ReTrio at The Victoria Pub Thurston Bury St Edmunds

In the week I had procured 2 x stereo mini jack to mono jack leads to deal with the MP3 player crackling. We had lined a few supporters up for this gig and had good expectations.  I set off at 6:15,  Jacqui said she would come over with Bridget later.  As I arrived I could see the rhythm section (Chris and Chris) setting up through the window. 

I came into the performance area and I was pleased to see Trudy was better and able to attend the gig. The two Chris's had completed set up leaving me a luxurious amount of room - I was able to set up the single Bose slightly away from the wall which would help the sound.  Set up went well and we sound checked with "Smilin" - even getting a small round of applause for it.  It sounded good to me and Chris the bass reported a good vocal sound on his side so I didn't fiddle with the mix at all at this stage.  So all was well as I plugged in the mp3 player to set the background muzak going and strode over to the bar to get the beers in.  Here I was greeted by a distressed looking bar girl who delivered the beer along with the tale of woe - she had just been told that Green King had decided to close the pub in the New Year. Terrible time to tell them I thought.

Jacqui and Bridget arrived and got good seats in front of the band.  As we got ready for the start, in comes my business partner Justin with wife Ruth and her mum and dad, and her friend Rachel.  There must have been about 20 of our supporters and maybe as many locals as we opened with "Flingel Bunt".  It was a slightly nervy beginning to the set (no mistakes as such, just got some of the words in wrong order) but,  after "Groovy Kind of Love",  we settled into a relaxed bantery vibe and played a good set to a good audience response.  The Xmas song "Rockin Around the Xmas Tree" went very well.  Finishing off with the "Green Grass" we got a good round of applause.  Did a bit of mingling in the break and all said how good it sounded including Jacqui, who has seen me in some good sounding bands over the years. 

 

 

Rachel doing a red hat moment

Just as we were about to return for set 2 I heard the dreaded mp3 player crackle again!.  I couldn't believe it!!  I had changed leads and players and could only assume there was corruption of the data on the identically programmed players.  Changing players again only fixed it for a few songs?  I gave up and we went on for a creditable set 2. As we got to "Get Back",  I noticed Ringo had appeared on the drums again! By set 3 Rachel was in a very happy mood and requested a Fleetwood Mac song as we were taking to the stage.  So we obliged by opening with "Albatross".  Couple of songs later she requested something by the Stones - again we obliged.  I called for "Honky Tonk Women" which we hadn't played since a rehearsal in the Spring. The two Chris's started up with what sounded suspiciously like "Mustang Sally" so I called a halt and we bantered a bit until I reminded them of the start to "Honky Tonk".  All very friendly and relaxed I must say and then off we went and played it pretty flawlessly.  The guys are getting much better at improvising basic songs!  We played out a good 3rd set finishing with "Johnny B Goode" with much better band sign off outro's that were well applauded by the crowd.   Encoring with another freak out version of "Born to Be Wild",  we did manage to finish together - which I was very pleased with.  In the band we all agreed it had been a very good night.  After a stiff start we had played a relaxed but rhythmically strong night.  It is true that Chris the drum still has a bit of trouble remembering starts and stops and 'non stops' but he works hard and wants to get it right,  so I know it will come together next year.  Jacqui told me later at home that it was the best the band had sounded and it was nice to see us working so well together and creating a good vibe - any mistakes we made were not that visible to the audience. 

Post script. Next day I set up the PA and the mp3 player to sort the crackling out.  I proved that there was no data corruption earlier by playing the player through its own speaker for an hour.  Plugged in, sure enough, the crackling started up after about 10 minutes.  Changing the player it worked for another 10 minutes then it started again?  Now I tested the theory that it was the low impedance mp3 player output struggling to keep going into a high impedance input.  Simply turning down the volume on the player from 80% to 70% cured it instantly.  The output stage must warm up and start cutting out under miss match load!  So problem is fixed by lowering volume on the player and increasing the gain trim on the mixer input!

ReTrio at The Tollgate Pub Bury St Edmunds

I was looking forward to a return gig here because it was a known, if somewhat tight, single Bose set up and I had decided at last to 'bite the bullet' and use the Line 6 digital mixer for its first live gig.  To that end I had spent a couple of hours on the Saturday afternoon going through and tweaking set up in my back room.  I didn't have access to the two SM58 clones the boys were using,  but could simulate using a spare SM58 (or so I thought).  I decided to use the Line 6 mic pre-sets as supplied and it sounded just fine in my music room.  Not quite as toppy and bottomy as the Bose T1,  but seemed to cut through well. Despite a really great onboard FX section,  we would still be using the Digitech Harmoniser and Vocal 300 delay as outboard to get the benefits of foot switching.  The most complicated Line 6 mixer thing is setting up monitor settings as aux send and applying them logically to the programmable control sensor knobs.  I also set up a spare line in for channel 13 just in case we needed to plug in a mono source.   Happy that I had covered everything I loaded up satisfied with the decision to use it.  However,  I did notice I was also loading in the bag with the T1 mixer and leads (just in case?).

