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!