Band Practice at My Place

A week previously we had had a try out session for an hour or so with Paul Kent a singer from Haverhill.  He has a good voice, seems easy to work with and has a tech background  so Chris,  Ian and myself agreed he should join the band.  We know we can work ReTrio as is but the commercial model with Paul would need some thought:  e.g. Paul K and ReTrio or another new name for the 4 piece.  Certainly 4 piece band fees would need to rise to c £300 but we all agreed we would be content to use the gigs and pricing we have already to work up the enhanced band.   Following that session Paul and I exchanged lists of songs we could work up with a view to getting 30-40 songs available for his first 'real' gig at Searles towards the end of March.  He prefers to sing in the original key but is OK to shift where it is too high or low - so original keys become the starting point. 

For this practice night I had listed 19 songs and original keys to look at.  All well known but a few would be challenging:

CRAZY LITTLE THING	Queen	1980	D	Answerback harmonies
TAKE IT EASY	Eagles	1972	G	Good song to try out harmonies
MONEY FOR NOTHING	Dire Straits	1985	G	Strong beat
BROWN SUGAR	Stones	1971	C	Key Choice needed!
MONY MONY	Tommy James & The Shondells	1968	Bb	Key Choice needed!
HAPPY TOGETHER	Turtles	1967	F#m	Already known - Good song to try out harmonies
DECEMBER SIXTY THREE	4 Seasons	1976	C#	Arranged already suggest E
PLEASE PLEASE ME	Beatles	1963	E	harmonies worth a try! Establish key first
LA BAMBA	Ritchie Valens	1959	C	Impro?
HOUND DOG	Elvis	1956	C	Adrian learn solo
BLUE SUEDE SHOES	Elvis	1956	A	Our arrangement
WALK IN THE ROOM	Searchers	1964	A	Easy win - move to A as standalone song
ALRIGHT NOW	Free	1970	A	Easy win
PAPER PLANE	Status Quo	1972	Bb	stick to A for guitar?
ROCKING ALL OVER THE WORLD	Status Quo	1977	C	Needs solos rework
CAROLINE	Status Quo	1973	F	E Close enough
CAN'T BUY ME LOVE	Beatles	1964	C	Easy win?
TWIST AGAIN	Chubby Checker	1961	Eb	quite high Key Choice needed!
NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO	Chuck Berry	1964	G	Easy win?

So we all convened at 7pm.  All the gear is already set up in my room and we started to run through the list.  The backing to Crazy Little Thing rocked.  Paul sings lead well.  Ian is a reliable low singer so I was hoping the answer backs in Crazy Little Thing would work.  But the problem is lack of memory for what the answer backs are and where.  So I think we will need separate sessions on that - but promising overall.  Take it Easy was a challenge to Chris on bass but he got there mostly.  Still some work to do on prominent bass (octaves) at the intro.  The lead singing and band worked really well,  but again we were having trouble fitting all the harmonies in.  In my case I have been absent from singing these high harmonies for too many years to get it right first time and it will be a confidence test for me to see if I can get those high non-falsetto lines at all over the next few weeks.  Similar with Please Please Me.  It was too hard to hope to get all the vocals and the band sorted in one session.   Best I would describe it as is promising. Brown Sugar didn't work - Paul admitted he was unfamiliar and he had meant to suggest J J Flash not Brown Sugar.  The arrangement for Money for Nothing proved tricky but the basic beat was strong and successful.  It got easier after those numbers and so we progressed well through the rest of the list agreeing keys and trying things out. 

Now we have the keys,  I agreed to produce an objective set list for Paul and provide the arrangements where needed so we can work on our own parts at home.  We have Chris's missus party to play in mid-March where we can test some of it out but we are all fairly busy prior to that so this will be the only practice with us all before then. 

I came out this session with mixed feelings.  On the one hand it has strong potential and did sound good when it all worked.  On the other it will be challenging and hard work to realise.  Paul is quite dominant and Ian is not shy in putting his view forward. Chris can get frustrated especially when he is on new material.  So from a dominant role in ReTrio I am already being pushed or stepping back to let situational leadership get to work here.  Not a bad thing for me personally and I believe this will work provided all egos are looked after:  but it could lead to some unhelpful conflict.   I guess we will take it forward til it breaks or succeeds - interesting times!






















