Gig - We are Scientists, Hull University Union - 26 February, 2007

So last night We Are Scientists were on the bill to rock Hull University. Exciting in its own right the generic PA company for whom I work had also been booked to put in the sound equipment for the exciting occasion.

Being that my colleague was ill on the day this gig was rung through to the office I was quick to put my hand forward and do monitors, sweetened by the deal that the room sounds pap and the guy on FOH really has his work cut out, and... the generic PA company for whom I work have also just splashed out on a digital mixing desk which was to be used for monitors on this occasion. Lesson learnt, choose your sick days wisely! (If that sounds a little harsh, well, he already has revenge planned for later in the week, phooey!)

Anyway, the show went amazing, the desk was awesome and considering it was my first time on something of this format I didn't fall over it once. Get in!

Here are some of the many pictures taken from this event, and as i tasked someone else with the picture taking duties I am actually on some of them. Just proving to some of you that I do actually work and don't vedge about doing nothing all day creating false stories about my amazing job meeting z-list celebrities!

Sound check from monitor world. Ooooo, digital mixing desk, suits you sir!














Sound check / Warming up / Tuning up / Nice Gaffa Tape














A very analogue FOH area. So very 1974. At least my monitors are moving with the times.














He better not be checking me out.














We Are Scientists














Grrrr!














Local Support - "The Alones"














Tour Support - "Pull Tiger Tail"














Pull Tiger Tail had this synth call a Moog. The sub from this was unreal. At monitor world, which was right behind a stack, it felt like my liver was going to dissolve. This is reading we got from my dB meter halfway between the FOH desk and a stack. Brutal. Isn't there something somewhere that says a support act should be quieter than the headliners?!














We Are Scientists take to the stage.














It's a Shoe! And a very very very full venue.














Kieth Murray - Guitars and Lead Vocals














Chris Cain - Bass Guitar














Michael Tapper - Drums














Crowd Surfing




























Rocking away














A long, but very enjoyable day. It was good fun doing a proper gig again. It felt like the first one in ages. Bring on more of this sort of stuff.

Welly Club, Hull. - Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd February, 2007

So this week I did two shows on consecutive nights in the Welly Club. The only similarity between the two nights was that both bands were over two hours late, leaving me to twiddle my thumbs in utter boredom.

The first night was one of the best shows I have done in that venue. The band didn't have an engineer, and they were good. A lot of fun, well arranged music and something i could enjoy.

Friday, however, was the complete opposite. They were a two piece band, lots of synths and computers and stuff and brought their own engineer. I have sat in on this band in Welly before and remember the engineer being bad. I assumed by now they would have fired him and got someone better. Doesn't seem to work quite like that though, when they eventually turned up with the same incompetent engineer in tow. Seems a little harsh to write, but he really is that bad.

I guided him through sound check at the request of the promoter and went home dreading the evening ahead. Little did i know how bad/tiring it would be!

I arrived back at the club ten minutes before stage time and the only people present where me, my girlfriend, the promoter, a few bouncers, the bar staff, a DJ and a couple of very drunk people propping up a wall. At times like this you instantly know you are not getting home at a reasonable time.

The band eventually went on 50 minutes late and played to around twenty people. (The room holds around 300.) Que a fast pack away and an irritatingly late night. Some you win, like Thursday, this one I very much lost!

Friday's band during sound check.















A cheeky way of marking up Desk Settings. On the camera screen I can zoom right into each individual pot and it still be perfectly in focus. No more faffing about with paper! Suits me very nicely!

Top Gear in America

The videos total an hour of the funniest episode ever. Watch, laugh, and be amused!

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7


Part 8


Part 9


Part 10


Part 11


Part 12

Ali Crompton at York Minster - Feb 15 + 16, 2007

A rare one for me, but this week I was white gloving it! Working outside of my normal palace i was asked to go along and engineer for a guy called Ali Crompton who I did some work with a couple of years back.

The venue for the show was York Minster, complete with twelve second natural reverb. A few weeks previous I had submitted my spec for what equipment I would need to remotely do my job in here and what was to be supplied was happily agreed.

I turned up and this spec was far from being met and what was there was sub-standard at best. I showed my disapproval a little, but considering the nature of the event i got my head down and did my best with what i could.

