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Day 1, Travel

Taxi, train, taxi, train, it was time to go to Heathrow airport again! It was an easy travel day due to not having to get up early, as the meeting time was 5 in the afternoon, so I just took my time and even managed to have some lunch at Paddington station. I was the first to arrive at the airport check in desk but I had to wait for everyone else to arrive as my passport with the Japanese visa had been at the bands office for the past few weeks, I fact I had had a slight panic a couple of days earlier when I had been unable to find it! It was the first time I had seen the Klaxons band and crew since the goodbye in the dressing room at Coachella festival months ago. There was an additional band member this time, Joe on bass guitar, as Jamie had broken his leg at a festival appearance a couple of weeks ago, the reason for the cancellation of the Australian dates I had been asked to do. Jamie was to perform in a wheel chair and therefore not able to play his guitar. The check in was swift; the airline was JAL, thankfully not British Airways! The flight was eleven and a half hours, taking into account the time difference between London and Tokyo we arrived at four in the afternoon local time.

Day 2, Travel and settle in.

We arrived on time and transferred by bus to our hotel, time for a wash and brush up and off to a restaurant for refreshments. The decision was made to order lots of small dishes. The food, beer and sake flowed for the next few hours! Around midnight I decided to make my way back to the hotel, a quick 10-minute walk, the majority of the party went off to a club. Bedtime for me! At around 5 in the morning I was woken up by my roommate literally bouncing off the walls as he hunted down the bathroom, he wasn't very well!


Sushi, the best food ever!

Day 3, a day off (shopping!)

I awoke early and went for breakfast, my roommate did not stir! I was time then to go to my favourite Japanese store, Tokyo Hands, the place where you can buy almost everything! The Tokyo metro was quite easy to negotiate as all the station names are written in English. After a few hours wandering the 7 floors of the store it was off to a sushi bar I knew (I had stayed in this area of the city a couple of years ago) it was fantastic!! It was then back to the hotel for a rest from the very hot weather, my roommate, RR, (no full names to avoid any future embarrassment!), awoke! He had absolutely not recollection of leaving the club and only presumed he had managed to get a taxi back! He was not the only one! On meeting with others in the early evening, the stories flowed! MJ also could not remember returning and WS woke up in a flowerbed not knowing how he got there! Rock and Roll!


Tokyo Hands department store

Day 4, Sound check in Tokyo

Unusually for a festival there was a whole day for all the bands to have a sound check. Klaxons were on the dance stage for this event, one of the 5 in-door stages for the festival. Thankfully we were in-door as it is so hot in Japan in the summer! It was good to see that there were 2 PM5Ds located on stage left, It meant that I could do a lot of pre-programming whist the band before us, LCD Soundsystem were doing their check. The wedges were all Nexo PS15s powered by Amcron 3600 amplifiers; there was a Nexo sub bass unit for the drum fill and 2 stacks a side of Meyer MSL4s plus subs for the side fills. Audio Technica, who was one of the events sponsors, supplied all the microphones for the festival. We were, however, allowed to use Shure microphones for all the vocals as we had brought them along with us. The band had opted not to use in-ears for these 2 gigs as it would make the whole mix more complicated for me as I had only mixed them once before. Sound check completed and stored on the desk, and a back up memory card, it was time to return to the hotel to try and get some sleep. The jet lag we all were experiencing had resulted in a couple of nights of tossing and turning and waking up hours too early.

Audio Technica Web Site

Day 5, Tokyo Show day

We checked out of the hotel at lunchtime, arriving at the festival about an hour later. It was time for lunch; the food was appalling, as it had been the day before. For some unknown reason they had decided to try and make western food, with little success! Our show time was between 6:30 and 7:15, a good night overall, even though they all wanted everything louder and louder all the time! The show was then stored again. Within an hour of the final song we were on a bus to the airport for the short internal flight to Osaka for the next days show.

Day 6, Osaka Show day

Again at lunchtime we headed down to the festival site, we were in a large tent like structure, thankfully with air-conditioning. The equipment was an exact reproduction of the previous days. Memory cards from the Tokyo show had travelled with all the band gear overnight. The second show was much better as all the modifications I had made during the previous nights performance were all saved! The food was fantastic as it was mainly Japanese, lots of sushi, for me, of course.


Only if you insist!

Day 7, Return to the UK

It was an early start from the hotel, after the first nights proper sleep since I arrived, as I had now got used to the time change. The flight left on time and arrived slightly earlier than expected. Again I had the advantage of using the iris recognition system, therefore avoiding all the long queues at passport control. I had a quick train journey to central London, and then I was thwarted! The taxi got stuck in very heavy traffic resulting in me arriving at the rail station after the deadline for the cheap ticket I had purchased. I went to enquire as to how much it would cost me to upgrade, the price was extortionate! It was much more than the price of the original ticket, so I sat in the station for almost 3 hours. It was almost 10 in the evening when I opened my front door! I sat there in my lounge all night, welcome back to the wonderful world of jet lag!

