STEREOPHONICSEschewing the fun-filled effects of previous outings, Stereophonics’

latest tour draws on over 20 years of musical success, delivering a showthat growls with crowd-pleasing rock ‘n’ roll confidence.

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Maybe it’s the approach of rock statesmen-hood or perhaps the well-earned gravitas of their quarter-century music career, but as production manager ‘Disco’ Dave Nelson noted, this 2018 tour has seen a shift in focus for Stereophonics. While past tours may have popped with SFX, this time round it’s all about bringing the band out from behind the confetti and flames and allowing them to forge a more direct connection with their eager fans. “That came specifically from the boys,” Nelson told TPi when we caught up with the tour on the 11th night of a 15-date UK / Ireland run. “We haven’t got any FX or pyrotechnics - all that’s been put away. This time it’s more about the performance.” What this show lacks in pyro, however, it makes up for in fresh additions to the stage design - new elements introduced to aid this re-emphasis on audience connection. For the first time, the band is using a 10m centre thrust – an idea first seeded back in 2015 when the boys were playing support on a series of European festivals and got the chance to experience

a variety of catwalks, some stretching all the way to FOH. Though more modest in length, the thrust created here by LS-Live did feature a 8ft x 8ft hydraulic lift at its tip, allowing the band to be more playful with the onstage space. At its simplest, the lift raises a mic stand for lead singer Kelly Jones to walk towards at the start of the set, but later in the night is when it really comes in to its own. At the show’s midpoint, a full backline of bass guitar, keyboard, drums and vocal mic appear, along with lava lamps and standard lamps – an intimate Handbags and Gladrags aesthetic that harks back to the band’s earliest gigs, packed into tiny pub venues. In stark contrast, the night ends with drummer Jamie Morrison rising up mid-song (having slipped offstage and along the inside of the thrust), blasting out a blazing drum solo on a second, Perspex kit. LS-Live was also responsible for creating a Perspex on-stage drum riser, bespoke Perspex drum shields (more on that later) and the ego wings that flanked the stage. Instead of the 8 x 4 wings used in the past, for

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Above: PM, Dave Nelson; LD, Brent Clark; Audio Tech, Sam Cunningham; Toby Donovan, MLA Tech, and Finlay Watt, PA Tech; Video Crew Chief, Connie Glover.

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this tour they extend further outwards. With arena shows selling out well beyond 180-degrees on the downstage line, up to almost 250-degrees in some venues, this extra space allowed the band to really interact with the audience sitting in what would otherwise have been restricted-view seats. Indeed, in tight venues like Wembley Arena, these side seats become some of the best in the house. For those in the rest of the arena, 3 horizontal ROE MC-7 IMAG screens were flown in a scoreboard configuration directly above the end of the thrust. This had the effect of putting video on the front foot. Rather than being simply a stage-side add-on, the trio of screens pushed the band’s presence out into the arena, bringing them closer than ever to those packed into the upper tiers. All video kit was provided by Ogle Hog. Feeds for the IMAGs and the media server came from 3 Sony HSC-100’s (a long lens at FOH and 2 pit cameras) along with 3 Camera Corps Q3 Robo Cams (1 shooting up at the singer at the end of the thrust and 1 each on the keyboard and drums). The Robo Cams have a number of presets that are locked in before each sound check to allow for variations between venues. All this is mixed together by Video Director, Paul ‘Eggy’ Eggerton, on a Grass Valley switcher. Perhaps the biggest challenge for the video team came in the form of a giant moving screen onstage, dubbed the ‘garage door’ in reference to the way it can tilt into a completely raised horizontal position and remain hidden when not in use. Though the brainchild of Lighting Designer, Brent Clark, it was left to Video Crew Chief, Connie Glover, from Ogle Hog - working with Stuart Young of Creative Technology and Julian Lavender at lighting supplier Neg Earth - to translate the idea into a reality. Together they created a system that could safely and securely hold the screen at any angle between vertical to horizontal and so open up a whole new range of options for Clark to play with. The screen comprises 3 tonnes of Creative Technology’s InfiLED 5.9mm panels, with a further 3 tonnes of trussstructure locked on to its back to give it the required rigidity. One of Neg Earth’s engineer welders built a series of custom brackets that sit on top of

