SIR ELTON JOHN

The venue for this Elton John show in July will raise an eyebrow, and you’d be forgiven for assuming this is a pick-up show. Production casually rolls in mid-morning; stage, lights and sound are already rigged. It only remains to wheel on the backline, deploy the monitors, position the floor lights and rig the LED video screens.

But you would be wrong — this is part of a well-planned provincial mini-tour; one that Sir Elton’s tour director Keith Bradley and promoter Barrie Marshall of Marshall Arts have been rehearsing and perfecting for almost 10 years.

“We’re now approaching 25 football stadiums,” said Bradley. “That’s excluding the big ones everyone plays, like Ibrox Park. We started in 2003 at Hull and we’ve played some in Europe as well. The important thing is the concept — to take Elton back to his heartland audience.

“It really started when we began playing stately homes in 1999 and by the end of 2000 we’d played 39. Look around now and everyone is playing them in one way or another.

“For an Elton John fan living in Doncaster, we see a problem; the main circuit sees most big shows playing Sheffield Arena or even further away. That means when the show goes on sale a lot of tickets are snapped up by people local to Sheffield, and secondly, if the show is during the week then for people working in and around Doncaster it’s not easy to finish work, grab a quick meal, and get to the venue in time.”

More on this later, but let’s look at the premise from the point of view of the touring production. Does playing a small provincial town, well off the beaten track of ‘conventional touring’, pose any difficulties for the operators and crew?

A FOH VETERAN
Clive Franks has been Sir Elton’s FOH engineer forever. Quite possibly the longest-serving FOH mixer for any artist, he’s been accustomed to Clair Brothers Audio (CBA) since the mid-’70s. Yet here he’s confronted by a d&b audiotechnik J-Series system supplied by Dobson Sound.

“I still approach every gig in the same way. The bottom line here is it’s another gig at a stadium, and every stadium is a totally different challenge,” said Franks.

“Generally, at outdoor shows it’s easier to get good sound — you’re not fighting the acoustics of a hockey arena — but stadiums have roofs over the grandstands that all present their own unique problems.

“Although the sound can breathe outdoors there’s still the factor of the elements. We recently did a show at Perth in Scotland and the crosswinds made it sound like I was mixing through a flanger. You’re still trying to balance the mix, but the tonal quality is out of your hands and you do have to fight that instinct to do something.

“There are some things you can do in advance — for example a lot of these new stadiums have asymmetrical stands so you need to get the reverb in balance by adjusting left and right.”

Bearing all that in mind, what’s it like coming to a new venue like this, with an unfamiliar PA? “Actually this tour [just a three-week outing around the provinces] has been the best for sound,” revealed Franks. “I have used this system once before and had excellent results. More to the point, I’ve used Dobson many times; they provide the systems for our corporate shows and the occasional private function, and I’ve always had excellent sound.

“For 99% of any tour I will come to the venue early and tune the PA, but I arrived late here so I rely on Matt Herr, my touring system tech, to do it for me.”

Herr is a systems man for Clair Bros. “He’s learned from many engineers; he’s been with me for almost five years and we’ve hit it off. Matt is very musical — I haven’t had to touch a frequency for the last three shows — and that’s the most crucial part of what we do here, musicality.

“The Yamaha PM5000 console is the final instrument in the show — we’re not just setting levels, we’re enhancing the dynamics.”
Franks cut his teeth with Dick James Music, the record label and publishing house that was the springboard for the Elton John/Bernie Taupin partnership. He worked at DJM Studios as an engineer, and was a musician himself.

“That’s my point of view, so when I hear one of the musicians on stage suddenly play something I will instantly make sure that is heard.

“So often with an Elton John show the band almost go into a jam; he allows that freedom. After 36 years of playing ‘Crocodile Rock’ we’re always trying to inject that freshness.”

THROWING A J-CURVE
Dobson’s MD Paul Dobson drew up the system design for this two-year-old, 17,000-capacity stadium himself. “Because we’re so busy I’ve actually had to sub much of the system from Wigwam,” he said.

