Initially I was only going to sit in on five or six songs but I was up there virtually for the entire night! I sat out the first few (Van Morrison's 'Moondance' and 'Brown Eyed Girl' and a couple by local band Men At Work) and then Mike (the leader) gave me the nod and I got up for 'I Saw Her Standing There' with the 620TQ. The nerves disappeared after the first verse as I concentrated on nailing all those 7ths and getting my timing right. After the song Mike turned to me and said "you ain't moving, pal!!" Very kind of him indeed....
So I was up there for around four hours with only three 15 minute breaks. I knew all the songs but didn't know the chords to more than half of them but thankfully Dougie (the other rhythm guitarist) had lots of cheat sheets, so it wasn't hard to jump straight in to each song.
The highlights of the night (for me) were the extremely extended versions of 'Gloria', 'Suspicious Minds' and 'Crocodile Rock' (well, it was a party!). As far as my playing went, I was very happy with my acoustic work on Paul Kelly's 'Too Her Door' and Cold Chisel's 'Khe Sahn'. But the real killer was 'Better Be Home Soon' by Crowded House. I played the 620TQ for that one and led the intro (C Am Em7 and G) which sounded awesome with full chorus on the cranked up JC-120.
The guys in the band were just fantastic and after most songs looked over and gave me the thumbs up and big smiles. It was a long night (got home at 3am) but an absolutely sensational one!!
Pics:
As well as playing the Rick 620TQ and Monty Brown 350v63, I used my Yamaha APX5 acoustic electric and the AM DLX Candy Tangerine Strat that John Koelling so kindly sold me. All through the JC-120 and a Korg AX1500G pedal for tuning and some added chorus and a bit of 'grunt' when needed - such as AC/DC's 'Long Way To The Top'.
