ReTrio's Final Gig at Bramford British Legion

Chris had booked me a few months previously to do this gig as ReTrio because Steve would be on a cruise.  I was hoping to have a good last night but I was still recovering from a sniffy cold.  However, I put together a special set list to include a few instrumentals,  old timers and Xmas songs to get us through the night.  Jacqui kindly said she would accompany me for moral support so we set off at 6:10pm to make the 40 minute trip to Bramford.  It was quite dark and, when we arrived,  turning round on the main street was very difficult do with lots of traffic wanting to use the side street I chose for the turn.  Even though we weren't in convoy, Chris had appeared right behind me to add to the confusion.  We eventually lined up to park outside the club and my wing mirror clipped another wing mirror as we attempted to pull into the curb in the face of another bunch of vehicles - fortunately no damage done and for once I was parked right outside the club!

We just got loaded in when Ian and Sharon arrived.  Chris said hello to the governess who said she might be back later - but the word from the bar was she and most of the other club members would be attending a big 60th birthday elsewhere in town on this evening and we would be looked after by the lovely Chloe (on a break from college?) who was to perform the role of concert secretary for the night.

Set up went well,  the stage seemed bigger that our last visit and we easily fitted on.  We put the Bose on Chris's side forward where a normal PA would be and mine was at the back as usual.  Tonight I was using my Audix OM7.  The OM7 needs an extra 12 dB or so over the OM5 because it is transformerless.  Because it runs through the VoiceLive the adjustments to trim are done in there,  the mixer trims receiving the VoiceLive outputs remaining the same. 

Had a brief moment of panic when the mixer didn't boot up right.  I found I had to unplug some of the mics to get it to boot up.  May be something to do with rural electricity voltage?  Despite that, set up time for me is much quicker than my previous arrangement which had lots of send and receive cables running to and from the foot switch area.  This club has the dreaded sound meter controlling the mains system.  There were only a few in the room as we sound checked.  It sounded quite loud to me but the meter was well in the green.  To be on the safe side, I reduced the PA a couple of dB to get us well below the feedback ceiling.  Chris reminded me to put some background musak on and it was only after the third play of Rod Stewarts "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" that I realised the player was on 'repeat tune' - it took a couple of minutes to work out how to fix that!  There were only 20 ish in the room as it approached show time.  Chris said don't bother with ties as we got changed and we were soon lining up to be introduced by Chloe. 

Bang on 8:30pm we struck up with "F B I" which sounded fine and didn't disturb the sound meter.  We progressed on through a set that worked well for this small audience.  I was able to engage them in banter from the off which helped;  and I remembered from previous visits they like slowies early in the night.  So I had lined up "My Only Possession",  "Halfway" and "Albatross" to slow things down and in amongst the Rock n Rollers we did "Rockin Around the Xmas Tree" to set a Xmas tone to proceedings.  I was very happy with the guitar and vocal sound.  True I had a cold and sounded a bit nasal; but I was able to sing my usual range and the throat was free of gunk thanks to a LemSip taken just before we came out.  The VoiceLive effects on voice and guitar all work well for me now and I am 90% there on smooth FX transitions through nimble footwork, so show continuity is good.  Chris and Ian looked like they were enjoying it so I sprang a surprise on Ian by calling for "Ring of Fire" as the country song for the night.  I thought it went well despite Ian never playing it before!

ReTrio - Ring of Fire

After the Beatles and Searchers medleys, we got them up and dancing with "All Shook Up and Runaround Sue".  We finished, what felt like an hour's set, with "Wonder of You" inducing good audience sing-a-long participation from the 25ish attending.  It went well despite me chickening out with the easy vocal finish.

Set 2 came quickly as there weren't enough to run a raffle on the night.  We opened with "Apache" but not a lot of walking tonight with my short guitar/synth lead restricting movement. After a few sing-a-long numbers and early in the set we did a special request for Ian in the shape of "Penny Arcade" - he loves the change in beat and he finds it so catchy he uses it in his drum tuition sessions. 

Penny Arcade

A few got up to dance so we carried on to play a typical dance selection up to "Bad Moon Rising".

Bad Moon

After this we fitted in "White Xmas as the mid set slowie and followed it with "Raining in my Heart to keep the slow dancers going.  Then we finished with "Hippy Shakes and Hot Love"  Considering we only had a small audience I was pleased most of them danced through to the end.  We had a few requests in the break and,  because they were mostly already on our play list I was pleased to fit them in - but one was for a drum solo!