 
I got to the gig at 6:30pm to find the boys with their gear in place.  It is very tight so I explained I would need every inch they could give.  To their credit they leapt into action and found an extra 6 inches - luxury!  They had already relocated the Xmas tree and it was a problem to get to the mains socket behind it. There was no other socket nearby! In the end I ran a long extension past the tree then behind the bass stack and drums to my area.  I got the gear neatly set up with a cable run past the drums to all the FX,  leaving about a 9 inch path beyond my Roland GT10 on the other side that people could use to squeeze through to the other bar (not the only route though).  Before I started on the PA I agreed to test out Chris's new bass settings.  The previous gig had seen things being vibrated off shelves and amps due to the powerful sub-bass and the kitchen staff had complained that it was interfering with their cooking!?!.   So I played some funky bass riffs on his new settings while he walked the room. He had reduced the bass and sub-bass from just under 50% to about 12% leaving middle and top as they were.  In front of the amp I thought the sound had been suitably tamed,  but Chris the drum was still reporting vibrations.  I took the view that you would never get rid of sympathetic vibrations completely in a pub and it would emasculate the sound completely to take it down any further.  Chris the bass returned from his walk declaring himself satisfied so we called it a wrap.    Next the moment of truth came as I powered up the PA to a squeal of feedback that was quickly suppressed by the anti feedback filters in the mixer.  I decided to set up the 2 Chris's mics first. Strangely the two mics were quite dissimilar with Chris the drums' being much bassier.  Both needed some top end adding compared to a Shure and I used the 'simple tweak' on the mixer where you move your finger over a X Y grid on the screen to give the right mix of terms like: deep, clarity, air and scoop rather than conventional EQ.  With theirs roughly sorted,  I had a go at mine and was pleased to hear that what sounded good at home also sounded good in the hall,  so no EQ changes needed!  I spent most of my time getting the relative mix between my mic and the harmoniser right.   The FX loop worked well and only needed a little level adjustment.  The guitar sound was a bit bass heavy so I tweaked that a little.  Strings sounded OK and clear on a flat EQ and I left it alone.  There was a slight gremlin in that the guitar wouldn't switch the synth programs.  I only use it for strings and flute so not catastrophic,  but I found the 13 pin lead into the synth wasn't pushed in far enough home and re-inserting it fixed the problem.  Finally,  I plugged the MP3 player into the (unlucky?) spare channel 13 using the newish lead I had fabricated - it sounded fine.  I put our muzak on at 8:10 and popped out to the car to get my waistcoat when I noticed I had forgotten to change my trousers?  Fortunately there was a spare pair in my suit bag and I was able to get changed in the toilet before things got messy in there.  Chris the bass had a few supporters arrive in the shape of his missus Bridget,  Abbie,  Nathan and Richard, and one other whose name escapes me?  The dining area was busy but the bar where we were playing was fairly quiet.  I had a word with a chap who had come specially to see us;  used to live in Manchester and was a neighbour and childhood friend of Wayne Fontana.  I promised him a Mindbenders song once we got going!

Started off with the usual.  All was OK,  guitar was maybe still a tad bassy but I didn't feel an immediate need to adjust things until a few numbers in.  Actually I thought it was a good balance:  the reduced sub-bass allowing the bass to sit better in the soundscape and no strange vibrations of the walls and ceilings to worry about!  The vocal sound was different:  it sounded clearer to me but not as toppy,  but that could be the venue.  The harmoniser was also clearer and better balanced than of late.  It was only when Chris the drum sang "Ring of Fire" that I attempted to make an adjustment to bring his vocal up a bit.  Identifying the sensor to do that was trickier than a conventional mixer.   Band performance had been good up to now but, apart from a couple of stalwarts, we were getting little response and now we were at our first red hat moment.  'Red hats on boys' I announced as we readied ourselves for the first Xmas song of the night:  "Rockin Around the Xmas Tree".  I pretty happy with the way it went for a first time out - it was tight and no mistakes!  I expected some audience reaction,  but there was no significant response - 'oh dear' it would be one of those nights;  best to just plough on and concentrate on getting things right.  We got to the end of the set finishing with an abridged version of "Green Grass" with virtually no audience reaction.  While we were off I took some more of the top off Chris the drum's mic to get more volume on it - I think I got it as good as it can be with this clone mic.

We resumed for set 2 with "Apache". As usual I took the opportunity to step out front and listen to the band.  It sounded pretty well balanced to me and I was very pleased with the guitar sound.  We followed this up with a bit of banter about who the Shadows used to back? - no audience response whatsoever; so I had to do a Bruce Forsythe and look at the band for an answer!  They didn't know either so off we went into: "Do You Wanna Dance".  I made a mistake in the solo because I was trying to look at the set list,  but otherwise it was OK.  "Delilah" got a smattering of audience reaction so I had medium hopes for "White Xmas" the xmas song in this set.  I thought we played it pretty well,  but to no avail.  To be fair,  apart from some of our supporters,  hidden away in an alcove,  there was no one in the bar we could see. But I suspected the people in the dining area we enjoying it because twice we had couples exiting from the dining room via the bar who waved approvingly at the band - so maybe we were going down well there (i.e. the real audience was out of sight and sound!)?   We carried on through the set in good order doing creditable performances of Don't Stop",  "Get Back"  (turned round to count it in and Chris the drum had dressed up in Beatle wig and John Lennon specs - brilliant!),  Yellow River and "Amarillo".  I was delighted to get this mostly right and we all finished together in the right key!  Chris the bass indicated time was up but I called for one more: "Wonder of You" to finish  (I was keen to exercise this).  We got off to a shakey start as the boys were late to join in,  getting in just before the verse vocal.  Then all went well until the solo where I got distracted and messed up - flubbing the fingers to get through:  but we did the end OK.  I did the safe ending of singing the last line down rather than attempting the high G and this worked well. 

In the break the MP3 player started crackling again so,  rather than try and fix it,  I got the band on for set 3.  Second number in I messed up the middle of "Pretty Woman" badly.  I had left the guitar on the rock sound group (in error) on the Roland GT10.  Not a problem until the middle when I went to footswitch 3 for what should have been the tremolo sound and got a distorted overdrive instead.  It is this point in the song that there are a lot of chords and, although I kept singing,  it took some footwork and missed chords before I got back in on the right sound - doh!  A couple of chaps had arrived at the bar by then and were taking an interest so that gave some audience to play to - we even got some applause from them for "Sweet Caroline" and "American Trilogy".  We then embarked on Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" with Chris the drum doing the lead vocal.  The good news was we played it through intact and at the right pace.  The harmonies could have been tighter; my excuse was I was playing from memory and couldn't remember the words! Also I felt the band was a little too loose - but it was first time out and it is relatively complex.  It raised a bit of response for the guys at the bar!  We ran down to the finish with a tight and rocking "Hippy Hippy Shakes". I was pleased with that but we were already overdue on finishing time so I called for "Johnny B Goode" as the last song.  This went well and as we did the 'Outroductions" we got some applause for each member of the band.   'Good night audience' I quipped as the two fellas at the bar left and they waved good night back.  I wondered who they were;  then Chris the drum explained they were from a rival local 60s band - ah that explained why they looked interested!   The landlord apologised for the poor turn out in the bar,  but added that a lot of the diners had enjoyed it and commented favourably! We were soon packed up and off home getting in before midnight.  Not a great night but good for our development I think; and I was pleased with the use of the Line 6 mixer.  Chris the bass felt the vocal sound from it was a bit thin compared to the Bose or Mackie.  I was using the pre-set sound on my mic and it sounded good where I was.  And this gig has unusual acoustics I remembered -  but I'll check things out at the next gig!  

