ReTrio at Mariners Bar Searles Holiday Village Hunstanton

Chris the bass had secured us a promo showcase gig at Searles Hunstanton.  If it went well we would have opportunities as Searles and other venues run by the agent who managed Searles entertainment.  Prior to the gig there was some confusion as to which hall we would be in.  I was a bit fearful soundwise it might be the big Sundowners hall;  but Chris rang and found that, if we were in there, we could use their big 12KW house pa.  But when I looked on the web site I found we were actually in the Mariners bar - this was good because I recall it was smaller and more our kind of audience in there.    Chris maintained it was still a big hall so we agreed to pack the Line 6 PA as well - we could double up PA if needed.  He had also arranged that we could get access in the afternoon to set up and soundcheck.  I was quite keen on a soundcheck 'cos we hadn't had one for over a year and we were now using the Line 6 mixer.  So, on the day, we had Chris's drums in Chris the bass's car and I took one of his bass cabs as well as all my gear - my car was pretty full and the spare guitar had to travel in the front passenger seat!  Nice day to go to the seaside - sunny and still.  We set off in convoy at 1:30 and arrived at a crowded Searles about 3pm.  We acquired the trolley to shift the gear and started to set up on the good sized stage in the Mariners.  It is a big room but I thought the Bose would cope so we set just those up - towards the middle (either side of the drums) to get a clear 'line of sound' into the hall.  The TV was showing football on a big screen in the centre of the stage but we set up in front (and under it).  We had hoped for a quiet afternoon to soundcheck but Man United were playing so, after making sure all was working, we decided to take a walk into town to get a beer and a meal and come back after 6pm to check the sound.  It was still good weather and we managed fish and chips in town (pensioners for me) before we returned to find the Mariners suitably quiet!

Doing soundcheck I explained to the chaps that I was able to instantly record 20 seconds of the performance on the Line 6 M20d mixer.  Then they would need to play along with that so I could pop out into the hall and judge the sound.  We performed and recorded a chorus from "Smiling" with guitar,  main vocal,  harmoniser and strings.  Got it right on the second take and I had a wonder round while the 'band' played on - doing the chorus a couple of times.   I was impressed at how clear the vocal was and well it carried into this big hall.  The guitar sounded fine but the bass guitar sound from the Ashdown stack was a bit too strong in the mix and the drums needed to come up a tad.  After these small adjustments I thought we had a classy sound for start off.  I made a mental note to take the bass drum mic up a little as the show progressed and maybe add a bit more bass end to the mics when I got chance.   One of the entertainments girls came over to see if we were OK and she showed us how to operate the house lights.  We still had a couple of hours to while away until showtime at 9pm so we had another beer and a coffee before passing through the Sundowners to get to the dressing room.  There we met up with the band who were performing there - The Young Drifters,  nice bunch of experienced geordies.  They we going to do a popular soul show with a singer, keys,  bass and guitar,  and accompanied by a drum machine!  We wished them luck and set off to change into our smart black shirts, white ties outfits to do our stint in the Mariners.  As we passed though the Sundowners I was even more pleased we weren't in there.  There were a lot of young families and I thought it might even be hard going for the 'Young Drifters'.

We arrived in the Mariners,  got the TV screen rolled up, house sound off,  took to the stage and opened up with "FBI".  All sounded good,  Chris fluffed but didn't completely miss a change to D in the high bit - he relies on me nodding him in and sometimes I can't fit a nod in so I will have to get him to practice that.  As it was we got an enthusiastic reception from a busy room and I made my usual short intro of ReTrio before getting us underway with "Heartbeat".  I sometimes retain the lead sound (with echo) throughout this song.  I pick the verse chords damped and I think the boost in volume and echo suits that style.  On this night I thought this technique was very effective and we got another good response from the growing crowd who were spread right round the room and even applauding from the very back.  "Smiling" went equally well and we set off on our little Rock n Roll medley: "Rock Around the Clock,  Blue Suede and That's All Right Mama"  As we started it several teen/early twenties chaps came up and danced - much to our surprise!  Quire athletic and good to watch -  I gave 'em a big round of applause from the band at then end.  We did the band member intro's with "Act Naturally, Ring of Fire and Wanna Make Those Eyes".  There was quite a lot of foot tapping and arm dancing to the country songs and when I did a 'test' of "Eyes" by just doing the 'doo wappy' bit and leaving it to the crowd we good a good, loud "What do you wanna make those eyes..... "  from some of the older members of the audience - our kind of crowd!  The Beatles (with wigs) and Searchers went well.  I kept the banter slick and let the music do the talking and soon we were approaching the end of the 45 minutes - we finished with "All Shook Up" getting suitable audience responses when I called for it! 

In the break we had a look next door to see how the Young Drifters were doing.  A good tight sound through the house PA,  and some applause as they finished a soul standard,  but I sensed they were struggling to connect to the young mums and kids.