 

ReTrio at The Tyneside Sheringham

With all the fall out from Chris the drum's resignation I hadn't properly registered it was this Saturday we were playing the Tyneside.  Chris had arranged for his old bandmate Glyn Taylor to dep this gig some time ago because Chris the drum was facing a hernia operation in the week preceding  (as it happened the op' was postposed anyway) and we had exchanged notes on what he might sing,  eventually coming up with about 5 numbers.  Chris and I decided to travel together in my car and leave the lights and some spares behind to facilitate this.  On the Friday before the gig I fuelled up and set about blowing up the tyres a bit to support the full load on the gig night.  Shock horror!!! As I put the air nozzle on the left rear valve it sheared off and all the air came out the tyre.  I thought it had looked strange and looking closely at the valve you could see it was made of alloy that was a little corroded but it had clearly been bent by something?  Run flat tyres cost a lot more than normal and have longer pressure monitoring metal valves in them.  So now,  with no air in the tyre, it was time to test the run flat ability as I resolved to drive the car about a mile to the Ford garage that services it.  Actually,  it ran quite smoothly but I was very careful with it.  They didn't have a spare valve at Fords but offered to order one for fitting Saturday morning.  Seemed best so 'Yes' I said,  'I'll leave the car with you and walk home'.

Come the day I walked over to the garage and it was all done.  They had also checked the tyre out and declared it safe.  Big bill of over £100 for this incident though!  When I got home I loaded my gear in leaving space at the back for Chris's stack.  Had 40 winks sleep in the afternoon,  then drove over to Chris's,  loaded up, and set off North at about 5pm!  We had a good run over and arrived at the club just after 6:30pm.  Just got a couple of pieces in when up rolls Glyn in a big transit - we were quorate! (or triplicate?)  Glyn is a nice chap, easy going and cheerful;  and in good shape for early 60s.  The club is as I remembered it - a modernised but small,  awkwardly shaped stage and lots of lights (some of which flash brightly in your eyes like a torture scene).  I suggested the bass stack go on the floor and the Bose on the edge of the stage inside it.  This set up would have the advantage of avoiding that resonant corner -  but I also put a couple of Bose bags in the corner to trap that low D resonance that seems to emanate from there.  Actually,  when we came to test the sound it was a lot better than I remember it - this set up is one to remember for this gig!

I didn't notice the make of Glyn's mic but it was much more sensitive that the SM58 we were used to and I had to set the pre-amp down quite a lot.  Sound wise it was a little brighter than the Shure and he was well pleased with the foldback from the Bose.  He also loved the sub-bass we added by miking up the bass drum.  I put the muzak on and we sat down to have a beer and discuss the sequencing of numbers - no real surprises for him.  We had about 20 minutes to go when up walks my old dep drummer singer colleague Martin.  It was good to see him and we swapped a few 'war' stories 'til showtime.  He said he could stay and see the first set - it would be useful to get his feedback on balance.

The club was relatively full as we took to the stage and opened up with the usual "FBI - Heartbeat - Smilin".  Glyn did a fine job; maybe driving us along a tad faster than normal (a bit like Ian) but a good, full and dependable sound.  Playing with a new drummer can sometimes throw your timing a little because all the little cues you establish with the regular guy are slightly different,  but Glyn settled in nicely and I didn't make any noticeable errors as we processed through the normal set. He had offered to sing "Runaround Sue" towards the end and we shifted it up to C to accommodate him; and he did a great job. I was able to get some interesting, harmonised 'bunda hit' backings in.  Actually it went so well  I think I'll leave it in C in future.  I got the audience doing some answerbacks in "All Shook Up" and was looking to end the set with "Wonder of You" as a sing-a-long.  But Chris advised we were ahead of schedule and needed another number,  so I quickly called for "Be Bop A Lula" and we bashed that out before the sing-a-long finish with "Wonder of You"   We had been getting mild applause all the way through and I think they were amused by the Beatle wigs and some of the banter; so I was pleased they sang along lustily with "Wonder" and gave us a good round of applause.  We came off in good heart  taking the opportunity to switch off a couple of the more annoying stage lights that had blinded me in the first set.  Martin said the balance was excellent and then a few folks recognised me from the "Foot Tappers" and spoke about Dave Lemon.  So our mood remained good as we returned for Set 2.   The club had filled up some more in the break and was as full as I have ever seen it in many gigs there. 

