McCARTNEY: THE FRIENDSHIP FIRST CONCERT

As both an artist and a tourist, this was Sir Paul McCartney’s first visit to the country and despite a well-publicised terrorist threat and demonstrations against his presence at an event which celebrated Israel’s 60th anniversary, the Friendship First concert was a peaceful one that turned out to be yet another milestone in the ex-Beatle’s astounding career.

    Back in 1965, the Israel government blocked live appearances by The Beatles who they viewed as a bad influence on youth — quite what they made of the Stones is anyone’s guess.

    This time around, there was a different level of tension when McCartney’s agreement to perform was seen by extremists as an indication of his patronage of Israel. Radical Islamist preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed chillingly warned that “the sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.”

    Preferring to spread the message of peace than be intimidated by what revealed itself to be an empty threat, McCartney carried on regardless — a decision that prompted what is believed to be the largest security operation ever organised for a rock’n’roll concert.
    I’ll admit to being nervous about accepting the invitation, but I was equally confident that over the course of my three-day visit, I was probably in the safest place in the whole of Israel.

    McCartney’s plans for a major world tour were recently put on hold. Instead, the last few months have seen him play to around 700,000 fans at one-off summer spectaculars in Liverpool, Kiev and Quebec. A planned concert in Tbilisi was cancelled after the Russian invasion of Georgia, and if rumours are to be believed, the Friendship First show may turn out to be Macca’s last full-on live production for quite some time.

    Taking on the same level of historical significance as his concert in Moscow’s Red Square five years ago (which TPi also attended), the Tel Aviv performance saw Macca firing on all cylinders with a 31-song set — 19 of them Beatles classics — that included the trademark pyromania of ‘Live And Let Die’, the rarely-played ‘A Day In The Life’ and, appropriately, John Lennon’s ‘Give Peace A Chance’.

    Although rock stars have included Israel in their tour itineraries in the past, the scale and requirements of this production eclipsed all previous events here. This appeared to come as a shock to Dudu Zarzevsky of leading local promoter Z Festivals whose rather naive comments on a TV broadcast suggested that he was ever so slightly in over his head.

    It came as no surprise that McCartney’s worldwide promoter, Barrie Marshall extended his role to smooth the operation. “It was one of my better achievements,” he told me after the show.

    The sight of Macca’s production manager Mark ‘Springo’ Spring shaking his head in frustrated disbelief became a regular fixture backstage during the build-up, as he manfully dealt with a stack of on-site problems.

    “Generally speaking, the local production services and facilities are not of the standard we’re accustomed to in the US or UK, ” he said, with an exaggerated grin that suggested this might just have been an understatement.

    There were indeed a few aspects that would have turned the average health and safety geek insane — things like two tonne motors running at different speeds. And then there were the cranes...

    Due to the unavailability of steel roof support, the main PA and I-Mag video screens were suspended from a 200’ crane at each side. In the 35°C heat, the cranes warped and crept by a few inches every day during set-up, putting stress on the screens and potentially putting lives at risk. But, enough already... at least the power supply was consistent!

    Springo, who had an early call each day to oversee the adjustment of the cranes, made an interesting observation: “I understand the owner of the cranes is the son-in-law of the guy who owns the side screens.” Go figure, as they say across the Atlantic!

SOUND NETWORK
Paul ‘Pab’ Boothroyd has engineered McCartney’s front of house sound since 1989 and although he and the ex-Beatle have continued to benefit from long-time relationships with Showco and Clair Brothers systems for their live audio needs, on this occasion, they harnessed the support of the Meyer Sound network, as Pab explained to TPi.

    “This is the third show where we’ve used local production because to bring out a lot of gear from the UK is a logistical and expensive nightmare. So our advance production looked at what was available, and there’s only so much you can get locally. Lots of bits and pieces, but I wanted to settle on one brand for continuity.

    “Meanwhile, Roger Harpum at Meyer Sound informed me that there was a reputable company based here, Kilim Electronics, who owned Meyer gear but not enough to do a show for 50,000 people. So I talked to Kilim and they were able to source additional Meyer loudspeakers through Festival Novo Mesto, a Slovenian rental company.

    “I’d used Meyer enough to know that they make great, well-engineered products that really do the job. I have a lot of respect for Meyer Sound and the way they approach things, so it made sense to use them as a provider and get the support I need. I’ve used everything from a simple UPA on a stick with a sub to full systems, on projects like Paul’s Chaos And Creation showcase at Abbey Road and a private party he did at Buckingham Palace.

    “I also worked with Meyer systems around Europe with Paul Simon, and I once also mixed a record company show for AC/DC on an old MSL rig. The experiences were always positive but this is the first time I’ve gone with Meyer for a show of this scale — not that I’ve had any cause to worry.”

    Between the two suppliers, the rig was configured at the front end with two asymmetric Milo line array hangs at each side of the stage. Facing the stage from left to right, the outer left hang had seven Milo cabinets followed by 16 (inner left), 16 (inner right) and nine (outer right).