the screen and take the pressure off the king pin on the top of the touring frame. Thus, when tilted, all of the pressure is at the back of the screen not in the hanging bracket. Given that the screen hovers directly above the band for much of the show, ensuring everything is set up correctly is obviously essential. “It’s a crazy and exciting challenge,” commented Glover. “It weighs a lot, and the process of rigging it has been an evolving process throughout the tour; getting it in every day, and having it working ready for sound check definitely gave me and the whole team a sense of achievement. It’s one thing building big LED walls - its another when there is a truss structure to accompany it.” Thankfully the whole crew have helped ensure the process runs as smoothly as possible - not least the LD himself. “Working with Brent is amazing; he’s very patient and tolerant of the process that we have to go through. Plus, what fun would it be if it wasn’t a challenge?” Glover added.

FULL TILTOften when the aspirations of a show design meet the logistical and financial constraints of cold reality, it’s the more ambitious elements that will require a real champion if they’re to make the final cut. For Brent Clark, the inclusion of the onstage garage door screen was something worth holding on to, as much for the purity of aesthetics as the diversity of thematic options it would provide. “Personally, when a screen’s not on I still see it - it’s always there. So to make it be able to disappear... that for me was just perfect,” remarked Clark. This ability to tuck the screen completely away as the audience enter the arena helps provide added impact to the opening number. As the singer slowly makes his way down the thrust, illuminated only by 6 pairs of Light Initiative IntelliWands (lightsaber-like columns) on either side, the screen is discretely lowered into position, bursting magically to life as the song hits its stride. Content for the screen - designed by Judy Jacob, in consultation with both Clark and Jones - comes from 2 Green Hippo Boreal+ servers

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(maintained by Media Server Engineer Matt Villis) and is controlled by an MA Lighting grandMA2 at FOH. Clark also has the option of mixing a live feed from the switcher onto the main stage, just as the video team have the option of incorporating some effects from the Hippo to blend into the scoreboard IMAG. A pair of Kinesys trusses loaded with Claypaky Scenius Unicos and Ayrton MagicBlades are positioned one apiece in front and behind the garage door. When the screen is in use, these trusses sit horizontally along its upper and lower edges, but when it’s tucked away completely they reconfigure into chaotic angles that slash through the visual void left behind. This pleasing interplay of angles is echoed in the 4 inward-leaning side trusses (2 per side, 12 Robe Spikies on each), as well as the distorted perspective of the rectangular screen as it is half-raised into a tilted roof above the band. In addition to giving the stage a sense of depth when viewed from the front, it also frames the performers perfectly for some striking IMAG shots. Along the back of the stage were 9 rolling, pre-rigged towers that included Solaris Flares, molefays and Robe Spikies, as well as Starbeam lasers (supplied by BPM SFX) at their base. In front of that is a line of floor-mounted Martin by Harman MAC Vipers. Two of these sat under the drum riser and fired through its Plexiglas top, accompanied by chases on 4 Chroma-Q Colour Force II 72 LED bars. More Colour Force bars, this time 3 48Fs, were placed above each of the album-cover-art drapes that hung either side of the stage. A total of 6 octagonal Chroma-Q Space Forces on Kinesys - including 2 in the scoreboard truss above the end of the catwalk - descended at various points to close down the space for more intimate moments, such as the acoustic sections of the show. Also in the scoreboard truss were more moles and 6 Robe BMFL Spots. Used in conjunction with a Follow-Me system, these tracked 4 targets that changed during the evening, for example when the guest saxophonist is on stage, or when the drummer strolls back from his solo stint out on the thrust. According to Clark, support from Neg Earth has been faultless. “Julian at Neg really takes care of me and the band,” he commented. “The kit’s been really great.”

