Friday 21st September 2012 Colorado Southern at Chatfield’s Sports Bar, Littleton Denver USA

Jacqui and I were taking a holiday in the USA and had arranged to see Dan in Denver.  Dan said “Come along to my bands gig on the 21^st “;  “Actually one of guitarists is having an operation so you might have to deputise – and its our first night with new drummer!”  We arrived in Denver on the Thursday evening.  Denver is 7 hours behind the UK so although we were tired from the journey, we woke early the next day regardless and were up and about by 9 am. After a day exploring round Parker where Dan lives,  he ran us over to the gig about 25 miles away on the South West side of Denver.  Chatsfield’s is a typical American bar with a sizeable stage (by UK standards) at the front as you come in from the car park.  Rick had already arrived with the band’s gear in his big MPV and set up was coming together.  Dan introduced me to the guys in the band: Dennis (Telecaster & Dan’s pink Strat into a Crate valve half stack), Rick (Les Paul and Fender Twin), new drummer Robert and  Larry (Strat into Marshall half stack) now recovered from his operation;  and teed me up to come and guest on ‘Johnny B Goode’ in the last set.  As the band were setting up Jacqui and I were introduced to Christy and Betsy  (Rick and Dennis’s ladies) and we all wisely elected to drink water through band set up!  Rick was also in charge of an old Peavey PA with at least 3 monitors.  Dan was soon set up and showed me his Ibanez plugged into his  Mark Bass 1x12 combo amp.  Very compact and light amp and a very good loud sound from something so small.  There was a problem with Rick’s pedal board which absorbed some time and attention.  Meanwhile Dan and Larry were having a shot of something strong so they would be tanked up and ready to go. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problem solved but sound check would now have to be minimal with a bit of adjustment on the fly!  The band opened up with “Whiskey Rock and Roller”.  Not as loud as I expected!  I suggested a few adjustments between the opening numbers.  More treble on PA,  bring up Dan’s bass and Larry’s guitar a tad and even more top on the PA.  After a bit of fiddling, they settled into a well balanced American rock groove at the right volume for the hall.  The soundscape is interesting.  Dennis has quite a toppy guitar sound (as you’d expect with a Tele).  This fits well with Ricks more middley Les Paul sound.  The new drummer in the centre sounded good and not overloud;  and then you had another contrast on the left between the trebly sound of Larry’s Strat and Dan’s deep bass to complete a full and wide soundscape.  Rick and Larry do most of the vocal duties,  with Rick focussing on rock and Larry doing the less heavy country / blues numbers.   Dan and Dennis occasionally join in on chorus’s and there are snippets of harmony, but the genre doesn’t really call for big harmony arrangements. The bar was fairly full with a mixed crowd:  some eating,  some listening and several doing bits of dancing from the off.  Good applause at the end of numbers!   

 

 

 

Jacqui, Christy,  Betsy and I had bagged a band table and we had a waitress dedicated to the band and its followers to take drinks orders.  So I started on the beer – ‘Coors Light’ the local brew.  By the third set I was sufficiently relaxed to take Ms J for a spin on the dance floor and I had another one or two after that.  By the start of the 4^th set it was getting on for 7am UK time and I was feeling a tired and just getting a bit chilly.  So when I was called up to join in an extended Johnny B Goode I was a bit taken unawares – straight off I forgot to give Jacqui the camera.  Rick kindly lent me his Les Paul (and pick).  I strapped it on;  it was quite low slung but not really polite to adjust it.  I gave it a strum and it sounded good so off went.   Dennis started and I picked up the opening riff with him.  I think I play it a bit more like the record but it didn’t sound too conflicted with two lead guitars playing slightly different lines so we pressed on.  As we got to the verse I came into some familiar territory as I heard Dan belting the vocal out,  so I put in my ‘patent’ open A with added C/G notes to the basic riff to countrify and  underpin Dennis’s playing higher up the neck. 

The low slung guitar meant I had to keep my head down so no chance to look up for band signals,  but the solo came where I expected and Dennis and I doubled and traded solos through a few 12 bars.  I thought we got it pretty good despite the booze; in fact the Les Paul played really well allowing me to try out some quite fast licks!  After a few more verses and solos it was all over. 