Glyn opened up with "Apache" at about the right pace  (Chris tended to be a little slow in tempo on that one) and I took to the floor for a bit of a walk and listen to the band.  Yep,  no doubt about it,  it was a fuller sound with Glyn and, playing at the right pace, made for more impact, even if the shads walk was more tricky to do.  Sciatica is almost back to normal so no excuse there really.  I had changed normal running order to pop "Tambourine Man" in next.  And despite it being a mild mannered song it got a surprisingly good round of applause at the end.  Next up was "Daydream Believer" to start some sing-a-long.  No problems with pace here,  Glyn was spot on and it swang nicely as the audience joined in on the chorus's.  We moved quickly into "Sweet Caroline" our replacement for "Delilah".  Chris starts the bass under my announcement and then we get going.  Once again tempo was right and the crowd sang along and gave it a great reception.  I took care announcing the next number to avoid a Cliff Richard reference and simply posed the question "Do You Wanna Dance?"  I think Glyn misheard because he started with the drum beat to "Lets Dance" a la Chris Montez.  No problem - I joined in on a few bars of guitar and forced it up to the right tempo -  Chris and Glyn followed my lead and once I started singing he knew what we meant!  It went very well after that and filled the floor - most gratifying.  The following rock'n'roll sequence lost the dancers but it was high impact with "Move It" played tight'n'quick followed by "Summertime Blues" sang well by Glyn with me doing the bass answerbacks.  We were getting very confident in each other as we got going with "Rip It Up".  Unlike many drummers,  Glyn understands the need to get what I call 'a jungle beat' going under the verses in this and he set a cracking pace as we got underway.  It really swang though;   but it was too fast for me to get my set piece guitar solo out in good order - and a little improvisation crept in.  But we finished the whole song in good order.  The audience had clearly enjoyed the excitement of the fast pace and gave it a rousing reception.  Next was "Proud Mary into Bad Moon Rising".  Maybe a bit faster than I am used to,  I lost my way with some of the words in these but we did have some dancing going and I kept the sequence going by taking us straight into "Don't Stop" as we finished. We were heading down the home straight now as we got going with "Hot Love"  We played it without error at the right pace and it filled the floor!  A smooth transition up to "East Anglia Girls" followed and the dance floor filled some more as I did my 'Florida,  Hawaii, California -  East Anglia?' intro.  Unfortunately I then forgot the first line of my parody and ended up singing California Girls until I remembered things.  The chorus was a bit messy vocally but the tempo was great for the dancers and it was going down well with them.  We finished in good order to a great reception.  We still had over 5 minutes to do so I set about "American Trilogy" in a leisurely way.  Glyn, initially a little confused,  was prompted by Chris and settled into appropriate military snare work after the first section and we progressed without any problems through to the 'Hush Baby' section.  I fluffed a line in this but we were in good order for the flute solo and then Glyn followed us through the big ending quite well.  It certainly was well received by the crowd and the fluffed line was certainly due to missing aural cues from the normal drummer.  I was pleased to have done it but was glad of a few minutes off to recover from the effort.  In the break a chap who had been enjoying listening and watching the show complimented us and told us some tales of going to places like the Marquee in the 60s.  I was able to relate to this 'cos I occasionally went to gigs there as a teenager to watch bands such as 'Canned Heat' and 'Yes'.

Set 3 started well with "Great Balls" and "Saw Her Standing There".  I skipped "Dance the Night Away" and announced we had been requested to do a slowie "Albatross".  I was surprised that no-one came up to dance it but they did look appreciative.  I skipped a verse and as we came to the final section,  a chap emerged from the crowd to tell me that Tony Blackburn had been on radio today to say this was no 4 in the charts on the same day in 1969.  As we finished to good applause I realised that I had held a conversation with this chap while leaving my fingers on autopilot to play this instrumental.  I had impressed myself!  Next I invited Glyn to sing one of his vocal choices: "Pretty Woman".  We got underway a tad faster than our usual pace but it did energise the dancers and I think that will be similar with Ian.  I was able to add the hi harmony here and there to Glyn's lead but there were also the odd hiccups where the words or cues were not as normally expected.  Then we were into the dancey sequence starting with "Saturday Night at the Movies".  As we came to the final verse of "Come on Over" a lady came up and asked if we would do 'Happy Birthday' for Dee's daughter "Helen"  'Of course' I said noting that we had continued playing and the band had just softened and followed me while I held this conversation before smoothly resuming the final verse.  After 50 years I am finally getting to do this job in my sleep!  So we did Helen's birthday.  I tried to rock it up with a second verse with mixed success but Helen (a downs syndrome teen ) was pleased and charming - however, I could see the first signs she was starting to become a little over excited.  The show progressed well through 'classics' like "Alright Now - Hi Ho Silver - Shakin All Over"  and at 11:20 I announced "Johnny B Goode" as the last number.  This went down very well and with Helen's insistence on 7 more encores leading the crowd,  we did a couple more encores with "Hippy Shakes and Born to Be Wild" to finish about 11:35.  We'd still be playing now if it was up to Helen but we called it a night and did a bit of glad handing to folks that had enjoyed the show.  All in all a very good night I thought.  After pack, load and goodbyes to Glyn who had done a great job,  Chris and I set off on the long journey home.  Fortunately uneventful and good visibility - we had a good run getting to Bury St Eds at 1:45 after a 90 minute run.

