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.