ReTrio at Moreton Hall Pub Bury St Eds

We had agreed within the band some time ago that we wanted to do a local New Years Eve and that this was our preferred venue but we knew we would have to compromise on price.  After a successful previous gig,  Chris had persuaded them to push the budget up a bit to book us and,  after consulting head office,  we got the OK!  Having had an exhausting Xmas with a lot of family visiting and Jacqui and I both suffering with colds I was kind of looking forward to a gig, but doubted my stamina.  I loaded the car at lunch to ease my gear carrying muscles back in gently.   At 6:10 I set off for the gig and arrived a few minutes later to find the boys well advanced on load in.  The pub was busy but not packed so load in wasn't too difficult.  I was pleased Chris had arranged a larger playing area for the band which meant that I could perform back a little from the expected crowd.  We did a steady set up and everything worked and sounded OK so I put the background muzak on and settled down to doing a bit of meeting and greeting and beer drinking as the wives arrived.  A chap in the growing crowd insisted on buying the band a beer in advance of our performance so I was 2 beers happy by showtime at 9pm.

As this stage the audience was mixed,  but most near the band were 20, 30 somethings.  As expected on such an evening of meeting, greeting and drinking, there was little in the way of audience reaction so we concentrated on making our music snappy as we played through a 50 minute but largely standard set 1.  I was very pleased with the sound from the off,  the bit of extra room had allowed us to get a workable volume on the mics.  I extended the rock'n'roll sequence to include "Rock Clock, Alright Mama and Blue Suede" and these got some of the girls near the band dancing.  We made a nod to Xmas with "Rocking Around the Xmas Tree" which had a few folk singing along. A bit faster than I intended and I messed up the solo a bit - still,  at least I knew I had lost my way and I moved seamlessly into fluffed chords!  We did do a bit of bantery entertainment with the Beatles but Chris didn't catch the wig when I threw it!  After the Searchers we did "Halfway" which got quite a bit of sing-a-long going.   "Runaround Sue"  got a few up dancing and I got quickly into "All Shook Up" at a dancey tempo to keep things going.  Unfortunately,  I didn't look at my hands on the guitar as I got underway and I had stepped up a semi-tone to Bb.  I only noticed as I entered the verse and I signalled by waggling my guitar neck to Chris to make sure he was in the same key.  In fact he had clocked it during the intro so we carried on.  We got a lot of loud answerbacks so I didn't have to sing  'all shook up'  throughout the song!  The solo was a bit tricky in Bb and I found it best to look away from the neck and do it by feel.  With all that sing-a-long it had to be "Wonder of You" to finish and it was a great choice with massive sing-a-long to a well performed set ender.

Having got the first set out the way with no vocal difficulty I was feeling more relaxed about my stamina to do the whole night.  However, the 2 Chris's were still suffering from the after effects of colds so a couple of their songs would be skipped.  We stepped up to do set 2 confidently and it all went well until I threw in "Be Bop a Lula" to pad it out.  Having not done it for a while I lost timing in the first solo but fortunately the boys followed me as I reset time for the second verse.  We also fitted in "Don't Stop" which we hadn't done for a while and I was pleased the words just came to me as we played it 'cos I couldn't remember them before we started it!  I substituted by doing "Honky Tonk Women" instead of "Proud Mary" 'cos Chris was suffering a bad throat.  After a good and extended "Hot Love - East Anglia Girls" I elected to finish with "Wicked Games" thinking it would suit this younger audience better than "Trilogy".  We performed it OK.  I did find singing the high chorus line a bit of a struggle but settled for it being in tune rather than loud.  After all that effort it wasn't that well received and I thought maybe I should have done "Trilogy".  As we took the last break before the run up to midnight, Jacqui said it was sounding good and she particularly liked "Wicked Games" which she hadn't heard us do before - she thought it was somewhat over this crowd's head.