ReTrio at The Felsto Arms Felixstowe

Following the amicable resignation of Chris the drum, Chris the bass had arranged for local drummer Ian Bishop to dep this one.  As it turned out he had recently finished a long spell in a rock-a-billy band and was available and looking for a local band.   We had had a get together on the Thursday and ran through a few numbers.  He fitted so well we agreed he should come on board as a full member of the band.  But,  having said that we already had another dep booked for the gig after on the 21st at the Tyneside Sheringham and thought it best to honour that.

Come the Sunday Ian travelled over to Felixstowe with Chris and I met up with them at the venue at 2pm.  We commenced load in and set up at this small pub that Chris and I have played a few times.  Ian was using his small Pearl kit with some very expensive cymbals.  I helped orientate him into the best spot for playing that would leave him a small gap on Chris's side to get out of.  Chris was using just one of his bass cabs but we were using the usual 2 x L1 Bose PA.  This gig has some weird resonances so its only when it fills up you can open up the PA.  Nevertheless,  I reduced the master volumes on the Bose to 4 from their usual 5 so that the mixer could operate at -2dB on its master.  That would give me a couple of dB to push up as the gig progressed. Ian does sing but said he would prefer to concentrate on drumming for a while so no drum vocal mic needed.  I had collected the bass drum mic from Chris the drum and we set that up and powered up - it all worked !  In the week I had changed the running order to replace some of the songs Chris had sung e.g. "Delilah" was replaced by "Sweet Caroline".

The pub gradually filled up such that by the 4pm showtime it was quite busy.  We had all come dressed in black shirt and jeans and it only remained to finish our beers and take to our instruments.  We were a couple of minutes late starting 'cos Ian ordered a showtime drink and the barrel needed changing. Chris ended up handing it over as I started "FBI".  Put it down to the distraction of the drink handling but I was a bit too slow in tempo and had to take it up a bit as soon as the others came in.  But it was fine once we got going.  Compared to Chris,  Ian's sound is bigger,  tighter and drives the band along more. Less easy listening and more dancey.  And so it proved - we soon had some ladies dancing as we progressed through the first set.  We skipped "Ring of Fire" and "Eyes" but that meant I could finish the set with a slowey:  "Wonder of You"  to which I got them all singing along and it was a good finisher.  Chris had joined in vocally here and there in the set and had sung "Act Naturally" but I felt I had to push a bit harder on vocals to line up with a more driving rhythm section and was feeling somewhat exerted by the end. By now the pub was full enough for me to push the PA to 0dB which I hoped would make it easier in set 2.

We started with "Apache" I was pleased Ian got it going a bit faster than Chris but then I lost my way in the Shads walk amongst the audience in this busy pub.  Fortunately a couple of ladies came up and did a proper 'walk' to put me to shame - we had a laugh!   We carried on with "Tambourine Man" which went surprisingly well and then quickly into "Daydream Believer and Sweet Caroline"  These are good sing-a-long numbers that also had a few up dancing and went down well despite Chris losing his way with some of the chords in the chorus - deep sound blooper is not that noticeable.  Played a strong rock'n'roll sequence with Ian driving us through: "Move It - Summertime Blues - Rip It Up".   After "Bad Moon", I did a sort of Creedence Clearwater version of "Proud Mary" to replace Chris's Tina Turner version.  I have noticed audiences like this number so we will need to keep it in.  I had to politely decline a request for "Build Me Up Buttercup" - this is another one that often seems to get asked for so I made a mental note to learn how to busk it.  After "Don't Stop"  I took us into the Hot Love - East Anglia Girls sequence intending to pad it out a bit.  Only trouble was I forgot to do the solo in Hot Love and had to find a way of working it back in.  We finished "East Anglia Girls" in good order.  I hadn't missed Chris's falsetto too much and Chris the bass did sing the bass line a la Mike Love.  In some ways it was clearer vocally,  but it would be good to get the falsetto back when we get organised.  I elected to finish the set with "American Trilogy".  We had run this by Ian in the week and he did a great job considering all the stops and changes that had to be felt.  He did an excellent bit of big band drumming to the climax in the final section and we got the desired massive applause result with the audience.  Only trouble was,  with the band playing louder, I had given it my all vocally and was really glad we were taking a 20 minute break.

