An Evening With Elbow

    A combination of frontman Guy Garvey’s connection with the audience, the layout of the set, the intimacy of the lighting and video design, and other minor touches meant it was less of an arena rock show than an intimate occasion.
    Some of this was intentional, but some aspects evolved organically and still had the same effect, such as Garvey’s ‘seat furthest away’ gag, where the person furthest away from the stage was covertly identified before the start of the gig, picked out with a spotlight during the show and given a standing ovation by the entire audience.
    “I think he just thought it was a cute idea,” said the band’s production assistant and ‘tour mum’, Athena Caramitsos, “but it’s been analysed a lot in the press as his way of bringing the audience into the experience.”
    This ethos underpinned the entire production, which began with a string quartet playing different arrangements of Elbow songs on a B stage as soon as the doors were open to the public.
    “A continuing theme with Elbow, even when they go into bigger venues, is to keep the intimate vibe that we have when doing clubs and theatres, and really make the audience feel involved,” said Cate Carter.
    “The idea is to make the arenas seem smaller than they actually are and bring the audience in as close as possible,” added tour manager Tom Piper. “We make sure it’s dark and subtly lit from the moment the doors open and the string quartet welcomes the crowd.”
    Elbow don’t just appeal to fans of alternative and soft rock, they also inspire a following from aspiring musicians and classical artists, which was evident from the listening intent of the crowd throughout the night.
    Much of their music is string-based and the band have received critical claim for their live shows with orchestral musicians. Their performance of fourth album The Seldom Seen Kid (which won the 2008 Mercury Music Prize) with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in 2009, broadcast on BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music, was the first event to receive one million hits via the Beeb’s red button.
    “Their profile as a live act has been bigger than their profile as a record-selling act; they’ve got a really good reputation around Europe, which they’ve toured every summer,” commented Piper, who has been with the band since they recorded their first album under Island Records, who later dropped the band before they signed to V2.
    Back then, Piper owned a recording studio with the band’s long-term FOH sound engineer Danny Evans. Both met the band members when they worked at local Manchester live music venues The Roadhouse and Night & Day Cafe, and invited them to their studio, where Evans recorded and mixed some tunes with Elbow for their Any Day Now EP, which ended up being used on the first album.
    Said Piper: “The first time I actually worked with them was when I was stage managing the D-Percussion festival in Manchester when their set went on too long and I wouldn’t let them play their last song. Their manager was begging me to let them play it but I said no, and he said, ‘You’re rather good at this, do you want to become our tour manager?’.”
   
INTO ARENAS
Elbow played their first arena shows at the end of their last tour at Wembley and the MEN Arena, but this was their first worldwide arena tour, promoting fifth album Build A Rocket Boys!
    “It’s the first time we’ve had to take the production to a place like LS-Live to do pre-production,” said Piper. The tour consisted of 58 crew and required seven trucks to transport the 42 tonnes of equipment to be flown in the air, which consisted of far more lighting and video than their previous tours.
    Robin Scott, who’s recently worked with the likes of KT Tunstall, Amy Winehouse, Florence & The Machine, Crowded House and Kaiser Chiefs, was enjoying his first experience as Elbow’s production manager.
    “I met Robin at an Elbow gig at King Tut’s in Glasgow many years ago and he said to give me a call when they got up to a big-sized production, so here he is!” said Piper.
    Although the band has grown to become an arena-selling act, there was still very much a small act mentality on tour, with no wardrobe department or stylists.
    “They have a stylist here tonight, but only because they want more of a together look. Guy is going for a smarter look and wears a three-piece suit on stage,” said Caramitsos, whose responsibilities include looking after the dressing rooms and wardrobe.

CROWD CONNECTION
Initial plans for the tour started with Scott, Carter and TPi’s 2011 Video Visionary award-winner Jon Shrimpton who joined forces last October to develop a proposal for the band.
    Ideas began to come to life in early March when they visited lighting supplier PRG’s warehouse to do some prepping before heading to LS-Live, using video equipment supplied by XL Video, which was crew chiefed by Rob Wick.
    “The biggest challenge was the first three back-to-back shows in Glasgow, Newcastle and Nottingham. We could handle anything after that!” said Scott.
    The first thing to be loaded in was the VersaTube LED chandelier, hung over the B stage — all part of the plan to bring the audience into the action and be able to light them without blasting bright lights into their faces.
    Comprising 166 VersaTubes, and hung using Kinesys (PRG technicians Chris Roper and Luke Pritchard), the hardware system for the chandelier came from Scene Before — a new dry hire company that specialises in supplying equipment previously custom built for other events — and was modified by Specialz.
    PRG supplied the two Kinesys systems on the set, whilst UK Rigging provided riggers. The VersaTubes were originally designed for Radiohead’s tour and were reconfigured for Elbow’s set.
    “We looked at lots of different options for the chandelier but this one fitted in with the whole old school, theatrical, warm vibe,” said Carter.
    Using in house stages at all the arenas, the set was completed by Concept Staging which provided a standard thrust and B stage.
    “Elbow wanted some sort of thrust or B stage so that Guy could go out and be amongst the crowd, as that’s where he feels most comfortable. So rather than having a B stage as a point where the band go and do some of their set, he wanted it to be just an extention of the stage itself,” explained Carter.
    “The thrust is really low so that Guy is only about 2’ above the audience. Once 1,000 people are in the arena, those arriving behind them don’t realise the thrust is there until Guy actually uses it so it’s quite funny seeing their reactions,” added Piper.
   
