The last couple of months has been absolutely chocka for me!.. Where to start!!?

What have I been up to and done? Well..Heres some of the MAIN dates!
3rd April – York
1st April – Durham (Straight to gig from Suffolk!)
31st March – Gunton Hall, Warner Leisure, Suffolk
30th March – d&b audiotechnik line array training – Gloucestershire
29th March 1pm – Marshall Amplification Event Featuring Whitesnake (and My new KV2 System!)
29th March 12.30pm -Bought a KV2 ES System!

25th March – Somerset
8th March – Battle of the Wedding Bands – Live Sound & Recording for Video – AMV Live Music
2nd March – The Counterfeit Sixties, Whitley Bay Playhouse – FULL PRODUCTION

25th Feb – Theatre Royal, Dumfries
24th Feb – YAMAHA LS9 now has x2 Dante Cards for 32in/32out Recording / Playback!
18th Feb – Ramside Hall, Co. Durham
11th Feb – Byre Theatre, St Andrews

Had a great gig with The Hollywood Bees (www.holliestribute.com) yesterday at a lovely venue, The Grand Theatre, Clitheroe. We had the lot, amazing audience, brilliant venue and truly welcoming staff! and to top it all off we travelled light (no PA, just backline!) which was great for a change!!

The PA was D&B Q Series line array with 2 aux fed B2 Subs under the stage, D&B M4 wedges and an Avid Profile Console.

I’d never used D&B Q Series or The Avid Profile, needless to say I was impressed with them both. The Profile was great but there was a few little ‘issues’ but thats down to personal preference and the fact that I was a touring engineer on a console I’d never even touched before! BUT these were down to the setup of the desk and knowing the shortcuts to get to screens quickly or lock on a certain screen. By the 2nd number of the soundcheck I was getting rather quick on the desk which meant by the first couple of numbers of the gig Id settled in nicely.

Look forward to visiting The Grand once again!

Just returned home from doing the sound for X Factors Little Mix.

For any of you that have been following what I’ve been doing recently, you may have noticed I’ve started doing work with a brand new Eric Clapton tribute band. The Clapton Xperience (Rock & Blues Show).

We have just done our first full production gig which was held at a local venue, The Linskill Centre. Now over the last 3 years or so I have worked on a variety of shows here, each time trying to push the boundaries of the venue and make it look and feel more like a Big Concert. With help from friends and colleagues (who also worked on the show) we managed to do exactly this.

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I was luck enough to be given the chance for my first large scale outdoor event as sound engineer yesterday. The event was the Sunderland Illuminations switch on and fireworks display. The event was estimated to have between 12 and 15,000 people.. No doubt, I was slightly nervous!

The system I used on this event was the top of the range RCF Line array system. Dual 12+10+x3 1″ (to my understanding) and Dual 21″ subs.. All powered. This was also happened to be the 3rd even that has been done on my brand new Yamaha LS9:32! All the outputs and mixes were managed solely by the LS9, including FOH, Separate Sub feed and two Delay stacks, the furthest being 150 Meters away.

The program for the evening consisted of 2 choirs, and acoustic performance, fireworks and then 2 live bands.. The last one being a really tight sounding metal band.. Brilliant!!

What a lovely and sunny day, rather hot too! What a day to be stuck inside.. Not to worry though I knew it was going to be a good one anyway!  I arrived at the venue early, to find that no one was there to let me in.. OK.. Change of plan.. I went to the pub for half an hour to enjoy a cool glass of Crabbies Ginger Beer!

After having a chat with the in house tech and the bands I thought I better get to work! I did the usually, laptop in the PA and ran some tracks. I was feeling in a bluesy mood.. Time for a bit of Keb’ Mo’

It was nice to have a big system that I didn’t have to set up for a change, all Turbo and a Soundcraft console. Martin LE1500 wedges and a dual 15+2 Turbosound Drum Fill. I was sort of spoiled for choice with mics so I decided to go with:

Kick: B91 , B52a
Snare: B57a, e604
Hats & Ride c300b
Toms: e904
Bass: BSS DI & B52a
Guitar: e906
Drum Vox: B57a
Lead Vox: B58

Sounchecks all went well and I was happy with the sound and mic choice. Shame I couldn’t have had a little more headroom.. Well a Bigger system.. Not a problem though. Now all we had to do was play the waiting game until 9pm when AOM were due to start their headline slot.. I thought time for another beer in the sunshine!.. But it never happened haha

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9PM – BANG first number in, everything there, destinctive, powerful kick drum, pounding bass and the vocal sitting perfectly. The audience bouncing from the word go right until the end! A few little tweaks here and there to compressors and gates and I was  happy chappy.. I even started to dance a little behind the console!

10.20PM – We had left the building and headed down to the Official AOM VIP Afterparty! Good Times!

For More about Abduction Of Margaret visit there facebook!

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Well.. Since my first / last few posts (SEPTEMBER!!) I’ve been busy! Things have started to look up, work has increased, I’ve traveled and Ive met some amazing people and friends for life! It’s like there is a place for me now!

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Work.. Ive done LOTS more gigs with the Hollywood Bees (UK’s ONLY Hollies Tribute Band) that has taken me from here in my hometown, Newcastle Upon Tyne, as far down as Somerset and as far north as Peebles In Scotland.. Not that far up but its still a hike.. for now..  I worked my 19th Birthday at Cricket St. Thomas, Somerset gigging my new PA for the first time 16th October 2010!.. wow.. That was quite a while ago now! The PA has gotten miles better and it is sounding amazing. It’s been out on about 30 Gigs so far, each with outstanding results. Its been to the Pheonix Theatre, Castleford.. SELLOUT Gigs at The East Gate Arts Centre, Peebles.. Alnwick Playhouse. Both brilliant nights!! There has been plenty more on the list but we have our big local gig close to home in May… The Customs House, South Shields..  The list goes on and on.. But for more info check out www.holliestribute.com or www.facebook.com/holliestribute .. Why not visit BOTH!

Ive started work with a new Sixties Tribute… The COUNTERFEIT SIXTIES.. Keep watching this space!

And Also numerous younger bands, including ABDUCTION OF MARGARET which I will be adding more dates to my diary as I am about to start the first of many legs of a UK TOUR. I will keep you’s all posted!

After buying new speakers and building a new PA I thought, why not buy some new mics to match up to it.. So I splashed out a little. I ordered the mics from Thomann in Germany on tuesday afternoon and they were here early on Friday Morning, How’s that for service!

So after opening the cardboard box and unwrapping all my new mics I thought, I need something quicker than storing every mic in its own pouch in my case. So.. Todays Project was doing all my foamy bits.. I thought it would have been a quick job, but it still took 3 hours. Not too bad as I was only sitting around waiting for other deliveries anyway. So armed with a drill (with hole cutters) and a stanley knife, I set about the task.

With the price of buying actual flightcase foam I decided to take the cheaper.. well free approach. I already had 2 bits of rigid white packaging foam, so I cut them to size. It was not deep enough, but not to worry. I found 3 of the jigsaw type gym floor tiles.. Perfect! I cut them all up, as straight as I could, whilst balancing on the step with a jigsaw (the garage was full with my big project you see). I then stuck them all together, white stuff on the bottom and the grey floor tiles on the top and then went about cutting the holes.

And the finished result… you wouldnt have thought that they grey foam was from a floor tile! It looks very flightcasey and very pro to me! Although.. my cuts could have been abit better!