Creeping Bentgrass At The Fylde Farm Weekend

Friday night 26 June saw us out at Treales in the depths of the countryside for our gig at the Fylde Farm Weekend.

The weather in Blackpool had been a bit hit and miss but the field was nice and firm as we drove over to the marquee for our set-up.

It was our sixth year at this event and the second one that we had played on the Friday night. A quietish start but the marquee began to fill up and we recognised a few faces and they joined into the banter with us a bit and we had a great time. Special mention to the good folks from Leyland Eagles!

We'd had a request for Fields of Gold to be played tonight - a song we have played ad hoc before but I spent Monday afternoon putting an arrangement together. It was good, but I think I might slow it down a bit and add some pauses in.

Some fabulous feedback when we finished around midnight - it is much appreciated, folks. Someone told us we were the only reason they came to the event! Well, yes, I do like a good laugh myself... No, it's very heartening to be told such things and to be asked to sign CDs. We floated home once the car was loaded up.

It's become a bit of a tradition to find somewhere to stop and partake of a handful of jam butties that Miss Franny makes when we know we will have a late night. Then I took a wrong turn somewhere and instead of heading for Kirkham, we found ourselves doing the back roads to Singleton. But that was ok once I'd worked out where we were in the dark!

Myerscough College Open Day

Sunday morning saw us up bright and early to set up the new PA and speakers at Myerscough College where we have been a feature of their Open Day for a goodly number of years. Our first appearance was in 2002!

The old PA and speakers required three trips to the car. The new ones require just a single trip! And once in the car fully loaded I could see through the rear window instead of having to rely solely on side mirrors to see behind me!

Mobbed! Miss Franny and Miss Jeannie find our name in the programme and interrupt proceedings to show us! Setting up took a while longer than usual as I had to balance all the settings before I felt comfortable. Once done it should be like the old equipment that we hardly ever tweaked apart from the overall volume.

This year for the second time we were playing opposite the entrance to the Stumble Inn - the college's on-campus pub and tables and chairs were set up so that people could sit with a drink and listen to us.

We set a new record I think on Sunday - we played for about 6 hours! My fingers tips weren't so bad at the end strangely, but the arthritis in my index finger knuckle gave me gyp later and on the following day! And my back was rather sore - a solid-bodied guitar is ok around your neck for an hour or two but six...? That singer is a slave driver!

And here we are (were) in 2002, with Bob Snape on bass, playing on a very rainy day, with towels spread over the keyboard to keep it dry and my old Sumbro Japanese Stratocaster copy! At the time we were all members of staff at Myerscough. Only David remains on the staff there now.

New PA System

Well we've gone and done it... Bought a new PA system that is.

You may remember me commenting that we had to spend ten or fifteen minutes fiddling with the PA to get both speakers working at Heskin Hall last weekend and I didn't want to risk going to a gig and not being able to make it work. The old Phonic Powerpod had lasted us fourteen and a bit years so we can't dismiss it as rubbish, it's played many many hours making people happy and that's what we like to do.

The replacement is a Yamaha Stagepas 400i and the entire thing could fit into the cabinet of one of our old speakers! But this is just two speakers, I hear you say... Where's the PA?

Well, it's in the back of one of the speakers whilst cables and perhaps even space for a microphone can be found in the back of the other!

The mixer controls can be used whilst docked in the speaker or can come out to play - which they will in our case - on a stand at the side of my keyboard! Tomorrow's gig at Myerscough College Open Day will see us test drive it.