FRAMED
It was also amusing to see people’s faces before Elbow came on, when the five projected portraits of the band members in photo frames (supplied by Hangman) hung upstage occasionally moved.
    “The band are static, but they will move synchronistically to scratch an ear or straighten their tie, before they all get up and walk out of the frames as the band appear on stage,” explained Jon Shrimpton.
    The backdrop was a multi-layered design, with the framed portraits in front of a red gauze, framed by plum velvet drapes (drapes provided by Hangman and Blackout), which hid a giant Pixled F11 LED screen, looked after by technician Connor Canwell.
    Shrimpton gradually brought in patches of the LED screen throughout the set — during ‘Neat Little Rows’, the two Barco R20+ HD projectors portrayed the song lyrics across the backdrop, whilst sections of the LED screen appeared red.
    Later, the big rock moment at the peak of the chorus in ‘Grounds For Divorce’ saw all the lights turn off, the red drape drop, and the LED screen turn completely white. “The F11 is really hi-res and unbelievably bright; when you put the full white screen on it takes your eyeballs out,” said Shrimpton.
    Elbow have collaborated with visuals specialist, Manchester’s Soup Collective, for many years. But the only visuals used on this tour were for ‘Starlings’, the rest was camera work and manipulated live footage, created and styled by Shrimpton.
    This demanded 13 cameras: four of XL Video’s new HXC-1000 manned cameras in various positions, four infra red minicams (for more scary looks), three remote control Sony HR C300s (two in the roof and one on stage) and two Toshiba minicams.
    These 13 inputs sometimes became 14 when Shrimpton showed a slideshow of photos of people arriving at the venue earlier in the afternoon.
    “‘The Night Will Always Win’ is a lovely moving song where we didn’t think we needed any cameras, but the band gather round some old vintage keyboards and in order to see what they’re doing we pointed a camera down on them from above,” commented Shrimpton, who kindly shared some of his own on-the-road photography with TPi.
    “It’s all these little touches that make it a very special show. I know that sounds pretentious, but it is, it’s not out of the box. It’s quite an original thing and a lot of it is down to the band and a lot of it is down to Cate.”
    Shrimpton sent six outputs from the Grass Valley Kayak into two XL Video Catalyst systems: one Mac for the hi-res projection, the other Mac for the chandelier and LED.
    Ed Jackson was in charge of the technical planning and build of the chandelier, and uses two Road Hogs to control the lighting through the Catalyst servers during the show, with technical assistance by Danny Sheldon and PRG’s Ben Hornshaw, whilst John Steele is video engineer.
    “We did a lot of pre-programming at XL Video with Hugh Davies-Webb who was very patient with me. I did the last two Elbow shows with him and his technical drawings that he creates from my scribblings are excellent,” said Jackson.

LIGHTING IN LAYERS
Although Cate Carter had been designing for the band since 2008 with the Seldom Seen Kid Academy tour, this was the first time she had been given free reigns as creative director for an entire show.
    Said Tom Piper: “Cate has been amazing; she’s come up with loads of ideas and been really keen.” It was also the first time she had worked with lighting and rigging supplier PRG — crew chiefed by Michael O’Connor — who she said had been “brilliant and really supportive”.
    The set design meant a lot of the rig was flown quite high above the stage, so Carter implemented layers through drapes, and lighting split between the floor, towers, a wall of truss at the back of the stage, and overhead trusses (one central circular truss and two curved trusses either side) with a mixture of tungsten, LED and moving lights.
    PRG provided a total of 38 Vari*Lite 3000 Spots, 37 Martin MAC 2000 Washes, eight Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s, 10 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300s, eight i-Pix BB4 Washlights, four SGM Palco 3s, 12 Martin Atomic strobes and 24 active Sunstrips, along with various blinders, 12 Source Four Profile Zooms and seven 650W Fresnels, the latter being floor-based.
    Eighteen i-Pix Satelites were used for truss warming and Color Kinetics ColorBlaze units handled the uplighting of the two 50’ backdrops, which relied on a Kabuki drop.
    Carter piloted the lighting using a Chamsys MQ 100 console with two playback wings, a system that she started using nine months ago and finds “flexible, powerful for its size, easy to update and very reliable”. From the console, Carter controlled the layers of the Catalyst that dealt with the colours and video clips being sent to the chandelier.