I handed the guitar back to Rick,  mentioning that his pick was in the strings, and strode through the crowd for a rest,  pausing to “hi five” Christy who said: “Awesome Rocking” or something similar.  Rick immediately forgot where the pick was and the intro to the next number was interesting ‘til he found it tucked in the strings.  The remainder of the set passed quickly and it was pack up time at 1am Denver US time = 8am UK time.  The band had been very well received and a couple of guys came up to buy them a round of drinks!   By the time the band got loaded and we got back to Dan’s it was approaching 3 am and we were well due a long sleep – today being another tomorrow or something like that!   Actually after that night we adjusted pretty well to US time and the rest of the trip went well.  We spent a great few days with Dan looking round Colorado,  visiting bars and quilting and guitar shops.  On the Wednesday Jacqui and I took an AMTRAK train over the Rockies to Sacramento to see the 150 year celebration of the start of the Union Pacific railroad which forged the first rail line through the Rockies.  With temperatures in the high 30’s we had a fine time in Sacramento.   Also couldn’t resist visiting Folsom Prison while we were in California.  All too soon it was over and we were back in the grey wet UK.  Well,  I have now achieved one of my ambitions - to perform in the USA!

  

The Checkmates at the big Lindfield Charity Bash

Raye had booked us up for this gig in the knowledge that Graham would be having a big operation to remove a tumour in the chest.  The operation was a big success but it was understood it would be several months before he was fully fit again.  So what was agreed was that another band “The Trojans” would be booked as well as “The Checkmates”  for a big Lindfield Charity Bash.  We would borrow the Trojans gear and each band would do 2 sets.  We were positioned as headlining so we would be on second and finish the night with the final set.   The minimum I would need is just a guitar!

On the day I packed a Bose in (just in case!) and decided to take my Roland GT10 FX,   DIgitech harmoniser and Roland GR33 synth;  oh and my Audix OM5 Mic and stand (just in case).  So the car was quite full as Jacqui and I set off about 3pm on a beautifully sunny day for Sussex.   We arrived about 5:45pm and,  ‘cos we had agreed to meet the others at 6:30pm,  Jacqui and I had a drink in the White Horse.  Its been ‘done up’ but it was a bit nostalgic ‘cos I used to take my dad in there in the 90’s.   As we came out the pub we saw Raye arrive and had just said our greetings when Graham and his missus Janice rolled up.  Superficially he looked fine,  but Janice said he had spent most of the previous day at hospital with shortness of breath.   Graham admitted he wasn’t in best shape but as a trouper he wanted to do the gig!   We wandered into the hall and met up with the Trojans.  They seemed to be led by Amanda and it was her well used Carlsbro PA that was set up for vocals. Rick the roadie showed me his Fender Chorus which he had kindly brought along specially for me to use (their guitarist and his AC30 would be heading off back to Somerset immediately after their second set).  Graham had the use of the bassists Laney stack with a 4 x 12 cab on each side of the drums.   After they had sound checked,  we plugged our gear and mics in and had a run through.  Even though I have a Fender Chorus at home, I had trouble getting a good sound out of Rick’s.  This turned out to be due to a mismatch of output settings on the GT10 and once I fixed that and pushed up the middle on the amp quite a bit,  it sounded fine.  The basic mic sound was OK and I had my own control over it from tone controls on the harmoniser.  As the stage was very busy with leads guitars mics etc,  I decided to abandon the idea of using the synth in the first set.   We sound checked with bits of “Wonder,  Blue Suede, Summertime Blues and Apache” and retired happy enough to have a beer,  a sit down and a chat with the other band.  I showed Amanda a list of songs we were going to do.  There were only a couple that were also in their set (Apache and Blue Suede Shoes) and she agreed they would avoid them. After a beer it was show time.  The gig had sold out and the hall was full!  The Trojans opened their set with a bunch of Shadows instrumentals. 