ReTrio at The Moreton Hall Pub Bury St Edmunds

Jacqui and I flew back from Lanzarote on the Thursday,  but a combination of late plane and taxi wait meant that our drive home from the car park at the Copthorne Hotel was delayed and we didn't get in until about 2am Friday.  We had a lot of admin to deal with at home so I was still tired and out of practice on the Saturday gig day;  but at least it was exceedingly local. 

We had previously agreed to take all the gear and sus out how much we could set up when we got there.  I decided to chicken out of using the Line 6 mixer and,  thinking there would be little room,  I brought a small Bose T1 mixer along just in case.   Good job I did,  'cos after I wandered into where I thought the band would be playing I was re-directed to a small alcove on the North side of the pub where the boys were setting up already.  Although we could squeeze one Bose L1 next to the bass stack there would be little room to get at the mixer if we put it its usual place on the B1 bass bins.  So I made a quick decision to set up just the one Bose L1 on the right of the bass stack and use the small T1 mixer located on a shelf on the other side near where I would be playing.  This would involve a few compromises. The drum and bass vocal mics would share channel 2 by plugging them into a splitter/combiner transformer box.  No string synth.  Also the delay return would share levels and EQ with the guitar through channel 4/5, and there would need to be some changes to harmoniser and delay input and output levels to maintain an undistorted gain structure.  I will need to revisit this when we start using the Line 6 mixer,  I suspect mic level connections will be better than the current line level connections.  The pub was quite busy as we set up and we shifted the cases and covers back to the cars to keep things tidy.  I plugged our muzak player into the guitar input and it sounded OK EQ wise,  so just set level on the player.  Only trouble was:  I was using a very old stereo mini jack to mono jack lead and it was a bit crackly.  The house PA was playing modern stuff and I decided to leave that until we started our show in a couple of beers time! 

We had a few followers from Chris the bass's family and the pub was hosting a Xmas meal event over on the South side,  so it was reasonably busy as we started up.  A few numbers in I had my vocal set right but Chris the drum was quite low in the vocal mix.  Controlling feedback on the T1 mixer was a bit of  a problem and I struggled to get it right through most of the set.  During the break I tinkered with the Chris's vocal EQ  bringing down the top end and the PA was better but not perfect as we opened set 2 with "Apache" - walking out front a little I could hear the instrumental balance was fine and the guitar sounded very good.  We had one new number to play early on in this set:  "Happy Together" featuring Chris the drum on lead vocal to which I would add my harmonised vocal.  At practice it had gone so well we were confident to bring it into the set tonight. I announced it as a new one for us and opened up with the guitar riff.  That was OK,  but it took Chris some time to get in on the vocal and from then we all struggled to remember the arrangement - and the vocal sound could have been better.  There was little audience response at the end so they must have been aware it was a bit ragged.  I quickly soldiered on with "Daydream Believer" which got the bar girls and some of the audience singing and dancing along.  Next up was "Delilah" which brought the house down as usual and from then on the set went pretty well with this crowd.  We chose to finish with the 70's sequence "Hot Love (a bit fast?),  Yellow River,  Amarillo"  which we performed well and got a good response for.  As we were already over time we omitted the usual finisher "Wonder of You".  I wasn't unhappy about this 'cos holidaying away in warm climes,  my voice was beginning to crack already.  Talking about cracking,  the crackly lead on the Muzak player got very bad in this interval and I had to faff around with it a lot to keep things going (when I got home I cut the lead up and threw most of it out;  only reusing the moulded stereo mini jack which I am sure was OK - we will see!). 
Set 3 went down well: the drink had started to take hold and we were on our dancier set list.  By the time we got to "Saturday Night at the Movies" we had the audience and bar staff well involved in sing-a-long-a-dancing.  One problem though: my voice was getting rough and "American Trilogy" was such a struggle I called for "F B I" to follow to rest it.  Unfortunately, I then messed up the middle of that and had to 'flub' us back to the verse!  As we went on, things seemed to go a bit awry with the two Chris's as I linked several rocky numbers together towards the end (e.g. "Hi Ho, Really Got Me, Alright Now, Caroline") -  losing sheets, forgetting arrangements and getting off in the wrong key,  but not so bad the audience noticed.  I'm sure this is down to lack of familiarity with my approach to reading audiences and picking songs to suit rather than following a strict list;  but I'm sure all will be well as we get a bit more playing time under our belts!  We signed off with "Johnny B Goode",  I thanked the audience and the bar girls in particular for their enthusiasm and said how much we were in awe of the bar staff's ability to sing, dance and pull pints at the same time.  'It's called multi-tasking - women can do it" one of them quipped back.  We encored with an even wilder version than usual of "Born to be Wild" which I could not get the Chris's to finish.  So from a promising beginning it staggered into an undisciplined freak out ending,  authentically typical,  and very reminiscent, of some of the wilder bands from my far past that I had played in.  It was a hoot though! 

As we packed up there were a few folks passing by making favourable comments which was good to hear and Chris came back from a visit to see the management with an excellent report and 2 more gigs!  Pack up went smoother than set up and we were soon ready for the off.  I gave Lewis a lift back to Chris's house and was still home 5 minutes after leaving the pub.  Overall a good night but still plenty of potential for us to improve.