In the break I knocked some water back and felt a bit better. We resumed set 3 with "Great Balls - Standing There - Dance The Night Away".  Chris used to sing the lead on "Standing There" but I found it fairly easy to take that on.  Ian did a great job on the drums on "Pretty Woman" up next and, as I took us on through the long party dance sequence through several songs to "Alright Now",  he followed just fine.  I asked Chris if he was up for "Rockin All Over the World" but he politely declined citing still not sure of words and arrangement.  We improvised a version of "Twist Again" to keep the dancers busy.  We hadn't been able to do this confidently with Chris on drums 'cos he struggled with the rhythm and tempo,  so it was useful to find our feet with it again as Ian drove it along quite nicely.  I had had a couple of instances of crowd enthusiastically dancing into band but nothing irrecoverable.  I took the opportunity to catch my breath by slowly introducing "Summer of 69" as a new song from the band at the Felsto.  This needed to be aired and it went well enough but should get better as we all get familiar with it..  Then we ran into the closing sequence with "Hippy Hippy Shakes - Mustang Sally" and then "Johnny B Goode".  We got a lot of shouts for More - so we encored with "Born to be Wild".  No problems with strange tempos with Ian;  it really rocked and,  icing on the cake,  we all finished together.  We were a few minutes over the 7pm finish time so I declined another encore and we closed down.  I was exhausted but had to soldier on with a few meet and greeters as we retrieved the cases.  A couple of ladies were disappointed we hadn't done "Penny Arcade" and another chap asked for some "Status Quo" next time - 'no problem' I said 'we can do all these next time'. 

Pack up seemed to take ages but load out went well for me mainly because Ian and Chris brought my stuff out.  We were on the road before 8pm and I was home at 8:40.  I told Ms J I needed a drink so I had a couple of lagers from the fridge but being so tired after the gig I was dozing in my chair by 10pm and settled for an early night -  felt better the next day after a long sleep (I suppose a bit similar to a boxer after a fight I needed to sleep).  It was only the next day I realised I had forgotten to take any photos of Ian's debut.

Reflecting on the bands development: we are definitely moving on from easy listening and consequently my role playing and singing is becoming more demanding.  Spoke to Chris the next day and agreed we would try out a front man who had come to our attention with a view to him coming in and performing some newer numbers as a cabaret feature of the band at the better paid gigs.  But actually I am open to this role growing if he fits in.  Keep watching this space you blogateers!

 

ReTrio at Cambridge United Football Supporters Club

This gig was a bit of a paid audition and was booked before Cambridge United's fantastic cup run against Man United earning them over a million pounds.  I followed Chris the bass out to the gig on a cool but dry evening and when we arrived he joked: 'see those stadium lights - they rang up and that's where we are playing tonight!'  I was taken in for a few seconds before I quipped back:  'supporting Shirley Bassey I suppose?'  We entered the club, it was quite full despite the team's loss to Wycombe in the afternoon.  Quite a big concert room with a sizeable stage in the corner.  They soon opened the fire door so we could get the gear on to the stage comfortably.  We started load in and had most of our gear in before Chris and Trudy arrived.  Set up went OK.  Most of my gear was a little damp from having been stored in the cold,  so I took my time to unplug and replug jacks and XLR's to ensure contacts were sound.  The only power I could find was a trailing lead capable of running about 10 amps so I suggested to Chris that he forget the lights.  But he found a socket the other side of the fire door and routed an extension over the top to the stage.  He set up the Bose on his side fairly well forward and to the outside of the bass stack.  It was angled left into the main body of the hall which was pretty well what I would have gone for.  On my side I took the trouble to set the mixer up on the left of my Bose so it also had a good run of sight into the body of the hall over to my right (facing it). I wanted to avoid setting them up too aimed to the middle because there was a low beam about 30 foot from the stage which could have bounced back badly.   Too my relief,  it all powered up OK and we had pretty good headroom before feedback.  There was a hum on the guitar which I couldn't get rid of and will need further investigation.  It seems to be from the guitar 'cos volume down or hand on the bridge seems to clear it. I decided to live with it.  So we were all set.  Chris the bass and I swapped reminiscences about playing this gig in the mid 70's.  I had come down from Lincoln with 5 piece to do it and he had done it with a young country band.

