I spent the most wonderful evening with Paul Bailey last night.
Paul was performing at an evening hosted by Jackie and John Barber of Shootin' Stars at a venue in Quedgeley near Gloucester.
It's actually my third time (I think) seeing him and it was an absolutely brilliant night, not only because I won a box of chocolate fingers in the interval raffle (much to the delight of my little boy this morning) but also because Paul is such a talented singer and overall entertainer.
Paul's first set started at 8.20 - 9.20 and this was when the fun really began. The venue was fitted with a sound limiter which basically means that if the volume in the room reaches over a certain level then the limiter trips the power and that's exactly what happened. It's a common hazard in the entertainment industry, and many venues across the country have these. For my partner, a mobile DJ by trade, it's part of the job (which is why I'm familiar with the problem) and he specifically asks on his booking form so he is prepared as there are a few ways around the problem. These include keeping the volume below the limiter's maximum level so it doesn't go off (easier said than done), turn the limiter off (if management onsite know what they are doing) or as a last resort the PA system can be plugged into a plug on a different circuit usually via a long extension lead so that when the limiter trips it doesn't turn off the power that's currently powering your equipment, but that can be a bit of a pain.
Luckily for us, Paul is well versed on the issues of sound limiters from his experience on the circuit - it's part of the job and whilst these limiters are a pain they service a purpose in protecting locals from anti-social noise disturbance in the evenings. When the music cut off in his set, the limiter was reset and Paul more or less just picked up from where he left off, altered some of the volume controls and got on with the show.
One of the reasons I really enjoyed listening to Paul was that he really knows what's popular on the line dance scene at the moment and he has updated his set to include a lot of the top dances in the line dancer charts. I'm not just talking about country music either, Paul played 'Ain't misbehaving', 'Until the Dawn' and 'Save the Day' along with a good number of Rock and Roll tracks so there really was something for everyone.
Paul's last set was from 10-11pm and we did a few more of the older classic, dare I say, party tracks like 'Just a memory'. It's a song I always love hearing live and I really enjoyed dancing to it. He also did 'Somebody like you' - A clip of which you can view below so you can hear him for yourself. There are plenty more clips on youtube of Paul performing if you want to see more. I will also share links on my facebook page for any photo's that are uploaded from the event for you to view.
All in all the night was really great fun, with a nice atmosphere and lots of dancing. It was also the first time Shootin' Stars had had a live act and I just want to say what a great job they did and a big thank you goes to Jackie and John for organising such a great event. (I'm looking forward to the next one)
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| Paul with Jackie & John |
That's all for today - if you enjoyed reading please share to your friends and please like us on Facebook.
For those that were there please feel free to add your comments below and let me know which was your favourite song from last night that Paul performed. Please also take a look at his website -
http://www.paulbaileymusic.co.uk/
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