Steeleye Span

Closest I get to a gig nowadays is to go and see a band, and this weekend I saw Steeleye Span at Bury Apex. Folk rock in general and this band's particular history of lots of change in line up gives them quite a license to vary instrumentation. Guitarwise we had the obligatory acoustic guitar and another fellow was playing a strat! I’m not sure what foot processor he was using but the it was through a small Peavey amp and sounded just perfect for this style – more like a commanding electro-acoustic than an electric sound. Peter Knights (one of the originals) played great violin and the bassist looked like he was using a Warwick bass and amp to get a very deep sound well below the fight for the middle frequencies. Liam Gennocky on a smallish kit completed the rhythm section. These talented musical chaps were able to swap instrumentation to add clarinet, flute and Korg piano to the musical palette when needed. But for me the vocals stole the show. Despite coming to the end of a longish tour, Maddy Prior sings high and pure. But she is often joined by up to 5 other voices (they all sing) filling a wide vocal range. Occasionally singing accapella (Gaudete being the highlight) you can appreciate the quality of their pitching. The reason I say this is because, although the level and balance was spot on, the PA sounded a bit muddy to me. To my ears the vocals would have been better placed with a sparkle of top end in the mix to give them presense above a crowded middle. Professionally relaxed and entertaining, they played a wide selection from their back catalogue including an interesting first set playing pretty much all of "Now We Are 6" from the indulgent 70's - riddles and interludes included! Throwing in a couple of Xmas songs towards the end and encoring quickly with the big hits "All Around My Hat" and Gaudete" was very professional and well appreciated by the sell out crowd including me and Mrs J. An evening made even more enjoyable by my indulgence in a pint of "Bartram's Bees Knees" brought in specially for the folkies?

The Checkmates Reformation Plan

After the Checkmates gig, Graham and I swapped thopughts on doing some more gigs in 2012. We were delighted when Raye bought into the idea as well. Of course anyone who knows me knows I have to have a master plan, so here it is:

CHECKMATEERS DEVELOPMENT CAMPAIGN 2012 +

1) BACKGROUND
Following a discussion Adrian and Graham had about the possibility of doing occasional gigs together with or without Raye, this document has been drafted to set out a development campaign outlining aspirations / issues to secure buy in by the parties.
2) STRENGTHS
Adrian and Graham have many years experience playing in and operating bands leading to ‘know how’ in:
· Playing and singing
· Vocal harmonies
· Repertoire selection sensitivity to audiences
· Showmanship and bantering
· Music Tech
· Sound quality
3) MISSION
To efficiently put together a musically versatile and entertaining small combo capable of successfully playing a wide range of club, dance and function gigs.

This ‘band’ will gig occasionally as:
a) “The Checkmates” with Raye as now
b) A version of the “Checkmates” without Raye if he is not available
c) A Rock’n’ Roll group – specialising in pre 1962 repertoire e.g. “The Rockmates”. Graham can use double bass and Mog a semi-acoustic?
d) A versatile group with a quality repertoire mix from the 50s-60s-70s eras + function and some contemporary e.g. “The Beatmates”
Raye needs to “Buy In” to this concept if we are serious about using the “****Mates” name!

