WHEN WAS I this excited about going to a gig? I can’t remember. Oh, hang on: Orbital reforming for Big Chill in 2009. That was pretty special. I’m surprised I didn’t see the Hartnoll brothers that Saturday night at the Tate last month, when Kraftwerk performed The Man Machinealbum, featuring the band’s big hit The Model , in its entirety. I was lucky enough to be offered a ticket by a good
“My friend spent 90 minutes ringing the ticketline on four different phones until he finally got through. His experience was painless compared with some”
Cover image (c) Kraftwerk (Special thanks to Dataton WATCHOUT multi-display presentation software and Katinka Allender.)
mate: he spent 90 minutes ringing the ticketline on four different phones until he finally got through. His experience is painless compared with some I’ve heard. In short: I had a fantastic evening, and Kraftwerk really delivered. Read David Davies’ account on p40. As I looked around the Turbine Hall that night, I spotted numerous faces from synth-pop world: Nick Rhodes, Daniel Miller, Neil Tennant... In fact, I suspect there were an awful lot of guests and friends there, given the length of the queue for the after-party. I’m not writing this to name-drop. I want to make another point. Tickets for the Kraftwerk gigs were fiendishly difficult to come by (particularly for that Saturday) so what happened? Vastly overpriced tickets began appearing on secondary ticketing sites: we saw three for over $2,000 at one stage. If you were desperate to go, but were unlucky on the phone, you had no option but to succumb to a rip-off resale. The concert business is crying out for legislation on ticket-touting via secondary ticketing sites, and I’m pleased to see that even London’s Met Police made that recommendation last month. Let’s hope something gets done soon.
Dave Robinson Twitter: @psneurope IN THIS ISSUE...
NEWS 4 White space devices may be introduced this year 5 Pro Sound Awards: more details revealed 6 Industry appointments 8 Key pro-audio events and expos
TECHNOLOGY 10 New products
Show preview Prolight + Sound
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STUDIO 17 Snap! celebrates MPG Awards success 18 Tileyard media hub keeps expanding 20 Miloco takes on Youth’s El Mirador in Spain 23 Feature: What lies ahead for mastering?
BROADCAST 27 Highlights from BVE 2013 30 How Sohonet has stretched beyond London 32 Transparency in radio station design
LIVE 35 First UK sale of DPA d:facto II 37 A Shure start for RADA’s new sound training 40 An EXCLUSIVE behind the scenes look at Kraftwerk’s Tate Modern shows
44 Paloma Faith wows with SSE Audio Group 47 Feature: Which PA systems will be making the rounds during this summer’s festival season?
INSTALL 51 Three digital desks for Belgium’s De Werf 54 Meyer Constellation for Rocky Das Musical 55 New ice stadium opts for EV
BACK PAGES 57 Hither & Dither 58 Interview: Fulcrum Acoustic’s Dave Gunness