Shakin All Over”. “Summer of 69” went well bringing up a few to dance. My Jacqui reported later that the guitar sound in this song was just great and the band sound balance couldn’t be better. We finished off with “Wonderful Tonight” and there was a shout for more at the end, so I called for “Johnny B Good”. This was going like a train until I turned to Ray to cue a drum solo and he just stopped! With there being so few left on the room we decided not to restart. I put this down to a misunderstanding with Ray but we did express a difference of opinions on encoring as we got changed. Having slept on it I think we should let the person who ‘owns’ the gig decide how it is played; hopefully we can all get behind that in future. We were packed and loaded up by 12:20am Nige signed off with the management who thought we were brilliant and said we were not to be downhearted by the relatively poor attendance. Apparently there were quite a few in the other bar and outside who enjoyed the bands performance from afar!. Ms J and I made our way back to East Runton and had a jolly good Sunday – avoiding the England v Germany game which turned out to wise in view of their 4 – 1 thrashing.

Lowestoft Ex Services

It was very cold with a strong northerly wind as I set off, then it started raining occasionally as well. I arrived as planned at 6:45 to meet the boys who were already parked and unloading. The guvnor was surprised a new band (we were playing as ‘Sky High’) knew to go to the back; apparently they enjoy sending new acts around the houses! We got the gear in and Ray moved his car saying he got told off last time he parked in the spot nearest the club! Just to be on the safe side Nige and I parked so that special space was still available, Ray stood back as Nige and I set up the bose at the back of the small stage. Then we handed over and he set up his Ludwig kit. Finally Nige and I came back and set up our performing positions – lo and behold we were all set up on this small stage! Bingo starts at 7:50pm and we were asked to be ready for a 9pm start so we had a beer and chat in the bar at the back. We set off about 8:45 to get changed and arrived back downstairs at 5 to 9 to find the lights set for the band to start – they had finished bingo early! We got sorted as quick a we could and I think it was one minute to nine as we opened up with “Foot Tapper”. I thought we had an excellent volume balance. Ray was on the hot sticks again and you could look round and see people enjoying the performance not holding ears! After “Just One Look”, we had a few ladies up to dance in “Heartbeat” so we tried to keep it going with “Do You Wanna Dance” which had the desired effect. Nige called for “Somebody Help Me” next. I was a bit caught short changing the guitar settings but once we got going we did a pretty good job. The band carried on into “Keep On Running” which is relatively a bit ragged for the first set. Interestingly, with Ray playing we didn’t seem to get overloud with this as we had done with other drummers, so with a bit of tidying up it could be a set 1 dancey regular. By tidying up I mean it’s mainly down to me to do the homework on words and get the guitar changes and licks practiced into the fingers. By this time the dancing ladies looked like they needed a change so I announced the Everlys “Cathys Clown and Bye Bye Love”. I was fiddling with guitar settings as I was doing this and wasn’t forceful enough, cos Ray only heard “Bye Bye Love”. Needless to say we set off playing Cathy’s Clown with a Bye Bye Love rhythm. Once started it was impossible to get out of so we played it through. The audience didn’t give us a hard time thankfully. We tried “Peaceful Easy Feeling” with two voices. It works well enough for this kind of gig but would benefit from use of harmoniser; plus it occurred to me that we could try Ray out on the main vocal line (or just the chorus) to thicken it up. (We need to tighten up the stop after the instrumental section) The Eagles can be seen as a bit country and their songs do go down well at this club. So I tried a bit of country with “Folsom Prison” = no dancing, but it was appreciated with some warm applause. I asked Nige to have a go at “Ferry Cross the Waveney” next and that brought quite a few up to dance a slow song and was well appreciated. So Nige called for a jazz bar version of “Phoenix” next and that went well. We did a bit of rock’n’roll with “Move It” and “Rock Around the Clock” and then started to wrap up with “The Beatles”. As we finished the concert sec says “You have another 10 minutes to do!” It turns out it is a one hour first set here. Undeterred we carried on with “The Searchers” and finished up with a floor filling “Words” (another song that would benefit from use of harmoniser). I had a word with the guvnor to make sure the next couple of sets would be timed ok. We resumed with an easy tempo start with “Somewhere under the Sun – Tambourine Man”. After a Birthday request, we had a go at the “Hollies Medley”, It was better than the previous outing but I still momentarily lost the transition to “Here I Go Again”! (This is another piece that would benefit from use of harmoniser” The audience were a little subdued as we searched for the right combination of listen/danceability. I tried to wake things up with “Eyes at Me For” which went well but eventually we struck gold with the “Halfway, Wonder, Sweet Caroline” sequence which had them dancing and singing along. I was wondering where we might go next, when Nige called for “Amarillo” and by the time we had done “Hey Baby” and the “Twist” it was close to time so we could wrap up with “Hippy Hippy Shake”. During our 15 minute break, we had a request for “Lying Eyes”. The audience had thinned out a lot as we took to the stage for our third session to play to 11:45pm (yes its a long night here), so we opened with “Lying Eyes”. That went down with the remaining audience so well we also did “Take it Easy” I thought we performed both these songs well at a nice easy pace (thanks Ray), but I noted that these would also benefit from use of harmoniser. We only had half an hour to play and as there weren’t many people left we tried out “Uptown Girl” Nige did a great vocal on this and it is a real energiser so we need to fit in as a regular ASAP. I took the opportunity to try out “Money for Nothing”. It was better paced than previously, but I still have some work to do to perfect the riff and the end – still a step forward I thought. Next up was a nicely paced “Midnight Hour” and then we finished with “Wonderful Tonight”. Despite the slightly ragged performance and a slightly muted audience response I think we had a fairly good night overall. In fact several people came up at the end to say how much they enjoyed it. Ray’s drumming definitely helped deliver the right sound balance for this type of club and Nige had had a very good night vocally; rising to the challenge of some big numbers several times. We were tired as we packed up, but Ray was particularly so and we encouraged him to make an early departure. I finally got on the road about 12:30am and home for just after 2 am.

