A quick one

Saturday in the shop and it's busy- very busy indeed, to such an extent that Paul the guv'nor and myself don't get lunch until 4 o'clock, by which time I'm beginning to see colours in front of my eyes (yeah, I know, over-dramatic as ever). People are mentioning Christmas rather a lot, which means it's going to get busier, no doubt resulting in lunch being phased out completely and replaced by a constant low intensity intake of crisps and chocolate throughout the day.

Sounds quite good actually doesn't it?

In the meantime there's the third gig of 3-in-a-row to contend with- this one's a 60th birthday party at The Hilton Hotel at Avisford Park near Arundel. It's been a while since we've done a threesome (oo-er missus etc) and it's been really great to play so much, though inevitably rather tiring. Shirley and myself wind our way down there, arriving around 7.30 to find everything set up in The Grand Hall and the band in The Board Room mulling over set-lists; Richard is elsewhere so Ian's on sax. We've got vouchers for free drinks (hurrah!) and spirits are high with everyone saying how much they've enjoyed the last couple of shows. Somehow we end up trying to think of songs with a golfing theme (rock'n'roll eh?)- 'Albatross', ''Knock on Wood', 'The Birdie Song' and, more peculiarly, 'Fairway to Heaven'...
Meanwhile in The Grand Hall birthday boy Pete makes a speech- very showbizzy, walking amongst his people, he's done that sort of thing before methinks- before him and his 2 sons borrow our gear for a version of 'Reeling and Rocking' which goes down a storm. and then we're on- 'Peter Gunn' kicks things off to general audience bemusement though by the time the Brothers are on for 'Everybody Needs Somebody to Love' there are people dancing at the back of the hall, and by 'Flip Flop and Fly' they're dancing at the front. And then, in the middle of our set, a surreal moment as we're joined onstage by children's T.V. presenter Floella Benjamin (I'm not making this up, honest!) who sings 'Midnight Hour' with us. Really. She's a friend of the family apparently... we finish with the fastest 'Mustang Sally' I've ever played- Keith had been playing well but somehow got the tempo all wrong for this one! It finishes to the mild applause that these sort of shows always seem to end on- the D.J. asks me if we're doing an encore- my reply's something like 'no one's clapping'. And they're not. But it's been a good night, and indeed a good three days and nights. There's another threesome (cue 'Carry On Blues Brothers' gags etc) at the end of the month- that's something to look forward too.