    With left/right banks of Clair R4 sidefills, the FOH system was completed by 12 Meyer UPA-1Ps as frontfill and 24 700-HP sub-bass enclosures per side that were arced with the outer cabinets delayed.

    There were six delay towers. Three accommodated a total of 20 Mica cabinets between them while the furthest three each carried a trio of Crest-powered and XTA-processed Clair R4s.

    All of the Meyer equipment was self-powered, controlled by three Galileo loudspeaker management systems (each handling separate portions of the rig) and set up using MAPP Online software.

    Miguel Lourtie, of Meyer’s European technical services, was provided as the location consultant and technical advisor. He explained: “The outfills are asymmetrical because there’s a VIP tribune at stage left and we had to increase the number of Milos to achieve the right amount of vertical coverage.”

    Pab described Lourtie as “a great asset... because he’s immediately into the Galileo processing and trying to deliver the kind of sound I’m looking for.” He also praised the contribution of Festival Novo Mesto’s Miha Arnus, a.k.a. ‘Arne’.

    “They’ve both put so much into setting up this system that when I came in and turned it on it was already pretty good,” reported Pab. “I bumped up the lows a little to give it some more punch for songs like ‘Live And Let Die’ which, sonically, are when the system will be running at its max.”

    He added: “The guys here wanted to have a cardioid array. I know that can work on paper but I’m not too hip to cardioid arrays. I just like chicken wire to the front, wheels to the back and speakers facing the punters!

    “Being self-powered, the system is very neat and it’s handy to not have to worry about amplifiers.”

FAMILY
Haifa and Tel Aviv-based family-run Kilim Electronics is now 58 years and three generations old. Specialising in both lighting and sound, especially on this event, the company deals in both rental and product distribution with Sennheiser, Soundcraft and Meyer Sound amongst its portfolio.

    The son of the founder, Meir Kilim is currently the firm’s top man and he was overjoyed to have been asked to support the Macca show.

    “It’s a wonderful opportunity,” he said. “Finally, we have a Beatle performing in our country! It’s now a closed circle and very important to us, as indeed it is for Paul McCartney.”

    Carrying Meyer products within rental stock has proven to be as positive for Festival Novo Mesto’s business as it has for Kilim.

    Marjan Pirnar, the head of the Slovenian company, commented: “In 2003, I bought one of the first Milo systems in Europe. We now only stock Meyer and we’ve been growing our inventory ever since. We do around 90% of the most biggest events in our country but we also support tours and events in other parts of Europe.

    “This is the biggest show we’ve ever done and I really believe that the reason we’re here is because of our association with the Meyer brand.”

CONTROL
In preparation for Tel Aviv, McCartney and his crack band — Wix Wickens, Abe Laboriel Jr., Brian Ray and Rusty Anderson — followed a week of rehearsals at London’s Music Bank with further sessions at his studio in East Sussex.

    The comparatively small amount of equipment that travelled over from the UK, via EST and Rock-It Cargo’s freight service, included the backline and a full control package provided by Concert Sound and Audio Rent/Clair Brothers AG — two companies who are increasingly finding common ground.

    Whilst Pab was looking forward to getting his hands on both a vintage Midas Pro40 and the new Pro6 on his imminent tour with AC/DC, he was very happy to continue with Digidesign’s Venue Profile for his duties with McCartney.

    “The great thing about the Profile is that because of its small size, you can normally find a broom cupboard somewhere to go and get something dialled in,” he said. “That’s almost the case down at Paul’s studio where I literally fit in between a couple of garage doors.

    “I got into using the Profile after we did a show in Paris because it fitted into the theatre situation, and I enjoyed using it so much that I decided to stay with it for these one-offs. It was just so easy to dump the program back in there, boot it up, and it was ready to go.”

MONITORING DYNASTY
Stepping into the role occupied for so long by the late and much missed John Roden was monitor engineer Jonathan Lewis. “I’m very proud to be following in John’s footsteps,” said Lewis.

    “He was such a lovely man and universally respected. I was fortunate to work with him on a few things, such as the David Gilmour [On An Island] tour. I looked after him on that and when he had to leave I came in to bat for the last month or so.”

    The son of long-time Eric Clapton monitor engineer, Kerry Lewis, Jon was brought up with a bona fide rock’n’roll touring background. “Having been around large shows like this since I was a kid, it’s like second nature to me now.”

    His theoretical grounding as a student at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), a place famously close to Macca’s heart, certainly raised his boss’s brow.

    “My first-ever meeting with Paul was at my graduation at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall when he handed me my degree and said, ‘there you go, it’s official, you’re now amazing!’ So it’s almost like a final exam, coming back to do a show with him. We talked about this the other day and I’m sure he was made up that people coming out of LIPA are actually doing good things in the industry.”

    Lewis’ first step into the McCartney camp was three years ago. When John Roden wasn’t available for all of McCartney’s Live 8 rehearsals, Lewis deputised and on the big day the two of them shared mixing duties. Lewis also worked with Pab on Macca’s Chaos And Creation At Abbey Road showcase and although John ‘Grubby’ Callis had mixed monitors for the star’s other recent one-off shows, when the Israel date was booked, it was Kerry’s lad who got the call.