We returned for set 2 and the place was a little fuller.  I opened with a Shadows stagger to "Apache"   Chris played the sympathy card telling the audience I had a bad leg and I was on pensioners meals!  I laughed at that one.   Despite the sciatica, I went out front and  a lady came up to join in the dance.  I was impressed by the guitar sound out front and the boys sounded full; and we got a really big round of applause as we finished and I took my position back on the stage.  We proceeded to play a standard 2nd set and it all went very well.  Nor major errors,  some good tight endings and good audience response and singalong. 

In the break we got changed into white Ts and waistcoats.  I came back to have a sit in a passage just outside the Mariners and a lady came up to say how much she was enjoying the band and complimented me on my singing.  She said she holidays there a lot and they have too many duo's and solo artistes who can't sing in tune!  Well that buoyed me up a bit and, as I herded the band back on stage, I reflected that I personally had made a step up vocally recently;  last couple of gigs really.  And I was on the right track with the sound and repertoire. It was about 11pm as we started with "Great Balls" and the hall was still quite busy.  Maybe a few had gone,  but those that were left we now applauding louder so it was a pretty good sing-a-long set.  Even though there wasn't much dancing I thought we needed to keep momentum up so I skipped "American Trilogy and we played continuously through 7 numbers from "Pretty Woman" right through to "All Right Now".  A few were going home but the crowd sang on.  We tried a slowey in the shape of "Help Me Make it Through the Night" but no dance takers so we settled down to play out our last number "Johnny B Goode".  This was warmly received before we even started and it all went pretty well including the band outros we have been working on.  As we finished very tightly there was a roar of applause and shouts for more.  Fantastic!  Some wag in the audience called for "Amarillo" and I was about to do it when Chris bass suggested "Hippy Shakes".  A much better choice I thought - so I said our 'thanks for your appreciation and here is a song you wouldn't be able to dance to at this time of night" - and they didn't!  But when we finished we still got a great round of applause and several came up to speak to us as we came off stage.  They all said what a great sound we had and how good it was to see a live band with a drummer.  One lady said the band was so clear, even at the back, that they just wanted to listen and sing rather than dance.  Another offered to give us a mention to Mr Searle!   Of course we were delighted with this unexpected result and we were in high sprits as we set off to get changed.  The other band reported it had been a struggle in the Sundowners and they were off - driving back to Newcastle overnight.  As they left Chris sounded out the entertainments young ladies who said they had been asked to look in on us and were very impressed at how we had held the crowd - they would be giving a good report to Matt the agent. 

 As we packed up we were in good humour and the trolley made load out quite easy.  We got on the road at 12:40am - I said to Chris you carry on I'll probably lag back for an easy run home.  Well the drive went well to Kings Lynn but, then the sciatic pain started to kick in.  By Thetford it was really painful and the last 10 miles home were agonising.  On reflection I should have stopped and walked it out a bit.  I was pleased to get to bed,  but had to take a pain killer to get to sleep.  Still it had been a very good night with the band (best yet) and in the following week I took steps in the form of exercises to try and work the sciatica out.  In the week I moved "American Trilogy" forward in the running order to be the second set finisher.
 

ReTrio at Moreton Hall Pub

This blog will be quite brief because we are fast becoming the resident band here with a gig about every three months and some of the moments are quite similar.  On this occasion it was a Friday and Chris the bass and I had planned to arrive ahead of Chris the drum to lay the cables and amps before he arrived - he was meant to be delayed at work!  Needless to say, as we arrived at 6:30 pm he was there already set up and eating a burger - so we had to work around the kit anyway.  Perversely I do find the twisting, bending and reaching of set up is soothing for my continued bout of sciatica.  I decided to miss out on the string synth which would make things easier.

In the week I had given a heavy old mic stand to Chris the bass to modify by halving all the bits to create a bass drum mic stand.  He had duly got it sawn up and re-assembled and it looked very good.  I had a general purpose T-bone (Thomann) mic I could screw on and lo and behold we had the bass drum miked up!  I ran it into the Line 6 mixer on channel 3 and put a sub-bass algorithm on it set to 'thump' and it sounded suitably deep so we were well pleased with it.  When I get chance I will tweak the mixer settings a bit more but for now it helps fill out our sound just as it is.  I'll get a better pic sometime.

Soon all the rest was set and working but my performance space was even more minute than usual.  To avoid a wooden pub beam I would have to face sideways and lift the guitar anytime someone walked past the band.  The osteopath I was now consulting had observed that my stage stance had some bearing on the sciatica and the tips he had given me definitely couldn't be applied here!

I had a good chat with a Michael Jackson tribute artiste on matters technical - he was doing the pubs and was keen to hear our Bose.  We were geared up to back one of Chris drum's mates on a few numbers (in strange keys such as C# for "Wonderful Tonight") but he hadn't turned up.  So come the performance we played standard sets.

