Little World Festival 2010

Back in 2001, Dave Jordan, co-organiser of this year’s Little World Festival (March 13-19), had just started his own music agency and was looking for acts to play après ski shows in the Méribel resort. The first band he booked was then called Superfly who so impressed the audience that Jordan asked the band to return the following year to play a full season, where they built up a massive following.

    “After that, they went on to record their first album. They rehearsed it here in Méribel and played it live and it went down a storm. They then returned to the UK and played some showcases and that’s how The Feeling got discovered,” said Jordan.

    In 2007, The Feeling heard that other bands in Méribel were covering some of their material, prompting them to give something back to their faithful early following. They invited renowned film director Robin Bextor, who was also co-organiser of this year’s festival, to return there with them to make a film about their experiences.

    Bextor revealed: “We filmed a concert at Shepherds Bush Empire and at the end of the gig as they were running off backstage with the audience still shouting for more, we got straight into a van and drove all the way down to Méribel.

    “Swordy [Jon Sword, the band’s long-serving FOH engineer] decided to follow on down with the equipment. He set it all up surreptitiously in one of the bars and The Feeling turned up and blew the roof off — it was brilliant! The next stage was to play an outside gig on The Piste, which they did to 6,000 people in 2008, and now it’s become a fantastic, week-long festival.”

    With a tiny crew (managed by Jon Sword, who also mixed FOH for most of the acts) and sound systems that were constantly being moved from venue to venue, there were a number of logistical challenges along the way.

    Dave Jordan explained: “Because we only have a crew of five, it’s been incredibly hard work getting all the smaller PAs into the smaller venues and then setting up and breaking down the big rig in the Ice Arena and on The Piste. But as a result, the sound has been phenomenal. It’s double the size of the rig we used two years ago and that has made a big difference.”

PRODUCTION
French supplier company SBB Diffusion provided the sound, lighting and staging for all of the festival venues: The Pub, The Auditorium, The Ice Arena, The Rond Pont and the outdoor main event located on The Piste.

    The main rig for the Ice Arena and The Piste was an L-Acoustics V-DOSC system. There was a hang of 12 V-DOSC each side and two stacks of four SB218s for subs.

    The consoles were by Soundcraft, a brand that has assisted The Feeling over several tours. At FOH, Sword ran 40 channels on an MH3. His outboard consisted of a Lexicon PCM90 and PCM81, a Yamaha SPX 990, a Klark Teknik DN360 EQ, two DBX 160 comp/limiters, a BSS DPR 402, 404 and 504, and Drawmer DS404s and DL441s.

    Andrew Greenwood mixed monitors on a Soundcraft Si3, running 32 channels with zero outboard. Three sets of Sennheiser G2 IEMs (belonging to The Feeling) were used as and when the acts required them. There were also eight L-Acoustics 12XTs positioned on the stage for sidefills and monitoring.

    A grandMA Micro and a Zero 88 Jester 24/48 controlled a versatile and mobile rig of Martin MAC 700 profiles and washes, Ayrton LED Sunstrips, a Martin K1 Hazer and Robert Juliat 306 HPCs, with SBB Diffusion technical manager Nicolas Pointet operating in all venues.

LATE NIGHT PARTYING
Two thousand revellers crammed into the Ice Arena for the Wednesday night’s Blizzard Dance Party. Headlined by pop artist Sophie Ellis-Bextor (wife of Feeling bassist Richard Jones), it also featured excellent sets from beat box trio Duke and rock band Fiction Plane, fronted by Sting’s son, Joe Sumner. DJ Norman Jay played a late-night set until the early hours.

    Sword, a big Neumann fan, opted for a wireless KK105 for lead vocals and Shure Beta 58s for all other vocalists.

    The kit was miked with a Sennheiser E901 and E902 on the kick drum, 609s on the toms, a Shure SM57 on the snare (top only) and a pair of Neumann pencil condensers for overheads. BSS AR133 DI boxes (“the loudest DIs on the planet,” according to Sword) were used on keyboards, bass and acoustic guitars.

