The day according to HHJJ
Din din der der, din din der der. Er, what, what's that, oh alarm, It's almost 10 AM. Bunk on the bus. Time to get up. Er, hold on, we're still moving. supposed to be at the gig by now. Re set the alarm for 11. Try and go back to sleep. It's more than a bit hot. Sweating like a pig. Freezing in places cause of the icy air squirting out of the AC outlets. Snooze, wake up, roll over, snooze, sleep, snooze, wake up. Still moving. Snooze, wake up, roll over, snooze, sleep, snooze, wake up. We've stopped. Time to get up.
There are some of those silly arm band type passes for each of us. Except all of us aren't up yet. Gor's there, announcing that he's had his morning dump, and Gary, and John the driver's up as well. All the gears already on stage, I'm informed. I better get on over and check it out. I wander over, nice big stage. Hold on. Only one monitor desk. Oh shit. And only 20 minutes between bands. How the f**k am I going to label the desk, plug in my 6 gates, 10 compressors, 10 sends, and 8 returns, and THEN soundcheck 36 channels into all 13 outputs in just 20 minutes! Argrhghghggh. It just ain't gonna happen!
Go and have a chat to the sound company mic bloke, nice helpful chap. They've got our spec. Good start. Have a chat to the sound company monitor guys. Mmm, 2 of them, did one of you forget to bring a desk with you? Oops, sorry bad English joke. I get my rack in position, and we discuss the plan of action for the changeover. It's agreed that as the band before don't use any inserts I can at least get all of them in during that bands changeover. Well it'll be a start at least! I get out my trusty PVC tape and label the desk up. Kik, Kik, Snr top, Snr bot, Hat, T1, a gap, it's a festival, Flr 1, Flr 2, OHSR, OHSL, SPD, Akai L, and so on.
Hey guys, what outputs are the best for me to use? What's easiest for you? OK yep they'll be fine. So, 1 = Rick left, 2 = Rick right, er, any chance of some stereo listen wedges, no OK don't worry, I'll cope. Never quite sure what Rick's mix sounds like when I can't hear it in glorious stereo like he gets it. 3 and 4 = Dan. More labelling. That's all the inputs, and all the outputs, just the 7 strips I need to label the sends on the channels. Good finished that. Time for a coffee. Milky's appeared and we adjourn to Catering. Don't feel like any breakfast. Just as well cause it's finished. Coffee, mm, caffeine, mm, good.
I've done everything I can before the change over. Didn't get any gates in because the engineer with the band before wasn't sure if he wanted to use any or not (!) As it turns out I don't think he'd know what a gate was unless someone opened it for him. The band before are finishing, here we go [minute 1] retrieve the PVC tape stuck all over my rack and stick it back in place on the desk. There's loads of bits, shit we're into [minute 2] already. Round the back of the desk, plugging in my ten sends. The engineer from the sound company is plugging in my gates, great, drop out two channels to plug in [minute 3] the two audience mics, check the stage, risers are in place, out on stage, position the vocal mics, position Rick's and [minute 4] Steve's wedges, plug in [minute 5] Danny's vocal, leave Rick's vocal to be plugged in by the sound company tech, Danny's vocal mic back at the desk, aghah, Gor, guitars all in the way, excuse me, Milky can you hear me?, Milky? Yep? Good, hold on FOH TTS into [minute 6] some sends, I'll be with you soon Milky, got to check my sends, gain on Danny's channel, send to the ears, mmm, about there, adjust the compressor threshold, bit of top end EQ, send to the reverb, that's working, good, Danny's vox [minute 7] to Mickey Dale's send. Good, about there, send to his reverb yep, returns, OK. Switch to Mike's send, OK, send Danny's vocal, agah, only one ear, shit, wait the fader's down on the desk, OK, good, bit of Danny to Mike's reverb, about there [minute 8] down a bit. OK, Milky? Milky ready for Rick's vocal? Gary wants to know if he can take the ears, soon, hold on, just let me check