Friday, November 1, 2013

Episode 3 - Leeds and Blackpool

Good morning!  Or not? It's Blackpool after all and on a very windy, rainy November 1st so what do you think? 
For the past three years, this sign has not been changed. Surely it's meant to be "fudge corner"?
Bullshittist more like

The appeal of this place is lost on me but not the hundreds of thousands who flock year in year out it would appear. So what do I know?  I will grant it always is a special date on the tour. Not only because we play the awesome Globe Theater, which is more of a circus tent than a theatre, but because we generally do a few days here and get to chill about, have a few beers after the show with no pull down. 

Unfortunately things didn't go smoothly with the show. With so many variables to a show, it's often a case of what will go wrong rather than if anything will. But I'll come to that. 

After a really long build up (9am start) I didn't finish until gone 6 pm. Sitting here thinking what made it took so long still doesn't equate to why it did. Sure there were patching issues, desk issues and waiting for the theatre to come back to us about who to patch in, still doesn't fathom out in my mind. 

One thing is certain, it cannot be like this every gig. I'm doubling on sound as well as drums and I'm doing more of the former than the latter. And still having to jump off the kit to deal with sound issues because the Soundman, although a very lovely guy, doesn't get digital desks. So faced with a scenario if waiting ages for something to be changed on request, I give a couple of minutes yet then get off the kit to do it for him. 

No, not a great arrangement for sure. 

We sound checked, dealt with everyone's monitor change requirements, got Haze's mic loud and as generally as good sounding as we good, the same for Zoe, saved the scene on the desk and I left for something to eat for the first time that day. It was 6 pm like I had said. 

Come show time it was Halloween, there was almost a full house. And stuff started changing with the sound... Wtf!?

For some reason, a delay was put on my over head cymbals, only the cymbals. WHY!?!

As the main pa was set up behind the band, this was creating havoc with the band trying to keep I time with us. Then Zoe' mic didn't open when she went to sing, Haze had to sing her part in the wings and she act out the lines. The cause of this is a bit unsure. One thing for sure is that it was fine when I went to check it in the interval, no cable issues, no problem with antennae, nada. So it's possible that she didn't unmute it herself correctly. Or the Soundman didn't. He says he did, she said she did... DOG ONLY KNOWS! 

I meant God. 

I deselected the delay on the overhead channels and walked away. He tried to give me a reason for it, like it was on purpose!?

I have no words. 

Except "FUCK!!!!" When the second half started and I realised the overheads aren't paired and I needed to deselect the selected delay on the OTHER OVERHEAD. So there was still a delay on one of the overheads proving he did it on purpose. I thought he'd might notice, he didn't. So when I found a moment, I unplugged the overhead which was delayed. 

I have been in his shoes many times when after a show the general consensus is it sounded shit, and it's not nice. Doing sound is a very personal thing and rarely will you please everyone with all the different and usually conflicting requirements. And usually what you think is as good a sound as you can get with the gear you have, is far from someone else's. The trick I learned is to find the middle ground between what everyone wants and doesn't want. 

So I didn't really vent my feelings on it to him. But he asked me, and I was gracious but honest. 

"Fuck dude, you couldn't mix a cake!"

Not really. But I did ask if he was asked to turn it down. Because when I took my headphones off at the end, there was hardly any drums in the front of house (bear in mind, I was nearest to the first pair of front of house speakers (as there are one front, and one back with a sub under the seating) nor for that matter was there any guitar. Keys were very prominent as were the vocals. So at the back it would have been keys and vox heavy with no drums save the actually acoustic sound coming off them and no guitar. A great rock and roll sound.

Said no one ever. 

He said, no one asked him to turn it down. I left it there and walked away. It's not my place to have a pop, I'm not his boss and he's a lovely guy, I couldn't. He's technically above me sound wise after all. 

After the show we all went, got a shit load of jägermeister and got wasted playing the Roxanne drinking game. If you don't know what that is, play the song Roxanne by the Police, you split the group your with into two. One half stands and drinks on "Roxanne" and the other on "put on the red light" until the end. 
Roxanne drinking game, about to commence. 

It worked and I went to bed pissed looking forward to the meeting at 1:00 pm the next day.

On Opposite Day! 

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