The number 13 may be considered unlucky by some, but for English pop icons Take That, their 13th concert tour, The Circus Live – Summer 2026, has proved anything but. The original 2009 production was the fastest-selling tour in UK music history (600,000 tickets in less than five hours), while the 2026 revival welcomed 736,000 ticket holders to 17 stadiums across the UK and Ireland, and broke the Amazon Music live event streaming record.
This reimagining became one of the most talked-about live shows of the year. Skan, a Clair Global brand, supported the tour with an innovative PA system design, specialist audio crew, and comprehensive technical support. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience that they’ve pulled off twice!” says Take That’s longtime Monitor Engineer, Becky Pell. “Take That are pop royalty with ‘national treasure’ status in the UK, and they’re truly lovely people, plus, their band are fantastic and I love working with them all!”
Pell added: “Everyone who has worked on this show has an enormous, shared sense of pride at what we’ve co-created – there’s a real sense of ‘we did that!’ – and to read about the fans’ experience, it’s brought people together in quite an extraordinary way. We knew it was going to be good, but I don’t think anyone realised that it was going to be this good. It’s one of my favourite tours of all time.”
The framework around the tour has been crucial. She continued: “This has been a Skan job for a long time now, and as always, they’ve done a stellar job of the planning, prep and technical support. Skan’s Chris Fitch, Matt Vickers and Tom Tunney are a great team, and Liam Tucker played a crucial role in overseeing audio production and bringing it all together on site. He and our RF Engineer, Emma-Jane Lee, have been my close technical supports throughout the process.”
Pell is a woman who knows how to deliver under pressure in real time. During the show you may not know where to look at any given moment [you’ll look everywhere, all at once], but you will hear every single aspect of this fantastical production thanks to an audio crew that works together flawlessly. “I do have to concentrate hard because there is so much extraordinary activity happening that it could easily become distracting,” she added.
“We’re using a non-traditional monitor setup: I have no line of sight as I’m in a curtained-off bunker under the stage-left band riser, directly below the drum kit. In front of me is a screen fed by the video department, usually focused on the three performers. It feels very different from a typical monitor mix, and it took some getting used to when I first worked this way on 2024’s This Life tour. However, on a show with so much happening all around me, that restriction is helpful because it keeps me focussed.”
Pellis dealing with a lot of cues, often setting up the next gag while a song is underway. “It’s a bit like spinning plates – I might be riding a vocal fader and making sure the guys are staying locked into their timing with enough click on the B-stage to stop them drifting into what they’re hearing from the PA while also line-checking the next song. It’s busy and challenging, but I really enjoy figuring out how to make it as smooth as possible.”
Everyone on stage uses IEMs. Becky mixes Take That, their guest singer, band and techs on a DiGiCo Quantum 7. “There are around 50 performers in the cast, and although it’s only one shared mix for them, the logistics of managing that many people and packs is a job in itself. To keep that out of my way we also have a DiGiCo SD12 which takes a feed of the FOH mix and adds extra channels such as the show call and cues to it. RF Engineer Emma-Jane operates that, and the Shure mics.”
Stage Tech Louis Briggs manages Take That and their band’s packs and in-ears, while Delay PA and Assistant Stage Tech Sierra Raia manage the dancers’ equipment, each using Wisycom and Sennheiser. Pell continued. “I’ve used the Rupert Neve 5045 primary source enhancers for a long time to attenuate spill down the vocal mics; however, I was so impressed with the onboard Mustard source enhancers in the latest DiGiCo update that I went with them instead this time.”
There are four audience mics on the downstage edge of the A-stage which she fades up to the artists between songs when they’re on that stage. “Mixing monitors is about working at the human intersection of technology and creativity, so the more familiar I become with an artist’s preferences, behaviours and body language, the better I can anticipate what they need,” Pell added. “Crowd noise is just one consideration, as is the spill from the PA when they’re on the B-stage. Thanks to physics, they hear that significantly later than they hear the direct sound in their IEMs. If they started trying to sing to what they hear from the PA, it would quickly unravel. They’re extremely professional and very used to working like this – they leave their ears in, which is 90% of the battle with a B-stage. They know they need to turn their packs up, and when to help them lock into their mixes. It doesn’t shut out the PA sound completely, and they must concentrate too, but they’ve mastered it.”