ReTrio at The Greengage Bury St Edmunds

The band resumed touring the pub circuit with a gig at the Greengage.  Chris the bass had had some reservations about playing this one,  so a few weeks previously we had been on a band outing for a beer with the manager to inspect the place.  It was lively but had recently been refurbished and Krin (the manager) had explained there would be a bouncer on the door.  No trouble on that night so we decided to give it a go and here we were!  As I drove off from the house a car came up behind flashing its lights.  After a scary thought about police, I realised it was Chris the bass - we were well met and en route to the gig in convoy by accident!  5 minutes later we pulled into the busy car park.  I reversed in towards the smoking area where the door to the playing area was.  Chris the drum was already there setting up.  After moving the smokers table a few yards, I guided Chris the bass into a tight squeeze behind me - worth doing because we would now be parked up for the night.
 There was just enough room for both Bose but had to place the right hand side 2nd B1 bin on its side to squeeze in next to the bass stack. Chris tried out his repaired Harkte amp - worked OK but hasn't the depth of sound or punch of the Ashdown.  However,  when he got the Ashdown going I had to advise turning down the sub-bass a tad because it was just too loud and floor was vibrating.  To demonstrate what I meant,  I played the bass while he moved round the room.  We eventually settled on a workable compromise to reflect the fact we would be generally at our "rockiest" on this night.   The rest of set up went OK and we ran through "Just One Look" to test it out.  I had a bit of trouble with toppy feedback which we ironed out using the graphic on the Mackie Mixer.  

Chris the bass had phoned his missus to bring his forgotten music stand and she arrived as we were getting the beers in.  A bunch of the 2 Chris's relatives and friends drifted in, followed shortly after by Jacqui, Claire, Nick and Claire's friend Holly - so we had a good home crowd to cheer us on!

 

The pub was fairly busy as we got underway at 8:30 with 'Flingel Bunt'. After a quietish drum opening there was a good quality band sound if a little loud (apparently Nick in front of us resorted to ear plugs).  Most of our supporters were far enough away over in the alcove on the left not to be bothered by volume and later reported a good tight sound!  As we finished there was a reasonable ripple of applause and I took the opportunity to introduce the band telling the audience that 'the Hitch Hikers Guide stated that the meaning of life is 42 and strangely it was 42 years to the night since the two Chris's played their first gig at this very venue - making their debut in The Ghost Riders.   We carried on with the usual flow: "Just One Look,  Heartbeat, Smiling, Groovy Kind of Love".  I dedicated "When My Little Girl is Smiling" to Claire and she loved it!  Next up was "Ring of Fire" featuring Chris the drum.  He got a good reception from the supporters before we even started.  Once underway I had to bring his mic up a bit - I had set it down because he has a very powerful voice at times.  We played it well and finished tight together to a loud round of applause.  After "Blue Suede" (in which Chris the bass again forgot the key change in the second solo) we were lined up to do a new song for the band (but an old song for me).  Chris the bass introduced me and my notoriety with the Checkmates and we set off with the band debut of "Eyes".  The harmony intro was pretty ropey,  so I motioned them to go round again and then we got underway with the song proper.  Actually it went ok apart from the backing singing which was mostly absent or not as rehearsed - nothing the audience would notice however.  Next was a sixties session starting with "Ferry Cross Mersey" to set the Merseybeat theme.  We have played this every gig so far and it sounds together and big with the strings filling the sound out nicely and the vocal on a big 450 mS echo floating above.  Trying a bit of banter I introduced "8 Days A Week" from the Beatles by telling the audience that Chris the bass worked very hard.  One of his workmates came up shortly after to tell us that Chris was more of a 2 day a week man!  "Tambourine Man and Walk in the Room" continued the sixties theme and went down well as usual.  We rattled through "Runaround Sue and All Shook Up" confidently - we were a little surprised at the lack of dance and sing-a-long action so far but we seemed to be doing ok.  Chris the drum suggested "Nights in White Satin" to finish as most appropriate for this gig.  So off we went.  It went pretty good apart from Chris the bass losing his way a little in the solo (which I had to also 'da da da da' to as there was no flute);  and we went for the big finish with full strings and voices crescendoing to tease out a good audience reception.  Throughout the set there had been a few ordinary pub goers in front of us who seemed really into our show and applauded everything strongly;  but as the break arrived it seemed they had to go - a couple waving goodbye as they left.
 
After the break we embarked on set 2 with "Apache".  As I went out front to do a stroll the guitar lead caught on the Roland FX pedal and switched the sound - I calmly danced back and reset it,  but this happened again so I had to keep the moves quite lightweight.  While I was out front I could judge the guitar sound - and I was very pleased with it!  We were getting good applause from our supporters but the pub  itself remained a bit semi-detached?  We followed up with: "Do You Wanna Dance" and on this night I can say I played the solo as I intended without any glitches,  Chris the drum sang a good harmony and we got a good response for it.  Another number that has come together well! 

 

After "Delilah" which went very well as usual we did some rock 'n' roll and then embarked on a new number for the band: "Get Back".  This did swing quite well and it turned out to be one of the few numbers we did on the night that brought people up to dance.  The two Chris's need to nail that low 'Get Back' harmony though!  Next we set off on a seventies sequence of "Dont Stop, Yellow River, Hot Love and Amarillo"  The last 3 were debut performances for the band.  "Yellow River" worked well with Chris the drum singing the lead and just me on the high harmony - it must be in our DNA to play this confidently 'cos it hadn't had much rehearsal!  "Hot Love" is a straightforward number which we had improvised well at practice but I had subsequently insisted on learning it like the record and on the night we all got a bit confused with the breaks and arrangement - again nothing the audience would notice and easily fixed.  Similar story with "Amarillo", playing it like the record was too challenging on the night and there were several mistakes.  Mind you this number brought up some very drunken dancers:  including a couple of blokes that had to be led away by their other halves after swaying dangerously close to the band.  We finished the set with "Wonder of You".  This went pretty well until the very last vocal line where I chickened out of the high G and dropped it an octave.  I will have to work on this because it is a problem every time we play it.

