Doncaster Civic Wedneday Sept 8th

And so, feeling like it's only just started, our mini - tour is over. Tonight's the last show, and the really annoying thing about it is that we were just starting to properly click into that tour groove again, where everything runs smoothly, the performances are at a constantly high level, and everyone totally knows what they're doing to bring the whole thing together. The last three shows in particular have been a perfect example, with build and soundcheck times getting shorter as we tighten up the production. It's an odd one, though....on the one hand I'm not wanting it to stop as we're seeing The Bootleg's Effect again, and it's quite a heady thing to witness, but on the other hand my business head tells me these short tours aren't really cost effective, and I know I've got a lot of number-crunching to do when I get back to HQ. There's also a lot going on with various members of the tour party; Steve is about to start the stress - inducing process of moving house, Pug really IS going to Australia this time, and I'm trying to deal with some health issues which are causing problems, so in a way we DO need this to be over to concentrate on those things. The fact that we've had so many personnel changes on the crew over such a short space of time, especially with Arthur not being here for the final few shows, would normally be a cause for palm-moistening anxiety, but although the actual logistics of this haven't given us any worries whatsoever, the constant movement of people has lent a sort of temporary feel to proceedings; we haven't had the chance to get that gang mentality going, and that's helped disrupt the continuity just as much as the odd gaps we've had between shows. In short, I'm feeling a bit dischuffed today, and can't REALLY pin down why. Any free pyschoanalysis to this blog site, please..... But enough of this introspective maundering and maunging, on with the show ! Today we're at the Civic Theatre, a truly odd little building right in the middle of Donnie. From the outside it looks a bit like the big brother of those godawful prefab houses that the post-war government built for their returning heroes (" Great....Hitler tries to shoot my knackers off for five years, and as a thankyou from my country I get to live in a cardboard box with windows.....")but from the inside it's all old-school theatrical finishes and flourishes. It's long and narrow, with a decent stage and a somewhat alarmingly low roof, but it's exactly our kind of place. Like Leamington, the theatre has just reopened after a summer break, but we know before we get here that we've already more than doubled last night's paltry audience. The box office are also quite optimistic that there'll be a decent walk-up; Acker Bilk played last night, and much of the business there was walk-up, though to be honest I think that's more a case of audience prudence....I actually thought Mr Bilk was tootling Stranger On The Shore with the celestial choir these days, and was genuinely surprised to hear that not only was he still alive, but that he was still touring. He must be about 95 by now, so I guess the audience were just leaving it to the last minute, ringing the theatre just as the doors opened for the evening..." Hello, has Acker died yet ? No ? Great...I'm on me way over. I'll have two front row tickets, please... ". They're also hopeful that we'll pick up some of the people in town for the start of the St Leger meeting at Doncaster Racecourse, but having seen some of these characters around town earlier in the day I'm not so sure....at first I thought it was just a particularly big office party, as there were loads of men in suits and ties wandering around in large groups talking loudly and comparing mobiles ( it's a sad facet of 21st Century life that manhood is no longer measured by the size of your "wedding tackle" but by the number of apps you've got on your phone... ) I then thought that maybe it was a fancy dress "do", as I spotted three girls wearing clothes that sacrificed every vestige of comfort and practicality on the altar of ludicrousness. However, as I rounded a corner I came across a wine bar teeming with punters, and suddenly it clicked. It was the women who gave it away, actually. They'd obviously seen in OK and Hello magazines what the Beautiful People wear at Ascot Ladie's Day, and had put their own unique South Yorkshire spin on it. These aren't " the uppper class ", though, they're the wives and girlfriends of salesmen, and farmers, and factory owners, and car dealers, and as such are tarred with the indelible brush of their true origins. They may have the Chanel and Dior dresses and the Louboutins and Jimmy Choo's, but as they totter around on their vertiginous heels with their orange sunbed tans and their ridiculous confections of net and bead "hats" perched on their perfectly coiffed heads, you just KNOW they'll always be Sainsbury's, and never St Tropez. Still, if any of these preening hordes want to come and throw some of their winnnings at us, I'm not going to complain. Back at the theatre, it's been a record turnaround; we got here at 1pm, but by 5pm we've set everything up, soundchecked the band, and have loosed Damian upon the unsuspecting streets of Doncaster in search of fodder. Whilst impressive, there's a downside to this unexpected windfall of leisure time. In a nutshell, there's nothing happening to keep the adrenaline levels flowing, and the tiredness of the past few days starts to kick in. I'm sitting at my stage right position, intercom headphones on, all set for the show, I tip my head back to rest it on the wall.....and suddenly I realise that the odd thing which sounds like an asthmatic warthog having a particularly troublesome bowel movement is actually my snoring. I've always been pretty good at that touring / armed forces thing of napping when you can and where you can, but as I'm getting older I no longer leap into wakefulness the moment my eyes are open....it's more of a slow crawl punctuated by occasional whimpers and curses, and I'm less of a coiled spring ready for action, more of a three-toed sloth awaking from a long winter's hibernation. As such when someone asks me a question