Knowing that our debut gig was coming up, we had had a "dress"
rehearsal on the Wednesday at the Pot Black club. Actually we didn't dress up but I took time
to set the PA up carefully. I was using
a Mackie ProFX12 analogue mixer for the band and my Bose T1 for my own vocals
and guitar (and bass drum). I took a
direct out from my T1 vocal channel 1 into the harmoniser and returned it to
channel 3 on the T1 so I had separate
control over my main vocal and harmonised parts. Then I used the Aux send to route to a
Digitech Vocal 300 set for 3 echo effects:
slap back for rock'n'roll, a 300
msec delay for general use and a 450 msec delay for ballads. Taking a tip from Nigel's book of how to set
up a band, we omitted reverb which can
mush up a band sound in a live situation - i.e. hall reverb gives enough space
anyway. I had also stumbled on a
fortunate benefit from previous use of the Vocal 300 in that you can set it to
add some 'shine' through tube pre-amp simulation and when the delayed part is
mixed with the dry (unshined) signal it sounds smoother overall with a
slickness (maybe a bit of doubling) to the top end in particular - I like it
very much! The others arrived about 6pm
and I was soon ready to mix the PA. I mixed it with the two Chris's vocals hard
right, my own vocal and harmoniser hard
left, echo and strings down the middle (also delivering a bit of delayed vocal monitor
to each side), bass drum hard left and
guitar hard left. Chris the Bass had his
stack set up on the right to complete the soundscape. The reason for the hard panning was to avoid
phase cancellation effects from the wide dispersion of the Bose. We had a soundcheck and in this hall it
sounded really good. Interestingly, experimenting
with mono mix's didn't reveal any phase cancellation to my ears - but I thought
I'd continue to play safe with hard panning.
With all running smoothly, we set
about playing through the 3 x 45 sets we intended to do at the Home Guard
club. Apart from the occasional error it
went smoothly enough and we were well satisfied and somewhat tired by pack up
time.
Come the Saturday Jacqui was on emergency babysitting duties with Ethan
in Rochdale. So after a quiet rainy day
I set off for the gig about 6:15 pm for a 6:30 arrival to meet up with Chris
the Drum who had already got the club opened up and was mid way through load
in. Chris the Bass arrived as I was
loading in and we soon had all the gear in - there was an awful lot of equipment and I
hoped set up would be easy going after the practice. But I soon ran into trouble remembering the
set up and annoyingly some of the knobs had got moved in the rehearsal pack
away; so it was relatively hard work testing it all out and getting it right in
front of a half full club room. Why was
it half full at 7ish you may ask - were they eager to see the band? No - it was a hangover from the FA cup final
watch! But, by the time we came to soundcheck at 7:45 pm
the football enthusiasts had left and been replaced by an promising looking older
crowd. Also Chris the Drum's entourage of family and friends had started to
arrive so the room was actually quite full for the soundcheck. Our few bars check
of "Just One Look" sounded OK and everything was working so I didn't
push to do any more and I set the background musak playing a familiar playlist
from old standards through to rock'n'roll.
We had the luxury of using the big snooker room to dump all the cases
and change. We retired for a beer and a
bit of room work meeting and greeting people who'd come to see us. It was soon time to don our white shirts and
waistcoats for an 8:30pm start. We started
off in fine form with the instrumental: "Flingel Bunt". This we had played it a lot over the previous
few months and it went well and got a good round of applause. I had equally well practiced and familiar "Just
One Look" and "Heartbeat" lined up to follow and, apart from a bit of tweaking on vocals on the
fly, these went well and we settled into a good routine of song variety and
interaction with an audience who were up for applause and banter. We continued with "Beautiful Body, Walk Right Back - When Will I Be
Loved" and then bit of country with
"Crystal Chandeliers". All easy listening and well received. I was
pleased with our first ballad: "Ferry Across the Mersey". I sang it well enough and the big echo
sounded magnificent. And when I swelled
the strings in I could see people were surprised by such a big sound from a
trio. At the end we got a very good
response - it must have sounded good out
there as well! So at the mid-point in
the set we were going down well with the crowd who were reacting
enthusiastically with applause and bits of laughter at the right places - but
no dancing? Next up was a sequence of rock'n'rollers that I thought would get
them up dancing; starting with "Be
Bop A Lula". It took me most of
this song to get the slap back echo level right but we played it well enough to
establish a rock'n'roll mood. Then I
announced "Rock Around the
Clock". I must have slipped into a
timewarp 'cos for an unknown reason I started it in A rather than the G we had
agreed for ReTrio. I negotiated the key
with Chris on the bass by shouting my apologies along with the fact it was now
in A! Despite the messed up start we had
a few up dancing to this. I was now a
bit flummoxed on the arrangement and words and ended up extending it a bit -
fortunately the 2 Chris's followed OK and we finished to a good reception. I carried on quickly with "Blue
Suede", but the dancers soon
weakened and disappeared from the floor.
We followed on as planned with "All Shook Up and Move It" with
good audience reaction but only bits of dancing. I think I will change the order to bring
"Rock Around the Clock" later in this sequence and maybe switch
"Move It" to the next set. As we came towards the end of the 45
minute set it was time to announce a spectacular cabaret performance as Chris
the Drum came out front to sing "Delilah". We do this fast waltz without drums and despite
losing the plot a bit as we came out of the instrumental section, we played it pretty well and it got a big
round of applause - so well done Chris!
We finished the set with "Green Grass of Home" and another big
round of applause.