We are in it primarily for enjoyment so let’s cultivate a democratic band culture around a good atmosphere of mutual respect and tolerance.
4) MARKET
Social clubs, dances, functions. The band is aiming for a few (say up to 9 ) gigs per annum. Gigs to be sourced from existing contacts e.g. direct with clubs and promoters or people who know the band members; or via agents. The band doesn’t mind travelling for gigs. Band fees are not too important but we should aim to at least cover costs with concessions for good causes.
5) REPERTOIRE
a) Specialising in 50s-60s-70s eras. The existing Checkmates repertoire can be built on with classic songs from those eras: e.g. Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Searchers, Hollies, Animals, Eagles, Queen etc. Band members should put forward some of their favourites for inclusion in the repertoire and feel free to veto a few artistes / songs they particularly don’t like.
b) We want to develop an additional repertoire of about 20 Dinner Dance and Country Function songs I.e. low key guitar instrumental features and do some vocal waltzs, foxtrots, samba etc
c) We are up for bringing in some contemporary hits e.g. Take That, Comic Relief!
6) PERFORMANCE:
a) We want to be slick in performing.
b) Strict Set Lists vs Freeform: Propose we combine the best of both worlds by having some fixed sequences of several numbers coupled to a freeform approach to reading the audience and exercising the repertoire.
c) The vision is to gig using a double Bose L1 PA; but we have loads of music equipment between us so gigging even large venues will not be a problem.
7) KEY ISSUES
a) Default is existing 3 piece format – but we can increase band size if there is a good case!
b) If Raye is not available, we want an experienced, versatile drummer (ideally with some vocals) to dep for occasional gigs. Graham contacts? Can Raye recommend someone?
c) Getting gigs. Propose we source several in Sussex at known venues (e.g.Hassocks Social) to exercise the concept before taking it further afield – Graham’s existing contacts?
d) Timing: other than taking selected Checkmates opportunities that may crop up, it is proposed we make the new band a project to commence from Spring 2012
8) OTHER ISSUES TO ADDRESSED AS WE TAKE IT FORWARD:
a) Stage Wear: Black trousers, shirt / waistcoat policy?
b) Props: Wigs and Other Dressing Up Stuff?
c) Web Site, Photo’s and Marketing Collateral.
d) Demo CD DVD: We have the gear to record the band at home or in a hall
e) Agents and Gigs: Each member of the band to look after their contacts for gigs and agents.
f) Practice and Rehearsals: Efficient Approach: The aim is to achieve a clear understanding of a song before the band meets for rehearsal. Song arrangements to be set out in writing and communicated along with sound tracks for home practice first. Then aim for a handful of constructive whole band rehearsal sessions based on individuals having done their homework.