Danny's [minute 9] receiver on stage, yep that's OK, hope it'll work over the rest of the stage, haven't got time to walk about with it as usual, Gary, here you go, right Milky, sorry, Rick's vocal, the engineer from the sound company drives the desk, 1,2,1,2, [minute 10] 1,2, check, up turn it up more in this wedge, more, up, up, up up, up, (oh come on!) bit more up, up, up, OK. Same in the other of Rick's wedges, up,up,up,up,up,up,up, yep about [minute 11] there, sounds balanced, hope it is on the desk or I'll have no ideas where the middle of the stereo spread is. Right Dan's vox to one of Rick's wedges, no wrong wedge, other wedge, yep there you go. OK now Danny's [minute 12] vocal to Steve's wedges, up a bit up a bit, nope to much down down. That'll do. Des says he can't hear me on Mike's belt pack, Beeves has the [minute 13] same problem, shit haven't plugged in my multi to stage. Hold on. run out the cable, there you go [minute 14] Right Milky! Ready for some drums, yep, OK Des, Kik Snr and Hat mate, Des still can't hear me, shit change the battery [minute 15] on the pack, I check all the connections, right , Kik Snr Hat every where except Dan's mix, reverb on the Snr [minute 16] for Mike, OK Des still hasn't got me, change the battery again, here we go, moving on (Milky :"Dave you really have to keep up.") to bass, Gor isn't quite there, our routine is all out of kilter as we try and do too much in too little time. Beeves is on the keys, yep got the A90, into [minute 17] MDs mix, shit Milky's asking for keys, guess level of the A90 to the wedges, keys to MDs [minute 18] mix, Gary saying we got to go, shit nowhere near ready, quick Gor do the [minute 19] guitar, yep got the AC 30, and that's it [minute 20] aghghaagaha the bands walking out on stage. None of the usual 'What A Wonderful World' intro as Milky hasn't had time to sort out the CD player. Good luck guys. Audience mics for Dan, opps are they gonna work, yep got a level, up in his ears. Think that's about right. Here we go New Adam ohmygod Danny's mix sound really weird, oops, loadsa reverb on the keys, very spacy, turn that off. Jeeeeessssss, how many other things have I got going to the reverbs cause I haven't had time to zero the desk. Flick through the other mixes, more bass for Steve, bass for Rick, and Kik and Snr, keys'll have to wait for a bit, MDs mix sound OKish, a bit lop sided, I'll come back to that, Mike needs more guitars, ah, only one guitar channels on, bit of gain on the other, wait zero all the sends, un mute, there you go Mike, bit for Dan as well, and for MD,................. Yeah You Mickey Dale Gtr. Damn, didn't line check it. Guess a gain setting, send it too his ears. Hope it's right. Akai samples, agahg, not line checked either, guess some levels, send them to Mike so he at least knows their working. Yep that's about right, bit for every one else as well. More guitar for MD, didn't guess it quite right, check Ricks mix, keys are in there now, Steves's mix sound OK, Mike, bit lope sided, what's that? Ah, Hat is only in his left ear. Damn, center that, check the other mixes for the same thing, there's MDs mix sounding a bit more central............ Come Back To Danny: "Rick's going to sing this one" Not Come Back To then, Rick doesn't sing lead on that. Change of set then, so were straight into Hooligan Rick on acoustic, again not line checked. Gor's not quite ready with it cause of the change of set. Here we go. Oh shit, no signal on either channel. GOR!! He changes the cable. I hear him click the jacks into the DI boxes. Good, at least the lines work. Into the acoustic. Click. Is it going to work? YES. Into Ricks mixes. Oops, too loud down a bit, take out that low frequency that's feeding back a bit, more Akai, more Akai to Mike, Ricks vocal to everyone else, not too much, kazoo solo coming up, oops, something ain't right, they're playing different bits of the song. Shit hope I haven't caused that, hold on, they got it back together again, good. Kazoo solo, drop the level a bit so it doesn't deafen MD, but