FALMOUTH BAY EVENTS SQUARE LIVE

It was here in Falmouth Bay’s Events Square, back in February 2005, that round-the-world sailor Ellen MacArthur was greeted by thousands of well-wishers upon arrival after her 71-day record-breaking voyage.


Two and a half years later, the enthusiasm was on a par and the harbour views just as breathtaking when Falmouth Bay Events Square Live was launched with a bill that saw Echo & The Bunnymen, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler’s From The Jam, Badly Drawn Boy and The Bluetones team up with local supports for two evenings of stellar entertainment.


Although it’s unlikely to give the majors sleepless nights, Events Square Live had a low-key charm that was a refreshing departure for TPi after months spent immersed in much larger, corporate-branded spectacles.


Held over August Bank Holiday weekend, this exceptionally well-organised event was masterminded by local promoters Mark Oliver and Steve Verdin, a.k.a. the G.U.M & G.L.U.E Co. It was whilst at university in Portsmouth that the pair met, formed a band, and gained an insight into the mechanics of event management.


Oliver was clearly proud to be bringing something of substance to his hometown. He said: “There’s always been a week of entertainment here in Falmouth in the summer but we’ve never had any nationally-known acts playing. I just thought Falmouth needed it. Events Square was established about five years ago and it’s a good live venue location. It just needed someone to step out and organise something new and different.”


Did he and Verdin attract any help at local council level? “They were very helpful with getting the licensing sorted out and the environmental health people also made things go smoothly for us. The majority of local residents want Events Square to be used for gigs like this and we’ve had a lot of support. We’ve done as much as we can to control and contain the noise, and minimise leakage outside of the Square, and hopefully that will go in our favour in the future.”


Oliver and Verdin chose the Exeter branch of Sound2Light Productions to provide a one-stop solution for all the sound, lighting and staging requirements. “Even though I’ve played in bands myself, this is the first time I’ve had any interaction with Sound2Light,” said Oliver. “I simply found them in a directory and they were happy to work within our budget.”


“In terms of building a brand, I think the G.U.M & G.L.U.E guys have found a terrific venue,” remarked Sound2Light director Richard Jordan, whose sound team received comprehensive support from locally-based console manufacturer Allen & Heath.


This was a perfect opportunity for A&H to gain exposure for its new iLive digital console amongst a range of sound engineers over a whole weekend. Resident as the FOH mixer, the iLive proved to be the talking point of the festival and engineer reaction tended to be extremely positive.


Said Jordan: “Although I was initially nervous about taking on a brand new product as the main festival console, it was also a very exciting prospect. It helped that we had the support of Carey Davies [A&H’s technical manager] who pretty much held our hand throughout and assisted all the engineers.


“A&H invited us down to their offices where we had a demo ran through the various features, and in the end they supplied one system plus a back-up, along with members of staff who were on-site for the entire weekend. With all that in place, we were very happy to use the system and knocked out with the results.


“I can see what a great console it could be for touring. It takes up so little space and yet offers enormous flexibility and power. We’ll certainly consider it in the future, so I’ll be keeping in touch with A&H.”


Reviewing the action at FOH, Carey Davies said: “One or two bands were committed to scene memory but for most it was a case of quick line check, faders up and go. The ability to name and colour the channels and to reassign them on the fly across the fader strips proved a big hit with the engineers in helping dial in a quick mix.”


Among the incoming FOH engineers was Nick Allen from Echo & The Bunnymen’s crew. He said: “I like working with digital desks although I’m not always keen on being presented with one that’s unfamiliar to me and to be fair, the iLive, wasn’t on my radar. It was a bit of an issue, however, I found it to be absolutely fine.


“It’s got a good sound, easy operation, and I found very little cause for complaint. It surprised me actually, because quite often when we play festivals the desk I’m given is a Yamaha PM5D, and if I were to choose between them, I’d go for the iLive.”


The Bluetones’ engineer, Dan Bartley, shared a similar opinion. “In the short amount of time I’ve worked with it here, it seems very easy to pick up, and by our second number I’d pretty much sussed it out. Obviously I haven’t had time to delve into it too deeply and I’m told by Carey that there are a few parts of the desk that are still being refined, such as linking graphics together, but overall it’s a good surface to work on and a very smooth system.”


The first time I saw iLive in action was when we covered engineer Edd Higdon’s use of it on the spring tour by From The Jam, the outfit founded by ex-Jam legends Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, whose live sound doesn’t appear to suffer from the absence of their old mucker Paul Weller.


From The Jam played a storming headline set on the second night in Falmouth, and Higdon was pleased to be back behind the iLive. Since we saw them in Tunbridge Wells, Higdon has been playing with the Version 1.1 software update. “It has a few more effects possibilities such as the ability to fine-tune delays which I find very useful with the band. It’s all starting to really come together.”

DEAL-BREAKER

The choice of PA system literally proved to be a deal-breaker. The local council gave permission for the event on the grounds that sound levels would not exceed a measly 85dB at the back gate. In order to meet this demand, whilst satisfying the bands and their audience, Richard Jordan relied on Sound2Light’s flagship Camco-powered Nexo Geo S line array and its accompanying modelling software.


Said Jordan: “We custom-designed the system so that we could achieve 105dB at FOH but we could tailor the projection so that the level dropped at the back of the square. I presented this proposal to the council and this formed the basis of the licence.


“I think that the Nexo software is one of the big plus points of using the Geo system — it basically got us the gig. We also used Nexo’s CD12 hypercardioid subs which are very directional and have minimal sound spillage, and this factor was also helpful.”