“I’ve been spoiled really, in that I have my own systems man Ali Viles here, and John Brooks from Wigwam. They’ve done a great job.” This was a pronouncement endorsed by Herr: “I just took a little off the low end, and between 400 and 600Hz.”

We asked Brooks and Viles about this. “Ali said he probably would do this based on experience from other Elton shows,” said Brooks, “but it makes sense to leave it in and then let someone in Matt’s position make that decision rather than pull it for them.”

There were two hangs of J-Series loudspeakers a side, J8s with the wider J12 at the bottom, with nine of the cardioid J subwoofers stacked in threes each side. The d&b small format passive line array Q-Series loudspeakers provided fill duties — Q10 for front fill, Q7 for outfill just to cover the first few rows.

“I have to say the transition between front fills, main system and sides is seamless, I can’t fault it,” said Herr.

“Clive is one of those guys who really uses his ears. We did a show in Baku a while ago with a local PA system and Clive was the guy who found the one loudspeaker in the rig that was out of phase, so I knew he’d be happy with this system and the way it has been put together.”

When it came to the show sound was excellent, even the back wall grandstand didn’t impose as much slapback once the seats were filled.

This was a concern for Herr, and though the dreaded wind did swirl on occasions, it didn’t stop Franks capturing those musical explorations he mentioned earlier, and letting everybody hear them.

Alan Richardson mixes monitors with a Yamaha PM1D. Sir Elton uses his customary two CBA 12AM stage wedges for vocals and two double 12AMs for his band mix, while the band take in-ear mixes.

LIGHTING
For lighting designer Kevin Bye, the situation at Doncaster was a little different from the one experienced by Franks, in that he had his normal touring service provider PRG install the lighting system. That said, he is still lumbered with the late sunset of an English summer.

“What summer was that?” he laughed. “But seriously, that’s the only problem I have, and I feel bad for the crowds, especially when it rains, but it does make the beams look good when I make sweeps out into the audience!

“I do keep the rig simple; a series of parallel trusses rigged cross stage, and because of the relative height restrictions of the smaller Edwin Shirley roof, the fact that I step them down towards the rear for added perspective impact, means the lights are a little closer to the band so I get more intensity.”

John Cadbury at PRG’s office in London oversees Bye’s rig requirements. “Lars Christiansen has been his crew chief for a while now so he knows exactly where Kevin’s priorities lie,” informed Cadbury.

The rig comprises 40 Vari*Lite VL3000s, a similar number of Martin MAC 2000 Washes, a dozen VL2000 Washes, 10 VL6cs, some VL1000 Arcs, and around 40 sections of Pixellines set into the trusses facing to the audience. There’s a 64’ x 32’ Soft LED curtain across the back, made by Main Light, that belongs to the production and is looked after by Elton’s touring tech, Braden Stroup.

“I’ve got Braden with me for a very specific reason,” said Bye. “He used to work for Main Light so he knows the system’s potential and I wanted to really increase its capabilities for this show. I am using a Catalyst media server and I have a fair bit of custom content, but I wanted to be able to control the live cameras, and maybe treat those images as well.”

VIDEO
The cameras and the side of stage LED screens all come from Creative Technology, but Bye runs the whole show, video-wise. “I monitor all the cameras from out front, and grab what I want. For content, my design partner at Level2 Design, Benny Kirkham, does a lot.”

CT’s approach to the video design included the tried and tested formula of portrait format I-Mag screens, stage left and right, augmented by the SoftLED screen. For the 2008 tour, CT used the newly-purchased Lighthouse R7 screen, configured 5m wide x 5.5m high, fed from a four-camera digital PPU system with two of CT’s custom-built remote cameras providing close-ups of the piano keyboard.

The video was directed by John Steer and engineered by Pat Dore with Elton regulars Ray White and Martin Sunley on cameras, and Pete Egan looking after the LED screens.

As Elton was scheduled to do shows in London either side of the Doncaster date, a second system was installed in Doncaster allowing the ‘A’ system to stay on-site at Brooklands for the one-off Sugababes/McFly show on the Saturday night.