The main problem was that the system was concentrating just under 50% of its energy straight into the walls and pillars of the minster, which would then spew in more directions than a sick baby. By the time reached the FOH desk it was what can only be described as a mush! There were delays, but they were by no means powerful enough to cope with the task to which they had been assigned, and were already sounding mushy by the time they reached me.

I concentrated on the vocals first so they could be at least heard, then intermingled select elements of the band to make it slightly musical.

The minster just after doors.



















During sound check.















FOH.















A close up of the desk channel strips. Rather than being some form of parametric, not even partially the desk had six fixed back of EQ, and one swept band across the entire frequency range. I found the six bands too far apart and with to narrower Q to be useful. What about the frequencies in between? How am i meant to change them?!




















The show came and went, you could hear the vocals, which i guess is the most important thing! However, working this show has taught me one thing, how fortunate i am to be working with a company that use professional equipment and give a professional and courteous manner to their clients. Something that was lacking here. I'm sure the experience of engineering in that sort of venue will be invaluable as well. Its certainly not something everyone can say that have done.

Bring on working with familiar equipment again!

Gig: Goole Leisure Centre - Friday February 2, 2007.

On a blog about gigging it feels like it has been a while since i put up a post about doing a gig. But last night i actually did a gig!

The venue was Goole Leisure Centre. This place can only be described as a rabbit warren of corridors and mazes to aid you in getting lost. Maybe even a labyrinth, which is designed to keep people in. This can also be said of Hull. Once you are in you cannot escape. Or at least not without wasting a large amount of your time sat in pointless lines of gas guzzling cars.

On the way to the show Hull and its suburbs were all in gridlock because one junction on the only road out of the city was closed. After finally negotiating out way though this a new junction being installed on the only road in and out of the city was also a car park. We dived off the road and took back roads, only to get stopped at a complete random set of traffic lights which had blatantly been put there just to stop that road becoming a "rat run".

Anyway we eventually arrived. Only to find the lift was out of service. And to make things worse we hadn't exactly got the lightest equipment every invented. But hey, these things happen and we got on with carrying it up the stairs. the stairs were pretty narrow, but getting five people round the mixing desk made moderately light work of it in the end. We were all still shattered before starting to rig though.

There is something about Goole though. Last time I was here, in a venue we drove past on the way, it involved lots of lifting. Very unamusing. Dodgy town. Lesson learnt, avoid...

With the traffic and the lack of lift problem we were now running slightly behind, but we got on with it. Everything was running and when the first band to be sound checked turned up we only had the monitors to EQ.

Four bands were playing and they were all sharing a drum kit. This was possibly the worst drum kit I have ever heard, ever! The snare sounded like a metal spoon hitting a rotten cardboard box and the first tom hadn't been tuned since at least five years before the kit was built!

We sound checked the last band, and then the first band. And then one of the parents of the middle bands came along disgruntled that we hadn't sound checked them. Describing the band as the best thing you will ever hear I gave them a one song sound check just to shut him up. A right waste of time as we then had to reset the stage to a band we had already checked. Pointless. Rant rant rant!

The show started and it went really well. The best thing was, the band we didn't sound check were by far the best. Some clever arrangements and a lot of personality on stage. The headliners were without a doubt the worst act of the night, including one song where it appeared each member of the band was playing a different tune, in a different key. The organiser even came up and asked if everything was OK. We were like there is nothing we can do about that love!

And some pictures from the show:

One of the acts on stage















The window behind the drum kit was horrific. The overheads were not used at all.















The Mixing Desk - Midas Verona















"FX 1"















Then came the end of the show and packing up. I find the end of a show can create a mixed reaction depending on how good the show is. Sometimes you do not want it to end because there is a good act on who you enjoy. Others you want it to end because you think of the prospect of sleep being ever closer. However this show was a little different because I was not quite sure. After 3 good bands, the final act were quite simply appalling, and i had become extremely bored. Que lots if inappropriate delays in the last song! But in reality i didn't not want this show to end. The reason, cos it meant carrying all the equipment back downstairs. Not a fun prospect!

Luckily the organiser had sourced lots of people to help us carry the gear and we made fairly light work of it, but i was knackered by the end, and the prospect of wrapping up in bed kept me going. All in all a fun but very stressful show.