Chapter 4 : On
Tour
By 1988, 617 were in more demand each passing week,
and were gigging not only every weekend, but sometimes two or occasionally,
even three or four nights a week ! New material was added to the set every few
weeks and the on-stage show continued to develop and be refined. The venues
began to get bigger.... and it became obvious that the band needed to upgrade
their gear fairly quickly !
First and easiest thing to happen, was more
lighting - the existing "traffic lights" couldn't cope with bigger stages. So
in early 1988, Coop set about home-building a bigger lighting array, following
the same idea as the previous one - coloured spotlights mounted inside paint
cans... Except this time, they were more powerful and there were twice as many
of them, on bigger, higher poles. The plain white spotlight cans were
maintained with this new setup too, still mounted on a stand behind the drum
kit.
Ironically, the first time these new lights were used, was not
actually a 617 gig : One person who had been a friend of the band right
from the early days, is a guy called Miff, an electrical/electronics
"Wiz". Although never a band member, Miff has always been there in the
background and has helped the band out with equipment, technical help and
repairing gear, countless times - and still does, even moreso today. Somehow,
Miff had arranged a one-off "Blues Brothers Night" at Loughborough
University (which he christened the "Baked Bean Boogie Jam Tour 1988" !!)
and had orchestrated putting a band together for the occasion. That "Blues
Brothers Band" was actually a conglomeration of several members of a band
called Jazz Funktion, plus some of the members of 617. Nowadays,
so-called "Tribute Bands" are ten-a-penny.... but back in 1988, "Trubute Bands"
were a largely unheard of concept. Along with some of the members of Jazz
Funktion, Gary played keyboards and Keri sang lead vocals - and just by
coincidence, Coop's new lights were just ready to go when the gig happened - so
he came along too and provided lights for the show. As it turned out, that was
actually the beginning of one of the UK's first Blues Brothers Tribute acts, a
band which is still going today, called The Sounds of the Blues Brothers
- and original Jazz Funktion guitarist, Fraser, is still with that band
to this day, the only "survivor" from that very first gig back in 1988 !
Having started to build up some "ploughed back" money in
"band funds", it was also time to upgrade the P.A., as the existing gear was
obviously beginning to struggle in the bigger venues. Funds were still a bit
limited though, so it was decided to invest in something that could continue to
be upgraded as time went on. So, the 4x12" Laney cabs were retired and a
system of "seperates" was put together - a pair of 1 x 18" subs, a pair of
good-old Carlsbro 2x12" mids and a pair of twin horns on top. I know...
still not exactly fantastic is it... but in those days, it was a major
improvment over what the band already had !
The most significant part of this "P.A. upgrade" was the
addition of a Yamaha EMX300, 12-channel powered mixing desk. That was -
and still is - a great desk, with built-in twin graphic EQ's, foldback and
auxiliaries and a really useful reverb/delay, which was great on the vocals. It
was also fitted with two power amps, giving 300W per side - a vast improvement
over the old 100W Marlin ! This desk, coupled with an 18-channel, 20 metre
multicore, now meant that 617 had "out front" mixing. So, Coop moved
from Lighting Operator to Sound Engineer... and Paddy was "promoted" from just
"Roadie", to "Roadie and Lighting Operator" (he didn't get paid any extra
though !!)
This major improvement now meant
that all the instruments were either miked up or D.I.'d and the drums were
miked up too. So, the whole sound was now under Coop's control, "out front" -
where it should be. Once all this was up and running, the old Laney cabs
were cut up and converted into 2x12" monitors - these were powered by the
existing Carlsbro 100W Marlin plus an HH 100W slave amp (with
green luminescence !) and all foldback controlled from the desk out-front. So
then, even the band could hear what was going on !
Yet again, having an "out front" sound and lighting man
was something else that a lot of bands didn't have - and many still don't. But
of course, it did bring it's own set of problems - "you can't put that on that
table, Son".... "you can't sit there, that's Old Charlie's seat"... I'm sure
many of you know what I mean ! ;-)
But then, in mid-1988, the band encountered it's first big
shake-up.... Geoff was forced to leave the band due to work committments,
having to relocate to Shropshire.
To say the least, this was a bit of a blow to everyone
concerned, as things were really going well for 617 and of course, Geoff
was an original member. But the remaining members soon decided that "the show
must go on" and placed adverts in the local press for a replacement
guitarist.