Klaxons on Myspace

Klaxons Web Site

The Electric Garden festival, Kent, England.



Another weekend away with Supergrass! It was for 2 more festivals the first was in the south of England and the second was in Scotland so it was time to board a tour bus for the duration. I was picked up by the tour manager again at the local motorway service station and had a leisurely drive down to Oxford, where the band are based. The band gear was loaded into a trailer and is was off to a local pub for a night-cap! It was an early start on Saturday as the band had been allocated a sound check before the doors opened at midday. So it was up at 8 in the morning to sort everything out, the local PA was all set up and ready for me, again it was all Nexo equipment, PS15 wedges and Alpha side fills, the console was a Yamaha M7CL-48. Sound check completed and stored on the desk. We all made our way to a local pub for some lunch and spent the afternoon sitting around in the shade due to the weather being absolutely glorious, not a cloud in the sky!



I had been approached earlier in the week to mix another artist at the festival, Kate Nash, who is enjoying a lot of good reviews at the moment and has the current number one single in the UK at present! I had also had the pleasure of working with her before on the Later with Jools Holland TV show earlier this year. On this TV show it was for only one song and she was only with her drummer, on this festival show she had her full band with her, which included another guitarist/bass/keyboard player and a violinist. I had a quick conversation with all the band members as to what they wanted to hear and they were on! They were very sensible with their monitor requirements and kept it very simple, to fill out the stage I created a full mix of everything on stage through the side fills. They all seemed very happy with what I did! And there is now an offer of me doing a lot more work with them in the future. Supergrass head lined the show again I had a great gig, 2 good gigs for me in one day!

Kate Nash on Myspace

The Kate Nash Website

The Loch Lomond festival, Scotland.



After the Electric Garden festival it was time to board the tour bus for the journey north, a 500-mile journey to Scotland. There was no sound check this time so we arrived at lunchtime. It was raining when we arrived and carried on raining all day and was still raining when we left, so this is where all the clouds had gone! There was a lot of mud everywhere, the stage was very small and I managed to forget to pack any of my waterproof clothing (for the first time this summer!) The changeover into Supergrass was chaotic! We had been given hardly any space backstage space for setting up and I was still putting the microphones on the drum kit as it was being rolled onto stage, I had a quick run around to check as to how the vocals sounded and made all the mixes onto the console by memory! And then they were on, I quickly cued through all the mixes as the played the first song, thankfully it was a console I have used many, many times in the past, a Midas H3000, my all time favourite analogue desk! The wedges were all Martin LE700s and the side fills were also Martin products, it was only a 45-minute show so it came and went very quickly! Time then to re-board the tour bus for the journey south to Oxford overnight and a lift back home in the morning.

Time for another 2 shows with Supergrass, this time in the city of Manchester, at the Lancashire county cricket club, opening for the Artic Monkeys. Another train journey, this time north out of Nottingham, through some very nice countryside. I always like coming to Manchester as this where I started my career as an audio engineer many years ago! I have many happy memories of living there.



The first day, Friday, was for the sound checks, there were a few bands playing on the bill, the Artic Monkeys headlining, Supergrass, The Coral, Amy Winehouse and The Parrots. All of the bands had been asked to play by the Artic Monkeys who had already sold an amazing 50,000 tickets for both nights! I arrived at lunchtime and had a few hours to kill before it was time to work, this was mainly because I guessed there would be people there that I knew, there were many! They audio system for the shows was provided by SSE Audio, one of the main suppliers in the UK, a company I have dealt with many times over the years and have worked for on many occasions. Having talked to SSE a few days before I knew the exact spec for the show. They make their own wedges, the MB4s and I used a Yamaha PM5d console. The side fills were 3 LAcoustic Arcs + 2 Dvosc subs a side, the drum fill was 2 MB4s and 2 Dvosc subs. Supergrass carry a complete microphone kit, all Shure products, a Beta 52 and 91 for the Kick drum, Beta 57 and 98 for the snare, 98s for the toms and 81s for the Hi-hats and the overheads, Beta 57s for the guitars and the same for the Leslie organ. A 91 was used for the Lo-end on the Leslie and Beta 58As for all the vocals. We had lots of time to get the sound together as the Artic Monkeys finished early. The settings were stored for the show the next day. It was then time to go back to the hotel, freshen up, have a couple of beers and go for a splendid curry (with a couple more beers or so!). A very pleasant evening!