We met up with Paul the concert sec who explained timings,  lighting etc and after a quick beer, I whiled away some of the time setting up a Go-Pro camera to video some of the show.  This has a very wide angled lens and is reputed to be capable of recording live sound well.  Then Paul switched on the hall lighting and it was great:  a starry backscene,  well lit stage and atmospheric lighting in the hall.

We had a dressing room for a change and it was nice and warm!  We got into the black and whites.  Chris the drum had forgotten his hat but Chris and I decided to wear ours. I'd say the concert room was about half full as we started.  We took to the stage at 8:30 the concert sec announced us and off we went with "FBI".  What a good on-stage sound!  We played this note perfect and finished to some applause.  I did my quip about their million pound windfall and us expecting to be supporting Shirley Bassey and then we moved onto "Heartbeat".  The vocals sounded good to me and again we played it at a good pace and with no mistakes to earn another polite round of applause.  Actually the audience were quite a way away from us so you would only expect to hear it lightly anyway.  Next up was "Smiling" which I thought we did well.  I made a couple of fluffs on guitar but nothing too noticeable and again it was well received.

As we moved onto rock and roll some jivers came up to dance.   We carried on through the set playing well I thought and we were rewarded with bits of dancing, applause etc.  Strangely,  at the 40 minute point, the concert sec came on his mic as we finished "All Shook Up" to announce the end of the set.  Did he want to be part of the show?

During the break we met up with another Paul who had come to see us specially.  He is a muso acquaintance of Chris the Bass and I showed him round our PA.  He was very much up to speed with technology and quite impressed with the set up.  The hall had filled a bit more by start time.

We set off into a standard 2nd set with "Apache and Do You Wanna Dance"  I was a bit rusty on both of these but we got quite a few up and dancing to the latter.  And that was the pattern for the rest of the night really.  They liked the 70's dancier stuff like "Hot Love" and were less into the slowies ad sing-a-longs.  I thought we played pretty well and at a good pace and we had good continuity.  Hard to read really.  Later on: soft rock like "All Right Now didn't fare that well with the dancers,  but towards the end the slowies filled the floor.  We were just gearing ourselves up for the run down to the end when the concert sec came on the mic and announced the last number.  So we did "Johnny B Goode".  Then he announced a couple of encores - I chose to do "Hippy Shakes and Wonderful Tonight"  both of which filled the floor quite well.  The concert sec then carried on with a 80's themed disco session til after midnight.

As we came off stage  a few well wishers came up to say hello and how much they had enjoyed it so we were feeling good about the gig as we packed up.  Chris found time to sound out Paul the Concert Sec about another booking we had pencilled in for the club in June:  but he wasn't that enthusiastic saying he couldn't remember and would need to check his books.  Anyway we all set off home feeling fine and next afternoon we had the news that he wasn't taking up the option on the re-booking?  When pushed he told Chris that the tempo didn't suit the club and he thought the vocals needed more work.

This prompted a flurry of texts between the band as we entered a crisis of confidence.  As it happened we had booked a practice try out session with a female singer in the week to come that I thought might improve our versatility.  So later in the afternoon we settled on that as the way forward for a while.  Thinking about the concert sec's criticism I think we are about 15 years away from him in era so that probably takes care of the tempo issue.  We may have a had the occasional vocal problem on the night,  but the video showed an acceptable performance overall I thought.  Also the other Paul the musu reported back to Chris the bass that the band sounded very good instrumentally and vocally to him.  So I decided to put the vocal issue down to a bit of rustiness and try to work harder at it.  Then,  late on the Sunday we had a text from Chris the drum to say he was resigning: citing more time needed with the family! 

By the next day Chris the bass had lined up deps for the immediate gigs and we agreed to consider one of these as replacement.  So we had now reached another settlement around: 'carry on and keep calm'.  The female singer is an acquaintance of Chris the drum so we don't know if she will turn up for a try out on Wednesday as agreed?  A lot of the performance load is on my shoulders so I'm thinking that we will take the opportunity of this hiatus to augment the band with another member.  Watch this space blogateers!