We went back on at 11:25 for the final set.  We started with "Johnny B Goode" at Chris's request to get a rocker in the show earlier rather than use it as a sign off later.  Good idea I thought - actually if we could find a better sign off song we could do that regularly!  It went really well with folks dancing and singing and I thought we played it the best we ever had, with the band cooking and no solo errors!  We were quickly into "Great Balls" which kept the atmos going and then I called for "Saw Her Standing There".  I shouted to Chris the drum that I would sing it if he wasn't well enough for it but he decided to give it a go.  He had a bit of trouble with the high lines and forgot the guitar solo but we did do it!   I chose "Dance the Night Away" next to keep the dancing going - it went well and I went straight into "Saturday Night - Come on Over - Hey Baby,  Hi Ho, " to keep it going further.  We had a bit of a confab on timing for midnight and decided we could do a couple more.  I went for "Hippy Hippy Shake" and then "Alright Now".   We still had a couple of minutes so I said we'd do enough of "Mustang Sally" to while the time away.  As we stopped, Chris the bass took over as MC and led the talk down to midnight.  He was using his iPhone and we were about 10 seconds ahead of the TV with a text count down that was slow because of digital processing delay.  At this crucial point,  the vocal section of the crowd took over the count down from the TV so we ended up with two shouts of "Happy New Year" about 10 secs apart.  Chris announced us underway with "Old Lang Syne" which I sang in D.  Just then Jacqui came up to give me a hug and simultaneously someone from the crowd caught their foot in my guitar lead and pulled it out the FX unit.  It took me most of "The Okey Cokey" to sort it out but the boys carried on - well done!  After Chris the bass sang "Knees Up Mother Brown" we took a minute to wish each other a happy New Year and then got on with the set with:  "Pretty Woman,  Sweet Caroline, Road to Hell, Shakin All Over, You Really Got Me" and the closer for the night "Wonderful Tonight".  A surprising number of people had remained so we did do "Born to be Wild" as an encore and then we met and greeted well wishers as the pub music system took over.  It had been a good night for the band but, as I have said many times,  New Years Year Eve always has a 'hardness' to it which makes it more about crowd control than music.  Having said that I was pleased with the band and my own progress during the year.  In my opinion,  with all the lead vocal seasoning I have had over the year, this gig was about the best I have sang ever in my 50 year career as a bandsman.  (Not quite in Frank Sinatra's league yet though!)

Pack and load took ages but it was only a short trip home and I had a couple of "Baileys" with my cocoa to see the New Year in.  Pretty tired the next few days but should be back to normal for our annual pilgrimage to warmer climes.






 

ReTrio at the Grapes Cambridge

A new gig for us at a regular live music pub in Cambridge.  I checked it out on the net and somewhere in the blurb it said: "The Grapes brings you live performances from local Cambridge bands. Covering the greatest tunes from ANY decade, most bands have been playing on the circuit for a long time. A NIGHT NOT TO BE MISSED!"  Seemed our kind of gig?

Chris the bass picked me up at 5:50pm to form a 2 vehicle convoy heading West;  Chris the drum would be coming later.  An uneventful ride towards the city centre on the Histon Road took us to the venue by 6:30 and straight into the pub car park.  We were able to park up with several yards carry to the back door and then several more yards carry to the performance area,  so not too bad a load in.  The performance area was a railed off raised lounge.  The guvnor came and fixed sound proofing to the windows (polystyrene),  cleared some chairs and tables and voila:  a sizeable playing area with a bit of a dance floor!  Chris the drum arrived and we set the Bose well to the back so there would be a bit of sound carry to the main part of the pub as well.  Power was well off to Chris's side and I had to run a mains lead from there to my main protected distribution board and then a lead back to the bass side.  With set up complete I had plenty of time to test the sound  (the pub was busy so not a sound check as such).  Like most pubs we would be restricted in headroom by changing resonant frequencies on the PA.  The guitar and bass sounded good and a chap came over to ask me a few questions about the guitar sounds I was testing.  Chris the bass had a new cold and said: 'it was making him feel he wasn't in the mood';  Chris the drum was still recovering from a cold.  I,  currently coldless, thought we'd best have a couple of beers to improve the mood a bit!  Show time was at 9pm so we had plenty of time to while away on not a lot. 