SSE Audio Group web site

LAcoustics web site

Shure Beta series microphones


Show day 1

We returned to the venue mid afternoon, the sun was shining and the audience was growing by the hour. The nice thing was that even though the tickets had all been sold prior to opening acts being announced the audience were there for the day and were out to enjoy themselves! Supergrass played well and went down well, only a few modifications were made and stored for the following night. It was time to return to the dressing room for a beer and to watch the Artic Monkeys, they were amazing and the sight of 50,000 people going absolutely nuts made my hair stand on end! Fucking brilliant is all I can say!


The view from the dressing room.

Show day 2

The same as day 1! A better show as all the requests I had had last night were stored on the console. I left before the Artic Monkeys played as I had to get my train home. Sadly, due to engineering on the track, this had been replaced by a bus service so the expected 2-hour journey took over 3 hours.

Time to go away again, another Supergrass festival appearance, and this time it's in Norway, the Bukta festival in Tromso. This is without doubt the furthest north I have ever been to mix a show, a lot further north than the artic circle! Heres a map to give you an idea of the location……..




A lot of travel was involved to get to Tromso. It was an early flight out of London Heathrow so I had to travel down to London the night before. This was very easy as the bands tour manager, Mark, lives about 70 miles north of me so we made an arrangement for him to pick me up at the local motorway service station only about 10 miles from where I live. At 6:30 in the evening we meet up and Mark drives down to the airport where he has arranged a hotel for us to stay the night. We meet up with the bands equipment van and check we had everything we needed, we took only the minimal amount of gear due to the weight restriction allowed nowadays for air travel, he also wanted to avoid any excess baggage charges. The cut down microphone kit (the band have all their own microphones) became a part of my luggage!

The 6am alarm call came a lot too fast! We took the shuttle bus to the airport to meet up with the band and the rest of the crew. After a very fast check in and the usual security checks I made my way to the room where the new iris bio scans were being done. This is a new idea introduced recently by the UK immigration people. There were very few people there! The process is as follows…… you have to look into a special screen (without glasses) and they take a photo of your irises, you then move to another screen (with glasses!) and they check that they register. The information is then matched against your passport details. Will it work on my return to the UK?

We all made our way to the gate and boarded the flight. The heavens opened! It poured it down, a huge thunderstorm over London and 45 minutes sat on the tarmac. As this flight was only going to take us as far as Oslo we were all wondering as to whether or not we were going to make it there in time to catch the internal flight north to Tromso. Having arrived late in Oslo we went through immigration and picked up all the baggage (my bag seemed very wet!), rechecked in and just made it in time to the gate for the next flight, would the gear make it in time?

The flight to Tromso took almost the same amount of time as the London to Oslo one did! All the equipment had made it! It was then off to the hotel for some food and to check the situation regarding my wet luggage! It was drenched! There was even water in my toiletries bag, I constructed a washing line so I would have some dry clothes for the journey home. Luckily the microphones I was carrying were not wet!

The festival site was only 10 minutes away from the hotel, the crew set off early to sort everything out. I always feel sorry for the back line boys in this situation as they have to sort out the locally rented drum kit and amplifiers to get them the same as the band are used to (good work Gavin and Neil!) A 30-minute change over and the band were on. I was provided with a Soundcraft MH4 console, Martin LE700 wedges and D&B side fills, I had a great show! The only factor I didn't enjoy was the fact that it was so cold! I could see snow on the mountains in the distance! In July! How the band managed to play their guitars in the cold weather Ill never know!

Soundcraft MH4 Sound console

After one of the coldest shows I have ever mixed we went back to the hotel and out for a couple of beers, it was still daylight even at 3 in the morning! After having a bad nights sleep we made the return journey to the UK. I slept most of the way back home! On arriving at Heathrow I tried out the new iris recognition system, there were huge lines of people everywhere except the new booths for the new system, I walked in, looked into the screen and was in! Fantastic! It works!

Photos on the Supergrass tour diary website

Supergrass on Myspace

Supergrass Website

Archive

So it was time to go back on the road again, for the next couple of months at least. I always enjoy working in TV studios, but the main reason I have always enjoyed my job, apart from the music, of course, is the travel. So it was the usual bus and train down to London, this time with only a small amount of luggage as I was only to be away for a few days. The meeting place was Terminal Studios, very near to London Bridge station. This was the first time I had worked with Archive and the two concerts were over in France. It was time to board a tour bus, again the first time in ages, in fact the first time since the end of the Radiohead tour last August. I like tour busses! It was time to meet a whole new set of people, most of the crew were familiar faces from past jobs, but I had never met any of the band before. A tour bus is a great place to meet new people, especially after a stop to load up the fridge with beer for the journey! I gradually managed to have a conversation with everyone involved. The best part of this journey was that we went over to France on the ferry. Since the opening of the channel tunnel a few years ago most times I have been over to France have been by that route which is pretty boring as you are trapped on a bus for a couple of hours with nothing to do, you cant even watch a DVD as there is no electricity.