not so much that Dan thinks his mic has stopped working, key solo Mickey Dale, push it a bit in Ricks wedges, back to acoustic and vox, pull the keys back a bit................. Mute the acoustic before Gor pulls the jack and we're into the next song, phew People Mike sings on this, another channel not line checked. Guess a gain setting, guess a level. I'll come back to that on the chorus when he sings. Check all the mixes, beginning to sound almost normal. Well almostish, how many songs to go, ah, just one more, strings are coming up, wow, they're loud. Pull em back a bit. Hold on no strings at all in Ricks mix. Shit, only got the keys into his left wedge, missed the right, wish I had a stereo listen so I could hear what I'm doing! That's better now in both his wedges, inputs are into the red, down the gain a bit,.......... Song ends, up the punter mics for Dan and MD. What's next? Save Me Rick on acoustic again. At least I have a level set this time. Push the Akai up everywhere. Check Mike's mix as the drums come in, touch more Akai and the stage manager is telling me that they have to finish. Oh just F**k off. Saaavvvvveee meeeee from the lies I've got in my mind. Cos it's hard enough to see you're good on the inside. And the leaving when it works The hardest to time. When you're dealing in the dirt And healing the blind................... The song comes to an end. It's all over. Jeeeeeesssssssss. That was fun. NOT.
A few hours later the gears all packed away, the post gig debrief means we're hopefully going to take our own desk into Reading and Leeds to avoid the problems we had today, and we're on the bus on the way back to dear old blighty. The sun is over the yard arm, or something, and Gordon opens the first bottle of vino tinto. Very nice. Cheers Gor mate. Mickey Dale puts a film on called The Dentist. What a truly horrible film. No, I mean really really horrible. Both Gary and Mike just can't watch and have to leave. I don't watch at all, just take a few snaps of Gary and Mike trying to hide from the film, while Mick just looks on. Mike and Gary depart for the other lounge. It's just all too much for them, poor dears.
During all this Milky is working on the pa spec for the up coming UK tour. Which channel do you want this on. How many outputs, what desk, how many graphics. At least it's a distraction from the horrible film. zzszzzz,zszzz. There goes that drill again. Ouuuuccccchhh.
The Dentist finishes. Thank f**k. Something nice and pleasant and Sunday afternoon please next. Independence Day is chosen from the varied selection on the bus, Nope. Shit quality, very bad, next. Phenomenon. All together now, be bar ber bar ber, phenomenon, der der der der..... Milky asks for encore du vin rouge si vous plait mate. Mickey Dale does the honours. Thanks . The films a Disney one with John Travolta in it. I try and guess the story before it happens. I gain another name along the way, somehow.
We hit the ferry by about 10 PM. A big fry up breakfast type thing would go down a storm right now. Nope, 2 AM to 9 AM. Oh well, Milky and I plump for the Steak and Kidney pudding, with the finest wine that P&O can muster. It's drinkable. Most of the rest of us go for the Lamb Jalfrazie. We finish the food, and retire to the bar, Mickey Dale gets a round, cheers. More fine(ish) wine. Gordon goes for the white. Hey we're docking. Which stairs was it? Yellow 5, there's the bus. Bit dark on here. Oi John, where's the lights, cheers mate. Gordon's got a new toy, a gyroscope liquid filled type thing. We get it to spin on Beeves' head. Snaps are taken for posterity and the web site.
Somewhere between Dover and London I crawl into my bunk.
Goodnight all.
The day according to Abbiss
The band are on in the middle of the afternoon in blazing sunshine- for a lighting bloke the competition from the gods is just too much. I'm at home, about to go and fly my kite on Blackheath followed by a wander into Greenwich for something to eat, aaah the life. Todays load in has been such hard work.
Missed ya'll though.- Ab |
