I know the guitarist (Mick) in this band quite well, we sometimes chat on the phone about the state of the local music scene.

As I am now ‘redundant’ and not in a full-time band I was asked to stand-in for their regular bass player Laurie who was taking a well-earned holiday somewhere hot and nice.

The gig was a ‘sixties do’ at Fakenham High School. There was to be no rehearsal but I had been sent a list of their material a couple of days before. What interested me about this gig more than anything was the gear, ‘no need to bring an amp, just your bass.’ It turns out they have two almighty racks of amps and other goodies and two huge PA stacks either side of the stage. I was to plug in to a Trace Elliott module in rack number two.

Out the front, the sound is BIG and full, the drums sound superb and these boys know exactly what they’re doing, having been together for 25 years. Unfortunately for me they couldn’t get the monitor carrying bass guitar signal to work so I was relying on the sound from the rear of the PA. However, playing with these boys is really easy, with visual cues and a very slick stage routine.

A great night was had by all, my thanks to the promoters who laid on food and drinks and looked after us so well. I am looking forward to doing it all again next week at The Seabreeze Club, Hemsby.

As a bonus I picked up two more deps from another band-leader who happened to be in the audience.