Chloe introduced us for Set 3.  I chose to open with "Flingel Bunt" on guitar and bass which was a surprise for Ian but it maintained continuity and saved explaining the drum intro to him.  Next up it was the request for a drum solo.  I had promised someone from the audience Ian would attempt "Let There Be Drums".  Ian set off and I talked Chris through some chords as we joined in.  We were just coming to the bit where the band would come back in when Ian double handedly switched the power off with some mighty cymbal bashing. 

ReTrio - Let There Be Drums Power Out

I couldn't get the power to restart so I plugged the band into a none controlled socket and we finished the number off to big applause.

Then it was right through a typical set with just a few breaks as I led the band through to the big finale with one of our requests for "American Trilogy".  Although the voice was a bit shot we got through to the big end and then rounded off the night with "Johnny B Goode"

Johnny B Goode Play Out

I thought we had had a good night to consign ReTrio to history - the band all enjoyed themselves and we did the best we could with a small audience.  Pack and load went well and meant we were home by 1am - Ms J and I both had a well deserved cocoa.


 

Still Depping with Coast - at Horringer Casino Charity Event

I was looking forward to this gig 'cos we had a good time last year and were able to take the time to get set up properly in a good sized village hall. 

We would be using my PA.  Mainly because Steve was departing on a cruise the next day and needed to be away early,  but also so I knew everything was working for our ReTrio re-incarnation the following week at Bramford.  So on the Thursday I ran the PA up to make sure all was OK.  It did need quite a few tweaks to accommodate my new VoiceLive FX unit so I left the old settings as ReTrio in case I ever need to go back to them and saved the new settings as Band for the preferred set up going forward.    I had been trying to fix the piezo under the 'g' string on my Koa Godin XTSA. The volume from it had dropped dramatically following a recent restring where the cap containing the piezo element had worked loose.  When I re-fitted it the piezo was hardly working?  I took it apart and its very fiddly but it seems the piezo element may need fixing in place with glue?  Looking on the net it seems this is not uncommon and I had a go a re-fixing it with mixed success.  I decided to use my 'spare' red XTSA for gigs for the time being and will see if I can find a guitar repairer to have a go at this fiddly job.

I had hoped that I would be finished with the sniffy cold by now but 'no' I would still need plenty of meds to keep the coughing and sneezing at bay on the night.  I left home at 4:40 to get through Friday traffic in Bury to arrive at the gig at the target of 5pm. Chris arrived a few minutes after me,  so I had prime position at the doors!   I was pleased to see the hall was open and the chap doing the janitoring turned out to be fellow guitarist.  We swapped stories as I loaded in - he plays in a Killers tribute band and another band doing original material.  Chris took the opportunity to ask him if he fancied taking on the guitar role in Coast and he said he'd have a think!

Set up went well on the big stage and I took some time to get my stuff all optimised before looking at the band mics.  They went smoothly apart from Ian's vocal which didn't work?  I proved the mic was ok and then delved deep into the settings on his channel.  It turned out I had set a gate on the drum vocal mic so it closed when he wasn't singing and the threshold was much too low which resulted in switching off the mic completely.  For a quick fix I switched the gate out of the set up and all was well!  Steve was using a Shure PG58 which was quite a middley tone compared to the rest of the mics but he said he liked the sound so I didn't faff.  The feedback suppressors took some high end out anyway! We put in Steve's spare radio mic into the spare drum overhead channel on the mixer to give the compere a roving mic.  It worked and delivered a good sound first time! 

Chris and I had been discussing how we might improve what he hears from the bass when stood in front on the stack.  I hear it fine on my side and we know it sounds great out in the hall.  Ian said: 'Slade used to have a bass speaker cab each side in the 70's why not try that!'  So we did.  Chris brought a cab over to my side and I sited it on the far side of the Bose.  Well, this simple change had a radical effect on Chris's hearing of the bass.  For me it was slightly louder and clearer,  but for him it was a huge improvement.  And there is room at most gigs to do this if you put the guitar amp on top of the remote bass cab.  And raising the guitar amp would also aid guitarist's to hear their own sound.  Be interesting to see how we get on at next weeks small stage at Bramford.  Finally,  we put Chris's phone on a back ground music playlist and I took his minijack into the mixer and we were set to go.