These went quite well and I was pleased with the overall band sound, continuity and playing.  One blooper I heard was Chris the bass hitting the wrong key for "Needles and Pins" - I had to shout 'it's F' and miss a vocal line to get it back on track. I'm less bothered about finishing a set with a ballad nowadays and we stopped after "All Shook Up". Set 2 went similarly well and we had bits of singalong and dancing at times.  Some of the folks were getting a bit drunk by the time we went on for set 3 and, once underway, had to turn my back to the audience from time to time to repel boisterous dancers.  I decided to skip "American Trilogy" and we kept on rocking through to "J B Goode" where I let rip with the guitar giving it max volume which drove the amp simulation so that, even on the  clean setting, I was rewarded by a slightly dirtier, singing sustain which I was very pleased with.  A lot of shouts for 'more' resulted in our embarking on another voyage into the unknown with strangely changing tempos.  Because the guitar was sounding so dominant I tried to use it to push the band into doing it right as we got to the second time around with it - with mixed success.  Anyway the revellers revelled along to it and we closed to a good response.  

Pack up was a bit tricky with people  in the way and a massive drunken dispute developing between 2 fellas who had drunk their way through the night.  In the end the governess got them out the pub and locked the doors.  So we couldn't complete load out for a while.  Jacqui had returned home with Chris the bass's missus and fortunately missed all this out. Got in a few minutes later and she had made me cocoa and toast a good finish to a good night for the band.


 

ReTrio at The Wok and Rock Lakenheath

Grandchild still hadn't arrived on the Friday so drove home in torrential rain late Friday (good job I didn't go earlier in the day cos A14 was badly flooded).  Woke up Saturday to check out the Line 6 2T that had returned having had its circuit board replaced.  All seemed OK - but we wouldn't be using it tonight.  Chris the bass now makes a rough assessment of whether the Bose's will fit height wise at gigs and he had reported this one as 'fit for purpose'.  I got the gear ready for load up and mooched around the house on various tasks until I got a call from Jacqui to say the new Grandson had arrived about 2pm and all was well.  What a relief!  I loaded up in the afternoon even though we weren't setting off until 7:30pm for a 10pm start.  Chris the bass led the convoy and we picked up Chris the drum at Fornham,  then it was about 30 minutes to Lakenheath.  The pub used to be known as 'The Plough' and had been completely refurbished as a restaurant, bar and lounge - looked good. 

Load in was round the back and more or less straight into the playing area where the Chinese guvnor had organised a move of the pool table.  There was not quite enough room to fit the Bose in on Chris's side so we put it the other side of an opened wall forming the alcove we were playing in.  The top few speakers would be blocked off by the top of wall but it seemed a good solution.  Set up went smoothly and we skipped sound check 'cos it was busy ish.  But I left it loud on the PA figuring they were used to live bands.  You could hear the feedback suppressors kick in and I am coming round to thinking it is good technique to let them do their work to seek out the resonances at set up rather than avoid feedback and it come as a surprise to the PA later in the evening. 

Enjoyed a couple of beers and then got changed into white T's n black waistcoats in the large disabled toilet.  We opened up with "FBI" which got a round of applause but the Chinaman came over and indicated too loud.  Strange,  we thought,  they often have rock bands here?  Anyway it suited me to take the sound down a bit so we were well below feedback risk and more in tune with our easy listen repertoire. By and large the set went well.  We picked and mixed through Sets 1 and 2 to do about 50 minutes which got increasingly sing-a-long.  A few errors crept in:  I forgot the arrangement for "Ring of Fire" (again),  Chris forgot key for "Needles and Pins" (but he did a good "Sugar and Spice" - if a little fast).  We dropped in a good paced "Aright Mama" which I was pleased with and we finished off with "Wonder of You" which went very well apart from my forgetting the words to the first line which I had to mumble!  We had about 10 minutes off at 10:50pm and looking round I could see some older folk had arrived.  The place was by no means full, but it was busy with a mix of ages and they seemed to be enjoying the bar!  Back on we went to play a standard set 3.  As we got into "Saw Her Standing There" we got some dance action going,  so I went straight into "Dance the Night Away" to keep it going.  Looking through into the restaurant I could see some more dancing starting up and,  incredibly,  the inscrutable manager had joined in. From then on it was a good night,  lots of applause,  banter and sing-a-long and bits of dancing.  We were a number short as we ran down to the finish so I called for "All Shook Up" which was a good choice as we managed to get the audience to do the answer back 'all shook up'.  I announced Johnny B Goode as the last number hoping to coax an encore out of them and we did.  I called for "Wonderful Tonight" but the boys fancied something faster so we settled on "Born to be Wild".  This turned out to be a good choice as the audience was getting a bit wild and was still drinking at midnight!  The performance was still messy with strange changes in time - Chris the drum must know a different version?  We finished to more applause but declined any more encores and wound down.  After I got changed one of the village elders came up and said he had really enjoyed the band and he could get us a gig at another local venue - I steered him onto Chris to talk business.  Pack up didn't take too long but getting the gear out the back was a tad treacherous it being very dark and the path a bit uneven.  But we were loaded and away just after 1am.  I got in about 1:40am still buzzing about a good day with arrival of grandson and an OK gig.  Went back to Manchester the next day (in more torrential rain from ex hurricane Bertha)  to meet the little fella and 'wet 'is head' with several drinks with Phil his dad.   I brought Jacqui back Monday morning - this was an agonising trip because the sciatica had flared up again.  Ended up at the chiropractor Tuesday and learned some new stretches!