Seacroft - East Runton

During the week Mick and the band had parted company as amicably as possible and we recruited Ray for the job going forward. A crash on the A11 near Thetford had made traffic bad on my proposed route via Swaffham. I decided to cut across country to pick up the A11 and carry on to the gig via Norwich. Ray and Nige were already there as I arrived at 6:45pm. The site seemed a little quiet as we loaded in - there were no vehicles in the overflow area where we parked up. We set up with volumes lowish at about 5 to midnight on the masters and Ray was going to use his hot sticks. After a beer I got the boys geared up for an 8:15 start in the black’n’white shirts. There were about 25 in as we started off with “Foot Tapper, Just One Look and Heartbeat”. We got a good response and a good sound from the off. We played a typical set 1 – The Beatles medley got some good reaction as we hammed it up a bit with the wigs, We finished off after 45 minutes with “My Girl” now becoming quite good as a closer alternative to “Words”, Sadly some of the audience had started to drift away. Not our fault it seems because several came over and said they were really enjoying the band but had to go to other arrangements. We opened up set 2 to maybe 12, but about halfway through that had dwindled to 8, 4 of whom were in the conservatory. In fact we played our last set to just the 4 in the conservatory – they did applaud but we couldn’t hear them too well! I went out front during Flingel Bunt and I must say the sound of the band was impressively spot on: perfect volume for this small gig, great balance and the drums and bass made a full rhythm section so you really didn’t miss the rhythm guitar. I was also really pleased with the guitar sound which I had changed lately to make more middley. We soldiered on playing and announcing professionally but we took the opportunity to air several songs that haven’t seen much action lately, inc:

- FBI. Bridge Chords: E C F E C F B E
- Phoenix: Nicely done at a relaxed pace
- Save the Last Dance: would benefit from Ray joining in on “aahs”
- Girl from Ipanema: I got off too fast, it works better as a slowish Bossa Nova
- Eyes at Me For: went well: it would benefit from Ray joining in on “aahs
- Pretty Woman: went well
- Proud Mary: would benefit from a rehearsal to get guitar synched to bass.
- Bad Moon Risin: went well
- Hotel California: Ray did a great job considering it hadn’t been played before
- Summer of 69: Works at low volume, guitar needs more practice!
- Can’t Get Enough: Got off a bit too fast but went well after restart.
- Midnight Hour: just fine!
- Somebody Help Me went well, but I messed up on Keep on Running, trying to remember chords and words and not succeeding with either!