 

We opened set 3 with "Great Balls" as usual.  This time we followed up without stopping by going straight into '1 2 3 4' "Saw Her Standing There" with Chris the drum singing lead and me on the high harmony.  I must say this swang as well as the Foot Tappers or Checkmates ever did and we seemed to get a bit of audience reaction for it  (probably Chris's supporters!).  We played on though a standard set 3 listing through to "American Trilogy" which went down really well (Claire later complimented me on the vocal for this difficult song).  Next up I set a crunchy guitar sound and we set off on a soft rock sequence with "Hi Ho,  Alright Now, You Really Got Me".  The latter was a debut for the band and, despite a few ragged edges, I thought we did a good job - I was particularly happy with the solo.  It also went down well with the locals with several up to dance at last.  We finished with "Hippy Hippy Shake and Johnny B Goode"  squeezing in the little solo pieces as we signed off - these still needs to be tighter though. There were enough shouts for 'more' to justify an encore so I set off into "Born to be Wild".  For some reason this didn't go as well as it had done at previous gigs.  I looked round and Chris the drum was dripping with sweat - I think the pace and the volume of the last few numbers had taken its toll!  The solo swang ok but after that we seemed to lose track of the arrangement and timing.  Ah well I'll call it jazz I thought as I brought us to a messy but well applauded ending.

Nick helped us pack up so we were loaded in double quick time.  Trudy had been at a wedding but had made it for the last set and said she was concerned that the band might be bothered by the low level of audience reaction.  She said the locals weren't used to quality entertainment and it was probably over their head.  Oddly enough Krin said he had had a good night and thanked us profusely.  There was a bit of a glitch getting paid as a lot of detail needed to be supplied on the band's receipt but it got sorted in the end.  Nick came back with me as Jacqui,  Claire and Holly had shared a taxi and we were back home by about 12:15am.   I had had a good night personally:  particularly on the guitar and my voice had held up well.   Reflecting on gigs generally I wonder what we can do to get a better audience reaction?  Maybe we need some more dancey material? On the other hand,  on the night we visited the Greengage there was an 80's disco playing dancey stuff to no reaction?  Looking at other bands set lists on the net indicates our repertoire is typical of the genre - maybe it's just the places we are playing?

ReTrio at Weeley Bridge Caravan Park Halloween Event

We'd been booked and promoted as a 60's band for the Owner's Halloween Event in the Lakeside Club.  Accordingly, I made a few changes to the set list to make it more 60's.  Chris the bass was on holiday flying back from Menorca on the Friday,  so he was only given the revised set list on the Saturday when we arrived at the gig!  Leaving at 4pm, we had a good run over in convoy at a steady 60 mph down the A14,  A12, A120, A133 to Weeley Bridge. The Park was well signed so we arrived just before 5pm and parked up outside the fire exit. 

 

 

Even at that time there were a few families in the club room as we got the gear in.  The room was well done up in Halloween decor as were many of the children scampering about!  Chris the drum created a bit of crisis by announcing he had forgot ......(expectant wait for disastrous statement) ..... his  boom mic stand!  "No problem" I said, "you can use Chris the bass's stand and he can use the straight (spare) stand I used to put up for Abbie"  We made it so.

The room is big but the stage is very small and I made an immediate decision that I would go on the floor leaving the two Chris's to man the stage.  We placed one Bose behind me on the edge of the stage and the other on the far side of the disco booth on the right hand side of the stage.  This would feed sound to the West end of the room but we would only get a bit of fold back to the stage from that 'cos the booth was in the way.  We proceeded with set up and it all tested out OK.  I had a brief walk out front to hear the bass and drums.  They were loud enough on stage and immediately in front but further beyond the sound dropped quickly.  The big room was filling up with absorbent people in fancy dress so I asked the boys to beef up the sound a bit - we all agreed it was unlikely we'd be asked to turn it down!   I set the PA as high as it would go before a high pitched feedback emerged.  I felt we needed the toppy sound on the mics so,  bearing in mind the Mackie graphic equaliser is a bit unsubtle, I didn't try to filter it out on the mixer on this occasion.  As we finished set up I realised the young lady dressed as Red Riding Hood and doing kids entertainment was about to run a party dance right in front of my mic stand with my various pedals set up on the floor to the left of the stage.  I had a vision of a child crashing through it all,  so I set my guitar and case up as a barrier in front of the mic stand and that (surprisingly) did the trick. 

 

We retired to the bar where John the entertainments manager stood us a drink and agreed the lighting plan with us - we settled for non-flashing - "thanks"!  We had about an hour and half to while away before our first set and it was hard not to have more than a couple of beers but we managed - just!  

With about 20 minutes to go we retired to the entertainment storage room to don our white shirts and black waistcoats.  Then it was out front for a final tune up before they played the artistes introduction jingle and we were away.  The drums sounded a bit feeble as we started 'Flingel Bunt' but, once the guitar and bass got going, Chris powered up and we got underway with a sixties flavoured set.  I had abandoned any thoughts of easy listening when we entered the place and threw myself into to the vocals and guitar quite aggressively.  I was able to develop a bit of a connection to a table on my left and that helped the in between song banter flow.  Musically, I made a couple of silly mistakes with some of the newer songs ("Groovy Kind of Love" chords and "Smiling" words - probably / hopefully not noticeable out front) but overall I thought we were pushing the show along quite well. About halfway through the set I went out front for a Shadows stroll to 'Apache' and I could hear that the guitar was dominant in the mix but not outrageously so.  I urged the guys to push a bit harder and we pressed on.  Next problem was a 'frog in the throat' which developed in the last 10 minutes.  This threw my vocal out of kilter and I eased up on projection - but no one seemed to notice? Our reception was typical of this type of gig with a reasonable level of applause and dancing but not a massive response as such.  Actually the biggest response was nicely timed for our last number: "Delilah".  Here they did sing and laugh in the right places, and we finished on a high applause point!   There was a fancy dress award and a bit of Monster Mash /  Thriller disco for about 40 minutes.  I drank a lot of water to clear the frog from the throat and then we changed into red shirts for our final set 2. 