The ferry ride was excellent! I watched the sun set over Dover castle as we pulled out into the English channel, the journey was for 85 minutes so there was enough time for some (rather dry) food and a couple of beers in the bar, also time for a walk on deck for some sea air. Having arrived in France we set off for the journey to the first of the two festivals that weekend at a place called Pontoise, somewhere just south of Paris. Time for bed!

I woke up the next morning in the middle of a forest, in could see a stage in the distance, so I got up and went on a hunt for breakfast! Suitably refreshed I returned to the bus to start getting some idea as to what I was having to do this evening. As I had never worked for Archive before I had no idea whatsoever as to what their monitor requirements were, in fact I couldn't remember as to what all the band members played! So gradually during the day I sat down and talked to them all, determining who they were, what they played and as to where they stood according to the stage plan I had been provided with. This was very important as there was no sound check and there was only 40 minutes to set everything up!
During the afternoon I made my way over to the stage to introduce myself to the local PA crew and check on the gear I was to do that evenings job with. The sound console was an old Ramsa SX1 (so old that I'm not able to provide a link for it!!). The wedges were all L'acoustic 115FMs powered by L'Acoustic amps and a pair of Arcs and subs as side fills by the same company.

L'Acoustics Website

The monitor requirements were as follows. Darius on stage right had the backing track, a touch of Bass guitar and his own keyboards. Steve had the track, his own vocal, Kick and snare drums and his guitar. The centre pair of wedges had some track, the main vocals with lots of reverb for Pollard and some of his own guitar; Maria who was the vocalist on some songs shared this mix. Dan, on stage left, had the track with his and Darius's keys. Jonathon, on bass guitar, had the track, both keyboards, some kick drum and Steves guitar. Smiley, on drums, mixed his own in-ears. I sent him 3 mixes off the monitor desk, one with just the Kick drum for his thumper stool, a mix of all the drums and a mix off all the rest of the instruments and the vocals. He used a small mixer to achieve his balance, a click track was sent direct to him off the computer system, which also provided me with the track. The side fill mixes had the track, Bass guitar, Kick and Snare drum and lots of the vocals with reverb.

It was a bit nerve racking mixing a band for the first time! There were only a few signals for the musicians at the top of the show, and everyone was happy when I returned to the dressing room when the show was over!

We returned to the tour bus for an overnight trip to Alencon in the north of France.

The second show was a lot easier as we had a sound check in the afternoon. I was provided with a Soundcraft SM24 console and Nexo PS15 wedges and Nexo Alpha side fills. This was a much more relaxed show for me!

Soundcraft Website (SM24 no longer in production)

Nexo PS15 Wedges

Nexo Alpha System

Again we got on the tour bus for an overnight journey back to England and a nice full English breakfast on the ferry ride back. An all round good weekend away!



Archive

Archive on Myspace

Archive Website

Supergrass

It was over a year since I had mixed a show for Supergrass, the last time was at a festival over in Brazil, one of my earliest blogs! It was very nice to see them again! Another train journey, this time south to Oxford where the band are based. I was picked up at the rail station by my good friend Gavin (eventually!!, as we had both been there for a while waiting for each other in different places!) It was off to the rehearsal room to listen to the last couple of hours rehearsal and to say hello to all. The night was spent in the accommodation of Courtyard Studios, owned by their management, and I believe the place where some of the earlier Radiohead recordings took place. After a couple of beers in a local pub it was time for bed. At 5 in the morning I was woken by the strangest of noises, I'd never heard anything like it before; I had no idea that there were a flock of roaming peacocks in the village!

After not having the best nights sleep! We set off for Guildford, just south of London, as Supergrass were headlining the first night of this years Guilfest. Having eventually found our way to the badly signposted main stage we got ourselves ready for the sound check. All the sound system was provided by Entec. The sound console provided was a Midas H3000, without doubt my favourite analogue console, I had D&B audio 402 series side fills and Entec's own wedges.

Entec Website

I used 3 Wedges on 2 mixes with the outer pair linked for Gaz, a pair of wedges for Mick, a pair for Rob, a pair of wedges and a sub unit for Danny, on drums, and side fills.

Gaz is stage right, his vocal position is static, his centre mix has the kick drum and all vocals, and the outer pair has vocals, acoustic Guitars, snare drum, toms, and a little bass. He then uses the stage right side fill to balance the levels of everything he is hearing to his left.

