Dunstable The Grove Fri March 25th

So we’ve had a five – day break, and I’m wondering how much ring-rust will have accumulated in that time, considering that the show was slightly below par after just ONE day off earlier in the tour. At least the Grove Theatre is as good a place as any to try and pick things up again; we’ve played here twice before and it’s a great theatre with a flat-push load in right onto the stage,. a stack of wing space, and best of all, a sparkly new D & B PA system. Sales here had been slow initially but have picked up a lot in the last week, so we know we’ll have a good crowd, and the fact that Junior gives me a list of about twenty – two names for the guest list means that the numbers will be swollen even more ! Tomps has come up with the wizard wheeze of having his camera film us doing the set – up using time lapse photography, so we’re looking forward to seeing the playback of THAT ! As usual, everything flies in quickly, and pleasingly, there’s no sign of the layoff at all as everything goes up quickly and efficiently. We have the time to chop off the manky bits of the white gauze for the “drop” in the acoustic section, and Nick and I also manage to finally get around to making the new running board for our own PA system ( been on the “ to do “ list since Morecambe ! ) , plus we’ve got a couple of spiffy new bits of kit which also help to make the show easier to set up. The band start to arrive for soundcheck; Steve’s first, followed by Chris with his ( hopefully ! ) repaired keyboard. and then Jamie, blinking in the early ( well, 4.40pm ) light, and looking bereft without his Magic Bunk.. Soundcheck has an unusual cast today as the band run through Leon Russell’s Delta Lady; they’ve been asked to do a private show for someone who is a real Leon Russell fan, and so they feel they need to add this to the repertoire.It’s a bit lumpy the first time through, but these boys are GOOD and they’ve got it nailed after a couple of turnarounds. We also need to double-check what’s in and out of the show tonight….the last one was for Dumfries, so we need to move a bunch of the visual stuff out and other stuff back in ( well, I say “we” but actually I mean “Tomps” as my knowledge of these things renders me about as redundant as Motorhead’s reserve triangle player.) After soundcheck Steve, as ever, potters about the stage picking up any bits of loose gaffa or LX tape. This strange but endearing habit has earned him the soubriquet “ Great Uncle Bulgaria “, though I have to say, we’ve got the cleanest stage west of the Rockies. There’s another small matter to be decided on tonight. When the band segue into FBI from Apache, they do a little Shadows synchronised routine.This involves them all turning to their right, so they’re looking straight at Tomps, Nick and I in the wings, and then to the left, where they’re looking at Junior. After a couple of nights we decided it’d be a good idea to try and provide some kind of distraction at this point. Initially this was aimed at Phil, but as it’s gone on we’ve become aware of Den and Jamie peering around Phil’s back to see what we’re doing each night, so now it’s a whole band thing. So far we’ve done things like given ourselves extravagant facial hair made out of white gaffa, we’ve turned around too so as to mirror their movements, we’ve had noses made out of paper cups and worn them with rabbit ears, we’ve pretended to be swimming, we’ve even hidden. Tonight Tomps has managed to find a load of oversize glasses that ape Phil’s Hank Marvin look, so at the appropriate time we whip them on just as the band turn to face us. Unlike Phil’s glasses, these have lenses, and they create almost a 3D impression, so that when Phil turns round I squeak and jump back as he seems to be standing right in front of me. OK, OK, I KNOW it sounds childish, but it’s the kind of odd thing you do on tour, and it helps keep us sane. Showtime finally comes around, and the band click seamlessly back into gear as if they’d never been away. On a big stage like this with a good lighting rig and a big PA system they really come into their own. My partner Kay has come to the show tonight, and as she sits in the wings and watches the show unfold she asks me how we manage to see the same thing night after night and not get bored. I remember asking Arthur the same question when he was mixing something at our recording studio years back, and he told me that he got to a point in the mix where he didn’t listen to the playback as actual music as such; he was listening to it literally as a piece of sound, to work out the levels, balances and tones. It’s a bit the same with the show….. although we’re always aware of what’s going on, the quality of the playing, the audience reaction and so on, we do tend to see it as “ this is the one where we bring in that piece of footage “ or “ the moving lights have the gobo effect on them here “ “ or “ I’ve got ten slides to fit in to this one “ or “ this is the solo acoustic number so I’ll mute all the other channels on the mixing desk “. Because of this concentration, the first set can be sometimes be over in what seems like ten minutes, and that’s very much the case here tonight. The crowd have been right behind us from the start, with Junior’s family and friends among the most vocal, and the band have responded to this, so my potential worries about maybe needing to blow cobwebs away have proved groundless. In an earlier blog I talked abut how on big stages and with the full facilities you can see the future of this show, and tonight is very much one of these nights. It’s not just about spreading out, it’s about using the space properly. It’s about being able to do little theatrical flourishes like the gauze drop in the acoustic section. It’s about having enough lights in the rig so that even the basic colour washes are rich and deep, and the moving lights are the icing on the cake as opposed to having to carry the other lighting. It’s about having a PA system which allows Arthur to weave HIS spells and bring out all the subtleties and nuances that the music needs. It’s about the images on the screens being huge and striking. It’s about the smaller gestures becoming grander, such as putting six pyros across the front of the stage instead of just four. Individually these are really all just “ tweaks “, but when you can put them all together as we have tonight there’s a very different take on this show, and suddenly the City Halls, Apollo’s and ( whisper it quietly….) even West Ends don’t seem so far away. Back when dinosaurs strode the Earth I used to be an agent, and one of the criteria we always applied when looking at any new band or artists we were looking to sign was “ Will they be able to project beyond this pub / club ? Can I see them playing Wembley ?” With THIS band and to some extend THIS show, we’ve already got part of the answer, as they totally rocked the 02 Arena when they opened for Elton John a couple of New Year's Eves back. There’s no point in going into this business if all you want is to be satisfied with scratching around the circuit year after year as many artists and shows seem to do. We’re doing this because we want it to be the best show of it’s kind in the country, and then beyond that. We WANT to be in the City Halls. We WANT to be in the West End, We know it’s a long and potentially costly process, and we also know that in this weird world of showbusiness it might not ever happen, but as I look out at another standing, cheering crowd as the show ends I also know that we’re doing as much as WE can to make it so…..we’ve got the right people, the right pitch, and the right attitude to get there. Are you with us, brothers and sisters…..?!