 I had kept some of the livelier songs from the 50s and 70s in the running order and we opened with "Great Balls of Fire".  I was relieved to find the throat frog had gone and I was back on full vocal power.   As we followed up quickly with "Pretty Woman and Saturday Night at the Movies" the dance floor filled and I kept it going along this track until "American Trilogy"  Thankfully this went well and we got a good response for it.  We were now into the final dancey sequence starting with "Hey Baby" and we had them singing along a bit to this and "Hi Ho".  I kept the attack going by taking us into "Alright Now" and it was only as we went onto "Caroline" that the stamina of the dancers faded.  Chris the bass suggested a slowie so we did "Help Me Make It through the Night" with Chris the Drum singing.  It was a good choice - a couple of couples came up to do a slow dance.  Our performance of this was a bit ragged as we hadn't exercised it for a while but it was received well enough.  I thought we must be approaching the 45 minute point and was wondering whether to call for last number but Chris the bass said we still had several minutes to go and reminded me we had missed "Hippy Hippy Shake" from the dance sequence.  "Perfect" I nodded and off we went!  Then it was time to call the last number "Johnny B Goode".  Just announcing it we got a big round of applause.  A paranoid thought emerged - were they just glad it was the last number?  Actually it is a great number to finish the 60's theme and we gave it our best shot.  We had several dancers up and one witch alongside me doing a bit of air guitar with her broomstick!  I kept it to a reasonable length thinking we might do an encore.  And as we finished,  the young entertainments lady led the shouts for more (and, despite her demure red riding hood outfit, I can confirm she has a very loud voice!)  Unfortunately we hadn't briefed manager John on our encore intentions and he went though the artiste off jingle sequence and got the disco going (we would have encored with "Born to be Wild")  "Ah well" learning from the experience we will make sure intentions are known at the next such gig.  I was a bit knackered from the exertion of the performance and took a few minutes extra to get changed in the quiet of the store room so I could come round a bit.  As we packed up in the dark of the 'late night disco', Chris the bass checked in with manager John who said he was very happy with the band and the night in general and would definitely have us back next Summer.  So I think my paranoid thought was a bit misplaced and we really did do a good job of entertaining this mixed age crowd.  Even the disco playing modern stuff only had a few up dancing and, on reflection,  I think the audience would have enjoyed the varied night - 60s was a good contrast against the Halloween and disco theme and I reckon we carried it off as well as any other non-pro band would have.  Just to reinforce it:  one old boy came up as we completed pack up to say he had enjoyed it and was impressed by our energy.  Getting the gear out through the disco was easier than I thought and we were loaded up by midnight.  As we did a final check I said good bye to the entertainments lady  (Aisha?) who had been left in charge and complimented her on her energy levels.  She thanked us warmly and seemed genuine - so I definitely will regard this gig as a major success for the band!  We drove home on a windy night getting in about 1am still buzzing!

 

 

The Checkmates at King Edward Hall Lindfield

Slow getting going on Saturday morning after the rigour of the night before.  After breakfast Jacqui had lined us to visit some folks in the morning and in the afternoon we had a stroll round our old village of Lindfield with Jenny and Miles.  I was treated to an early curry dinner and then I made my excuses and set off the few hundred yards to the gig.  Bit of trouble parking,  so Graham loaned me a disabled badge to allow me to park on a yellow line!?!  But we eventually got the gear in and got parked up legally in a timely vacated space.  Raye had got in earlier, and had some assistance to load in his kit.  He was in good form considering the previous late night!  Graham had brought the precious shirts.  He said he was still buzzing when he got home so he put them through a wash at 1am!  I manhandled Graham's combo onto the stage and after that heavy lift the rest of set up was a breeze and we soon had a sound check going.  I asked Graham to put a bit more top on the bass thinking it would cure a strange stage resonance that peaked near Raye.  Didn't work so he tried cutting the bottom.  That worked but then he couldn't hear the bass;  so we left it thinking the resonance might go as the hall filled. We ran "You'll Never Know What You're Missing" and "Smiling" and then we ran through "American Trilogy" - this went a lot better than the Friday,  so we called a halt;  put the muzak on and set about sourcing beers!  This was not as easy as usual because the license had run out for the hall.  We had to pop upstairs to the club to get a drink.  Actually the club had geared up for the situation quite well and were supplying take away packs of beer and wine;  and they were serving soft drinks downstairs;  so all was well.  Quite a few folks there we knew including John (the teddy boy rocker who used to be Raye's minder and roady for us in the 90s -  very useful particularly when we were playing gigs a long way away like Bournemouth) and Graham the rhythm guitarist and John the drummer from 'Music Box'.   Jacqui arrived about 8pm having strolled over from our lodgings and met up with the other band wives: Janice and Val. 

Approaching showtime the hall was full.  I set up Raye's mic so Trevor could make an announcement about the drink situation.  After that I quickly reinstated Raye's mic and then we were announced on acoustically by the Chairman.  We followed much the same sets as the previous night.  We did omit a few songs because time was tighter as other things were going on:  e.g. there was a buffet and a raffle (Jacqui won a bottle of wine!)  But in general the band was more together and relaxed; and we were astounded by the reception we got.  It had been good the previous night,  but on the Saturday it was even better.  The audience responded like true fans:  they applauded madly,  they danced the rock'n'rollers and the slowies; and even 'of their time' songs like "Mr Sandman" brought out some foxtrot dancers.  The crowd were really enthusiastic about the Checkmates hits set and Raye got a huge reception for the drum routine.  The resonance from the bass had still been a problem on stage at times,  but we hoped it hadn't carried out front.  Actually we had no complaints about the band sound - only compliments!

I was pleased to see the band wives up and dancing a few times (Jacqui looked very graceful powered by house gin and tonic) and I recollect that Raye's missus Val was really enjoying herself dancing to quite a few songs - maybe also powered by gin and tonic?

 As we approached the end of the night, once again we were indulged with several encores; and we stretched the stringent license conditions by a few minutes with our final encore:  I think it was "Jailhouse Rock"?   This worked surprisingly well with Raye's mini snare and cymbal kit. 

