Magazine

When cult post-punk experimentalists Magazine took to the road for a short tour in February to test the water amidst the current frenzy of reformations, they received a hail of critical acclaim and a clamour of attention as all dates sold out immediately.

    Notable for being the first sign of life from the band — founded in 1977 by ex-Buzzcock Howard Devoto — since 1981, the tour was planned to be low key from the outset with a warm-up show at Oxford Academy, two dates at the London Forum, another pair at Manchester Academy and one in Glasgow.

    Blink and you missed it, but luckily I caught them at the final show in Manchester, the band’s spiritual home.

    Using house rigs is not the first choice scenario for any tour, but production manager Trigger was given an extremely expedient budget, and so set about putting a team together who would rise to a unique occasion and test their skills, imagination and creativity. These were LD Manchester Academy, FOH engineer Tim Sunderland and monitor engineer Glenn Pearson.

    Pearson also works for Encore PA, and when he took the call from Trigger, he jumped at the chance to work on such a musically significant piece of history.

    With some sharp creative engineering, enough of that filthy lucre was squeezed from the coffers to allow Encore to supply a d&b ‘racks & stacks’ rig for the Forum shows, plus a d&b monitor system for the Oxford warm-up gig. This at least provided some continuity for the first shows before they went on to pure house systems.

    They utilised the house consoles at the Forum and brought in a d&b J-Series line array consisting of 18 J-8s, two J-12s and 6 J-Subs all powered by d&b D12 amplifiers, with the same d&b M4 wedge monitor system that was used in Oxford. The house desks there are a Digidesign Profile at FOH and a Midas for monitors.

    Magazine’s crew also carried a couple of items to make life easier for the band — a set of Avalon 737 valve compressors and a Shure UHF radio mic system, also supplied by Encore. Loved for their warmth and naturality, the Avalons were used on Howard Devoto’s vocals at Sunderland’s request.

    Pearson thinks that house crews have generally improved in terms of their own knowledge, skills and enthusiasm over the years. The gear they have to work with is also generally of better quality and more advanced than a decade ago, although many venues still face ongoing budgetary restraints, which sometimes have a knock-on effect on areas like maintenance once a system is installed. He said that it was great to work with Adlib’s crew and kit in Manchester.

    Commenting generally on the tour, he enthused: “The band have been fantastic to work with. They’re very chilled out, pleasant and know exactly what they want.” Like many, Pearson was also impressed by their incredible performances after nearly 28 years apart.


LIGHTS
Lighting designer Luke Losey was asked onboard because he’s been working with bassist Barry Adamson for some time. He contacted all the house lighting managers and LDs in advance, and agreed some basics like gels and positioning of fixtures with them.

    The Forum shows included a few augmentations, and in Manchester he added six upright trussing sections onstage and an extra audience truss with lighting to facilitate a DVD shoot.

    He faced many challenges without a touring rig, but like everyone involved, rose to the occasion of making the most out of what’s available and dealing with varied rigs in his quest to light a band that “demand to be lit in different and interesting ways”.

    Magazine supplied their own distinctive and haunting 40’ x 30’ 3D backdrop, painted with hundreds of stylised faces, similar to those found on the cover of their 1978 début, Real Life — the album that contained their new wave classic, ‘Shot By Both Sides’.

    This needed to be lit in a funky style, a task that proved Losey’s biggest challenge. “It certainly took some time to get to know and communicate with it,” he said metaphorically of the backdrop.

    In terms of lighting style, they wanted something stripped back and not too rocky or clichéd, so he went with classic geometric shapes and hard lines in moving light gobos to maintain a relative simplicity, and to evoke drama through subtlety, thus matching the music, which is replete with many hidden details and layered nuances.

    Losey relished the numerous imaginative challenges of the short tour and commented that he felt privileged to be involved in such a special project. If they decide to extend the reunion, he’s certainly already buzzing with many ideas.

    He echoes Pearson’s comments about house technicians being more helpful and friendly now than in the past, and thinks The Forum is really benefitting from its technical refit last year. He also agreed that working with Adlib in Manchester was a good experience, and they were really accommodating.

    Adlib Lighting’s Neil Holloway co-ordinated the Manchester shows working as close as possible to Losey’s spec. The venue also had a major technical upgrade about two years ago, which has transformed it into a different and much improved performance and production space, particularly for lighting.

    There is a standard house rig which stays in, hung on 40’ front and back trusses, and this is added to or changed according to the individual needs of each show.

    For Magazine, the back truss featured five bars of PARs, two Atomic strobes, 4 Martin MAC 550 moving lights and six 2-lite blinders. It was toned with four Strand Codas.

    On the floor, Losey had six 10’ vertical trussing towers. The two downstage towers contained two bars of PARs, an Atomic and a 2-lite, plus a High End Studio Beam on the top. These, along with six ETC Source Four Zooms on the front truss, were the primary front lights. The four upstage towers were each rigged with an Atomic, a 2-lite and a MAC 550 on the top.

    Another six Studio Beams were tucked just behind the risers, used for uplighting the backdrop and low level shooting through the band.

    Losey used an Avolites Pearl Expert for control, and Adlib supplied an Avo Pearl Tiger to run the additional audience lighting brought in for the DVD shoot, which included four bars of PARs rigged on a trussing ‘spine’ running down the centre of the room, along with a scattering of 8-lites.

    Adlib’s lighting crew were Stuart Grey, Neil Holloway and Rob Lisker.


MANCHESTER AUDIO
Over in audio land, the 2009 TPi Award-winning Monitor Engineer of the Year, Ben Booker had his head right down to earth — a trait for which he’s known and loved and was almost surely a contributing factor to him winning the award, along with his wicked sense of humour — a de rigueur character requirement for anyone working for Adlib! Here he was on babysitting duties for Magazine’s Tim Sunderland.

    The rig comprised six JBL VerTec 4889 speakers per side and six Adlib subs per side, which supplied plenty of level in the room and oodles of headroom for those who like it louder! The FOH console was a Midas Heritage 3000, specified by Sunderland.

    Outboard included ‘all the classic hits and more’ — a PCM 90, two SPX 2000 multi-effects, a TC D2 delay, the Avalon 737s being carried on the tour, dbx 160 and BSS 402 compressors, plus four Drawmer 401 gates.

    System processing for the PA, infills (Adlib 121s) and outfills (Adlib FDs) was handled by a Mesa Lake EQ with wireless tablet.

    Monitors were overseen by Adlib’s Chris Smedhurst. The Yamaha PM5D console was spec’d by Pearson and is also an Adlib monitor world favourite. It was supplied along with the same Avalon 737s for the lead vocal, 12 MP3 wedges and Nexo Alpha side fills.

    In addition to the Shure radio mic system carried by the band, Adlib supplied a complete mics and stands package for the shows, which included a series of incendiary performances by super-hot openers, Ipso Facto, whose Rosalie Cunningham and Samantha Valentine also starred as backing vocalists during Magazine’s headline set on each night of this short but sweet tour.
TPi

Photography by Louise Stickland