Pell used Klang with the console integration: “I love this because it allows me to create very natural sounding mixes – the binaural technology lets me replicate the sense that sounds are coming from around us, outside of our heads, as they do in real life, rather than from the narrow space between our ears. Stereo is a synthetic way of hearing, and our subconscious auditory systems have to work hard to make sense of it. Klang makes IEMs less fatiguing to listen to for long periods because it’s how we hear in real life, no brain de-scrambling required.”
Gary Bradshaw’s departure after 30 years of service with the band made way for a new mixer to handle their FOH sound. Enter Steve Carr, a FOH Engineer who has mixed large orchestras, female pop artists, and stadium rock acts (where he cemented his relationships with Britannia Row, Clair Global and now, Skan.)
“This tour is my first time working with Skan in any meaningful capacity, and it’s been a fantastic experience,” he began. “I’ve felt genuinely valued and supported. The whole team has been magnificent. I’d particularly like to mention Tom Tunney and Matt Vickers – after just a few emails and conversations, they completely understood what I wanted from my control package and delivered it perfectly. I couldn’t have been happier. At first, I didn’t appreciate quite how big the job was, then watching their previous shows I realised just how remarkable a Take That production is.”
Musical Director Mike Stevens and the band work incredibly hard to keep the live versions faithful to the original recordings while still bringing their own feel and personality to the songs: “Sonically, the aim is for people to recognise the records immediately, but with all the energy and excitement that only a live band can bring. The show builds until it reaches this huge, emotional climax during ‘Rule the World’. It’s a unique show to mix because it has a bit of everything; at its heart, its pop music, but there are elements of disco, R&B and indie rock throughout, which makes it enormously fun from a mixing perspective.”
Also choosing DiCiCo, he mixes on a Quantum 8. “This proved wise as the session grew throughout the production rehearsals. The desk has huge amounts of power and a great selection of mustard processing options, so I was able to do most of the dynamic and tonal shaping on the console. For outboard, I use Distressors on the vocals, a Bricasti M7 for room reverb, an SSL bus compressor and a Neve master bus transformer.”
Carr has a fully redundant Live Professor system running on Mac without RME MADI interface. “This gave me rock solid performance with super low latency. I used the plugin rack mainly for drum and keys bus processing and vocal channel inserts. I used Mayor Applebaum master transformer, Kush Clariphonic, Oeksound soothe3, Valhalla VintageVerb, H-Delay, H-Verb, UAD Roland Dimension D, Eventide Audio H3000, and Waves PSE and noise suppression. There was a concerted effort to mix the band in a way that lent towards a rockier or heavier sound, and we achieved that. The visual spectacle was simply huge, and we wanted the sonics to match and possibly even elevate those grand visual elements.”
He added: “Three open mics singing in harmony in front of a stadium sized PA surrounded by screaming fans is not a typical show; I had to work to improve noise spill and vocal isolation to maintain clarity of the mix. I employed techniques using primary source enhancers in tandem with noise suppression and side chain compression to improve the both the clarity and impact of the vocals.”
Skan’s Matt Vickers was tasked with designing a PA that would give Steve his desired stadium result. “Working with Production Director Chris Vaughan, Production Manager Wez Wearing and the wider production team is always a pleasure and a challenge, as the expectations are exceptionally high,” Vickers said. “There is a strong mutual respect between us as the audio supplier, the production team, and the creative team which is led by Kim Gavin. Everyone understands the audio system is essential, but it also needs to disappear into the overall show design as much as possible. That’s no small task when you’re hanging large speaker arrays aimed directly at the audience!”