Once again we finished to great applause and lots of people came up to wish us well as we left the stage.  Packing up was hard work again,  but Raye had a drummer pal dismantling his kit so he could mingle while we worked.  As we were loading up I was relieved to see Raye looking in better shape than the previous night but I 'shooed' him away from loading Grahams car as I manhandled the combo in - just to be on the safe side!  This may have led to a misunderstanding whereby Raye then said his goodbyes and set off for home thinking his work was all done when, in fact,  he had forgotten to collect the band fee and driven off in my coat!?!  Graham popped upstairs to the club to sort out the fee and said he would straighten money out with Raye the next day.  So we shook hands on that and Jacqui and I departed for our lodgings - creeping in about 1am.  Next day after a fine breakfast we popped up to Raye's house to swap coats.  Raye was apologetic, blaming it on a senior moment;  but we had a good laugh and talked about maybe doing one of the London rock'n'roll reminiscence gigs in the future.  Jacqui and I set off for home hoping for an easy run.  Not to be!  The Dartford tunnel was choc-a-block and in the end we diverted off into central London to go through the Blackwall tunnel and then headed up the A12 for home.  So it was well after 2pm when we finally got home:  tired but pleased with a good weekend.

The Checkmates at Hassocks British Legion

The 54th Anniversary Checkmates World Tour continued through Sussex this weekend. Jacqui and I set off from Bury St Edmunds at 11 am and taking an easy ride (with a diversion for ladies clothing shopping at Bluewater),  we arrived in the Haywards Heath area at 3:30pm.   We drove straight round to Jenny and Miles' house in Lindfield where we were welcomed with a cup of tea and a slap up feed.  Jacqui had elected to stay with these old friends for the night while I headed off to Hassocks to meet up with Raye and Graham at 6pm to play the British Legion.  It must have been 12 years since we had last played this gig as The Checkmates, although Raye and Graham had appeared in other bands there several times over recent years.  Quite nostalgic for me however!  We got the gear in the back door which leads straight on to the playing area.  It was still light enough to avoid breaking a leg on the various 'elf n safety' hazards in the back yard,  but I could see we would definitely carry the gear out the main entrance at the end of the night!  Graham was excused lifting as he was recovering from a very recent hernia operation - the one he had been scheduled for about 3 years ago!  I wheeled his single 15" Trace Elliott combo in and set it into position for the young fella.  We got the beers in and commenced set up.  We were using a double Bose PA and there was plenty of room compared to the pub jobs I had been doing recently.  No surprises in set up and I soon had a good mic mix going. 