The management were sanguine about the low turn out, saying that had been the pattern for the last couple of weeks. Pack up went a bit slow ‘cos I’m still suffering a bad back but we got away before midnight. I took the Norwich route and was home for 1:15am.

Norwich British Legion

A blurry Ray testing the kit.

With the gear still set up there, I could leave quite late, so I only got on the road at 6pm. I arrived at the gig just after 7pm to find Nige and Ray parked up and loaded in. I had looked at the repertoire in the afternoon and made a note of some numbers to resurrect to deliver a different show on this second night. It’s usually quieter on the Sunday, but the gig had filled up nicely by the time we took to the stage at 8pm to open with “Flingel Bunt”. We followed this with me doing “Good Luck Charm” which went down surprisingly well – with a bit of investment in arrangement and practice this could become a good ‘quiet’ show number again. I lined Nige up for “Beautiful Body” next and we continued on with a selection of songs covering the usual pop, rock’n’roll and country bases. Nige gave “True Love” an airing as a change waltz I read it ‘cos it is quite complicated chord wise.. Next we managed to fit a reprise of “Living Doll” in a country medley based on “Cheating Heart”; it produced a strange feel but we got through it and, more importantly, it didn’t put the barn dancers off their step. We carried on with the Everlys’ “Dream” in which I made a bit of an error with the words and key change - that will shake me up into getting it right next time! Finally, we completed the set with the Beatles medley that we had promised them the night before. Nige claims he made a blooper in the solo to “All My Lovin” but the audience didn’t blink! All had gone well and we had received a lot of appreciative attention. After the break we resumed for the second set with the Hollies Medley. This went quite well considering a) it hadn’t been aired for ages, b) we were down to 2 vocals, and, of course, c) it was completely new to Ray. But it was very well received. A couple of numbers in we did a special request for “Wonderful Tonight” for a couple from the committee and we did a verse of the “Anniversary Waltz” for another couple enjoying a 40th anniversary. We carried on with the intention of not repeating many of the previous nights songs. Although we repeated the Searchers and Sweet Caroline as special requests, we included plenty of change numbers e.g. “Yellow River, Bad Moon Risin”. We had expected the audience to drift away in the final break, but a lot stayed and we had good dancing and applause right through the third set as well. Towards the end of this set we got a bit more adventurous and I tried out “Money for Nothing” which kept the floor filled even though I forgot the arrangement and had to improvise my way to the end under Mr Nigel’s guidance! I also tried out “Shine Your Light” a country Christian piece by Charlie Landsborough. Can’t say the band enjoyed it much – but it brought shrieks of appreciation from the crowd! We wrapped up with a good “Unchained” and reprise of “Johnny B Goode” when Darren came up and asked us to do one more. I called for “Price of Love” which went the best we had done it so far. A good driving rhythm with Nige and I getting the ‘blue grassy’ harmonies about right. All in all another great night for the band. The Chairman came up at the end and complimented us on getting the volume right, playing a versatile repertoire of songs they knew and enetertaining them with added banter! He said he had had a lot of good comments about the band and would be definitely looking to book us again. So a great outcome. Finally got packed up and away about midnight and was home for 1 am. A good and enjoyable weekends work!

Norwich British Legion

The Glee Club on my Left!