SOUND FROM SOURCE
FOH sound engineer Danny Evans’ previous work includes underground acts like New Fast Automatic Daffodils and Mc900ft Jesus, festival gigs across the world, some Manchester-based projects like Paddy Steer’s Homelife musician pool and Graham Massey’s Toolshed, although the past couple of years have seen him work almost exclusively with Elbow.
    “It’s great fun and gratifying to be working with a band who are not only old friends, but also allow me a lot of creative scope,” said Evans, who claims he’s Elbow’s No.1 fan.
    “My view is that it doesn’t matter how good you are behind the desk, you can really only get a good mix together if the arrangements and all the backline sounds are right.
    “At first it might come as a surprise to a band if their FOH engineer gets up on stage and starts messing with their guitar amp, re-programming a keyboard patch, or asking the drummer to play something in a slightly different way. So I’m very fortunate that through our long association they have seen the benefits of this approach and have some trust in my opinions.
    “They have always had a very strong vision for how a particular song should sound, and as they have taken control over the recording and mixing of their music, they understand themselves the importance of getting the arrangements and source sounds right.
    “A great snare or guitar sound is only good if it works in the context of the mix and the song, and that the ‘fix it in the mix’ approach is rarely as successful.”
    Audio supplier Skan has been working with the band for several years, initially providing an L-Acoustics dV-DOSC rig for club and uni venues, a d&b system on the last Academy tour, and now progressing on to a full d&b J-Series system for the arenas.
    “Elbow’s material is at times extremely dynamic and some songs are very densely layered, but the ‘J’ always sounds composed and clean, like there’s bags of headroom to spare, and the clarity is just stunning whether at occasionally very high SPLs, or during the quieter moments of the set,” said Evans.
    The system comprised 18 J8s/J12s for the main hang per side, six J-Subs for each sub hang, 20 J8/J12s for each side hang, and 12 J8/J12s with two J-Subs per side for the 270° hangs. Six J-Bumps, eight J-Infras for pit sub, eight Q7s for pit fills and 78 D12s completed the maximum capacity rig.
    Although Evans said he liked mixing through this system, the decision to go with Skan was more to do with the “attitude and experience” of owner Chris Fitch and the engineers.
    “ take an interest from a technical point of view but system design is not my strong point, so I’m very reliant on having a good working relationship with the system designer/FOH babysitter in order to get what I want out of the rig,” he said.
    Skan’s Lloyd Williams was looking after the system on tour, going through various configuration options with Evans during the two days of production rehearsals at LS-Live.
    “The way Danny mixes is excellent,” said Williams, “relying on what he knows to compare the arenas and not let the rooms get in the way, be it his headphones, or monitors at FOH.
    “Listening back to the live Pro Tools sessions has also been great as the band do short soundchecks, so we’ve got a little more real time to play around tuning the system.”
    Evans has used an Avid/Digidesign Venue Profile system at FOH for the last few tours, which he said was “still one of the most intuitive interfaces, quick to learn and find your way around”, deploying a 96-channel desk for Elbow, with a 48-ch desk for support act The Villagers.
    He likes its integration with Pro Tools and the option of third party plug-ins. Along with included plug-ins Smack! and the Echo Farm delay, he incorporated the Waves package. “I love the reverbs, the dynamics and EQ of the Waves package; the C4 [multiband compressor] is a very cool tool which I’ve been using in the studio for years.
    “The only outboard I’ve not been able to find a good replacement for yet is the BSS DPR 402, which I’m using as a split band de-esser. There may be plug-ins that technically do a better job of de-essing, but the dynamic and tonal range of Guy’s voice is so vast that I’m constantly required to re-adjust the threshold, so I find it’s easier and quicker to have a physical knob to hand at all times,” he commented.
    Evans said he preferred to do the mix using his head and fingers, rather than recall snapshots from song to song, meaning it’s also much easier to get a mix together on an analogue board at occasional festivals when necessary.
    FOH system control is handled by a Dolby Lake controller, a generic WinXP computer, a Cisco access point and a generic WinXP tablet. On stage, Guy Garvey uses a KSM9 mic, whilst Evans chose a Shure Beta 52 for bass drum, an SM57 for snare top, Sennheiser MD904 clip-ons around the kit, an AKG C214 for overheads and Shure KSM 141s for hi-hats, ride and various percussion.
    Radio equipment was supplied by Radiotech and comprised eight of the band’s own Shure PSM900s IEMs, two Shure UHF-R KSM9s (vocals) and two Sennheiser G3-500s (guitars).
    Over on monitors, Julien Helme also mixed on an Avid Venue Profile, with 12 d&b M4s, one d&b Q-Sub and six d&b D12s making up the on-stage rig. He was assisted by Skan’s Ben Sliwinski and Franc le Moignan.
    The tour’s stage manager is Anthony Burke. Fastway Leisure and Phoenix Bussing provided transport for the crew on this leg, EPS supplied barriers and Popcorn managed the catering, under head chef Vicky Beaver. Robin Scott complimented trucking company Fly By Nite as being “very reliable”.
    By the time this issue of TPi lands in your lap, Elbow would have already wowed Coachella in the U.S. and will be warming up for their pre-Coldplay spot at Glastonbury. Further major festival appearances this summer will include Rock Werchter in Belgium, Main Square Festival in France and the Leeds/Reading weekend.
TPi
Words & photos: Rachel Esson
Additional images:
Jon Shrimpton & Kevin Mundon