Broad Farm Flegborough

Weather has been cool and cloudy and set to continue over the bank holiday. But this evening it was still, sunny and a bit muggy as I set off with time to spare to deal with bank holiday traffic. Actually the roads were fairly clear, so I made good time to Acle and arrived at the gig about 6:25pm. The club was open and as I walked in I took a look at the entertainments board - only to see we weren’t on it? Panik were scheduled for this evening? Nige arrived about then so we went to find Linda the booker. She said, “sorry”, but she had cancelled the band with Mark (the agent) some time ago because they wanted a more modern image at the club. I got on the phone to Mark who confirmed it had been cancelled by letter and email - neither of which had arrived with me? Anyway, I agreed to check it all out after the weekend and Nige and I put in a call to young Greg to head him off. In the end Greg said, “lets meet anyway”, so we met up and made our way to the Hemsby California Tavern to have a beer and watch the Glamtastics for a while. They are a tight two guitar, bass, drums and lead vocal outfit playing up-beat stuff from the 70’s. A bit loud for my tastes but clearly popular. It remained a mild, still night so, on the way back, Nige and I called in a Broad Farm for a brief listen outside to ‘PaNick’ – a dad and daughter duo singing over backing tracks. Not that impressive really but this is the age of X Factor and I suppose we are now ‘old fashioned’. A bit like the jazzy dance bands of the 1950’s who were displaced by unskilled youths in beat groups in the 1960’s! Made my way home and had another beer as I slouched in front of the tele feeling a bit down about it all.

Bury St Eds Sugar Sports and Social

I could leave as late as 6:15pm and still be at the gig for 6:25pm. So this is what I did. I had just parked when Nige rolled up. We went round the front and into the club to meet up with Heather, the guvnor, who showed us the load in entrance and suggested we set up on the floor rather than the stage to create a more intimate setting. We were just loading in when Martin (our dep drummer for the night) arrived. It’s a fairly big room, so as we got set up I found plenty of room to set up and tune my PRS 12 string as well. We did have a bit of trouble with lighting. Although the house lights did illuminate the band, seeing music and set lists on the music stands was tricky – especially for the older member of the band! I tried out my LED PAR light but couldn’t get it placed to do the job, so I tried a clip on music stand light. This did do the job but mains cables were well stretched and creating a heath and safety risk. So, rather than get some more extensions out the car, I decided to abandon the idea of music stand lighting and adopt the ‘peering at it’ method of music reading instead. With all set up and working, I set off home to pick up Ms J for her grand entrance well in time for our 8:30 showtime. Heather gave me a last minute briefing that there were several in from a rock’n’roll dance club and could we do a bit of rock’n’roll? “Yes Please” I said. We got dressed in the back shirts and waistcoats and Nige and I wore white ties. We made a start with “Foot Tapper and Just One Look” All went well and we got a good response from a reasonably full hall. So I did a bit of banter about Sunday night TV preparatory to starting “Heartbeat”. Only trouble was I was moving my pedals round with my feet as I was doing this and must have kicked the volume knob down. We opened up and no guitar sound! It took me a good couple of minutes to get to the bottom of it and Nige had to fill in with his repertoire of ‘ghosty’ jokes. We finally got going again, the dance floor filled and we settled into an enjoyable set with a good sound and great audience response. After the Everly’s, Martin sang “Peaceful Easy Feelin” and Nige and I dropped in to close and hi harmony roles which went very well. I called early on for some rock’n’roll, opening up with “Blue Suede Shoes/ Whole Lotta Shakin” and up came the dancers in force. As we went on Martin fitted in some great harmonies from time to time, so I found I was only using the harmoniser sparingly. Nige did a good “Ferry” as the mid set slowey and we continued to keep the dance floor filled as we also did “Raining in My Heart”. After this it was time to do our Beatles medley.