My back had worsened since the last gig, possibly as a result of a final bout of the viral nastyness that had racked my frail body for the last few weeks – or is it ‘cos I am overweight? Nige had kindly agreed to give me a lift in at the gig so I gingerly loaded up and just sat down to a well earned cup of tea when I got a phone call from Mick to say he had gone down with vomiting bug and could we get a dep? So I got onto Nige who got onto Ray Royle who kindly agreed to stand in at very late notice. I arrived at the gig to find Nige and Ray and his missus Jackie parked up. With the help of Nige’s trolley we got loaded in without pain and by taking my time to set up I was able to avoid any more back problems. Ray has a nice Ludwig kit and he produced some of those sound absorbent sticks which would keep the volume down, always a key concern at this gig. We managed a beer before we got changed into the all black with white ties for an 8pm start up with “Foot Tapper”. Good on-stage sound and Ray was spot on with the drum feel. We got a good round of applause as we finished and I took a couple of minutes to introduce the band before we continued with “Just One Look”. Although the bass harmony was missing, vocally it was fine for this gig and Ray must have had a good feel for the dance beat, ‘cos (unusually) we had quite a few up and dancing from the off! After “Heartbeat” we got into the “Walk Right Back – When Will I Be Loved” sequence and the dance floor remained busy. It was going so well I threw in a solo in “Walk Right Back” (Nige and I have a misunderstanding about timing to the F chord in the solo. Probably me putting in an extra couple of bars but I have to do it that way to fit in with Graham in the Checkmates - I doubt the audience notices though). Out on the dance floor there were clearly some attempts to form up for a barn dance, but I thought we’d try a waltz next with “Around the World”. A few got up to dance it, but a lot more sang along with it so it went down rather well. We got Ray to do “Living Doll” and again you could see the audience beginning to form up for a barn dance, so we called for “Crystal Chandeliers” as we finished and that filled the floor for the barn dance. Nige took it on to “Rambling Rose” and we had a great reception. Ray misheard my introduction of “Move It” as a Sir Cliff song and opened up with “Do You Wanna Dance”! We fell into line and it went down pretty well – I switched to bass harmony in the choruses and it sounded just fine. We did fit “Move It” in later and it went well with the dancers as usual. Next up I called for “Blue Suede Shoes” but they dancers were taking a rest so we brought that to a conclusion and set about a slightly country feel version of “Take it Easy”. This went really well: we filled the floor, there were quite a few singing along and even though we only had my and Niges vocals it sounded pretty good. Even so I was surprised at the warmth of the applause at the end – fantastic! I was about to call the Beatles when Nige pointed out we were out of time. Confidence was high so we wrapped the set up with “My Girl” which Nige sang really well and it filled the floor and got warm applause as we finished. The bingo man thanked the band and once more we got a got a great round of applause. As the bingo started up we took to the bar for a drink and who was playing in there but ‘Bobby Graham’. He was on a break so we had a bit of a reminisce about poor old Dave and the music scene generally. After the bingo we resumed to play 2 more one hour sets as directed by Darren (on the new committee) to take it to 11:50ish. We opened with “Under The Sun” and that went well. I gave “Mr Tambourine Man” an airing and that got the ‘glee club’ on my left singing along nicely. At this point Ray did his joke about appearing on ‘who wants to be a millionaire” with a question on counting rabbits - and that went down well. As we got going with “The Searchers”; once again Ray had the timing slightly laid back which was just right for this club and the dance floor filled. We switched the vocal lines around to compensate for Mick’s absence and it sounded fine; in fact it was going so well we carried on into “Do It Again” which worked well enough with just two voices and kept them dancing. After “Halfway”, Nige called for “Lying Eyes” as a barn dance. They all formed up nicely so I did an extended version and once again it sounded fine with just the two voices. We ploughed on through a typical second set sequence. As we got to “Lets Dance” I dabbled with the guitar synth to set up an organ sound. It worked with this dancey crowd but it would be interesting to hear if it works in a more listeney environment. When we got to “Sweet Caroline” Darren and his mate stood up in the chorus and did a rude answerback which was quite funny and amused the crowd. After a rousing “Hi Ho”, Nige did a good “Wonder of You” which they all joined in with. Then we wrapped this set up with “Words” which filled the floor nicely despite my unsureness over my harmonies – I ended up trying to do bits of the bass and hi harmony and not nailing either. After the break we resumed for a final hour of mainly dancey stuff. Surprisingly a lot of the audience stayed, there must have been a late bus? The band was on form so we tried out “Summer of 69” which worked surprisingly well at low volume. We announced our last number with Nige doing a rousing “Walk Alone” which garnered an encore – so we finally finished off with “Saw Her Standing There”. Quite a few came up at the end and said they’d enjoyed the show and would be back on the Sunday. Ray had to pack his drums up because he had arranged a practice session on the Sunday. Ray had fitted in just great and despite my bad back, Nige’s chest infection and Ray coming in at the last minute it had been a very good night for the band; and importantly - we had enjoyed it! I was tired on the way home but it was a quick run so I was home for 1:20am