By show time the clientele was much the same - mainly 30 plus's with a sprinkling of 40-50 somethings and a few younger folk round the pool table.  As I looked through to the other bar I could see some older folk,  so I was hoping for an OK crowd.  We had come dressed in black shirts and blue jeans,  no ties.   The venue and clientele weren't that well turned out so we stayed like that and still looked smarter!

We opened with "FBI".  All seemed OK soundwise,  but there was only a muted response as we finished so I did a bit of introductory chatter.  We carried on with "Heartbeat - Smiling" and we started to get some attention and little ripples of applause.  I pushed the echo up a little because the vocal sound seemed dry to me.   It was only as we ventured into rock and roll with "Rock Clock - Alright Mama" that we got a reasonable response and even a few on the dance floor.  I decided to skip the Xmas stuff and we got on with the Band intro songs: "Act Naturally,  Ring of Fire,  Eyes at Me For".   We hadn't done the latter for a few weeks and it was worth airing even if we were a bit rusty.  I did tease some of the oldies down in the other bar with this one,  inviting them to remember this song from the late 1950's then going "Do wappy do wappy" stop then 'silence' - they clearly couldn't remember it!  The Beatles (sans wigs) went down well and we had a few singing and dancing along with us.  I pretended we were more pro than we are by asking Chris where we were the previous night -  'Coventry' he replied!  No connection to the Searchers there so we just got on played the medley. There was an 'old boy' off to my left who clearly was enjoying the banter and the music (and a few drinks).  "Runaround Sue - All Shook Up" was well received and after a bit of prompting we got the crowd to answer back on the latter. We finished off with "Wonder of You" which did get some applause so I thought job well done really. It being a kind of 'take or leave it' venue I was relaxed and in a good mood myself.   The mood of the rhythm section had improved with playing and I thought we had the measure of the crowd, so confidence was high.

A fairly standard set 2 came and went.  I replaced American Trilogy with "Albatross" as the set closer to exercise it and promptly made a mistake in the first high section,  but slid into the correct frets quickly - so not too noticeable! 

We went on for set 3 opening with "Great Balls - Saw Her Standing There".  These got good responses with applause and dancing and I took the boys on quickly through a long sequence starting with "Dance the Night Away" and ending about 20 minutes later with "All Right Now".  It being the last gig for a couple of weeks,  I went for it vocally and thought I did a good job, and I enjoyed it.  Chris drum was too croaky to do "Another Brick in the Wall" so I called for "Hippy Hippy Shake" quickly and caught the boys dithering - it took them half a verse to get going but the song did energise the crowd into drunken dancing.  We did a bit more dithering over what to do next so I said lets exercise some stuff in progress and we did "Rockin All Over the World & Road to Hell" - I half forgot a solo in the former and both were a bit less together than last time, but it got some more finger time under the belt.  After playing our outroductions with "Johnny B Goode" we were dithering over the encore to fully finish.  In the end I said 'nothing to lose' - lets do "Summer of 69"!  This was very much a work in progress; I recall we had played it through only once before at a practice session to see what rockier numbers might work.  Actually we did it better than I thought we might and the audience didn't notice me struggling to shout the chords of the bridge and singing it at the same time.  I was pleased with my guitar sound and playing and got most the words right so it was a good call.  I also think the boys were pleased that I had the confidence in them to busk it through dependably.

Then it was pack and load.  Chris had a word with management who declared themselves well pleased and keen to have the band back.  We all agreed we liked the venue so Chris will make it so!   I was delayed opening my sandwich bag that Ms J wraps up so tightly - in effect we set off home separately.  But even on a slow run I was home by 1:30 am to find Ms J and Neice in law Nat still up and making cocoa.  Phil, Nat and the boys had arrived while I was gigging.