    Commented Sword: “I am always looking to get the best out of the PA and I love the sound of the L-Acoustics rig. It’s also nice to be on an analogue console for a change. The MH3 is a great-sounding desk and ideal for this format where each artist’s turnaround time is so quick.”

RELATIONSHIPS
Thursday night’s intimate acoustic show in The Auditorium was a real treat. Hosted by The Feeling’s frontman, Dan Gillespie-Sells, it featured two hour-long sets from Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze and 10cc’s Graham Gouldman and Mick Wilson, who, as Robin Bextor revealed, are some of The Feeling’s favourite songwriters.

    “The whole team wrote down a kind of wish list of artists for Little World and we all happened to include Graham and Glenn — two people I’ve worked with quite a lot. I just phoned Graham and he said, ‘you bet I’m up for it!’

    “It sounds cliché but we didn’t even mention money, agents, publicity or the billing. It was a verbal handshake — the same thing with Glenn. This festival is all about relationships; we’ve brought a circle of friends with us and it has been brilliant.”

    In The Auditorium, Sword operated a Yamaha M7CL-32 console from FOH position using minimal channels. The sound system was a smaller L-Acoustics set-up. Six 12XTs were used for the main PA — two per side and two for monitors — and there were two L-Acoustics SB118s stacked each side for subs.

    The modest lighting set-up comprised six Martin MAC 250 Kryptons and a Martin K1 Hazer, controlled from grandMA Scancommander.

    Tilbrook took to the stage for the first half of the show and played a mainly uptempo set featuring several Squeeze hits, including the excellent ‘Up The Junction’.

    After the interval, Gillespie-Sells introduced Gouldman and Wilson to the stage. Performing a beautiful acoustic set of Gouldman’s songs, including 10cc classics ‘I’m Not In Love’ and ‘Dreadlock Holiday’, and ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘Look Through Any Window’ — both ’60s hits for The Hollies.

    The sound was warm and the vocals were at the heart of the mix. Here, Sword used Neumann KM105s for all the artists and BSS AR133 DIs were on the guitars.

FRIENDS ON THE PISTE
Friday was the main event — the free concert on The Piste. The show began mid-afternoon as the après ski drinkers began to filter out of the Rond Point and take their places outside.

    First up was cover band Livewire, followed by 40 minutes from the superb Young Squires, featuring lead singer Iain Hornal.

    Next were Sinéad & The Dawnbreakers, fronted by Sinéad Quinn whose 2003 hit single ‘Break Down’ followed her runner-up status in the first series of TV’s Fame Academy.

    Vocally, she was flawless and ’50s throwbacks Tom & Ray Waters (double bass and electric guitar) were clearly loving every moment while Paul Stewart (Sinéad’s husband and drummer in The Feeling) held it all together from behind his kit.

    At 6pm, with 6,000 people crowding The Piste, the main act hit the stage — The Feeling & Friends. Gillespie-Sells once again proved himself to be the superb frontman and vocalist that he is, during a two and a half hour set that spanned the band’s two albums, Twelve Stops From Home and Join With Us, plus fresh material that is intended for the next Feeling album release.

    Forty-five minutes into the show, they brought out Glenn Tilbrook, Graham Gouldman and Sophie Ellis-Bextor to add their own cameo hits to the irresistible package.

    It all came to an unexpected climax when The Feeling’s keyboard player, Ciaran Jeremiah took the lead vocal for a wild cover of the Beastie Boys’ ‘Fight For Your Right’, culminating in plenty of leaping off of amps, skidding across stage on knees and smashing of drums!

    The free concert on The Piste was definitely the highlight of the festival, which seems apt as the reason The Feeling put on this festival was to give something back to the place that gave them their break.

    At the after-show party, I approached singer Sophie’s father, Robin Bextor (it’s a family affair!) to ask what the future might hold for Little World. He concluded: “We have created something quite magical and we don’t want to lose that magic.

    “It would be nice to keep the essence such as the big shows and the auditorium shows because they are so lovely, and then maybe graft on more small venues where we’re getting unusual collaborations — unusual songs being sung in strange settings and people dropping in on other people’s sets.

    “Little World will remain a little world, but we may have one or two little worlds going on in different places. This is a community-specific, location-specific venue. It’s built for Méribel.”
TPi