Probably about 120 in the hall.  About 80% of the attendees were 6th form students;  with teachers,  parents and band wives (Jacqui,  Bridget and Sharon) making up the senior element!  There was no buffet as such,  but the tables were populated with pots of nuts and crisps so we filled our boots with them and beer.  We had got changed into our Dinner Jackets so the ladies could inspect us - for tidiness not dry rot!  Bridget's teacher son Nathan was the organiser and he had got a few colleagues to run the gambling casino attractions and compere the night.  The compere was very good explaining the flow of the evening and he had a good line and relaxed manner with banter I thought.

But there was some confusion between the compere and the band.  He started announcing the band before we were even on the stage so that left a gap of a few minutes whilst we got sorted.  Once up and running we opened with "FBI".  I was happy with the sound of the band but just needed to roll back the guitar volume a little.  I'd asked Steve to stay on the dance floor to listen for any balance issues.  He remained impassive out there but when he came on to sing "Heartbeat" he said the band sounded good.  We brought him on by playing a few bars from the "James Bond Theme".  I was really very pleased with the on stage band sound over the first few numbers.  The problems I faced were operational - i.e. me getting used to the new approach to changing sounds with the VoiceLive 3.  In the light of this performance I'm going to move the tremolo sound next to my standard pop sound so I can select it without passing through any other sounds. We weren't doing any bantering,  just following the set list with 'as quick as we could manage' changes into the next number. I was able to cue Steve through some of the arrangements;  some we had to follow him though.  Folsom went a bit awry - here's the strange ending but I guess this one was mainly down to me!?!

But,  on the whole,  performance and continuity was a lot better than previous gigs.  I brought the harmoniser in on the "Searchers" medley and that subtly and successfully filled out the vocal sixties sound.  We were getting some good audience response from the seniors in the crowd who you could see were impressed with the sound and applauding well.  I think some might have been fearful of a loud unbalanced noise (like it really was in the sixties).  Jacqui later reported the band sound as excellent - loud and clear enough to command attention but not so loud it precluded conversation, just perfect for this gig.

We sat out the gambling.  The youngsters looked like they were enjoying it and the compere was doing a good job of holding the event to time. Thinking Chris would have learned from out late arrival on stage for set 1,  I was surprised that he hadn't rounded us up by the time we heard the announcement " And now back to our excellent band - a big hand for Coast".  We scrambled back to the stage and opened a few minutes late again with "Apache".  Steve and I went out front and started the walk.  A few girls also joined in which was pleasing to see.  Another nice touch was that as we approached the end I was able to walk up the stairs (still playing) and get to my stage position for the next number.  We got a great response anyway and then got going 'fairly' smoothly into "Do You Wanna Dance" - I had to remind Ian of the starting drum fill!  Once underway the dance floor got quite busy so I made Steve go round another verse and chorus to finish.  We carried on with some sing-a-long in the shape of "Daydream Believer and Sweet Caroline" but the dancers drifted away.  Ian called for a slowey.  Catching the band mood,  I started "Nights in White Satin".  This went unbelievably well as I added big dollops of strings and harmoniser and the band started to feel and play the dynamics of the piece. Steve did a creditable flute sole substituting some focussed vocal 'oohs' for the flute.   I kept the song short pushing Steve into a big finish after the solo.  Actually I thought he sang this song quite well as well.  But the response the band got was fantastic (even from the youngsters) - it must have sounded really good out there.  Jacqui later confirmed that even though she didn't care for the song she thought the band sound, vocals and light and shade were excellent.  Chris called for "Albatross" to follow - which we did well.

Then we got back on with some dancier stuff culminating in "Proud Mary" which went down very well and filled the floor.  I was just about to start into Bad Moon when Chris called for "Johnny B Goode" as the last number for this set.  It turned out to be an inspired choice.  The youngsters and oldsters all knew the song.  As we came to the solo's Steve had organised the youngsters into a conga line of duckwalkers.  So there I was centre stage playing the iconic solos as about 25 6th formers duck-walked across the dancefloor in front of me. It was like a scene from Back to the Future - it was just brilliant!

Then there was another spell of gambling and then the raffle was drawn.  Jacqui won a bottle of Prosecco and I won a few numbers later but asked for the prize to be awarded to the next number.

The band went on to play the third set opening with "Honk Tonk Women" but the hall started to empty so we didn't stay long just playing a couple more numbers. 

