www.prosoundnewseurope.com August 2012 l 39 livefeature
Soundcheck went smoothly despite the weather, and the show went well – if you ignore the flying glasses of pee and a few partisan members of the audience booing Plan B because he wasn’t from Manchester and he wasn’t Ian Brown.
I was very disappointed that our show’s decibel level had been limited by the Roses production; it seems they didn’t want any of the supports to be louder than them. At the end of the show, Plan B was whisked back to Edge Studios for the final 24-hour session to get his new album completed, while the rest of us headed to Birmingham Airport to catch a flight to Mallorca Rocks.
The Mallorca Rocks stage 3RD JULY PLAN B, MALLORCA ROCKS
Blazing sunshine, swimming pools and the beach, and soundcheck with a hangover, which was overlooked by plenty of bikini- and Speedo-clad punters!
Today it’s a Soundcraft Vi6 at FOH with a [JBL] VerTec line array. Not having mixed this show on a Vi6, I built my file from an old one that I had on my USB stick, and added all the extra channels that we now use. It was easy to set up everything on the Vi6 and I managed to make all the important channels appear on the first bank of 32 faders. Result! The show was awesome; it makes such a difference when there’s no decibel limit…
6TH JULY PLAN B, THE EDEN SESSIONS, CORNWALL
One night at home, and it’s case emptied, washed, packed and back out – this time to Cornwall and the Eden Project.
I love doing this festival; the last time I headlined here it was with Lily Allen, and it was the best show I ever mixed for her. Skan does a great job with the PA and again this year I was so pleased with the sound. A d&b J-Series and the natural amphitheatre that is the Eden Sessions lends itself to being a great venue.
It’s a Midas PRO6 at FOH – my favourite digital desk, though the Vi6 is a very close second. The only slight issue is the soundman’s nemesis – the noise police again! The off-site decibel limit was just 50dB over 30 minutes – quieter than a mouse farting.
The weather conditions were on our side though, and when I pushed the PA, the first off-site reading came back as 49.9dB. I took that as meaning I could be louder for the second half! To the fear of the house tech, I pushed it some more, and the second reading came back as 50dB, so the noise police went home happy as there were just two songs left in the set (the two loudest ones!) I crank those to the max... After the show, however, we were informed that someone who lives four miles from the site could hear it in her garden ‘as clear as if she was there’! Oops...
13TH JULY
PLAN B, MELT FESTIVAL, FERROPOLIS, GERMANY Off to Berlin for a festival in an old iron ore mine.
It was a two-hour drive from the airport and we arrived in rain. Familiar weather. The site was covered with massive industrial mining cranes and diggers; it looked amazing and quirky. Today it was an Avid D-Show. I loaded up my [Avid] Profile file and all seemed to be fine, except the VCA mutes don’t light up, so you
can’t see if anything is on or not. A scary moment! I find the D-Show slower to get round than the Profile but that’s probably just familiarity for me.
Great show again despite the noise police presence (you’ve worked out, I’m not a fan), but it seems not many people in Germany know who Plan B is – a half-capacity crowd isn’t much fun, but we made the best of it.
Today was also the tour manager’s 50th birthday, so we all got right royally blitzed in the hotel bar leaving behind a two-grand bar bill. n
Back stage with Ben Drew aka Plan B
Melt Festival Germany
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