The Checkmates at The Borderline Soho London

Raye had booked this gig several months previously and I was able to adjust my holiday to fit.  Nevertheless,  Jacqui and I were still somewhat zombified after our return from the Caribbean on the Tuesday before the gig on the Sunday.  Partly time adjustment but mainly the ferocious cold that seemed to envelop East Anglia on our return! I prepared the day before:  my Godin gig bag had got messed up in the flood at Carl's flat so I squeezed the XTSA into an old Fender gig bag I have and loaded my Boss GP 10, some leads and a tuner in a back pack with my Checkmates shirts. We would be using the house amplification thank goodness.  Anyway,  come the day we drove to Cambridge,  parked up at the station car park (only £1.30 on a Sunday) and got the 13:20 to Kings Cross.  This was a non-stop, on time experience and we were flagging a taxi down by 14:20.  I directed him to Leicester Square where I intended to have a beer and kill about 30 minutes contingency time before arriving at the venue at our scheduled 3-4pm meet up time.  It was a lot warmer in London than Bury but Jacqui and I were pleased to take refuge in the Cambridge Arms on Charing Cross road about 5 minutes from the gig.  I enjoyed a couple of pints before we walked up to Mannette St opposite Denmark St (tin pan alley where all the music shops are) to find the club well and truly locked.  Strange I thought, checking my notes,   there should have been a gear load in phase before 2pm?  Then the thought struck - there must be a stage door!  So we walked on a block and down an alley where a short line of some of Raye's mates were waiting to see him and they pointed out the stage door.  I buzzed us in (non one asked who we were,  maybe there is a camera?) and we came down some well worn stairs into the concert room where I spotted Graham and his boy Adam,  They had just arrived five minutes earlier.  Apparently Raye and Val were on a bus coming over from Victoria and would not be at the gig for another half an hour.  At that moment the impresario,  Keith Woods,  came over to us and, recognising us as the Checkmates,  led us to our own dressing room back stage. We dumped the gear and as we came out past the stage we could see the house band had just completed set up and was starting a sound check.  I was amazed when the guitarist (Johnny) spotted me and said "Ah The Checkmates are here".  Apparently he had seen us play at Lindfield in 2010!  Well, he took the trouble to show me and Graham the set up.  A choice of Fender guitar amps and a Trace Elliot for bass.  Strangely all the back line amps were one side of the stage to leave plenty of room for keyboards,  sax's etc on the other side.  Although he had a nice looking Fender de-luxe 30 watt valve,  I opted for his solid state Fender 65 'cos I was using my pedal for the amp sound.  This worked out well because he could leave the settings for himself on the Deluxe. We took a step back to them get on with their sound check and greet Raye and John/Raz the Ted (Raye's old road manager) who had just arrived.   We listened a bit to the house band and Beryl Marsden's sound check before retreating to the dressing room to get sorted.  She has a fine soulful voice,  and the 'in hall' sound was very good with repeater speakers and TV screens at the back delivering a good clear sound throughout this 'intimate' venue.  We would be last to check at 4:30 ish 'cos we were first on.  I had prepared a running order and themed our show so we all knew what we were doing and we were all fit and well and ready to go.  Raye went and arranged with the lighting man to dim the stage lights in the drum routine because we would be using lit up drum sticks and Graham and I set off for our sound check.  I plugged in but nothing worked.  The sound guy came over and discovered a faulty house lead into to the Fender 65.  Then I got going.  The sound was a bit middley and had a bit too much reverb,  but I was being urged by the other two to get on with it and didn't get round to adjusting the amp settings - so I decided to settle for it.  Actually most of the sound colour was from my pedal and it would cut through nicely with the middley sound!  The mics sounded good on stage,  but Graham was well away from the back line and needed more bass in his monitor.  So we set off by trying out "Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now".   We were a little hesitant getting started but it had all gelled by the second verse.  No harmoniser meant for an interesting counterplay between mine and Graham's voice with quite a few unison lines that are normally harmonised - strangely attractive in a vintage sort of way though.  I kept edging the guitar volume down because it was so strong in my monitor but I assumed the sound guy would fix in the front of house mix.  And he did because all our supporters later re-assured us it sounded really good. We realised as we finished that Raye didn't have a vocal mic - so that was fixed for the show itself and Raye's voice would add a little bit more in places.   Although doors hadn't yet opened,  there were quite a few fans already in the room - special invites by Keith?  As we left the stage we were complimented by several of these and I even was asked for a couple of autographs on the way back to the dressing room.  A group of three international fans; including Lucky from France and Sven from Norway insisted on having photo's taken with the band.  We obliged but said we would do it again later when we had our stage wear on!  When doors opened at five,  we are delighted to meet up with daughter Claire and partner Nick and a couple of old friends of ours: Pete and Di from Farnham. We only had a few minutes because we needed to get changed ready for the 5:30pm start.  We retreated to the dressing room and donning our blue shirts we just reminded each other of some of the starts. 