In between meeting and greeting various folk arriving early we got the opportunity to run through the new songs I had added to the repertoire: "When My Little Girl is Smiling" (one I had added as representative of Raye's stint with Jimmy Justice and the Exchequers);  and "Counting Teardrops" and "You'll Never Know What You're Missing" both done originally by Emile Ford & The Checkmates and pre-requested by a fan named Ron! Raye also asked to play through "Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" and a bit of "Mona Lisa"  to remind ourselves of the Checkmates Caribbean rhythmic style! These run throughs went well enough but there is just enough complexity in the arrangements to make me cross my fingers for luck as we put the background muzak on and set about mingling and greeting the fans and acquaintances of the band.  The venue seemed very full to me with at least 60 in the small performance room by show time;  but Raye was a little disappointed with the turn out until we mentioned it was Friday (not a normal gig night at the venue) and there were no spare seats - standing room only!  We had got changed into the green shirts and we took to the 'stage' sensing an air of anticipation from the crowd.  We opened with "What do...Eyes at Me For" a bit nervously,  in fact we had to restart 'cos Graham had sung the very similar opening 'do do wahs' for "Wonder Who's Kissing" by mistake!  We smoothed that over as part of the act and proceeded with the acapella intro to "Eyes" proper.  Good sound I thought as we got into our stride.  The whole room was singing along from the off - boding well for a good night.  We finished to a great round of applause.  Continuing with "Stand By Me and Heartbeat"; I usually use these songs to finalise the mix and ended up increasing the top and echo on the mics to compensate for the dry sounding room now it was full.   Then we started to get into a familiar Checkmatey groove with added banter to take us through the next few pre-Beatles era numbers. We enjoyed a bit of excitement as we performed "When My Little Girl is Smiling" in public for the first time.  A bit nervy,  but a very good sound I thought.  Graham sang it well (it suits his voice) and when I brought the harmony and strings in to the refrain it sounded quite classy!  The solo came and I played the notes in the right place but a little nervously because,  although I play this with ReTrio,  I still haven't delegated this from brain to fingers! Graham sensed the solo would benefit from some 'aaaahs' in the Bm G refrain and adding them worked well to fill the soundscape.  Graham had picked up to do the slide down to the D on the little guitar phrases between verses - well done I nodded.  We finished tightly together and this 'nice' song earned a good response from the audience.  I adopted a Shadows stagger for the next song "Apache".  My lead is still a bit restrictive and I am thinking about a wireless link.  I have got a legal one somewhere but it is all the hassle of set up.  Maybe I should look into going all wireless on mics with a rack while I'm at it?  Still I blundered around to great effect and we got a thunderous reception for it (probably sympathy for the dispraxic)!  We moved onto a mini rock'n'roll sequence with "Move It, Summertime Blues and Alright Mama".  This had the effect of filling the dance floor and we got a great reception at the end.  It was time to slow things down:  We started with "Raining In My Heart" - unfortunately the dancers melted away,  but we did an ok job of it.  Then we followed up as planned with a short version of "I Believe" which got the crowd singing along towards the end.  We finished the set with "Wipe Out".  Raye was on top form and it was pretty tight.  He got a great roar of approval as we finished.   In the break we mingled -  I met up with Pat the bassist from "Music Box" who,  I think not having heard us before,  was very impressed with the big and classy sound from a three piece.  Harvey, the concert secretary for the club in the 90s, looked just the same except he's now in his mid 70s: still smoking and drinking and looking very fit and well.  We agreed it was a time warp experience,  but he kindly said the band seemed better than he remembered and we were good then!  Raye's missus Val and her sister Marilyn had arrived early in the set and were also complimentary on the band.  We got changed into the blue and struck out to start set 2 with a Checkmates hits sequence starting with: "Slow Boat, Wonder Who's Kissing and Red Sails".  These all went well and I am pleased to report Graham and I expected the solo in "Red Sails" at the same point and I played it well - its only taken us 20 years to get in synch!  Next up was a requested newie: "You'll Never Know What You're Missing".  I counted us in and we got the rhythm and 'bop bop ba da das' going well.  Graham struck up with the vocal.  Its fine but a tad down in the mix I thought.  We are doing it in the same key as Emile Ford (A) but it is quite low for a band lead singer nowadays,  I wonder if it would benefit from being a bit higher say B or C?  Still it was great to get it performed in public after I did the arrangement way back in 1993 - we never managed to launch it until tonight!  "Counting Teardrops" was next.  We had played this many times in the mid-90's but it had fallen out of the play list.  It is relatively complex with little riffs, lots of stops and me doing girly answer backs.  On this night we found our feet with the basic song OK but it is hard to get all the little nuances in.  We finished the sequence with "Them There Eyes"  (a little untogether?) and "Mona Lisa" (swang nicely).   The audience had been polite rather than ecstatic during the whole Checkmates sequence, which was strange, but these songs can sound a little dated if you are not a real aficionado.  I took the boys into a short rock'n'roll sequence with "Rip It Up,  All Shook Up and Runaround Sue" which livened things up.  Then we did "Only Make Believe" - a big number with big vocals, big strings and a big audience response with singing along and applause aplenty.  So now we were set for "Let There Be Drums" as a high point of the night.  Raye got into a strong rhythm (amazing for a young chap in his 80s).  Usually Raye counts us in,  but tonight he seemed to be concentrating on bashing out a great Gene Krupa beat so he looked to me to count in which I obliged.  Because the onstage sound was so clear we had no trouble co-ordinating the various changes and we relaxed into yet another version of our well honed routine.  As usual it brought the house down and there was a real buzz about the place as we took our break,  Coming back on for the last set we opened with "Great Balls".  Graham was enjoying the band groove so much he called for an extra solo and verse.  As we finished I took us straight into the riff for "Wanderer" and the dance floor started get busy again.  Although I hadn't played the solo to this for a year,  I rattled out an acceptable version on the night;  keeping to a more authentic cleanish sound rather than the gritty sustain I used to use.  As soon as this ended I counted us into "Saw Her Standing There"  which kept the dance floor full.  No problem with the solo and Graham and I sang the very high harmony lines as the end of the chorus like 'angels'.  We skipped and mixed to "Route 66" next to keep the crowd bopping and get the dedication to Val in.  The band was really cooking as we came to the solo which is always improvised and I got a good solo in on the night.  As we ended we all came to the same conclusion: "American Trilogy" would be up next!  I introduced it as one of our oldest songs, actually from the 19th Century.  On the night this was only an OK performance as we struggled to remember the nuances;  but I did get the flute solo in as intended and that made folk in the audience and the band sit up - it sounded really good through the double Bose!  We built the big crescendo to the end well - I was mighty impressed by Graham's ability to hold that last high note through eight bars (I had to take two breaths doing the harmony)! We got a fantastic reception for this.  We gave the voices a rest as I took on FBI next.  I did a little bit of Shadows posturing but no walk as such.  I thought we played it well but I was truly surprised by the great reception we got.  I opened another little dance sequence with "Shakin All Over"  - the boys followed the old arrangement we used to do and I fitted in (I normally do this closer to the record nowadays).  Again a great reception and we nodded each other into "Jailhouse Rock"  to follow and keep the dancers busy.  Raye and Graham always get a great beat going for this and it helps with solo building;  in fact it was going so well at the end that Graham kept it going with a soul like repeat of the last phrase 'Going to the Jailhouse' which Raye and I supported tightly until we rounded off neatly with me adding a burst of Scotty Moore guitar to end it.   It was time to do the closing sequence.  Graham introduced "Lucky Old Sun" as the song we have closed the show with for 'maaany' years. In the meantime Raye had come out front with his spare mini snare and cymbal. Despite playing this song as the closer for at least twenty years,  we got off to a slightly ragged start and I was well out of kilter as we negotiated the early chord switch into the bridge;  so I missed the harmonies on the first line.  Just general unfamiliarity on my part I think -  but that's one I need to run thru or listen to before we re-unite!  However, the rest of it was OK and we didn't miss Raye's bass drum too much.  Towards the end; Graham said his 'goodnights from Adrian and Raye' and I said 'goodnight from Graham' and we ran through to the end.  As the audience gave it up for the 'last song', we transitioned into "Early in the Morning" as per usual.  Raye is a master of getting a big sound out of the minimum kit and it sounded fine (if a little skiffley) as we got underway with this fast song.  We got a magnificent roar from the audience as we finished and they were shouting for more; so we got on with our planned encore of "Eyes".  Still more shouts for more at the end so I called for "Johnny B Goode"  and we bashed that out - I sang it to give Graham a break and we still had Raye playing just on snare and cymbal;  but it sounded and swang fine.  As we finished Graham gave 'em one more as we bashed straight on into "Hound Dog".  I hadn't played the solo for more than a couple of years but remembered enough of it to improvise it well enough.  We finally came to a halt about 11:40pm, a little over time but the crowd had stayed (bless 'em) and we did a bit of glad handing as several 'fans' came over to congratulate us on a great night.  Then it was time to get changed.  My shirt was pretty sweaty,  but Graham kindly offered to wash both my shirts to be ready for Saturday's performance.  Packing up was hard work and there were still a few folk around wishing us well which slowed us down a bit,  but Graham did find a volunteer to help shift his amp (Raz?).  Barry from the club gave Raye and me a hand to shift stuff out but it was about 12:30am as we completed load.  Actually Raye looked knackered and his breathing was quite shallow as we loaded the last few bits into his car.  Graham and I were becoming concerned for his well being but he assured us he would be OK and we finally hit the road about 12:45 am.  For me it was a quick run to Haywards Heath straight through Burgess Hill (rather than the bypass).  But I ran into road works near Haywards Heath station,  then I took a wrong turn and had to go round the one-way again to get on the road to Lindfield.  So it was well after 1 am as I crept into Jenny and Miles' house where everyone was asleep.  As I settled into sleep I felt good about the night's work.  Despite some ragged edges,  we had had several moments in the night where the band seems to take on its own improvising identity beyond that of the 3 individuals - these are very rewarding for the musicians and don't happen in every band.