Checkmates Re-Union King Edward Hall Lindfield

After several months off the road it was time to do the Checkmates re-union gig. Although I had done quite a bit of practice to backing tracks, I didn’t feel that match fit guitar or vocal wise. Nevertheless I ramped up the practice in the week before and was reasonably confident by the weekend. Jacqui and I spent the Friday afternoon with Dan and Michele dining at the Park Hotel Wymondham and I was all fired up for the gig on the Saturday? That was until I remembered it was a 40th Wedding Anniversary actually on the Sunday this year! Never mind – on Saturday I took the time to set all the gear up in the conservatory and make sure it was working. Next day we set off after lunch and had a good trip down arriving in Lindfield about 4:30pm. Jacqui and I stretched our legs nostalgically on Lindfield common for 20 mins or so then I parked up at the hall. The anniversary celebration was in full swing but Bryan and Carol welcomed me in and offered food. Raye was next to arrive and by then we had the curtains closed so we could set up on the stage without distracting the guests dining in the hall. We had about half the gear in when Graham arrived boasting a hernia – so I had to help him in with his bass amp which (mercifully) was just his Trace Elliott 2 x 10 combo. Set up went pretty well and I had the Mesa Lonestar as guitar amp and Bose L1 as PA all ready to go by about 6:30 pm. It was a smaller scale event than previous years with about 60 guests so we were aiming for a smaller sound. I had taken advantage of the test set up the previous day to set the T5 mic equalisers fairly flat (apart from some bass boost). Raye’s mic was quickly diagnosed as faulty with hardly any output so I set him up with my spare SM58 Beta. I also set up a SM58 for speeches! I left the Bose master about “5 to midnight” i.e. 45% of full power meaning that we were going to be relatively quiet compared to previous years. Once I got some volume on I went round the three mics and checked them all personally. No tweaking, other than volume, was needed. We ran through a couple of numbers behind the curtain - you couldn’t tell how it would sound in the hall but it reinforced the need to be on the quiet side to be safe. My MP3 player needed a bit of attention to get it to play the background music play list but I persevered and then we took a break for an hour of beer drinking and buffet indulgence before our 8pm debut. Jacqui had gone off to see one of her friends in the village but she was back by 7:30 pm. Raye’s missus Val had also arrived and Janice (Graham’s other half) came in about 7:45pm. The band gathered in the dressing room to don the green shirts and discuss the addition of the Anniversary Waltz as second number in the show; and the introduction of Summertime Blues and Walk Don’t Run into the repertoire. I didn’t have the music for Anniversary Waltz, but Graham did! So I copied the chords out in my spidery handwriting thinking that would do! It was soon show time and we gathered behind the curtains for Bryan’s introduction. As he finished we opened up with “Eyes” to a good reception from the 50 or so in at the start. This went reasonably OK. Interestingly, because Raye was using a decent mic, you could hear him quite strongly for a change. Only snag was he joined in on my harmony line rather than holding the lead line on the doo wappy doos. My harmoniser covered it up to an extent, but it meant that the 3rd above harmony was a little too pronounced in the mix. Also the echo was a bit strong? I quickly realised this was because we were running the T5 mixer relatively low, but the echo unit outputs into the analogue input straight into the Bose L1 which had been left at last New Years Eve volume! I made a few adjustments while trying to announce “Anniversary Waltz” and we set off into that with Bryan and Carol dutifully taking to the floor. Needless to say I couldn’t read my handwritten chords and had to busk it! The echo was still too heavy but I couldn’t get away from the mic to pull it down. Anyway, with the focus on Bryan and Carol, it all went down OK and I took the opportunity to fix the PA proper as Graham announced “Stand By Me”. This was going well until, as we approached the guitar solo, I realised this song wasn’t on my rehearsal list and I couldn’t remember the starting note for the solo. Never mind I thought; head for G and it will fall into place from there. So I went for the G at the right time and although it was in tune I could tell in the first few milliseconds it didn’t feel right? So I slid up until my fingers found the D it should have been. From then on the fingers remembered it well. Next up was “Heartbeat”. I had re-learned this during my time off to make the middle 8 link chords more like the record, but I hadn’t remembered to tell the others and I could see the guys were gonna do the old “doo wap” version. Well we hit both versions and it kind of seemed to work out OK – phew! As we picked and mixed our way through a selection of vintage material, it gradually gelled better and by the middle of the first set we were singing and playing well with a good balance. I did a great Shadows Walk inviting Bryan and Carol to join in on toy guitars with "Apache" and we played “Summertime Blues” as though it had always been in the repertoire. We brought the set to a close with “I Believe” which we bantered as being ‘Ibuleve the pain relief gel us old Checkmateers were advertising at the moment!’ Unfortunately Graham forgot the arrangement and in the confusion we ended up shortening it by a verse so it wasn’t quite the big finish we aimed for. Still the crowd was happy and we went off to a great round of applause. After a break for more food and speeches we came back on for set 2 in our blue shirts. We opened with “Lady is a Tramp” featuring Raye. I switched the key to A to suit but then promptly made the mistake of looking at the guitar finger board and losing my way a bit. I don’t think anyone noticed though and I nailed the solo! We played the end pretty much as Raye had asked for so he was a happy drummer. We then played through the Checkmates greatest hits (other than Eyes!). These I had rehearsed; and things went really well through “Slow boat” and “I Wonder whose Kissing Her Now”. “Red Sails” opened up well and, although I knew the solo inside out, I expected Graham to do it a verse later – so I muffed that. (Jacqui said she didn’t notice when I asked her later so maybe not too bad). The rest went well and we played a fine “Walk Don’t Run” considering we hadn’t done it before together! “Move It and All Shook Up” went well filling the dance floor. We just finished “Halfway to Paradise” when Raye caught my attention saying ‘time for “Drums”’ So, suitably announced by Graham and myself, off we went into that – it’s always amusingly different and this was no exception. Graham and I got in a muddle on the synchronised tom tom rhythms out on the floor, but we laughed it off! Then Raye had a bit of trouble getting on his back to play the bass guitar and tom tom. Graham and I finally got back on stage to play out the piece in good order and, even though it took Raye 3 attempts to catch his bounced stick, we earned a huge roar of appreciation as we finished. Time had marched on so Bryan suggested we cut our final set down if we wanted to. So we did about 30 minutes of mainly rock’n’roll starting with “Saw Her Standing There" (with Graham and myself wearing Beatle wigs) followed by a tight "Great Balls of Fire”. Next up was “Bye Bye Love” I was quite pleased with this because I worked some extra guitar riffs in the verses without distracting myself from the vocal too much. We did “Route 66” as a request for Val and followed with “Shakin All Over”. Then we slowed things down for “American Trilogy”. Graham couldn’t remember the start and we got a bit confused in the ensemble verse, but after that all went well. I even managed to switch to the flute sound for the solo successfully! We got a lot of shouts for ‘more’ as we finished so we encored with “Lucky old Sun – Early In The Morning” Raye went out front to play snare and cymbal for both numbers and we sped up nicely to a climactic finish – earning a great roar of appreciation. Raye shook hands with ‘his accompanying musicians Adrian and Graham’ and Bryan made his goodbye speech; then we were off to get changed. I was a bit achy after toting the Godin for about 2 and half hours, but it hadn’t been so bad that I’d had to pick up my reserve lightweight PRS Hollowbody. No time to relax as we set to packing up before we ran low on energy. Eventually we had the gear in the cars and said our goodbyes. Raye looked a bit shell shocked as he got off home but Graham and I were still buzzing and exchanged some thoughts about doing it again occasionally. Then it was in the car for the long run home. Actually that went very well. I stopped at the services for a toilet break but, that included, we did Lindfield to Bury St Edmunds in about 2 and half hours. Pretty tired and achy on the Monday as I got to work about 11 am. Finally, as I set about this blog I realised we hadn’t taken any photo’s - I had forgotten to give the camera to Jacqui!