 

 

 

Good lead sound with an old Fender strat through a new AC30.  Then Amanda came on and they did a few female rocking pieces starting with Stupid Cupid. Towards the end she went on the drums and her father came out to sing a couple of classics like “Jezabel”.  We Checkmateers slinked off to the dressing room to get our outfits ready and get motivated.  We left the shirt change so we could come on the stage to re-arrange the gear.  Raye and Graham were soon ready but coming back onto the dark stage amidst a sea of wires it was a bit hit and miss for me and it took me a few minutes to get sorted.  We quickly popped back to the dressing room to don our green shirts and returned to open with “Eyes”.  The sound was a bit weak initially but we got it right towards the end of of the song.   The audience didn’t mind – they were singing along loudly and gave us a wonderful welcome!   We carried on with “Cathy’s Clown – Bye Bye Love”.  By now I had made some further adjustments to the vocal sound so we were able to carry on through the set with a tight performance,  strong vocals,  good relaxed banter and no noticeable mistakes!  Next up was “Blue Suede” which went very well and was well received.  Then we did “I Believe and Raining in My Heart” as two short slowies to get the romantics our on the dance floor.  As we came to Apache I signalled to Raye and Graham that I would be doing the Shadows walk.  I put the guitar on the edge of the stage and jumped off,  jarring my knees a little!   I put the guitar on and off we went. 

 

 

 

This was quite amusing for the audience,  but I was also able to judge the sound while I was out there – definitely brighter than on stage,  but about the right volume and mix.  As I finished I got a fantastic reception – a wonderful round of applause that made me forget about the knees.  I resumed with the boys reminding the audience that the Shads were Sir Cliffs backing band and setting off into “Move It”.  This immediately filled the floor and carrying on with “Summertime Blues” continued the dancey atmosphere.  We did “Red Sails – Them There Eyes” as two of the Checkmates hits from the 60’s and then gave Raye a drum display opportunity with “Wipe Out”  I had chosen “Make Believe” as the finisher for the set.  I checked Graham was up for it and we gave a strong closing performance of it with the audience singing along lustily.  I did miss the synth strings in this one but I don’t think anyone else was bothered.   Our finish timing was perfect for the start of the buffet and the Trojans had the great idea of playing a set of Shadows numbers as a wonderful backdrop to the meal.   After a while Amanda came on to do her bit and we retired to the dressing room to take stock.  Graham was still suffering a bit but said he would carry on - he felt worse sitting around but felt better on stage!  The Trojans finished their set and then they cleared a lot of their gear from the stage.  For this set I had to set up my mic stand  and untangling my FX pedals from the mess on stage did disrupt settings ‘cos I couldn’t get the guitar or mic to work initially.  I eventually traced the problem of the mic to the harmoniser knob which had been fully twisted clockwise to cut out the mic thru signal.  In the dark and confusion of wires I couldn’t find why the guitar was so weak, so I turned the amp up and we opened up with “Walk Don’t Run”.   We carried on with “Slow Boat” and looking around the floor I spotted the problem.  Oddly enough it was the opposite problem with the guitar – the GT10 volume had been twisted fully anti-clockwise to minimise the guitar signal.  These things happen as gear is moved around on a busy stage.  There was nothing I could do until the end of the number,  but then I was able to fix it.  So “Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” went better.  Now it was time for an abridged version of “Let There Be Drums”.  We didn’t go on the floor,  but Raye was able to satisfy some audience expectations by playing Graham’s Bass on-stage.  I messed up the count in and run up to the final section but we covered up OK and basked in the well earned applause at the end.  “Halfway to Paradise” went surprisingly well. This was a number I had been rehearsing at home and I was pleased with my vocal performance even though the audience was singing along nearly as loud as the band!   We rattled through “Saw Her Standing There” and “Shakin All Over” and then dedicated “Route 66” to Raye’s missus Val.  Coincidently it  was her 66^th birthday the next day so we did it as “Route 36”.   Next up was “American Trilogy”.  The band was a bit loose on timings but we got through it in good order with the audience singing along.  I missed the synth again but substituted a strong guitar solo for the flute bit.  We were beginning to tire a little,  but we pressed on to the big finale with “Lucky Old Sun” and Raye came out front for the big finish with “Early in the Morning”.  I set off speeding the end up a bit earlier than normal and as we got to the final beats we were racing at top speed = much faster than normal - oddly enough the audience loved it!  

 

 

We encored with “Eyes” earning more applause and shouts for more;  but we were concerned for Graham and decided to stop at 11:45pm leaving them wanting more!   All in all a great night considering the circumstances.   Pack up was easy and we did our goodbyes and got Graham off by about 12:15am.  Raye and I got off shortly after and Jacqui and I settled in for the long run home to Suffolk,  it was about 2:45 am when we got back and it took a good couple of days to recover!