Mick, stage left, has a mix of his and Gaz's vocals and touch of everything and again in his side fill he has almost everything with a bit more kick and snare.

Rob, upstage left, has all his keys, all the vocals and acoustics, a small amount of electric guitar, and the kick drum.

Danny, upstage centre, has a full mix in his pair of wedges, kick drum, bass and the Hammond organ go in the sub bass unit.

After the sound check the band returned home and I spent the afternoon talking to old friends and then one side of the PA fell down! A gust of wind caught the advertising scrim and it all fell down, thankfully this was well before the audience were in! The PA was eventually flown on a crane and the scrim on the remaining side was hastily removed! I'm not surprised that the Entec website has no mention of this and also ignores the fact that Supergrass even played at the festival!



A great show, with the debut of 4 new songs from their forthcoming new album. I spent the night at the local Holiday Inn and was shocked to see at least 50 people at the check out desk in the morning, thankfully they were all checking in and I was the only person checking out!

It was time for another train journey, this time only a short one back to London to meet up for another Archive show.

Supergrass on Myspace

Supergrass Website


Archive, South of France

It was nice to see everyone again, as they work as a collective there was no Maria this time and Dave was on board! He also has vocal duties so the mixes were almost the same as before. There was the same bus ride to Dover and a ferry crossing to France, the only difference was that the show was in Aix-Les-Bains, very near to the Swiss border! A 16-hour drive! Fun on the bus, then bed!

Sadly the bus broke down about 50 miles from the festival site so we woke up with only toilet facilities and no food! As the local rescue service couldn't find us? we spent 5 hours sitting around waiting for something to happen. When 3 in the afternoon came we changed to plan B and the festival sent out 2 mini busses and a small truck for the gear to get us to the festival site, as we were on stage at the end of the show, there were no big problems! We devoured the remaining lunchtime salad!


The broken bus party!

Again I was provided with a H3000 Midas consol, with Meyer MSL4 side fills and locally manufactured wedges. The only problem I faced was that the stage manager demanded that I was to make no noise as the Artic Monkeys were playing on the facing stage at the same time, he understood exactly the English I used!!!! And I carried on as normal!!! Another great show for me, back to the bus for the same journey back home, arriving so late in London that I was unable to return home! Nice that I could spend a night at a good friends who was celebrating his birthday!

Over the last month or so I've been backward and forwards from Nottingham to London on a weekly basis, a distance of almost exactly 136 miles from my front door to the BBC studios in White City, west London. It's no so bad working on The Later with Jools Holland show as I do not have to start work on the rehearsal day until 1 o'clock in the afternoon, however its still a case of having to get up reasonably early! First of all I have to catch a bus in Nottingham town centre, this can be rather hit or miss as the bus never arrives at the time shown on the timetable! And the morning traffic can be at a standstill for no apparent reason. This journey can take around an hour on a bad morning (Its only 12 miles!!). The train to London is much more relaxing as it starts in Nottingham and its easy to find a seat, 30 miles further down the line and 2 stops later it is absolutely rammed, with standing room only. The two-hour journey passes quite quickly, time to read the morning paper, have a go at the crossword and have a snooze! On arrival at London St Pancras station I have a short walk to the underground station, and a somewhat claustrophobic ride on the Hammersmith and City line all the way to the BBC studios. Time for a quick bite of lunch and it's off to work.

Firstly we unload the monitor systems off the truck and work as a team setting up as many as 5 sound consoles. Then we individually wire up our allocated monitor systems. The first sound check is at 4 and the last is at around about 8, each band is allocated approx 1 hour to check out their 2 or 3 songs.

Over the last few weeks this is what I have been doing………….



Series 29, Show 3, Patti Smith

I have always been a fan of Patti Smith and I've only ever seen her live once before, on the same show back in 2002. This time she was back to promote her new album of covers.

The stage spec showed pairs of wedges for all the musicians plus a thumper stool and an hard wired in-ear system for the drummer. However when her crew saw the stage area for the show this was cut down to a pair for Patti and singles for the rest of the band. Her monitor engineer was more than happy for me to deal with the band while he looked after Patti's mix. I used a PM5D console and Clair Brothers 12AM wedges. They were a very straightforward band to deal with. The bands spec requested Shure microphones throughout, SM91 and Beta 52 on the kick, 57s on the snare, SM98s on the toms, a KSM137 on the Hi-Hat and KSM32s on the overheads. The guitars were all mic-ed with SM57s and all the vocals used Beta 58As except for Patti who used a regular SM58. The keys and acoustic guitars were all DI-ed.

Three great songs and excellent musicians.

