A lot has happened bandwise in the last couple of weeks. I responded to a “Join My Band “ ad from a
local bassist and drummer looking for a guitar vocalist to do 50’s 60’s and
country. I had a try out session with Chris Hutton (bass) and Chris Burgiss (drums)
in Horringer Community Centre and agreed there was potential to take the band
forward doing non-complex 50’s – 70’s pop for pubs, clubs etc. Chris the Drum sings a bit of karaoke so I
expect he will work in on vocals as we go,
but initially he wanted to just concentrate on drumming. So I would need to be the principal vocalist
going forward! The guys also asked me to
take on musical direction to work up 3 x 45 club sets. Sleeping on it I figured that the singing
challenge was something I wanted to do.
It would allow me to develop my vocal capability and by keeping the repertoire
based on easy wins the musical director role would be not too demanding. I quickly melded a list of stuff Chris the Bass
knew with easier stuff I knew and we agreed to work on that. Then we had a practice session at the Priors
pub. I was using a single Bose L1 T1 for vocals and guitar and I rigged up the
harmoniser in a better way than in the past.
Basically I separate out the harmonies from the main vocal so there are
separate T1 mixer channels for main vocal and harmoniser – this allows the OM5
mic to get optimum tone matching without having to compromise to also take
account of harmonies from the Digitech harmoniser. It results in a noticeable improvement in
sound quality – unfortunately the voice is the same and I need to work a bit
harder on singing better. Chris the
Bass has a Harkte stack nand a G&L
Telecaster bass – it sounds fine for this type of band. The practice went well enough. Chris the Drum’s wife Trudi came along, recorded some bits on her iPhone and was
quite complimentary on the sound. She
also came up with some ideas for the band name.
Next practice we were at a bar attached to an Indian restaurant at Barnham. I tried out both Bose’s here and proved it
all worked. But in a small hall you can’t
exploit width with a stereo mix too well and, although I tried some tricks like
putting echo thru one side and vocal thru the other, I concluded that we definitely only need one
Bose for small to medium halls until we get more vocals going. Makes set up
quicker too! At this session we looked
at Trudi’s band name suggestions and agreed “ReTrio” as the name, so that was a step forward! There is still a lot to do in rehearsing the
guys thru the repertoire – stops, starts,
drum fills and subtle chords etc.
So I’ve given the guys CD’s with a play list of all the songs we agreed
to have a go at to get them familiar. Below
is a list of the songs we are working on – but I guess some might not persist
and others may come in as we go thru them.
We don’t currently have any gigs as a deadline, but I reckon we could
muddle thru if something came in!
FLINGEL BUNT Shadows
JUST ONE LOOK Hollies
HEARTBEAT Buddy Holly
WALK RIGHT BACK Everly Brothers
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED Everly
Brothers
BLUE SUEDE SHOES Elvis
Presley
BEAUTIFUL BODY Bellamy Bros
PEACEFUL EASY FEELING Eagles
CRYSTAL CHANDELIERS Charlie
Pride
CHEATING HEART Ray Charles
APACHE Shadows
MOVE IT Cliff
BE BOP A LULA Gene Vincent
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK Bill
Haley
THAT'S ALRIGHT MAMA Elvis
Presley
FERRY CROSS THE MERSEY Gerry
and Pacemakers
EIGHT DAYS A WEEK Beatles
ALL SHOOK UP Elvis Presley
SUMMERTIME BLUES Eddie
Cochrane
I BELIEVE Bachelors
GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME Tom
Jones
WALK DON'T RUN Ventures
MR TAMBOURINE MAN Byrds
WALK IN THE ROOM Searchers
DON'T THROW YOUR LOVE AWAY Searchers
LIVING NEXT DOOR TO ALICE Smokie
DAYDREAM BELIEVER Monkees
FEVER Peggy Lee
HALFWAY TO PARADISE Billy Fury
RAINING IN MY HEART Buddy
Holly
FBI Shadows
FOLSOM PRISON BLUES Johnny Cash
SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL Bill Haley
I CAN'T STOP LOVIN YOU Ray
Charles
BAD MOON RISIN Creedence
Clearwater
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES Drifters
RUNAROUND SUE Dion and the
Belmonts
BYE BYE LOVE Everly
Brothers
GREEN DOOR Frankie
Vaughan
LOVE POTION NO 9 Searchers
WANDERER Dion and the Belmonts
SWEET CAROLINE Neil Diamond
WONDER OF YOU Elvis Presley
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE Jerry
Lee Lewis
RIP IT UP Little Richard
ACHEY BREAKY HEART Billy Ray
Cyrus
DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY Mavericks
PRETTY WOMAN Roy Orbison
JAILHOUSE ROCK Elvis Presley
SHAKING ALL OVER Johnny Kidd and
Pirates
LET’S TWIST AGAIN Chubby Checker
HI HO SILVER LINING Jeff
Beck
WIPE OUT Surfaris
HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE Swinging
Blue Jeans
I SAW HER STANDING THERE Beatles
LOVE IS ALL AROUND Troggs
Wet Wet
CAROLINE Status Quo
ROUTE 66 Stones
WISHING WELL Free
MUSTANG SALLY Wilson Pickett
HONKY TONK WOMEN Stones
ALL RIGHT NOW Free
BORN TO BE WILD Steppenwolf
JOHNNY B. GOODE Chuck Berry
WONDERFUL TONIGHT Eric
Clapton