ReTrio at The Felsto Arms Felixstowe

We had left the gear in the cars from Friday night and agreed to meet up at the gig about 6pm for a 8pm start.  Chris would take Chris. I set off at 5:20 and took an easy drive to Felixstowe,  getting to the gig at 6:05 to see the Chris's loading their last few bits in.  I parked at the back and they helped me shift my gear in.  The guvnor (Robbie) had cleared a bigger space than last time so we did fit in OK (still tight for Chris drum).  Set up was uneventful but switching on the PA had the feedback suppressors working hard to track changing frequencies.  We would have to sing louder or play quieter - I opted for the latter.  We had come dressed in jeans, black shirts and ties so no need to change as such.   A chap at the bar bought us a round of drinks - good one ya buddy! 

The pub was busy but not as crowded as previous visits as we opened up a typical set 1 with added bits of Xmas songs.  It all went well in a toned down sort of a way,  we developed bits of banter with people who knew us now.   I thought I played and sang pretty well really,  and the bass and drums were solid.  Chris the drum was still a bit croakey from a bug he had had, so he declined a couple of vocals as the night progressed. 

During the break we had a strange discussion where Chris the drum explained he had been in touch with a singer Keith about us backing him.  I remembered this was the chap who sang in strange keys,  and didn't turn up to sing a couple of songs at Moreton Hall last time we were there.  Chris advised that he wouldn't need any special keys after all and he was set to come along New Years Eve and sing a few.  I didn't see a problem with us doing that,  but I couldn't see us backing him unless the whole unit was getting gigs for £300 plus so I questioned the added value,  saying that it could work better with a female singer to complement the band repertoirewise and improve vizuals.    I also pondered why Keith was not gigging on New Years Eve?  As we resumed I must confess I had mixed feelings about how to manage this and decided to sleep on the situation before trying to reach a settlement we could all buy into.

Typical sets 2 and 3 completed a low key but well performed evening.  But, even with only 20 left, we got to encore with "Born to Be Wild".   Unfortunately we were back to the slowed down drumming again;  ah well at least we all finished together!  Pack up was slow with stragglers milling around the band: and when we went outside it was a white xmas! Well not xmas and only a dusting of frostiness on the cars - but it was cold.  We got going after a bit of demisting and made our separate ways home.  Next day was busy with son Carl (and his family) over to celebrate his birthday.

ReTrio at Horringer Community Centre Casino Nite

Chris the bass's son in law Nathan is a teacher and he'd  booked us for a Xmas charity fund raising event his school was putting on.  There would be a casino thing going on as well, so the band sets would be relatively short.  I distilled workable set lists from the usual and asked the boys to be prepared to operate "out of the box" if we found the audience needed something special on the night. The event would start at 6:45pm and the band would start its first set at a relatively early 7pm.  Now, Chris the drum couldn't get time off work.  So there were some 'interesting' logistics preceding the gig.  Chris the bass and I met up on the Wednesday to go through "The James Bond Theme" song we would be playing as a link on the night.  So at the same time he dropped one of his bass cabs off with me to take to the gig.  That freed enough room in his car for him to go round to Chris the drum's on Thursday and pick up his kit.  Come Friday we had all the band gear aboard both cars and I followed Chris the bass down to the hall arriving at 4:15pm This was the same hall we met up in for a first time try out two years previously.  We'd certainly come on since then and we both had a sense of nostalgia as Chris opened the door.  That happy glow was immediately dispelled by the fire alarm continuing a high pitched noise.  Couldn't switch it off what ever we did.  The main hall was relatively quiet so we set about getting the gear in and setting up while the hall guvnor made his way over to sort it out.  A related problem soon emerged:  no power on stage?  I fiddled about with that for a bit but when the governor arrived he explained that the fire alarm automatically switched off power to the stage!  It took him about 20 minutes to identify a problem with a sensor in the kitchen then it was all systems go.  Meanwhile,  Chris the bass had set up the drums.  A couple of issues here and there but he seemed to know what to do.  One of the rare occasions I set up a music stand nowadays - just to see the set list really.  Although Chris the drum had yet to arrive, we had about an hour to event opening time,  so I conducted a sound check with the two of us.  After sorting out PA headroom,  which seemed quite high, we ran through a verse of "Smiling" and I recorded 20 secs of what went through the PA.  Then I played it back on a continuous loop.  Chris played along and I wandered out into the hall to have a listen.  It was surprisingly clear and loud all round the hall;  and well balanced with vocals sitting clearly above the backing.  The harmoniser was understated but that suited,  as were the strings.  I kind of wish I'd taken the time to perform the 20 secs a bit tidier,  but you could still judge the sound quality and it was good.  An amazing coincidental confirmation came in the shape of a chap who came into the hall at this point.  He said he was passing by, heard the band and was interested. He immediately commented on the great hi-tech sound - so its not our biased hearing! We explained the gig we were doing and he asked for a card.   Then Chris and I swapped positions.  I played the bass and he went out front to listen.  He was similarly impressed.  He had asked me to play the bass with a plectrum and it was a bit like a Jazz bass sound with the toppy pick click sitting on top of a full bass thump.  Sounded good to me.  I can get a similar effect with fingers by striking the string harder,  but the toppier pick sound does help fill the overall band mix of a 3 piece.  We implemented my judgement that we needed to pull the overall volume down a bit and tidied some of the wiring up - we were all set apart from a drummer!  Chris the drum arrived shortly after,  so we did a final sound check of "Smilin" with him and then tested out our rendition of the  "James Bond" theme phrase.

