ReTrio at Home Guard Club Bury St Edmunds

We had been booked to play here again just over a year since our band debut.  With the closure of a couple of pubs in the immediate area,  the club was doing well apparently - and it was cup final day.   I met up with Chris bass en route and followed him to the club.  Lovely sunny warm day as we drew up.  Chris the drum already had the fire door open and was just completing load in (assisted by his son-in-law).   Chris the bass parked on the pavement and started his load in and I waited briefly for Chris drum to finish before reversing into his place.  It's an easy load in straight onto the playing area and we soon had everything up and running.  We didn't bother with a sound check 'cos we were still confident after the previous night and I was soon enjoying a lager watching extra time between Hull and Arsenal. 

 

 

There was a bit of a changeover of people as the football finished and those that came in seemed motivated to be there to see the live band.  Chris the drum advised white tees and black waistcoats and an 8:45 start.  We were following the same set list as the previous night and we were relaxed about the gig.  There were about 30 in the room as we opened up with "FBI".  From the off we got a good reception and the improvised bantering worked as well as the night before.  I think the on stage sound here was even better and we were a tad slicker through the set.  A few more people arrived as we approached the end of the set and,  as we had a good repartee going and my voice was still not 100%,  I went for "Green Grass" to finish.  A lot joined in so we finished well pleased with the set.  Trudy, who hadn't seen the re-vamped set 1 before came over and said how improved it all was. It being quite warm Chris the drum had soaked his tee shirt and needed a change!  They adopted red tees but I only had blue so we weren't quite matching for our return. Wow a few more had arrived and the place looked busy!
 
We opened with "Apache and got a great reception for the walk.  The sound was spot on when I was out front.  And the rest of the night went much the same pattern - we had a very good gig with lots of audience interaction,  bits of dancing, general good atmosphere and a very sweaty drummer. One mistake I must note was my loss of a brain cell at the start of "Sweet Caroline" - I just couldn't remember the starting note was A in the key of C.  We had to stop and re-start but the audience, all lined up for a dance, took it in good heart.  We encored with "Born to be Wild" which was even wilder than the previous night, but well received despite that.  As we were packing up the club chairman came over and thanked each of us for a very entertaining night.  Then it was a 10 minute drive home, cocoa toast and bed!  Voice was a bit shot the next day but I was in good heart.  We have a few weeks off now for hols and will resume in early June!

ReTrio at Toppers Hemsby

It was a virus! A particularly nasty one that first made me lose my voice, second gave me a stinking cold and finished with a dose of the Norfolk cough.  I was still suffering with a phlegmy voice box 4 weeks later when a last minute gig came in to replace a failed duo at Toppers.  We thought about doubling up into two cars,  but in the end we elected to do a convoy of the 3 vehicles meeting Chris the drum en route to Thetford.  It was a nice sunny warm day for a trip to the coast.  Chris the bass and I got away on time at 5:30pm but soon ran into traffic at Ingham meaning we were late at our rendezvous (Indian Restaurant near Barnham on West side of A134)  But Chris wasn't there - being stuck in the same traffic!  We saw him rolling towards us a few minutes later and we sneaked in ahead of him to form the convoy.  Chris the bass led us over the Nun's bridges and it was a smooth if somewhat slow, run from there to Norwich.  Chris the drum wants to avoid strain on his old Mondeo engine so we potter along about 60-65mph.  Once on the A47 we picked up again but then ran into road works.  We made fair time after that so we arrived at the Sundowners caravan park at 7pm as planned.  It took a couple of false trails to actually park up at the club - but it wasn't open yet.  Chris went in search of the guvnor when he appeared from a nearby caravan and opened up the back doors for us.  He soon found Chris at the front and we started an easy load in. 

The performance hall looked more the part than when I played there 4 years ago with a pro lighting set up and furnished much more for dancing and drinking.  Mathew the guvnor explained they were an adults only club and we would need to be prepared to play through to midnight.  No problem we said - we'll do three 45s from 9 ish.  Fine he said!  We got the gear in and Mathew was very interested to see we were using Bose - only seen it with solo artistes so far he said.  Mick the compere arrived,  introduced himself and said he would take care of house music; and there would be a Cardingo session after 10pm to fit in.  A handful of people had drifted in as we set up. Chris the drum would be using my spare Shure SM58 'cos I wasn't happy with his mic last time out.   I had a bit of trouble powering up the PA - turned out I had forgotten to switch the Bose's on!?  But once over that we did half of "Smiling" to test the PA.  Sounded OK to me and I spotted Mathew listening intently at the back.  He didn't say anything which I took to be a good thing? 

