60 APRIL 2020 • WWW.LSIONLINE.COMOO ON TOURON TOUR
sort of chap. Even so, programming for someone else’s show that
you’re not going to be touring with can impart a sense of
detachment. Not so for Wolstenholme, who was full of positivity
and support for Wilson, Hill and Swain. “It’s going to look really
classy,” was just one of his enthusiastic observations.“For video there are a lot of good suppliers that can put up a pile of
LED,” continues Lawrie, “but we knew the roll-drop projection
element would require special care. I knew Video Design had done
all of the Take That RD projection - in fact, I read about how they
dealt with the sphere in LSi! I wanted that kind of problem-solving
and attention to detail. The fact they got the system lined up in 60
minutes or less every day proves they were the right choice.”“For audio,” he says, “we have been working with FE Live since we
have carried audio - I’ve known Ryan [Mcilravey] for years. If you
want a bespoke package, they are great. They produced a very
neat kit-pack for six weeks touring around Asia that travelled as
check-in luggage. There’s also a huge amount of trust between
Ryan and Lewis’s FOH engineer Andy Bush. On this tour, they are
supplying us with a multi-hang d&b KSL series PA. Every night,
the system has been designed and optimised brilliantly for each
space - you can’t really ask for more than that”.He adds: “Trucks and buses, we use Starliner and Fly by Nite.
Starliner have a relationship with Phoenix, so we also have some of
their buses out here. That has all worked well. We have been using
Fly by Nite since we first needed an artic for touring. We used Fly by
Nite’s rehearsal space, and I have to say, the studio was
a wonderful experience. We use Popcorn for catering - they are our
first touring caterers; they are happy and we’re very happy.”MONITORS
Lawrie had mentioned that monitor man Chris Smart was
a relatively recent addition to the touring party. How has it all
been for him so far? “Not too bad,” he says with some
understatement. “I trained in audio at SAE in Glasgow and was
gigging even before I left high school. In fact, FE is a company my
friends and I started when I was still at school in 2005.”“Then I went to university, but Ryan [Mcilravey] kept working
away at it. For a while, I found myself just doing gigs at
weekends, then eventually reached the point where I could leave
my day job and go freelance as a sound engineer full-time.
I started with Lewis in September 2019. That happened because
I knew Andy Bush and had covered shows for him a few times.
When Nick stepped down from monitors to take on production
management, that was my lucky break.”There’s a row of d&b M4 wedges across the front of stage, but
also a rack full of IEMs, I note. “Lewis likes to hear the room and
frequently removes one ear,” explains Smart. “He also likes to
hear the mix with no click. With the d&b KSL system we are
using out front, you need to put that information, especially the
mix, into the wedges because he’s not going to hear it radiating
back off the PA. Yes, he’ll get something from the room, but
that’s more about engagement with his audience. I’d say he
enjoys it more than he needs it.” As ever, a good part of being
a successful monitor engineer is psychological; making sure
your artist can pitch comfortably but is also happy onstage.With the focus - as ever - on the lead vocals, is Smart dealing
with a typical case of getting the band mix right and hoping
they’ll take care of themselves? “It is steady,” he says. “Bass and
keys stage-right, using a Kemper for the bass keeps stage noise
down. Stage-left are drums and guitar - a little noisier, but far
enough away to rarely colour Lewis’s mic. Even so, there are
a couple of parts when they need me to make changes for them.
They are all on IEMs - these are the Shure PSM 1000, which is
nice and solid, with JH Audio earbuds for all.”Commenting on the desk, Smart says: “The Allen & Heath dLive
S5000 was already on the gig when I joined. I’d used dLive desks
before and really like the way they work. They make it very easy to
do monitors. As for working with a KSL system and its full
bandwidth cardioid behaviour, I do still get some room reflection,
but it’s a lot quieter back here. If you stand next to me during the
show, you can have a conversation without shouting, even when
Andy [Bush, FOH] is driving it at full whack.” What about the
comms set-up? “I have comms with all the band, they can all talk to
each other or they can talk with the backline techs. I can speak to
each band member individually, allowing me to discuss monitor
changes without distracting the other band members. It’s all in the
settings, and in a desk like this, it’s simple to run via groups and
mute/unmute.”PA SYSTEM TECH
I had noticed on the first show how the energy levels lowered
significantly at the FOH riser immediately behind the scissor lift
where Capaldi makes his big finale appearance. Not having been in
close proximity to a B stage to experience how system techs deal
with singers when performing at FOH since its inception, I asked
Ryan Mcilravey, who besides running FE Live is also the tour’s
system tech on this occasion. Does d&b Array Processing (AP) make
this task easier? “Yes, we certainly have a specific AP slot for the B
stage performance. Previously, we might have turned down or muted
specific cabinets in an older generation system, but AP allows us to