The hall was open now and the organisers were organising.  It seemed everything would be put back half an hour 'cos the Casino was running late.  I put on the background muzak and we went for a beer.  On this night I elected to have Becks bottled lager to avoid being first out the pumps!  The hall filled with a mix of teachers,  families and teens from the school.  3 of the boys had been shifting chairs from the back of the stage to make a lounge area at the back of the hall.  Spotting it as a risk,  I had managed to keep them from affecting our mains lead which ran through that area of the stage and I was glad that was over.   Bridget and Jacqui arrived looking good for a casino - we were all set.  But still no casino.

Nathan said we should get started - so we got changed into our smart gear in a cold committee room and came on to open up with the usual first few.  All went well, it sounded good, people applauded.  I had just got to the start of "Rock Around the Clock"  when the power went!  My first thought was fire alarm;  but no,  it was the young fellows shifting chairs again to accommodate a fuller house than predicted.  They were most apologetic,  we laughed it off and I reset the kicked power breaker!  We were soon going and played through a good set 1 of about 50 minutes.  There were bits of dancing and applause but we could also see people were really engaged with the band and we were doing well.  The casino people came in about 8pm and created some mild disruption shifting their tables in while we kept playing.  We finished our set and handed over to the Casino by playing our "James Bond Theme".  This went better than rehearsed and was very well received by the younger chaps of the audience who were all smartly dressed - I was right to refer to them as James Bond types!

In the break we played a bit of casino and managed to lose most of the 'free' chips issued on black jack and roulette.  I left mine on the band table as I went bock to play a 30 minute set 2.  This we started with the "James Bond Theme" then "Apache".  We went straight from that to "Happy Together" and that did sound good and full vocally.  We had a lotta folks singing along to "Daydream Believer and Delilah"  I had asked Chris to listen to the Alex Harvey version and he has taken to playing the drums on this number recently - it gives it more bite.  We did follow with a dancey "Bad Moon Rising,  Move It and Summertime Blues" before moving to our closing sequence with "Hot Love into East Anglia Girls".  I recall that these went OK.  We even had enough time to do a relaxed "American Trilogy" and this went down exceptionally well - we got massive applause and came off after a final flourish of "James Bond"

Next up was the raffle.  I won a bottle of Prosecco!  Then a bit more gambling and the announcement of the winners.  By now it was after 11pm and we went on to play the event out.  But with the casino packing up and people starting to leave, Chris the bass suggested we start with "Johnny B Goode" and introduce the band as the opener - so we did,  and it went very well = good call!  But after that people were on their way home so we left it at "Dance the Night Away",  "Saw Her Standing There" and with only the organisers left we finished off with "Honkey Tonk Women".  Chris had to be prompted to find his cow bell but once we got going it was a fine rendition.  Pack and load didn't take long - because we had some helpers to shift the gear.  Jacqui and I were home just after midnight I celebrated a good night banding with some toast and cocoa!