With that all working we were able to get beers in and relax for an hour.  I asked for a lager and Chris the bass came back with a Kronenberg.  He didn't know it is strong stuff - so I would have to watch it and just have a half next time.  Had a laugh in the dressing room when Chris the drum put a kid's entertainer bear's head on.  We got changed in a relaxed manner into the red shirts n black waistcoats (no ties 'cos Chris the drum was hot).   There were about 40 in as we came on stage just before 9pm.  Mick gave us a good intro and we were off.  I had changed the set around a bit to liven it up and we opened with FBI,  the idea being to waggle the guitars a little as we play fairly up tempo.  Actually it went well and we got a good round of applause for it.  Next up was "Heartbeat" again (slightly more up tempo than usual) and it garnered a good response.  We eased it down for "Smiling and Groovy Kind of Love"  But I picked up on the announcements.  I was pleased with the response - the people out there must have been able to hear me well and I could hear their comments back enough to banter a little.  So far so good.  We did our 3 songs to introduce the members of the band ("Ring of Fire, Act Naturally & Eyes at Me For") and we all got good rounds of applause.  We followed with a bit of banter about rock n rollers slashing cinema seats then into "Rock Around the Clock - Blue Suede Shoes".  Again well received.  Next up we pinched the start of the old Foot Tapper Beatle medley by putting on the wigs for Eight Days A Week - Can't Buy Me Love"  and we got a good audience response to that bit of old showmanship I thought.  We followed this up with a well received medlification of "Needles and Pins into Walk In the Room".  There hadn't been much dancing up to this point and as the lead into the next number,  I asked if there were any ladies named Sue in the room.  'Yes' said one of two ladies towards the front.  So we bantered for a few seconds before getting underway with "Runaround Sue"   And a few got up to dance through this and the following "All Shook Up"   Time was up signalled Chris.  I didn't fancy any of the high singing finale songs so I announced "Green Green Grass" as the last number  -  also it seemed right for this crowd to sing-a-long with,  and so it turned out.  We finished the set to good applause - job well done I thought.
 

During the break Mick did his Cardingo session - he is pretty good at this compere / gaming role and it seemed to go well. By now there was probably over 60 in the hall and, although it was far from full, by our standards it was busy.  We came on for Set 2 starting with a well trodden walk through "Apache".  We definitely got a good round of applause for this and as usual I was able to gauge the sound which I thought was impressive: guitar and bass pretty spot on maybe mic up the bass drum next time?  Chris the bass had been using Dan's old Warwick bass amp at practice and I had set a more Fender Jazz bass tone on it with a hint of toppy click. I think he has set up his Ashdown amp similar 'cos it sounded very Fender Jazz but with a really solid bottom in this hall - I thought it was great!    We carried on with "Do You Wanna Dance,  Happy Together and Daydream Believer" as sing-a-longs and then I introduced Chris the drum for "Delilah".  Well of course the audience joined - very loudly too!  Chris later blamed the audience doing chicken noises in the chorus for throwing him out of kilter with the arrangement.  He completely missed the second verse and I had to hurry into the solo to keep things going.  The audience were perplexed 'cos they were singing it correctly!  Anyway Chris, a bit panicked, then went for the final verse,  got the words wrong again and we drew it to a big ending close.  We bantered our way out of it saying 'they knew it better than Chris';  but it was clearly one of those errors the audience did notice!  We quickly got underway with "Bad Moon, Move It,  Summertime Blues, Proud Mary".  My voice was beginning to break so I elected to do "American Trilogy" at this point.  It went really well and we got a massive response for it.  Following up I made a few mistakes with "Dont Stop" but the last few numbers went pretty well.   I still had a quite a tight throat,  so,  rather than do the usual "Wonder of You", I was happy to finish with Chris the drum singing "Achy Breaky Heart" for a change.  I thought we played it OK for first time out with Chris singing it and there were a few dancers. 

Mick took over smoothly while we had a short break  (reminds me to note how good he was at subtly changing lighting as the show progressed). As set 2 had progressed I had developed a bit of a bantering relationship with the two sisters Sue and Pam right at the front, so I went over to thank them for their support.  It was Sue that said she was delighted to hear us doing "Proud Mary" the Tina Turner way,  'cos she had chosen it for her funeral!!  But they said the band was great,  loved the song choices and entertainment and thought we were very good!  We came back on about 11:25pm for a shortish set 3.  This is mainly dancey and the songs link in so there's not so much banter.  After our last number around midnight: "Johnny B Goode" we got a big round of applause (by our standards) and Mick asked us if we wanted to do another.  'Yes' we said and we asked the audience if they wanted a fasty or a slowey.  It came back fasty so off we ventured into "Born to be Wild"  Chris the drum has some weird tempo changing heavy metal interpretation that just makes it a freak out. Still we had an enjoyable jam session and the audience was merry enough to appreciate it this time - but I will have to get the band more disciplined on this one!

We were quite elated with the gig after so many unresponsive pubs but,  in truth,  we had fared no better than the Foot Tappers would have and my voice was well below par; so it would be the guvnor's view as to whether we would get booked back - he told Chris he would ring but that could mean anything.  Once loaded up we set off and I looked in my mirror expecting to see past my suit bag if Chris the drum was following.  No suit bag!!  Fortunately, we had only gone a few yards and I was able to dash back and get the bag which had fallen under a table.  It was about 12:45am when we got going again and caught up with Chris the bass waiting at the entrance And then we set off on the long drive home.  Chris the drum was even slower on the way back and Chris the bass lost us by Norwich, so I trundled along at about 60mph with Chris the drum in tow.  It was about 2:30am when I got home and still quite mild.  But I was ready for bed so skipped the cocoa on this occasion.