    “Having toured with Eric Clapton all summer it was good to continue that tradition of straightforward rock’n’roll, getting up there, playing guitars, as it always has been for these bands,” said Lewis.

    A strictly no-go zone for in-ear monitoring, Lewis inherited the Clair 12AM monitor wedge package from other recent Macca shows. “It’s my first time out with them and I’m really impressed.”

    Also inherited was the pair of Midas Heritage 3000 consoles. “The H3000 would be my first choice of analogue desk anyway, because of its functionality for monitors,” insisted Lewis, who was due to work on the MTV Awards in Liverpool upon return to the UK.

    “I’d been working on digital boards for quite a while before this show and returning to analogue was a bit of shock... you mean I have to plug in a real compressor?! Coming back, I realised how easy it is to forget how good an analogue desk does sound, and it fits so well into this — guitars, bass, drums, keys... great, old school rock’n’roll.”

    Making up the rest of the Macca audio crew were FOH assistant Jason Vrobel, monitor assistant Paul Swan and Andy Walker, the stage sound tech who, according to his colleagues, provided great value.

BACKLINE, LIGHTING & VIDEO
With the ever-present John Hammel continuing to preside over his boss’s instrument changeovers, as he’s done since the earliest days of Wings, the rest of backline world was in the hands of crew chief Keith Smith, Huw ‘Sid’ Price, Paul Davies, Phil Romano and Vince Barker.

    Meanwhile, Wally Lees operated and directed a light show designed by Roy Bennett, using equipment from Kilim. Lees worked alongside Kilim’s crew chief Nitai Doron and used grandMA control to pilot a rig containing 59 Martin MAC 2000 spots, 36 Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs, 19 Coemar Infinity 1500 washes, 15 MAC 2000 washes, 24 Xenon 4kWs, three Clay Paky 1.2kW Shadow spots and six 2.5kW Robert Juliat follow spots.

    Staging was brought in by locally-based Stage Design, headed by Eyal Lavee. The people in the expensive seats rattled their jewellery in a superb, deluxe VIP dome marquee recently purchased by Stage Design from South Africa’s In2Structures.

    McCartney’s video supplier for the last six years, US-based Nocturne Productions made a welcome return with Paul Becher in the video director hot seat. Nocturne provided its proprietary 24’ high x 74’ wide V-Lite screen — the company’s new, lightweight, transparent, medium resolution LED display that was built to its own touring specifications.

    The side I-Mag screens were sourced locally. XL Video recently supplied Israeli hire company Screenlight, a local hire company with 200m2 of Mitsubishi DV8 which was rented to Z Festivals for Friendship First.

    Nocturne also rented an OB truck for production and control, said Becher, who headed a team that also included Leon Roll and Mark O’Herlihy and art director Marcia Kapustin. “We’re also videotaping the show as well as doing I-Mag, so we’ve got eight cameras with a crane and dolly... it’s like a TV production,” informed Becher.

    “The video content for playback that we’re using is a package that’s been developing for Paul since 2002’s Driving USA tour [created by Andee Kuroda of Kanpai Pictures], with a few new pieces added this time.”

SECURITY
With another pair of McCartney stalwarts on-site, the duo of security director and MD of G4S Events, Mark Hamilton and head of site security, Brian Riddle, Hayarkon Park was arguably the most peaceful part of what can regularly be a volatile part of the world.

    Hamilton explained some of the background to the security measures. “There’s a great deal of emphasis on what the police do and it’s their responsibility for overseeing security for the whole event. As a result, the civilian service tends to take a back seat and they’re not as well organised as people would imagine, considering there’s a large number of the population who undertake military service.

    “So for a population that should be disciplined and understand instruction, they’re actually quite undisciplined. I don’t know if that’s a lack of experience of applying security technique to this kind of environment, but it does present us with challenges.”

    Somewhere down the line, instruction was certainly misunderstood when at 4pm on show day, just as McCartney was about to join his band for soundcheck, a wave of punters suddenly rushed through the main gate... one hour early! The sea of stunned crew faces was a sight to behold and it has to be said that Brian Riddle was super-effective in ushering everyone back outside until soundcheck was over.

    Even though the suicide bomber threat turned out to be benign, Hamilton and the security operation ensured that no stone was left unturned. “It’s all about getting your intelligence right,” he said. “When you’re in a country that experiences conflict on a daily basis, you need to rely on the resources available to you through the police, the local authorities, the British Embassy and other agencies. You’re guided by them but you also have to apply your own assessment and build in whatever measures are necessary.”

    Regardless of all the technical and cultural challenges of staging McCartney’s show in Hayarkon Park, if Friendship First’s success can be measured by its audience response alone, then it was a landslide victory in a career that keeps breaking boundaries, 46 years after the legendary southpaw bassist’s first hit. Shalom!

TPi

Photography by
James Cumpsty & Mark Cunningham
Additional images by
Lloyd Bishop © MPL Communications Ltd 2008