Léon Phillips was touring as Jethro Tull’s FOH engineer when I first met him in 1993. These days he works for Allen & Heath as its pre-sales manager. Over August Bank Holiday weekend, however, he was up to his old tricks again, moonlighting as a general technician and monitor engineer while paying special attention to his company’s donated wares.


“We’ve had the usual festival nonsense where one of the bands didn’t make it in time for a soundcheck so we had to do their changeover on the fly,” said Phillips. “It wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t been so technically demanding, but we’re grown-ups and we handled it!”


Allen & Heath’s loan of a GL2800M console formed the core of the monitor system along with Sound2Light’s Audio Analysts stage wedges. Instead of using the standard iLive stage box route, channels were patched into the GL2800M with outputs coming out of its passive split and sent to the iLive at FOH.


“Echo & The Bunnymen lost their monitor engineer somewhere along the way so I was happy to step in for that one,” said Phillips. “Otherwise it was quite a smooth operation and Sound2Light have been very good to work with.”

GLAMOUR

Lighting designer/operator for the event was Mark Rivkin who used a Champsys Magic-Q MQ200 desk to control a rig containing High End x.Spots, Studio Beams and Cyberlights, as well as Martin Pro MAC 2000 Washes. LED lighting in the form of Pulsar ChromaBanks provided the glamour, with PixelDrive mapping software in control of the various pattern and chase creations.


Sound2Light also supplied a Prolyte MPT self-climbing roof stage equipped with a custom-designed backstage area and rolling risers to enable fast changeovers. For other production aspects, G.U.M & G.L.U.E hired the services of St. Austell’s Coast To Coast for security, Speedy Hire for barriers and Newquay-based The Training Centre for health and safety requirements.


Although ticket sales didn’t go as well as G.U.M & G.L.U.E hoped for, this might simply be the result of ‘first year syndrome’. As Mark Oliver said: “We’ve had to compete with events that are much more established and, of course, the choice is so wide now. We just had to go for this and do the best we could — we’re convince it could result in a major boost for local tourism.


“The band were all very happy with the experience — the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch told me that he definitely wants this gig on his touring schedule when he returns to Cornwall because the the atmosphere and setting were absolutely stunning. I’m still confident that we can achieve a better response in 2008, and we’re already starting to plan ahead.”

ALLEN & HEATH – BACK AT BASE IN CORNWALL
It’s not yet at the point where it’s an automatic choice on tour riders, but Allen & Heath’s iLive digital console is one of those ‘dark horse’ products that is starting to bite the knee caps of the digital giants.

    The slow, uphill climb is precisely what A&H sales director Bob Goleniowski predicted and with a still-increasing analogue sales portfolio to rely upon, the company is firmly entrenched for the long haul.

    When we visited A&H's HQ during our long weekend in Cornwall, Goleniowski told us: “You’re dealing with a change in product technology that’s going to take some time to gain wide acceptance, however, it’s clear that digital is the future! A lot of users that we've spoken to have said that they’ll be going digital at some point, but I still see that analogue is going to remain with us for many years, particularly at the entry level. Although we’re seeing digital sales developing, we’re still seeing strong business with our analogue product ranges.”

    A&H’s marketing approach with iLive is very hands-on, with several consoles currently out with engineers and companies for evaluation around the world.

    Said Goleniowski: “We have over 70 distributors globally and the relationships we forge with them are very healthy, and very two-way, in that we try to give them all the friendly support they need in order to achieve successful business. Our belief is that a product is as good as the relationships behind it.

    “The feedback we get helps us make subtle adjustments with a view to making iLive precisely what it needs to be. We have plans to significantly expand the range of digital products so the sector will becomes a bigger part of our overall picture.

    “Our challenge is to be competitive in the new technology products with companies much larger and financially stronger but we have the advantage that we understand the live sound market and the requirements of engineers well and we are always happy to take on board suggestions from outside the company to improve our products.

     “There is no doubt that Yamaha has a strong position but the rest of the digital console manufacturers are catching up and it'll be interesting to see how the market is divided in around five years’ time. We’re most definitely in this for the long haul and we have lots of ideas in the pipeline.”

YESTERDAY & TODAY
In 1969, Allen & Heath started out its life as one of the original British mixing console manufacturers, and carved a niche as the supplier of custom solutions for tours by Pink Floyd (The Dark Side Of The Moon) and The Who (Quadrophenia), among others.

    Originally London-based, A&H moved to Brighton before settling in the Cornwall region in 1981. The company has been based at its current Kernick Industrial Estate location since, and extended facilities in 995 during its 10 years as part of the Harman empire, and again in 2001 and 2005.

    Recent significant changes to the business have included last year’s secondary management buyout with Goleniowski and his fellow directors Glenn Rogers (MD), David Jones (finance director) and Tony Williams (operations director) gaining financial backing from Close Brothers Growth Capital.

    The company has also streamlined its staffing levels through transferring around 50% of its manufacturing to a Chinese plant which the higher-valued products, such as iLive, continue to be assembled in Cornwall.

    “Even though A&H’s most prominent successes came through live sound, this sector didn’t really receive our best attention until the late 1980s,” said Glenn Rogers. “Until then we were focused on recording, but then came our GL console ranges.

    “We started this digital process way back in 1995 with the DR-128 installation mixer and graduated to the iCON and iDR series. This helped us gain the confidence in our software and hardware to make iLive possible and put everything we’d learned into that project.”

    In closing, Goleniowski summarised the current company mood: “In general, the feedback has been extremely positive and it validates our own strong belief that we’ve created a very worthy product. It’s just a matter of time before iLive will be commonplace on tours and events around the world.”