We bantered away a bit aimlessly but with some good audience interaction then we all got wigged up successfully and ‘powered’ on into it. Surprisingly we got a good crowd of dancers from the off and despite the changing rhythms the dancers kept with it pretty well. We lost a few as we switched to “Nowhere Man”, but the harmonies worked well (with harmoniser adding one above only) and we soon had some more dancers joining in and even more for “She Loves You”. We were delighted with a very good audience reception for this set piece. Time was up so we decided to close with Martin singing “Words” and that filled the dance floor with slow dancers again – a great ending to a great set. We got some good comments in the break and were confident as we returned to open up with a birthday. We started the set proper with “Under the Sun” and on into the “Searchers” with me on the 12 string. I found it quite a challenge to play the 12 string in public again after so many gigs without using it. So I chickened out after the Searchers and changed back to the 6 string to pick up the “Move it – All Shook Up” sequence which just packed the floor. Then Nige pitched in with “Rock Around the Clock” to keep it going (and we all finished together!) Next up we got Martin to sing “Take It Easy”. I took the hi line giving us a good vocal mix which was well appreciated. We followed up with “Love Potion No 9” in which I was so pleased to get the timing right in the middle 8 that I relaxed and lost it after the solo! But the crowd danced through it all without falling over so we must have covered it up OK. After a powerful “Lets Dance – Mony Mony” complete with organ synth, we eased the dancers up for the “Halfway – Wonder – Sweet Caroline” ending sequence with Martin doing the vocal honours on the last two. There was still a few minutes left so we finished the set with “My Girl” with Martin on lead vocal – only slightly let down by my poor timing in the solo. After the raffle we came back on to do another hour starting with more birthdays and then “Do You Wanna Dance” which packed the floor again. We ripped on thru the old “Party Dance” sequence to “Hi Ho” and then “Alright Now” complete with extended drum solo to finish. I called for “Pretty Woman” and we did a goodish version and followed up with a rocking “Hippy Hippy Shake”. We fitted in a slightly ragged “Walk of Life” and a lively “Summer of 69” before easing off for a great rendition of “Unchained” by Martin. Then it was an extended “Johnny B Goode” to finish. Although it went down really well I must have failed to cue the audience that it was the last number, so we had to impose “Walk Alone” on them as an encore. This went well and had the crowd singing along. There were now some shouts for ‘more’, but we were now 5 minutes over time so we gently called it a night. We got a lot of compliments on the band as we packed up and Heather was keen to rebook. So, basking in the warm afterglow of going down good at a well attended gig (becoming a rarity nowadays) we completed pack’n’load and set off home. I had contemplated going home via Thetford to get the fulll experience but in the end, I did enjoy the luxury of a 5 minute drive home. Ms J and I were still wide awake so we has another drink and watched TV for a bit. Summing it all up - a great gig that makes it all worthwhile!

Band Practice at Plug Norwich

I’d been feeling a bit rough and got away a bit late, so I had to hurry to get there for 4:45 as I planned. Met up with the boys and got set up in room 5 which is a bit smaller than the room we had played in before but fine for our purpose. The guitar amp was an Ibanez solid state but it was well voiced to cut through and gave a great sound with the Roland pedal set to Fender Twin. (I was using my more expensive original Godin on the ‘dark’ output which may have contributed to the sound). After warming up with “Hotel California” we sorted out some timing issues with “Love Potion”. Then we tried Greg out on hi harmony vocal on some Eagles pieces. He would need to be more familiar with the harmony lines but his voice certainly does have the potential for hi lines. Greg then had a go at lead vocal on “Under the Moon of Love” and “Walk of Life” and we agreed he should take those on and work on them for the next gig. Next we tried playing along to backing tracks for “Dance the Night Away, Wonderful Tonight and Walk of Life”. This worked better than I expected and we discussed how we might augment the band’s sound for selected numbers using this approach. The debate is really about the practicability of using recorded MP3 files with a click / cue track on a separate monitor channel or setting it all up in midi with a decent midi synth. We finished off running through “How Long” by the Eagles to test if I can swap to the lead line and fill out the hi line with the harmoniser. This went OK but I’d need to do it regularly for a while to get used to not singing the harmony! Got away about 8:20 on a warm evening and was home for 9:30 ish. Ms J is away on a quilting fair so all was quiet and I had a beer or two to while away the rest of the evening.

