FLOYD QUAD FOR SALE!

BONHAMS TO AUCTION VINTAGE PINK FLOYD LIVE SOUND EQUIPMENT FOR THE BENEFIT OF STAGE HAND, THE PSA’s RE-BRANDED WELFARE & BENEVOLENT FUND...

Aficionados of Pink Floyd’s legendary live sound will have a chance to own a slice of the band’s touring history when the unique, hand built quadraphonic mixing consoles used on the Momentary Lapse Of Reason (1987-89) and Division Bell (1994) world tours are auctioned at Bonhams in Knightsbridge on December 15, with a percentage of the proceeds going to concert industry charity Stage Hand — the new name for the PSA Welfare & Benevolent Fund.
    Every Pink Floyd tour since the late 1960s featured quadraphonic sound among the many live effects pioneered by the band. Sound FX including the famous chiming clocks and gongs of The Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall’s helicopters and many more, were whirled around massive arenas and stadiums using banks of loudspeakers positioned in an approximate diamond layout, with one stack at the rear facing the stage, the two side stacks to either side on a line slightly behind the mixing desk position, with the main left/right PA handling the front ‘point’ of the diamond.
    The effects were sent to the speakers using one of the special hand-built quadraphonic (‘quad’) mixing desks.
    Only six generations of quad mixing desks or external quad panning devices were made during the band’s performing history between 1969 and 1994, each using the best audio technology available at the time.
    Pictured above, Mike Lowe of Britannia Row Productions, the rental company originally established by the Floyd in 1975, commented: “We have kept these mixing desks on our stock and looked after them very carefully because of their historic place in the Pink Floyd performance legend.
    “With the onslaught of digital technology, the ways to deliver quadraphonic sound has radically improved and we felt the best outcome would be to offer them to collectors at auction and in the process make a donation to Stage Hand.”
    Stage Hand (a.k.a. the PSA Welfare & Benevolent Fund) is a UK registered charity, supported by the Production Services Association (PSA). The Fund offers financial hardship support and retraining grants for those in the industry who are unable to work through illness or injury.
    The decision to change the Fund’s name to Stage Hand coincided with the announcement of the auction, from which the charity stands to receive a donation. Industry publicist Mike Lethby, a Trustee of the Fund, said: "The call went out at a PSA AGM some time back for a new and more memorable name and with Brit Row's quad board auction likely to generate fairly wide interest, as well as a donation to the Fund, it seemed the right moment for the change."


THE QUADRAPHONIC SOUND OF PINK FLOYD:
A BRIEF HISTORY

1: 1967 — The Azimuth Co-ordinator, a quad panning device that featured two panning joysticks in a large metal box, was built in 1967 by Abbey Road sound engineer Bernard Speight and used for The Pink Floyd’s Games For May show at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. It was stolen after the show.
    Its replacement, a second Azimuth Co-ordinator, was first used at a Royal Festival Hall concert in 1969. It was also used by record producer Alan Parsons during the recording of The Dark Side Of The Moon (an album that was issued in both stereo and quadraphonic versions). This device is now on display in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

2. 1972 — British pro audio manufacturer Allen & Heath was commissioned to build the MOD1. This quad console was built for Pink Floyd’s live use around 1972 and can be seen in their film Live In Pompeii. This was subsequently sold and is thought to have ended up in a lock-up garage in North London!

3. 1973 — Allen & Heath built a second quad board in 1973. This was first used by Pink Floyd on their 1974 summer and winter tours, then subsequently on the following year’s North American tour and Knebworth Festival headliner, the official launch of Britannia Row Productions (on July 5 1975). The console’s current whereabouts are unknown.

4. 1977 — Another British pro audio manufacturer, Midas, built a pair of ‘mirror’ PF1 consoles (so called because they exactly mirrored each other’s facilities). These were based on the Midas Pro4 console design. They had input and output sections and could be used as stand-alone consoles. They fed signals into a central, specially designed quad routing box, and were used on the 1977 In The Flesh (Animals) tour.

5. 1982 — A fire at Alexandra Palace in London, where Britannia Row had set up sound systems for the Capital Radio Jazz Festival, destroyed one of the Midas mirror consoles. In response, Midas quickly built a one-off replacement to feed a quad panner built by Britannia Row electronics engineer Les Matthews for The Wall tour. This was built by and supplied to Pink Floyd by Britannia Row (which began trading independently of the Floyd in 1984).
    The original surviving mirror board, the replacement for the destroyed board and the matching quad router are now on display in a Parisian Museum.

6. 1987 — The Les Mathews quad panning device went on to be used for the Momentary Lapse Of Reason tour. (The tour was originally planned to last just 11 weeks, but ended up playing to 5.5 million people during 1987-89.) The device is one of the items to be auctioned at Bonhams on December 15 2010.

7. 1994 — The Midas XL3 quad console was commissioned by Brit Row for the Division Bell tour. This is the second console to be auctioned at Bonhams on December 15 2010. Both of the latter two units have been meticulously maintained in full working condition and the desk that was built for The Division Bell has seen occasional use since Pink Floyd’s last live touring show on October 29 1994 at Earls Court in London.
TPi
Photography: James Cumpsty & The TPi Archive

www.bonhams.com/entertainment
www.psa.org.uk
www.britanniarow.com

References: ‘Welcome To The Machine — The History of Pink Floyd’s Live Sound’, Mark Cunningham, 1995-6.