As we packed up Sharon introduced me to Ian's bass playing son (from Reading).  Apparently he is quite accomplished and plays esoteric jazz fusion in weird time signatures - he plays a Sandberg bass.  He made my night by saying what a great guitar sound I had and how he liked my style which fitted so well within the confines of the line up and repertoire.  I showed him the gear as we were packing up and I think he was quite impressed an old codger like me would dabble in such modern techniques.

Pack up was tortuous as my cold symptoms returned.  Jacqui and I were pleased to make the short journey home and I took a shot of Lemsip as soon as I got in.



      

Dep for Coast at the Dolphin Felixstowe

Went down with a cold just before this gig.  Jacqui and I went out for a strong curry on the Friday hoping it would cure it before it took hold,  but I was still very rough and sniffy Saturday morning.  I loaded up under the influence of Lemsip and, to keep things simple at a small gig, I decided to try the Mesa Lonestar for guitar amplification with the new TC-H Voicelive3.  I got changed into black shirt, thermal vest, and trousers so there would be no need to change at the gig.

Windy evening as I set off about 6:20pm.  Arrived at the gig to find Chris and Ian loading in.  I wheeled my amp in and then one small case of leads and FX.  Another trip brought mic, guitar and music stands in and I was ready to set up.  Only problem was a Xmas tree right in the way on my side,  Still I was able to work round it - good job I brought the small Mesa amp.  Steve arrived with the PA.  Instant decision = no room for monitors. 

I set my stuff up. It all sounded OK in an empty room.  No sound check so we got interested in beer which was good for my cold.   There weren't many in the "concert lounge" but there was an interesting fancy dress party going on in the sports bar in the next room. e.g. a chap was dressed as Wonder Woman!  Meanwhile, we agreed to abandon ties for this performance.  By show time there were still only about 15 in our room.  But,  at least one couple had ventured out from our old residency at the Felstowe Arms specifically to see us which was good to see.

We played a selection from the Set 1 listing.  As soon as we struck up with "F B I" I was distressed with the guitar sound which was thin and trebly with a toppy break up spoiling the clean Shads sound I was hoping for.   Strangely as Steve came on he said "great sound".  Nevertheless,  I dropped the treble and presence a notch and pushed up mid from 5 to 6.5.  This now sounded more clear and commanding but it was only when I ventured out on to the dance area that I could hear just how clear the guitar sound actually was.  Standing in front of the amp it seems you just get the distortion and other artefacts wafting up.   My sore throat and lack of monitors precluded any heroics in harmony singing but,  by trying out VoiceLive FX such as doubling and harmony we were delivering quite a full sound vocally.  With minimal audience interaction,  poor continuity between songs;  and strange arrangements and melodies when actually playing songs, I expected a poor reception.  However, as we warmed to the task, we seemed to go down alright with the small crowd? 

Set 2 continued the same theme.  I was getting increasingly irritated with the compression setting on the VoiceLive which didn't seem to work well with the Mesa's natural valve compression delivering a flat squashed solo sound.  As I was only using the compression settings to boost the guitar for solos,  I made a mental note to eliminate compression from the guitar FX patches but use the compressors 'make up gain' to boost the guitar solo sound when I get time.

We came on for the final set and a few numbers in I mucked up the chords in the second verse of "You Say Nothing At All" trying to play the arpeggios like the record. But the VoiceLive harmonies in this song were rather good and we got a good response to it - some wag in the crowd said it sounded like "El Divo".  A few numbers later I think we were all pleased to finish with "500 Miles" - but there were enough shouts for more for us to do "Johnny B Goode" as an encore.  And I was pleased we did 'cos this was a better final memory of the gig.  I was able to crank the guitar up enough to get the Mesa to 'sing' a little with some nice sustain and just a slight halo of distortion.  So, by the end of the night I had got the guitar sound sorted and knew what to do on the next FX programming session.  But,  feeling rough,  I packed up and loaded quickly and took off for home ahead of the boys.  I was home by 12:45 am which was good because the next morning we were driving to Bristol to visit brother in law Roy in hospital following his bike fall earlier in the week.

Postscript: the cold got worse on the Sunday trip to Bristol and back so I took the day off work on Monday hoping to get fit for the next gig at the weekend.  Steve's on holiday after next Friday's gig and we are going to use my PA so he can get away early.  I'll have to fire it up in the week to make sure all is working.