Patti Smith Website

Patti Smith on Myspace




Series 29, Show 4, Joan Armatrading

It's always nice when I am working on TV shows when a good friend of mine turns up working for the band I have been allocated for the day. Joan's monitor engineer is Paul Myers (aka Plyers), we worked together many years ago on an Ian Brown (ex Stone Roses) tour.

Paul wanted 2 wedges foe Joan on separate mixes, a pair for each of the other musicians, Bass guitar, Drums and Keyboards. He had requested a PM5D and he brought along his own memory card, instantly the console was configured for Joan's show. The only difference was that we were using 12AM wedges rather than the D&B wedges he was using on the current UK tour. It was just a case of flattening all of the mix EQs and readjusting them for the wedges we were using on the show.

Again all the microphones we used were again Shure products, exactly the same as were used for Patti Smith the week before. The only difference was that he wanted a Neumann KMS105 for Joan's vocal. He employed a nice little technical trick with Joan's 2 wedge mixes. The vocal was in both mixes and all the instrumentation was only in one mix, this lead to a very good vocal clarity, combined with a full mix of the rest of the band.


Plyers with the PM5D on Later with Jools.

Joan Armatrading Website

Joan Armatrading on Myspace





Series 29, Show5, Pink Martini

For the first time in what seemed like ages a band without their own monitor engineer! My turn to do the full mix at last. There were a multitude of musicians! A drummer, a percussionist, a pianist, bass player, guitarist, two violinists, a cellist, a trumpet, a trombone, lead and one backing vocalist. There were single wedge mixes for the kit, percussion, backing vocal, the string section, the brass section, and the guitarist and bass player. There were two wedges for the lead vocal.

I was warned by their crew that I would probably not need all the mixes as the band did many shows without any form of monitoring! But it would be the best plan to have them all set up and working just in case! They were right! Most of the wedges were not required, only the vocals, brass, the drummer and the cello wanted any monitoring!

The band provided most of their own microphones. The usual selection of Shure and Sennheiser products. The vocals both used Shure Beta 87As.

Pink Martini Website

Pink Martini on Myspace




Series 29, Show 6, Bjork

The last show of the current series. Bjork had a very complicated stage set up! Thankfully they provided most of their own cable system and their own monitor engineer, again an old friend, Bob Lopez. A PM5D console was used and I had to put out six wedge mixes, we used JHE 115 wedges on all mixes. All of the ten-choir/ brass players were on hardwired in-ear mixes, and used Beta 58s for the vocals and SM98s for the brass. Bjork used a wireless Beta 58A. The kit had the usual selection of mics, most of the other inputs were DI-ed. Again, thankfully, and Bob had his own memory card for the console so it was just a matter of me getting the input patch correct!

A great performance, for sadly the last show of this series, hopefully I will get the opportunity to work on this show in the future.

Bjork Website

Bjork on Myspace



And a couple of other shows I have worked on recently……………..


The Michael Parkinson Show



Its not very often I work on this show! The recording is done at The London Studios on the south bank of the river Thames. It's the usual chat show format, two or three celebrity guests and some music to end the show. The artist on this show was a guy called Alfie Boe, an opera singer. A fourteen-piece string section consisting of four first violins, four second violins, four violas and two cellos, a flautist and a pianist provided the backing to his tenor voice.

I used a pair of 12AM wedges for Alfie who wanted a full mix of everything on stage and a plate reverb on his voice. There was a single 12AM for the pianist who just had a little vocal. There were also four pairs of HK VT108 hotspot monitors for the strings, they all had the same mix of a little vocal and piano.

The microphones used were a pair of AKG414s for the grand piano, DPA 4060 clip on mics for all the strings and a KSM137 for the flute. For Alfie I used a Shure KSM9. For this show I used a console I had never used before, a Yamaha M7CL-48, easy to use with my experience of PM5Ds.

DPA Microphones Website

YamahaM7CL-48

Alfie Boe Website

Alfie Boe on Myspace



The Friday Night With Jonathon Ross Show




In the same week as the last of the Later with Jools shows and the Parkinson show I also worked on The Jonathon Ross Show. The band on this week were My Chemical Romance, they brought along their own engineer. They drastically cut down their stage requirements. Gerard, the vocalist opted to just use In-ears and no wedges, all the rest of the band were on ears, with a pair of wedges stage right and stage left. Bob, the drummer used In-ears and a thumper stool. A PM5D was used and their engineer had his own memory card.

The band provided all their own microphones, the usual blend of Shure and Sennheiser.

My Chemical Romance Website

My Chemical Romance on Myspace


The last TV show for the time being was the following weeks Jonathon Ross show, and a return of CSS, who had, since I worked for them at Coachella Festival, found their own monitor engineer.

