Gig - Betfred Gold Cup - Sandown Park Race Course

So fresh from Talent Trail we got in the truck and drove down to London for the Betfred Gold Cup. Not to bet, but because the Bootleg Beatles were playing! Always good for a larff!

We got down on Friday evening, and found that we could only build one stack, as one side of the stage was a 55degree slope. we Managed to get round it by reducing site lines a little and went to our hotel.

Working on race course stuff has one feature that is both a pro and a con. This is the time you are not allowed to make sound past in the day before the show.

Today this time was 10am.

Pro - You get to rest all day

Con - You have to be on site at 7am

This is how the rest time progressed:

Lampy Si preparing the show to look its best!
















We went for a walk into a local London neighbour hood (We went though a closed gate to get to this road. We got to the other end and there was another one which said no public access. Quite impressive!)
















But the garage do get robbed by mysterious alien creatures...
















We watched some grumpy horses before they went racing
















We saw lots of people getting drunk whilst having a partial interest in some beasts running round in a circle on a field
















OOo look, famous person! Frankie Dettori! I recognise the person in the back ground with the massive forehead and big nose as well, but I'm not too sure on his name.
















And a Channel 4 racing presenter
















And then, it gets better Frankie Dettori and Laurence Delalio!





















Then out of the corner of my eyes, I see something, I wasn't sure at first, but yes it is, its the Beatles. Resurrected! Oh wait... That's the reason We're here in the first place. The Bootleg Beatles on stage.
















Our new service. For places where FOH mixes are not possible. Bring a digital desk, a wireless router and do it on your laptop. Now that is cool!
















Then the show finished. We packed up. And went home. Blinding. 'Twas all rather good fun!

Gig - Talent Trail (Talentless Trial for short)

So once a year the local news paper holds a Stars in their Eyes competition. Loads of people enter, and nine get though to the final in Hull City Hall.

The night passed. I had a rough guess who would come first and second, got it right but only cos the other seven were appalling at best. And that was about the jist of the evening.

Also worth noting was that the weather was unusually mild for the time of year. But to be smart I wore jeans for the show. This was also because I was doing a bit of stage management type stuff to make the evening run a little quicker. One role of this was to place mics on stage ready for the artist to walk on.

At the winners ceremony at the end everyone was suited up and looking very very smart.

This is me doing what I only though right for the situation
































I wore Shorts! On a stage of suited up people, in front of a 1400 strong audience!

Get in!

Nuff Said!

Dave Cartwright methods of ruining a film some one has yet to watch...

#1 - Mention the ending before people have watched it

Last night Vicky and I sat down to watch Miss Potter. We saw it at the cinema, and admittedly it isn't my sort of film, but it's OK.

Anyway as a joke, and taking the rip a little I said to Vicky, "oh He dies you know"!

Turns out, Vicky's parents who were also watching it with us had not seen it yet, and I had just ruined it for them!

Denied!

And that is number one in the Dave Cartwright methods of ruining films.

Next week, Spiderman 3.

Gig - Slavery Drama @ HCH

Last night I got to bed around midnight. this morning I was called for 8am to do a drama tour thingy wotsit that was going round local schools all over the country.

There is one word to describe this show, and that is the Dave Cartwright Word of the week: Awful!

I was working on my own, and turned up not really knowing anything about the show from lack of information.

It turned out to be three radio mics, and some ambiance mics to pick up people talking quietly on a large stage. Grrrr!

I managed to make everything audible, but the less said about shows like this the better. One of those to shovel under a rug I think.

Forget about trying to act while you have a script in your hand. You should look behind you to see the thing twice you size that is about to eat you...















Rant over.

Out.

Gig - London Community Gospel Choir @ Hull City Hull

HCH seems to be home from home at the minute, but it is certainly building up stacks of experience for the summer. Tonight's show was the London Community Gospel Choir, LCGC. I have two gigs with these before, and they are undoubtedly very very good.

They have working with Madonna on their CV, so working with them is just that little bit cool!

I was on Monitors faced with 10 mixes, and 20 people. Woo!

It proved to be quite a hard night. It was quite loud during sound check, but ticket sales were poor and it was too loud for some as they left. the FOH turned it down a little, but then the stage was too loud for him to cope. The rest of the night we were then in limbo of trying to get it to sound right, without the band or anyone else complaining.

They are without a doubt though very good! each musician is at the top of their game, and each member of the choir could be a soloist in their own right. 20 people on stage, not one of them a bad egg! Very cool to work for.