Toftwood Social

I’ve had a busy time and I write this blog a week after the gig with hazy memories faded even further into the mists – so apologies to you blogateers for lack of detail on this one. Cloudy and not particularly warm as I set off relatively late but aiming for a 6:45 arrival. I managed to spot the right hand turning to the club first time on this occasion and entered the car park a few minutes early, to find Greg already parked up. He’d been there some time because he came over straight from an event in Norwich he’d been attending. The doors opened shortly after and about then Nige arrived. It is an easy load in here and we put bags and cases back in the cars to keep things neatish on stage. It is an awkward shaped stage and Nige and I swapped sides to generate even more unfamiliarity; but with the aid of a beer, eventually we all got set up OK. We got changed into the white’n’black for an 8:30 start in front of a small audience of about 25. We played safe with the usual start and earned a good response from the small crowd, so I set about bantering our way through an easy listening rock’n’rolly sort of set. I offered the audience some country - but no takers? The country barn dancers must have been on holiday! The rock’n’roll went well and we had a few up to dance and several came up for a dance to Words as the finishing slowey. In the break a chap (John?) came up to ask for a Johnny Kidd number that wasn’t “Shakin All Over”. We said “We’d have had a go at “I Can Tell” if we had the words but...” There were a few more in at the start of set 2 making it about 30 in the room. We opened up with “Under the Sun” which brought up a few dancers, so I carried straight on with “Tambourine Man” to try and keep it going. The Searchers did bring several up to dance and we followed up with a string of dancey tunes like “Move It, All Shook Up and Love Potion No 9, Lets Dance and Mony Mony” which developed a good atmosphere, we kept that going with the “Halfway, Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline” sequence to wrap the set up on a high. During the break a chap came over to say how good it was! And could he have a card to promote us at Pentney Bowls. After the members draw and ‘Take Your Pick’ it thinned out a bit. Then John? Came over with the words he’d written out for “I Can Tell”! We were flabbergasted .... and now committed to doing it! So we set about Set 3 with gusto starting with “Do You Wanna Dance” and Ace’s “How Long” which both got the dancers going. Much to ‘John’s” delight we warmed up with “Shakin All Over” and then played “I Can Tell”. Nige called for a key change after the first verse and I think we ended up doing it in E. John was delighted, Nige was pleased and the rest of the audience causght the mood - great fun! We went on to put together a good mix of audience participation songs like “Hi Ho and Hey Baby”, with rockers like “Hippy Hippy Shake” and slowies like “Unchained” to keep a good atmosphere going with this small audience. We brought things to a head with “Johnny B Goode” with added drum’n’bass breaks and finished up with “Wonderful Tonight”. This went well enough for us to encore with “Saw Her Standing There”. A good night for the band; but small audiences are bad news for the club. Got packed and loaded and away in good time, but the Bury road was blocked at Thetford with the police dealing with a crash, so I had to divert round adding an extra 20 minutes or so to the journey.

Caxton Club Beccles

Some good news - In the week Nige had spoken with Greg who has taken the drum stool position with the band on a permanent basis. Greg immediately cocked up by diarying this gig as Sunday and it was only my spotting of a "see you on Sunday" line in an email that allowed us to get him out to the gig on time! I made good time in stormy, humid conditions and arrived to find Nige just parking up. And then Greg arrived to create a traffic jam on Gaol Lane. The snag was there were no more parking spaces, so Greg and I ended up parking in the club delivery yard. We got loaded in and, without thinking, we set up on the stage in the ‘old’ formation with me on the left, Greg in the middle and Nige on the right. This was to prove problematic later as Nige found it tricky to ‘conduct’ Greg ‘cos, as a right handed drummer, his natural inclination is to lean to his left. There was no one around so for a few minutes we messed around with bits and pieces of songs including a spirited rendition of Black Sabbath’s “Black Night”! One of the girls from the bar showed me how to switch on the stage lights – unfortunately a bulb was out on my side which made it difficult to read my crib sheets as it got darker outside. We changed into the white’n’black and took to the stage for an on-time 8:30 start with “Foot Tapper”. Good sound from the off and Greg carried us along briskly and rhythmically making it relatively easy for me to play the guitar part. We got a good round of applause from a three quarter’s full room and then carried on with a typical vintage set aimed at the majority of over 50’s in the room. We wrapped up with “The Beatles and Words” and took a 15 minute break. It had got increasingly hot’n’humid during the set so Nige and Greg took some air while I talked to a chap from the crowd. He used to be a guitarist in the Midlands and he complimented us on our sound for a 3 piece and said we did a really great job of the Beatles medley – nice to hear that from a muso. We resumed in even hotter conditions for set 2 with “Under the Sun” dedicated to Dave. Blaming it on the heat and lack of light, I lost my way in running the show and remembering words in this set. Nothing the audience would pick up on much but annoying just the same. I suppose it would be worse if I didn’t know I was forgetting words! We got a bit of dancing going with “All Shook Up and Move It” and carried the set through to a strong conclusion with “Wonder of You, Sweet Caroline” and “Wonderful Tonight” which filled the floor with romantics. The audience had changed a bit for our third set. Some of the oldies had gone and some younger folk had arrived. We opened with “Dance the Night Way and Do You Wanna Dance” which filled the floor pretty well. We followed on with a rocky “Hippy Shake” with Greg in fine flowing form and then we carried on rocking with “Summer of 69” and “All Right Now” before we took a breather with the mid-set slowey “Unchained”. We carried on with “Walk of Life” and more rocking with “Johnny B Goode” complete with drum breaks; before the final number “Walk Alone”. Although this was most enthusiastically sungalong by the crowd, it only elicited a couple of shouts for ‘more’! But we obliged anyway, encoring with “Saw Her Standing There” which did generate a lotta shouts for 'more' - but we were now well over time so we made our exit as best we could and set about the long change’n’packup on a still hot’n’humid night. The drive home was fine and I was back for 1:15am feeling in better form than the previous week. The next day we met up with Nige at Jenny’s at a bit of a garden do to remember Dave a year after he passed away. A lot of people there and it was good to hear the younger ones such as Steve’n’Emma and Pete’n’Laura doing well and planning their futures. Mog - signing off as the 'apostrophe kid'