I was pleased to have a beer and a bit of down time in the break. The two Chris's worked the room and reported
'no complaints' - this turned out to be a compliment because apparently bands
at this venue can generate complaints along the lines: 'it's too loud' or 'they
don't play any songs I know!' Chris the
bass was having problems with his 15 inch speaker flapping. I couldn't hear it my side, but Chris the Drum assured me you could hear
it when he was out front. Chris elected
to reduce the bass in his amp equaliser to minimise the problem. We changed into our red shirts for set 2.
This set opens with "Fever".
Chris the Bass is first on stage with several bars of bass, then Chris the Drum joins him followed
quickly by me. I don't play guitar; just
do the vocal. The bass sounded OK to me
and I pressed on with the vocal. I had a
bit more trouble remembering it than at the dress rehearsal, but we got through in good enough order and
the audience rewarded it with good applause.
I announced we would be doing a few songs from the 60's as I strapped on
my Fender 12 string (for that jangly sound of the time).
We opened the sequence with "Tambourine
Man". I was pleased with the 12
string sound cutting through on the centre pick up setting. We played the song well at an easy pace and
we even got a couple up dancing to it.
It's a short song so I got the boys quickly into the next piece
"Eight Days a Week". This is
faster and longer and the dancers soon dropped out. I was very pleased with our performance of
this: we had taken the time to arrange
the bass and drums like the record (particularly the intro and bridge) and it worked
well on the night and it got a well deserved round of applause. Next up was "Walk In The Room". I had a bit of trouble getting the guitar
sound right alternating lead with rhythm but in the end I settled for the
centre pick up as right for this as well.
The performance was a bit ragged to my ears but it was still well
received by the crowd. I did a quick
guitar change and then we were off into "Ring of Fire" with Chris the
Drum singing. Chris did a good job, the harmony sections worked well and we had
a good rhythm but again I thought it was a little ragged overall - once we've
played it a few more times it will be fine.
Despite this it went down well with the crowd. Next was a bit of a
sing-a-long sequence with "Daydream Believer and Halfway to
Paradise". I couldn't hear anyone
singing along but the audience looked engaged and we continued to get a good
response. We continued with what I
thought would be a good dance sequence with "Love Potion 9, Summertime
Blues and Do You Wanna Dance". We
played them well enough I thought, but
there was still not much dance action?
"Apache was next and I went out front to do a lightweight 'Shadows
Walk'. I had to quickly step back to set
the guitar sound to echo! As I resumed
the 'walk' a lady came up to accompany me which was good fun - the band mix
sounded fine, but some hi pitched
feedback crept in because I had left my spot in front of the mic, so I
had to go back again to deal with that. We finished with a flourish on the
strings and once again our bit of showmanship was well received with a big
round of applause. Next we featured
Chris the Drum on "Help Me Make it Thru the Night" which also went
down very well. As we finished "Bye Bye Love" Chris the Bass mentioned
we were close to time, so we did a shortish "Shake Rattle and
Roll". Despite cutting it down in
length, I managed to fit in the introductions to the boys in the band as each
of us did a solo. The set finale was
"Nights in White Satin". An
ambitious piece for a trio - making full use of strings and harmoniser. I 'sort of' hum the flute solo. On the night,
I was very pleased with our performance,
it went surprisingly well and we got the dynamics right with a very big
finish that earned a very big response from the audience.
We changed into white tees with the waistcoats for the final set. Most
of our audience had stayed with us as we resumed. We started with an energetic "Great
Balls of Fire" which we played pretty well. Next was "Dance the Night
Away". This was OK but for some
reason I couldn't remember the words so had to sing verse 2 twice. "Pretty Woman and Bad Moon Rising"
went well, still not much in the way of
dancers, but the band was still going
down well. "Saturday Night at the
Movies" segued smoothly into "Come on Over to My Place", and we
even managed the key change successfully!
"Runaround Sue" was a little ragged - but we've only played it
thru a couple of times! "Sweet
Caroline" was up next. I was
looking for a sing-a-long response and I think they were doing it. I ran into a bit of trouble pitching the low
note at the end of the 2nd line of the verse.
I put it down to a flagging voice and lack fitness. We covered up OK - I
know it will be fine once I get match fit again. The voice was rested in "FBI" then
it was time for the 'epic' number of the set: "American
Trilogy". I had a bit of trouble
getting the acoustic guitar sound right at the beginning and effectively ended
up restarting it. This is one we had
rehearsed a lot and once we got into it, it went very well - building strongly
at the end where I went for and hit the high note. Thankfully it earned an 'epic' response from
our audience. Next we set off into a
dance sequence with "Hey Baby, Twist Again and Hi Ho Silver
Lining" I coaxed the band down in
volume during the audience sing-a-long bit with "Hey Baby" and 'yes' they were singing along - so well
that I made them do it again! Chris
spotted we were close to time, so we
went quickly into our last number
"Johnny B Goode".
Although my voice was shot, we
played this energetically. I outroduced
the boys in the solos a bit more raggedly than intended but we all finished
together. Amongst the applause I could
hear a little shout for more! So I
elected to encore with "All Right Now" rather than risk the voice
with "Wonderful Tonight". I
shortened the solo a bit so we were only 5 minutes over time as we finished.
We all agreed it was a good first night for the band as we set about
pack up. The governor seemed happy
enough and the Chris's had received favourable feedback. We even had some folks thinking we must have
been together for quite a while. I was
slightly surprised at the lack of dancing during the night. We had selected a lot of danceable
songs, so maybe it was just that this audience
preferred to listen or were a bit infirm?
I was pretty knackered as we packed up and it took quite a while to
dismantle the PA - I resolved to find a way to simplify it for the future. The boys gave me a hand to load up so it was
only a little after midnight as we said our goodbyes and I set off on the looong
journey home - about 1 mile! Apologies
to any blogateers or blogettes for the length of this report. I wanted to be as thorough as I could for
this first night, now we have done our
debut I'll get back to summaries!