Kevin Bye commented that for the original video content design, they decided to make cartoon-flavoured imagery... “a bit like those bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons we watched as kids... something a bit cheesy, but light hearted. Benny produced some great stuff, some I’m not too keen on personally, but Keith [Bradley] thinks it works really well.

“The thing is, I’m able to change the looks of the songs by using imagery or abstracts on the backdrop of the Soft LED. I can change the content and alter the lighting to suit, and it’s easy. It is important for me — you need to work to prevent any hint of staleness creeping in.”

Bye benefits from the ability of Braden Stroup to maximise potential from the Soft LED and Catalyst combination — “he’s the propeller-head that gets my grandMA to talk video” — and the further relationship with Main Light.

“We’ll be going to Atlantic City soon where I will get to try out a new higher resolution version, pixels on 2.5” centres rather than 4” which is what we have now.”

It’s a pity he didn’t already have it for this show; the sunset behind the stage end of the Doncaster stadium, and the contrast, made the images early in the show have much less of an impact than they otherwise would have done with the extra gain available from the higher resolution.

“But even with this I have inhibitive sub-masters programmed for every light in the desk for when we go indoors. When it’s very bright like this I use the Pixellines, or Color Blaze in the US, to at least have something visually interesting going on. As for the moving lights, I have ample output, and once you’ve got bright lights you can always make them dimmer, so I am happy. In fact I’ve seen shows with 80 odd VL3500s and frankly they overpowered the show.”

With a performer like Elton John, Bye would be hard pushed to overpower the artist, but he’s right to insert that element of caution. This was an exposition in restraint, and rather than use the full armoury of his rig during the more daylight influenced first hour, Bye kept the show subtle.

There was enough keylight in the early numbers for the camera image to be really effective, but Bye didn’t bother too much trying to wash the stage — surely an exercise in futility. When twilight did arrive, the looks were all the more potent for it.

TPi

THE STADIUM FACTOR
This examination of provincial footie stadiums cannot pass without further comment from Keith Bradley. “When Barrie Marshall and I sat down and started to look at these football clubs we soon realised that many of them now have fantastic new stadiums. With seating on the field you can get 17,000 in Doncaster; we just did Swansea and that is a little under 26,000.

“For people from those towns they are getting to see Elton where they’d like to, on their own doorstep, and they know he’s made the effort to be there so there is a strong feeling of mutual support.”
Sir Elton is known as a big sports fan, in fact as the interview was underway, Bradley received a call from the great man and for 10 minutes they were lost in conversation about England’s excellent beginning of the first test against South Africa at Lords.

“He’s very supportive of all these clubs we visit; he always signs some team shirts so the clubs can auction them off as a fund raiser,” said Bradley.

That is obviously a high impact gesture for little old Doncaster Rovers, but how is it for them when a world class international star like Sir Elton John knocks on their stadium door? Surely that could be quite intimidating for them?

“You’re right; ours are large footprints in the snow, and if you’re not careful you could spoil any chance of making this the fun thing to do, which is what we experience. We find they do respond very well; Barrie or I would call the clubs directly, and after we’d done a few they soon started talking to each other.

“There were initial fears about the pitch, but experience soon answers that — the clubs quickly get to see this is a way for them to give a present to their town. For the Local Licensing Authority it’s the same. They are already used to managing crowds at these venues, so they and the police are already well equipped to cope; and, of course, there is quite a world of difference between an audience for Elton John and a football match.”

Is it always that smooth? “There are big differences between football stadiums and some of the county cricket grounds we’ve also played. Like the older football stadiums they tend to be right in the middle of town. Hove is a good example of where there can be noise problems.

“But the advantage is local show, local crowd; the audience can walk to the show, so you don’t get all those late night traffic problems which balances with other issues. When we play a venue like this, other considerations apply.