Keith came and collected us at 5:25pm and we strode onto the stage in front of a full house, plugged in and opened up with "Eyes".  All went very well and we got a great round of applause.  As I looked round there were quite a few videoing the performance providing us with a view of a sea of outstretched arms with phones in hands.  I counted us straight into "Slowboat" and off we went - again it was well paced and note perfect and very well received.  We carried quickly on with the third Checkmates top ten hit "Them Their Eyes".  A couple of fluffed chords and odd remembrances of the backing vocals but a well paced rendition nevertheless.  As the applause died down Graham did our planned announcement providing a bit of background on the Checkmates and Rayes early 60's band lineage,  concluding with the morphing of the Checkmates in 1962 into the Ex-Checkers to back Jimmy Justice.  Then it was over to me to sing "Smiling" as a tribute.  Despite my failing to hit the solo switch on my Boss GP-10 for the solo,  it went very well.  I thought I sang it well, Graham joined in on some harmonies and we finished to a great round of applause.  Then Graham announced the drum routine as per his usual style and we were soon off into "Let There Be Drums".  A familiar routine that we would adapt as we went to fit on the stage. It was business as usual up to the point I would move the large tom.  This was miked up but I had pre-planned exactly where it was going for us to work round but not disturb the mic.  Raye had issued us with sticks that light up and as the house lights dimmed we looked eerie with the sticks flashing away.  We came out of the drum section OK but Graham and I got a little at cross purposes on the run up to the resumption of the verse;  nothing the crowd would notice though.    But I held my cool and restarted the run up as though it was part of the act and we ran through to the end smoothly to a fantastic reception.   As we re-organised the drums,  Graham announced our dedication to the 2 i's Coffee Bar, a favourite hang out of Raye's where much of early British Rock n Roll started. We chose to play "Brand New Cadillac by Vince Taylor (and covered by the Clash in the 80s). I had set up my slap back echo rock n roll sound and we got off to a good start at the right tempo.  In fact,  we performed this the best we ever have done - I had recently adjusted the solo to be closer to the record and that worked really well.  Once again we got a great reception for it.  Graham then announced our finishing sequence beginning with "Lucky Old Sun".  This started OK but I did have a bit of trouble getting the backing vocals as I would like without the harmoniser,  so I kept them down in the mix.  Also the middley guitar sound didn't help the arpeggios because the g string was so pronounced and I had to try and play softer on that one.  Graham elected to do a bit of an outro announcement in the middle and it took me a few bars to cotton on to the fact he was doing this over the verse chords (in effect adding an extra verse where I had wrongly assumed the next bridge would be).  All in all I felt I was struggling with this song all the way through - but again I think nothing the audience would notice.  We segued smoothly into  "Early in the Morning" with Raye joining us out front and carried it through to its usual speeding up ending and tight, syncopated finish.  As we finished to a fantastic reception we tried to leave the stage in good order,  but were generally mobbed by well wishers and autograph collectors.  One fan asked why we hadn't done: "Never Know What You're Missing"?  I said 'maybe next time!' hoping we would get to do this gig again sometime.  As I left the stage I provided our names to a music journalist who would be writing up the gig.

We headed back toward the dressing room and did some photo shoots with Lucky etc on the way and eventually we found our way back to family and friends who all said it was fantastic.  Finally we got changed and, after an hour or so watching the other bands, Jacqui and I agreed to take Claire and Nick for a meal.  Graham had had to go anyway because he was due at a conference in Copenhagen the next day;  so we said our goodbyes and ventured out into Soho.  Nick led us to a Byron's restaurant where we had some posh burgers - most enjoyable.  After, we hailed a cab on Oxford St and gave Nick and Claire a lift with us back to Kings Cross.  Where we only had a short wait before the next fast train to Cambridge.  This ran to time and we were soon picking up the car and on our way home on a very cold night.  Pleased to have some cocoa and get to bed basking in the glow of what was probably the best Checkmates gig I've done.