The same set up as previous, five mixes along the front of the stage and a mix for the drums. All the wedges were 12AMs and the console was a PM5D. There was quite a drastic cut down of input channels as they were only performing one song, the usual 91/52 combination on the kick, SM57s for the snare, SM98s for the toms, KSM32s for the overheads and a SM81 on the Hi-Hat. All the guitars were mic-ed with SM57s and Beta58s for the vocals

Nice to see them all again!

CSS Website

CSS on Myspace


A couple of photos………………

Behind the scenes at Jonathon Ross




I couldn't resist this one!



So it's the end of working on Television shows for a while and time to return to the touring scene, current bookings include Supergrass, Klaxons and Archive and many more offers to consider for the forthcoming months!

The rest of last week was spent driving around, visiting various friends and having many nice meals. The afternoons and evenings were spent at the studio of Virgo Serena, a nice quiet place (except for the train!!). For most of the time everyone was at work, so I was left on my own… time to sort out a huge computer failure I had had just before I gone away, thankfully all sorted out. On the Friday Virgo Serena treated me (and about 50 other people!) to a performance, so much better to hear them this way, live!!!! A great gig and a good time were had by all, even though I managed to fall asleep at one point!

Saturday afternoon was time to make the return journey to the UK. Due to the time difference (8 hours) and the flight time (11 hours) I didn't arrive back in London until Sunday afternoon. A least I managed to get a few hours sleep on the way back! The difference in temperature between southern California and London was obvious at the moment of arrival! I must admit I had found it a bit too hot while I was away but I'm sure that I could get used to it, this was back to a chilly reality! Sunday evening was spent relaxing at my friend's house, where I stay when I am working in London.

On Monday it was back to work again, the rehearsal day for the Later with Jools Holland show, and was the first occasion for the jet lag to kick in! I had managed to have a good nights sleep, or so I thought! I was wide-awake at 9am but decided to have another 5 minutes and wham, it was 20 past 12 the next time I looked. As I was supposed to start at 1pm and it would take around 45 minutes to get there I knew I was going to be late. I rang the office to find that my Boss had just left, I rang his mobile as he was driving very close to the house, he picked me up and I was there, surprisingly on time! Not a good way to start the day though!

The artist I dealt with this week was Grinderman, the latest manifestation of Nick Caves diverse musical abilities. On the specification sent to our office the band requested large side fills either side of the stage. For television shows side fill use is discouraged mainly due to them interfering with camera sight lines. The usual compromise is to put a pair of wedges either side of the performance area pointing across the stage. These produce a different effect to fills a least they can thicken up the sound on the outer areas of the stage. After trying out a couple of positions for these wedges we decided to use just one pair, one unit either side of Nicks usual front pair. There was a pair of wedges for the bass player and the guitar player. The drummer also had a pair of edges combined with a sub bass unit. I used a PM5D, QSC amplifiers powered all JH15 wedges.

We used a Shure Beta 52 for the kick, SM57s for the snare, Sennheiser e604 on the toms, 414s on the overheads. All guitar and keyboard amps were mic-ed with SM57s and also Di-ed, there was a pair of Di-s for a sampler. All the vocal microphones were Shure Beta 58As.

The mixes were as follows, in the kit wedges were the kick and snare drum, bass guitar and both his own and Nicks vocal. The sub bass unit only had the kick drum in it to gain extra weight. The bass wedges had kick and snare and his and Nicks vocal, the guitarists mix only differed by the fact that he had some of his own guitar in the mix. In Nicks centre mix were his vocals with a touch of plate reverb and his keyboard. In the outside mix were again vocals combined with kick snare and bass guitar. They were simple and precise mixes, very loud and very effective. Nick played keys on one song and guitar on the second, they were without any doubt the best band on the show and I cant imagine that I will get to mix music so good for the rest of the series, but you never know!

One of the most exciting aspects of my job is the way one day's work can create work for the future. I never know as to when I may get a phone call, text or email offering me some work. This blog is about the way in which this can happen.

Right time, Right place……….


Monday of last week, it was the usual 2 hour train journey down to my base camp in London, as I am booked to do 7 weeks of shows I bring plenty of clothing supplies with me, also a few items for my quick vacation (more about that later!). Having dropped of my suitcase it was time to get over to the studio and have some lunch before work, however I was thwarted by the fact that my access laminate failed to respond and let me in, I spent the next 45 mins. getting through security, some one had forgotten to renew them for the next year. Straight into work, the band I was working for were CSS, from Brazil, no more information known, just an input list and stage plan. I set to work. They required 5 separate mixes downstage, with a pair in the centre and 2 single wedge mixes both on stage right and stage left. There was a drum fill for the drummer. I had the first sound check at 4.30.