Vickers’ engineering solution was to design a system with the fewest visible components possible, minimising visual impact without compromising audio quality or vocal clarity. “The result was 18 boxes of d&b audiotechnik GSL main hangs, supported by 12 x SL-Subs per side on the ground. Left – right sub arrays… a controversial, very ’90s approach, but one that delivered remarkably even coverage,” he said. “The same philosophy extended throughout the system. During the design phase we integrated the front infill speakers into the downstage edge behind acoustic windows, ensuring the front rows were fully covered without ever seeing the speakers.”
As nearly half of the show takes place on the B-stage – a 360° performance space in the centre of the arena – a ring of nearfield speakers was essential to keep the audio image anchored to the performers rather than the main PA. “These were built into risers around the stage, meaning that when the B-stage opened to allow the walking, performer-operated elephant to make its journey to the main stage, the speakers moved with it. They also had to survive the torrents of water hitting them during the opening sequence. The main arrays were flown on cantilevered beams extending from the video wall support masts. This created several engineering challenges, not least the inability to use wind bracing. We overcame this by fixing the header height as close as possible to trim height, reducing the pendulum effect caused by long chain drops. Sharing those headers added another layer of complexity. Lighting fixtures occupy the same structure to provide front light, while the winch farm above incorporated pulleys and diverters for the aerial performance systems – including the artist suspended and spinning by her hair above centre stage!”
Despite all this, the installation still needed to remain clean, serviceable, and capable of lowering the arrays overnight or during high winds without requiring climbing. “The final cable plan used a three-inch gap in the corner of the video wall that allowed both speaker and lighting cables to pass through. It simplified installation and removal, reduced cable lengths and aerial joints, and left the entire system looking cleaner.”
For the larger shows, a roof-hung ring delay system was used. “It allows us to deliver a consistent, uncompromised listening experience throughout the venue,” Vickers explained. “Every audience member has bought a ticket for a special night out, and they all deserve the best sound we can deliver. Becky and Steve achieved exceptional results with this system. After investing so much time into designing it, there’s no better reward than watching talented sound engineers get the very best from it – and they certainly did. Monitoring with performers frequently in front of the PA is never easy, but the artists and band performed flawlessly, giving Steve outstanding source material to craft a superb FOH mix.”
On site, Crew Chief and System Engineer Joachim Dewulf aided Steve’s daily adjustments. “Meeting Joachim on site was really refreshing. We have a very similar approach to live sound systems, and the moment I brought the mix up through the PA I knew it was going to be an enjoyable couple of months,” added Carr. “The relationship between a FOH engineer and a systems engineer is hugely important – you really can’t overstate it. For me, it’s the difference between simply doing the job and genuinely enjoying the tour. Mixing is a creative role, and your emotions are connected to what you’re doing. The key is being able to communicate well, think in similar ways when it matters, work together under pressure and deliver consistently. I realised very quickly that we were going to have a great working relationship.”
Pell agreed: “Joachim has been a steady hand overseeing the whole undertaking, and it’s been a delight to have Steve Carr as my counterpart out front. He’s a great engineer with a wonderful attitude.”
The team is completed by a hand-picked Skan crew; Lee Saddington – FOH Minder & Delay Tech, Patrick Boyd – PA Tech (SL), Craig Burns – PA Tech, Conor O’Grady – PA Tech (Ring Delays), Tom Nunes – Ring Delay Tech (load-out), Finlay Watt – Control Tech (rehearsals), Martin Gehring & Kim Kusters – Riggers, Sierra Raia – PA Tech (delays), and Julia Bochenska – PA Tech (SR). Alongside Conor, Stage Techs Louis and Julia are all graduates of Britannia Row’s Live Audio Technician Apprenticeship.
“This team delivers to the very highest standards – exactly what this show needs,” concluded Pell. “The whole enterprise pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in all departments and I couldn’t wish for a better team to do this tour with; they truly are the industry’s finest.”