“New stadiums tend to be out of town developments, and like the American model, tend to be built alongside out of town shopping and leisure developments. So, like here, they do usually have good parking facilities, but Marshall Arts will still talk to the local council about park and ride schemes where necessary.”

And what about the venues themselves in terms of simple ‘in and out’ logistics? “Most of these new stadiums are fantastic, you come in at pitch level. At this stadium, there are corner tunnels at each end and you can get a truck through perfectly... plus, there’s no shortage of offices, showers and dressing rooms.”

With Mick Kluczynski and Henry Crallen onboard, Bradley has a very muscular production team for these shows. “They advance all the venues. Sometimes we’ll change the roof configuration to suit the sightlines. Here, we’ve closed the seats to the left side of the stage, which is something we typically do. The way Elton’s piano is positioned means the audience would otherwise be looking at his back all evening and that is just not fair.”

Bradley’s concluding remarks are instructive. “There is a lot of synergy between Elton’s character and these sport venues. When he visits their club he wants them to be happy they are delivering a show for their town. We took Elton to Wellington, New Zealand a little while ago. The city council worked out that the impact on the local economy — hotels, restaurants, etc — was worth 10 million dollars. The point is it works for everyone... the clubs benefit, the councils benefit, and the local populace benefit.”

VANGUARDIA TAKES THE REINS OF NOISE ISSUES AT UK EVENTS
Vanguardia Consulting, the Surrey-based firm of acousticians, sound system designers and noise control specialists, has been working this summer with the country’s leading promoters to simplify their compliance with event licence requirements for environmental noise.

Using the latest purpose-designed wireless monitoring systems, Vanguardia’s teams have been monitoring sound levels at multiple points of events accurately and cost-effectively, from the iconic Nelson Mandela 46664 show in Hyde Park to the UK’s newest concert venue, Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands, Surrey, for Marshall Arts — where Sir Elton John recently performed.
Vanguardia’s teams, headed by John Staunton and Jim Griffiths, act as the liaison between promoters and local authorities over the control of environmental noise.

“Jim and I founded Vanguardia to bring to promoters and venues a ‘can do’ attitude,” explained Staunton. “We look at a situation and we’ll leave no stone unturned to try and secure a licence for a venue. If it really can’t work we’re very straight with the promoter or venue because there’s no use in us trying to just get a concert through the system, but then having a bad name with the council afterwards. This year, we’ve had a lot of new venues that we’ve had to work quite hard at, and they’ve turned out to be very successful.”

The company deploys its own in-house-designed software and hardware package, AudioView, providing a robust, cost effective wireless multi-point remote noise level monitoring system.
“It’s designed specifically for this industry using a combination of fairly standard hardware plus our own software,” said Staunton. “Being based on standard components and Vanguardia’s own software, the monitoring package is inexpensive enough to be deployable at multiple locations without cost becoming prohibitive, which means that for festivals we can deploy it across all the stages or wherever you need to monitor external levels, for example in residential areas.”

A laptop display gives the system tech or FOH engineer a large, clear readout of four vital pieces of information: real-time sound level, the current changing LEQ, the last minute’s LEQ and the last 15 minutes’ LEQ.

“But,” added Staunton, “it’s just a tool and we treat it as such, which means we’re still responsible for interacting with the engineer and we decide if any action needs to be taken — very much relying on the personal contact that we’ve built up over the past 25 years.

“The technology allows us to just flick a switch and monitor the levels at each monitoring point, and at any sound control points that the local authority has set, so we can help the engineer and the promoter achieve the maximum sound levels yet still stay within the set limits.”

For Elton John’s shows at Mercedes-Benz World, which is surrounded by upmarket residential properties and was never previously used for concerts, close noise control was essential to ensure good relations with neighbours were maintained.

“The site is neither a greenfield site nor an urban stadium as defined by the Code of Practice,” said Staunton. “The local authority accepted our view that it should fall broadly between the two, and as the limit for an urban stadium is 75dB and for a rural venue with just three concerts a year it’s 65dB, we felt that it should be reasonably be 70dB at residential housing here.”

www.vanguardiaconsulting.co.uk