A number of people answered the ads and were
asked to come down to auditions at Monty Hinds Boys Club (where the band
still rehearsed). One guy immediately stood out for everyone and after a brief
"no-brainer" discussion, he was unanimously given the job. Enter, Richie
Rich ! Rich didn't actually see the advert himself, because he didn't live
in the local area. But his father saw it and knowing that Rich was expecting a
"career move" to Nottingham imminently, he passed it on to Rich, knowing that
he would love to be playing in a band ! Once landing the job of 617's
guitarist, Rich was given tapes of all the material and was happy to practice
all the guitar parts on his own and travel down to a full band rehearsal once a
week, whilst Geoff was still "working his notice". Anyway, any time now, Rich
would be moved to Nottingham and everything would be much easier - "we'll be
reet !".....
The transition between Geoff and Rich was almost seamless
- Geoff played his last gig on a Saturday night and Rich played his first
617 gig the day after, on the Sunday night. The band carried on as
before.
Several months earlier, the band was being
pressured by numerous agents for some "official" promo photos... they almost
had some done, until Geoff announced that he would be leaving. So, the photos
were put on hold and it was only now, with Rich in the band, that 617
actually got some official photos produced. Looking back, it is surprising and
somewhat ironic that no "official" photos of the band were taken with Geoff and
the original lineup. However... the band went along to the grounds of Elvaston
Castle one Sunday with Graphic Designer Adrian Hexter (a friends of Gary's),
for a photoshoot. Soon after this, another photoshoot was arranged for Adrian
to take some interior stage shots of the individual members. He then went away
and montaged all of them together, along with the 617 logo. The band
then had the end result mass-reproduced as colour 10" x 8" photos.
Next thing added to 617's stage show
was a drum riser ! Of course, all self-respecting "pro" rock bands had drum
risers - but this was something that no other club band had... and in
hindsight, perhaps I can see why ! Coop and Gary built the riser in four x 4
foot square sections, 13 inches high, out of ¾ inch chipboard. It was
all designed to come apart and be collapsable, for transportation purposes.
When it was used, it was great - especially for Keri to run around and jump on.
But the problem we soon found was that the stages at many venues simply weren't
big enough to get it on, so sadly, it wasn't actually able to be used in at
least 60% of the gigs. Gary also painted a new backdrop, which was 8 feet wide
(to match the drum riser) and Coop made a mounting pole so that it could be
properly hung at the back of the stage, instead of having to resort to
Gaffering it to the wall ! The new backdrop featured a large "Dambusters"
Lancaster bomber, along with the original 617 logo.
The drum riser also had two pyro pots mounted in it's
front corners and by now, the band were using commercially-produced Le
Maitre pyrotechnics, instead of the original flashbulbs and flash powder
method. Although relatively expensive, the Le Maitre pyros were easier
to set up and use, as well as being much more reliable. Having experimented
with different types of pyro cartridges (Theatrical Flashes, Silver Stars,
Golden Stars and Silver Jets - the best ones being Silver Jets, or Silver
Stars), it was round about this time that 617 - or rather, Coop - began
to get more adventurous with pyros.... He wanted to add Maroons to them.
Maroons, are basically, "bangers", and come in several sizes - Coop decided
that the band should have the medium-sized ones.... Now, Maroons should always
be used inside a Bomb Tank, as they have a plastic casing which turns into
dangerous shrapnel when they're detonated. The first gig a Maroon was tried,
coupled with a pair of Silver Stars, was at Darts player Eric Bristow's club,
the Crafty Cockney, in Stoke-On-Trent. The band didn't have a Bomb Tank
at that time, so it was thought that it should be OK
if the
Maroon was inside the drum riser, so that would stop any shrapnel getting out.
OK.... Well, at the end of the performance, the pyros were detonated. Jesus,
that was loud - I mean, really loud !! The band retired to the dressing
room with their ears ringing, before coming back out for the "obligatory
encore". When everyone came back onstage, they were greeted with the sight of
most of the drumkit on the floor, and sawdust everywhere ! Detonating a Maroon
inside an enclosed space had an incredible effect - it had collapsed a whole
section of the drum riser by reducing over 3 feet of ¾ inch chipboard to
literally, sawdust, flattening all the internal struts to one end and blowing
the 4ft. square top off !! Well, the drums were hastily propped up again and
the encore went on..... but 617 got a Bomb Tank before Maroons were used
again !! After that, Maroons were used at almost every gig, along with the
usual SIlver Jets or Stars, without any further incident. (Except for the night
that Paddy destroyed a club's Bingo Machine by putting the Bomb Tank right next
to it... I wonder if they ever did find all those numbered balls...?)
But a black cloud was looming on the horizon..... Despite
what everybody originally thought, it turned out eventually that Rich's move to
Nottingham didn't happen. So it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to
keep commuting to rehearsals and also travelling to all the gigs on his own. So
I don't think it came as any great surprise to anyone when, approaching the end
of the year, Rich reluctantly announced his intention to leave the band.
On to Chapter 5 :
Page 4 of
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