over the intercom, my reaction is " Mnnnnngnnnngng ", which at least has the effect of stunning my interrogator into puzzled silence, giving me time to drag myself back into some semblance of consciousnesss. Fortunately, before I can tumble back into dreamland again, the doors are open, and in come the audience. Rather brilliantly, right at the front there's a guy in a red satin Sgt Pepper-esque suit and slightly unconvincing wig, though I have to admit that the rest of the crowd are, shall we say, at the more mature end of our audience demographic. Hey ho. I call the house lights out, the intro video rolls, the band move into place in the dark, and then ANOTHER first happens.....the audience are actually applauding the shadowy figures onstage, quite loudly and enthusiastically, as it happens ! We're wondering if it's going to be one of those " little crowd, big reaction " nights, but to be honest the first half's all a bit...polite, I guess. Oh, they like it well enough, they laugh in the right places and sing along when asked, but apart from our red-suited and bewigged gentleman, no-one's going Radio Rental. The second half, though, as often happens,is a different matter. It must be something they put in the wine gums on sale at the foyer kiosk, but by the time we get to the combo-punch of Green Onions / On The Beach / Surfin' Safari / Mony Mony / Daydream Believer, they're not just dancing in the aisles but in front of the stage too. When the lights go up some of them come to the crew at front of the stage, some go to the two boys at the front of house mixing posiition, and some to the duty theatre staff, but they all say the same thing..." That was the best show we've had in here...when are you coming back ? ". This, ladies and gentlemen, is The Bootleg's Effect. We came, we saw, we rocked ( and, it must be said, occasionally rolled, but only when the situation demanded it ). And so on to the loadout, and a final, genuinely sad parting with our man Rupert "Pug" Jones, who will be leaving for Oz tomorrow. Pug's been with Arthur and I for a few years now, and has developed from an enthusiastic but inexperienced youngster into a good, solid engineer, popular with bands and crews alike. He works with us on pretty much everything we do, not just The Booties, and I'm really, really going to miss him. I tentatively suggest that I'll look into the cost of airfares so that we can fly him back for next year's tour, but he just smiles wryly. We may well be at the start of a new adventure with this show, but Pug's a young man and HIS new adventure is of a much more fundamental and life-changing nature. His eyes are on a much more distant horizon and he may yet decide that his entire future lies on the other side of the world. This may, quite literally, be the last time we ever see him, but whatever is ahead for him in Australia, he goes there with our love and best wishes. We also say goodbye to Ben Dorrington, who has stepped in for these past four shows as it he'd been here for ever, and who has been been his usual funny, friendly self throughout....he's off back to the world of corporate mega-shows tomorrow, muttering something about an event involveing duelling bulldozers, but our paths with definitely cross again. It's thus with something of a heavy heart that we start the drive back to Bedford to unload the kit. The end of a tour, even one as short as this, is always slightly dislocating, and it takes a few days to adjust and decompress. As often happens on last nights, we've not really had the chance to talk much to the band...they've all been round and thanked us as we were de-rigging, but they've got an even longer drive than us ahead of them and so they need to get weaving. It's odd....we often don't see Jamie, Phil and Chris at all between Booties' tours, but when we DO, everything just clicks back into place. We've spent very little time with the lads on these dates, largely due to the travelling arrangements, but already there's talk of trying to get a tour bus for at least part of next year's Spring outing, so we'd be together a lot more... now THAT will be something to look forward to! Talking of next year's tour, by the way, it will run from February 24th to April 3rd, and we'll be publishing the dates on the Bootleg Sixties website shortly. For my part I just want to say thanks again, Faithful Blogreader, for making these random musings worth writing. I've decided that I definitely want to do something different for the next tour....I'd toyed with the idea of a " talking book " kind of thing, which can apparently be added to and accessed from our website by some arcane and mystical process known only to the Grand Wizards of Thoon, but I felt it needed to be BIGGER, somehow, so I'm currently sketching our plans for "The Bootleg Sixties Tourblog...On Ice ". I think it could work, don't you ? In closing, I've been asked by a couple of people if I could publish the setlist which the band played this time out. I didn't ask them why, though I would respectfully suggest that they REALLY need to get out more, but here goes anyway. This is the tour setlist, by the way, not the Liverpool setlist...I've already eaten that one. Bye for now, and as the old cliche goes, watch this space.....

SET ONE
From Me To You
Just One Look
When You Walk In The Room
Hippy Hippy Shake
Go Now
We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place
Pretty Woman
Catch Us IF You Can
In My Room
You've Got Your Troubles /Tobacco Road / For Your Love / She's Not There
Hard Day's Night
Mr Tambourine Man
Keeep On Running
Sound Of Silence
Sunshine Superman / The Letter / Pretty Flamingo/ Sorrow / Walk Right Back
You Really Got Me
Wonderful Land
I'm A Boy
I'm A Believer

SET TWO
Blowin' In The Wind
Itchycoo Park
You Were On My Mind
Happy Together / Sunny Afternoon
Hole In My Shoe
Strawberry Fields
Light My Fire
California Dreaming
Handbags And Gladrags
The Star Spangled Banner
Pinball Wizard
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Green Onions
On The Beach
Surfin' USA
Mony Mony
Daydream Believer
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You'll Never Walk Alone ( Blimey...sounds like a bloody good show...must try and catch it sometime..... )