Valediction

Of course it is possible the band could re-unite for occasional gigs, but most would think it has run its course working a gig circuit that is mostly in decline. In drawing up some valedictory remarks the first thing I must own up to is that I was one of the founders of the band in 2002 and played right through from its first gig in 2003 through to its last gig in 2010. I can only recall one gig (Gressenall in 2009) that I didn’t play in all that time. I had a real affinity in our approach to repertoire, vocals and entertainment with founder member Dave Lemon who passed away in Summer 2009. Our other founder Dan is a lifelong multi-talented friend who I have played with in many bands since we were teenagers; and I’m sure I will play with Dan again before we get called to the big gig in the sky. My thanks go to all the other dep’ musicians who worked with us over the years; particularly Charlie Steadman and Dave Ainsworth who both helped out on bass for several gigs in the mid-years of the band and Martin Richmond on drums and vocals who kept us going for many of the gigs in the immediate aftermath of Dave’s passing. Thinking about the final line up of the band I can say I have been privileged to work with Nigel over the last few years. Apart from being a damn fine musician to play with, he is a trouper and top bloke who never lets you down. Nige always went the extra bit to keep the band on the road fulfilling its commitments in a most professional way. Nigel is very well respected and connected in the world of East Anglian music. He sourced all 8 drummers we worked with after the trauma of Dave’s passing and sourced many of the gigs we enjoyed. Since Nigel joined in 2008 we played many different types of gigs together and I can’t recall a single gig that we didn’t play well at, whatever the circumstance - even those with no audience! And, of course, I have many fond memories of those special gigs where it all worked really well. I learned a lot from Nigel: It started with attention to musical detail, it continued with repertoire selection and I certainly learned a few things about stagecraft, sound system management and audience psychology. Nige remains a valued friend and, of course, I will be up for working with him again if circumstances allow. Young Greg joined the band in its last few months and immediately surprised us with the quality of his drumming. He is very easy to get on with and I felt there was a lot of untapped performance potential in Greg - I’m sure we would have extracted it if we were continuing! Greg lifted the band emotionally in its final few months when it became clear the band had run its course – it is a pity we didn’t find him earlier. I sense Greg will move on to greater things but I would more than pleased to work with him again.

So the Foot Tappers / Sky High finished 2010 in good form and are now enjoying a well deserved rest. It may be some time before I resume the blog, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the blogettes and blogateers who have followed the band over the years.

And to quote from Nigel’s excellent band web site http://www.foottappers.co.uk/

“The Foot Tappers are now on extended leave but whatever happens, the web site remains as our online tribute to Dave Lemon.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen and goodnight...”