I had plenty of time to get all my EQs in place, as usual I used a Yamaha PM5D and my trusty memory card, I used JH15 wedges for all the floor mixes. The band used a Shure Beta 57 for the main vocal and Beta 58A's for the backing vocals. All 3 guitars were mic-ed with SM57s. On the kit we used a Beta 52 and 91 combination on the kick drum, 98s on the toms and a pair of 57s snare top and snare bottom. Overheads were 414s. Di s were used for a keyboard stage right, a sampler stage left and a drum pad. The band and their touring party knew exactly what they wanted on stage, the mixes were quickly done and a basic house sound provided. We had 3 run throughs of each off the 2 songs they were to perform. Everyone Happy !!!

Tuesday. A quick phone call in the morning to check on the final arrangements for my short vacation. I was off to Coachella festival in sunny California taking place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this week, The flight was booked a while ago at a more that bargain price! So a phone call to check on my pick up time, revealed during the conversation is that CSS are playing the festival on the Sunday, I already had tickets and backstage passes for myself and friends so I reasoned they may like to have a friendly face working for them at the festival.

Arriving back at the TV studios for the afternoon camera checks I approached the bands management with my suggestion for the festival, excitement all round. The band had a great TV show, and it was nice to say goodbye to them and also say see you on Sunday!

Right time, Right place……….

Wednesday. Travel to LA day. I was up early, as I had to be at the airport by about 8.30am, a 6.30 alarm and travelling by 7. Heathrow airport was completely rammed, join this line, do this, join this line, do this, go through security. I have just enough time to grab some duty frees and my gate is announced. They kindly allow us to sit around at the gate for an hour or so, as the aircraft we were to use was late in arrival from its previous destination. I board the flight and prepare myself for almost 11 hours in the air. Couple of beers, snooze, Dinner, glass of wine, snooze, movie, snooze. Arrive in the US to face huge lines of people at immigration; thankfully the operation was fast and slick. Met by my friends and whisked away from the airport.

Thursday. Relaxing, driving around, drinking beers, being jet lagged.

Friday. First of my days at Coachella festival. It was to hot for me! After a couple of beers in the car park and a couple more when we got in I had to have a sit down! A good day out was had, saw a few numbers by most of the bands and watched the whole of Bjorks set.

Saturday. Due to the heat of yesterday we all decide to give the festival a miss for the day and have a lazy day. At 5 pm I receive a text message for a friend of mine who is a tour manager, it says… U@Coachella… I reply… U there… Him…. yep just heard you are doing CSS how do you fancy doing Klaxons straight after? (We quickly get on line and check the Coachella running order; yes Klaxons are on the same stage, straight after, easy!) …… I text back… Yes can do! A quick phone call and times are arranged and I can add 3 more VIP guests to my ever-increasing success with attaining guest tickets for this day!!!

Right time, Right place……….

Sunday. There was a much earlier start from our base camp in California to drive to the Coachella festival site. I needed to get all the tickets and passes sorted out for my friends who have come down and also to go over to the stage where I am working to say hello to the house guy and familiarize myself with the equipment I was to use later that day. They provided numerous Radian wedges, familiar to me through TV shows, controlled by a Midas Heritage 3000 console, KT EQ and Amcrom amps. I all looked good! I had very quick meetings with the band members and wrote dome all their requirements. First band on CSS. At least I had a reasonable idea of what they wanted due to the TV show earlier in the week. The show went smoothly and everyone seemed happy. Next. Console cleared for the new band, Klaxons, totally different requirements so I opt to start afresh. All the mix sends are set back to zero. We start to get the new stage sound together by trying all to vocals (Beta58a) in turn and make them as loud a s possible, Kick Drum and Snare Drum (Beta 52/91, Pair 57) all over the stage very loud. Time for the band and we are off, 45 minutes later I'm finished and its time to go and see lots of friends in the VIP and dressing room area.

Conclusion. Both bands satisfied with the on stage sound I'd provided for them and both talked about possible work in the future!

Monday. Having a day off!

Tuesday. From the South Californian base camp we travelled south to San Diego for a huge sushi meal and a show from Damien Rice, saw a very close friend who had kindly sorted me out with some VIP passes for Sundays Coachella festival, thanks Diz. Great show.

Wednesday. Woken by text message from my friend Matt, tour manager for Klaxons ……. Are you available to do some shows first 2 weeks in August in Australia and Japan? I text back… Yes!

Right time, Right place……….

A few photos from Coachella…

I've been at home doing lots of decorating and gardening for what feels like forever, can't wait to get back to my proper job! Sorting through some boxes of music memorabilia I came across lots of my old tour and festival laminates....... as I've had many people ask me who I have worked for in the past I decided to make a slideshow out of them, here it is.......