A blurry LCGC in action

Dancing On Ice Live - Sheffield Hallam FM Arena

After the ITV show came the tour. And as Vicky loves Torvill and Dean I bought some tickets and took her to see it.

Me being a geek I was more interested in the production than the show. It was a cool night though, and Torvill and Dean performed five times which neither of us were expecting.

Pictures were not allowed during the show, but while the arena was filling up I took a few. All of which are blurred, but still rather cool.

















Some mental production was in operation. About 200 moving head lights, 100 odd rigging points and shockingly bad sound! The thing that surprised me the most, was while we were OK, the truss was flown quite low to act as a feature, and the speakers were flown higher than the truss meaning that half the arena are not going to hear anything. Bizarre! Was an enjoyable night though.

I wonder...

Yesterday Vicky and I went to Goathland and got talking about flatulence.

This led me to propose the following two questions...

"If everyone in the world was to face west and fart would the world rotate any faster?"

and...

"If everyone in the world was to face east would the world stop rotating, or even rotate in the opposite direction to a brief moment in time?"

I wonder... hmmm...

North York Moors Railway + Goathland where they film Heartbeat

So with it being bank holiday weekend and having a few days off work, Vicky and I headed up to Pickering to catch a steam train to see where Heartbeat is filmed.

Pickering Station
















Our Train coming into the Station
















On the Train
















And at that point my camera died. Boooo!

This is Bernie's Garage taken on my phone.
















Across the road is The Goathland Hotel AKA The Aidensfield Arms, where we went for a bite to eat. Inside it is identical to what you see on TV, much to our surprise expecting it to have been a set. So We can now say we have eaten in the Aidensfield Arms. Yeah!!

Business Proposition - Firth and Cartwright Wedding Sound

So on a quiet weekend Iain booked a Sprinter, my equipment and me and we headed off to a wedding in Horncastle to do sound for a Gospel Choir Iain does some work for who were playing at a wedding.

It was a bit surreal working with people you work with every day whilst wearing a shirt and tie... Actually looking smart... Shocking... !

Professional Wedding Sound to your door / church / wedding
















Discreet PA. Less Discreet Performances. All part of the Wedding Sound service! (All Litter to be removed prior to performance start)

House Sitting

Whilst Spending a week in Hull City Hall, this week Vicky and I had been asked to spend a week in a house and house sit for her brother whilst him and his family went to Center Parcs!

It was a brilliant week and was gave us new opportunities in our relationship that we would not usually get being at home. Here are three...

Our first shop:





















Our first jelly:
















The remains of our first jelly after helping #1:

Gig(s) - A week in Hull City Hall

So this week I have done three shows. All of which were in Hull City Hall.

Show #1 - Freedom Day

This show was a large church service to celebrate 200 years since the abolition of slavery. The guy responsible for this work was William Wilberforce, who was MP in Hull at the time, 200 years ago. Slightly more productive the two jags is now-a-days!

For this show I was doing monitors, and although I knew it would be a big show it developed into something a little bigger than what I was expecting. I successfully ended up using every input and output of a Midas Siena. 40 Channels into 16 mixes. Quite a lot to keep track of!

This is by far the biggest monitor spec I have ever been responsible for, but I am glad to say I didn't fall over it once.

Not many funny things happened on this day, so jokes seem sparse, phooey! The key point was that I didn't eat from breakfast until getting home. Never good!

Show #2 - Hull College Slavery Awareness Thingy

This show came in very last minute, but as soon as it did i jumped at the chance to do FOH.

FOH + rock hard venue = Result! Let the experience building session begin! Muwahahahahaaa!

The day consisted of four college bands, a few playback acts and some drama. On paper a bit of a crappy day, an guess what...it was!

One of the bands was good, one was mediocre and two were shockin. And the other parts of the day were forgettable.

Here are some pic's:

The hall before doors
















One of the bands
















Show #3 - Cargo

This show was the new musical of Paul Field. Paul Field is a composer / musician who has done all sorts of work within the Church. This was his new musical that was to do with the slave trade, and raising awareness of it.

I was tasked with monitors for this show. Nothing quite as mental as the week before, but a 130 piece choir is still pretty taxing!

The stage and choir
















Paul Field and the band
















Arty Shot #1
















Arty Shot #2 (Btw, the wind player was a brilliant musician!)





















And after a few long tiring days that was a week in Hull City Hall!