STEREOPHONIC SOUNDAs Monitor Engineer, Harm Schopman, finished his final checks, Audio Tech, Sam Cunningham, took TPi on a tour of the audio kit, starting with the DiGiCo SD10 running monitors - chosen for its compact size. A pair of SD racks were used for the stage inputs, with a third rack on the optical network, shared with FOH. As the band gradually transitions to in-ears, Cunningham and Schopman have reduced wedges down to a minimum, with just one downstage and one upstage mix for Jones, run in active d&b audiotechnik M4 pairs by a single D80 amp. The singer uses Ultimate Ears 18A moulds, with the rest of the band on UE-11’s. In terms of wireless, Sennheiser 2050 was used for most of the performers, with the exception of 2 channels of Shure PSM1000 for the bass player (his preference) and brass

instrumentalist. The new Shure Axient Digital was used to run the sax and trumpets, as well as being used for scanning. “It’s fucking awesome. I really like the new Shure stuff,” noted Cunningham. Neumann KSM105’s were the mics of choice for Jones’ distinctive vocals, with one used centre stage and one at the end of the thrust. The latter sat in the throw of the PA downfill - a challenge that has been neatly overcome thanks to a Neve 5045 outboard that FOH Engineer Dave Roden uses to supress feedback and deliver an extra 6dB of headroom. “To put a condenser microphone like that Neumann in front of a big old PA and be able to get a show level out of it is pretty cool,” said Cunningham. Back on the main stage, another elegant solution has been adopted to prevent spill from the drums being caught by the singer’s mic directly below. Instead of a clumsy big screen, the PM commissioned LS-Live to produce a series of bespoke Perspex shields that sit around the high hats. Balcony window glass clamps fix these to standard Natal drum clamps, making it easy for drum tech Stephen ‘Stilly’ Papworth to pack them away at the end of the night. The drums themselves feature an interesting collection of mics, having diversified from a straight Sennheiser set-up. So while an e901 and e904 are still used for kick in and toms respectively, elsewhere there’s: a new AKG D112 VR on kick out (“Really nice - it’s got several little pre-sets built in to it, it’s like a combination dynamic condenser microphone,” said Cunningham); Sonotronics DM-1’s specially tuned for the top and snare (“They’re the same chassis but different microphones, which we love, they’re great”); and SE Electronics Voodoo ribbon mics for the overheads and SE condenser on the hats. With a second drum kit appearing at the end of the thrust, the team were faced with sourcing a complete duplicate set of mics to go with it. Here London-based DPA distributor Sound Networks stepped in to help out, offering a full set of DPA d:vote 4099 mics for the duration of the tour. “And they’re cracking; they sound great,” commented Cunningham, explaining that these are essentially the same mics - albeit with slightly different SPL tolerances - as those being used on the sax and the trumpet. “You can put that mic on the sax and you can put it on a snare or a tom or an overhead and it sounds brilliant everywhere. The 4099 has proved to be a very useful and versatile tool on this tour,” Cunningham continued. Each guitar amp on stage is fitted with a reflector shield that houses a Beyerdynamic M201 and a Royer ribbon mic, which can be simply lifted out at the end of the night. With monitors switching to a DiGiCo SD10, it made sense for FOH to follow suit and move to an SD5. By gain sharing, the stage rack footprint has been significantly reduced, while also introducing the facility to include a B-stage rack as well as an outboard rack at FOH on the same Optocore ring.

Though gain control is largely the result of a dialogue between monitors and FOH, Roden was keen to retain control over certain key channels, such as lead vocal, lead guitars, kick drum, toms and snare. To enable this, Cunningham got 16 channels of the new DiGiCo 32-bit input cards, put them in to one of the racks and locked monitors out. This gives Roden his own dedicated gain to play with, without affecting what Schopman is doing stageside.

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Roden decided against using Waves on the DiGiCo, instead plumping for a rack of analogue outboard. He explained: “Audio plugins obviously have their place and work extremely well in many applications, but I felt that now was a good time to have a rethink of what I really needed and I’ve actually ended up with a similar setup to the one I had with the D5 in the mid-2000’s, except that with the welcome addition since then of the onboard dynamic EQ’s and multi band compression, I’m now using those instead of the rack or two of inserts I had back then.” “Part of the evaluation of what I needed to replace the Profile and it’s array of plugins, was which effects were essential to the show,” Roden continued. In addition to the aforementioned Neve 5045, the analogue rack comprises a dbx 120A, SPL Transient Designer, Eventide Eclipse, Bricasti M7 and Yamaha SPX2000. “I decided upon the M7 as the best reverb option, the Eclipse for some special vocal effects and the SPX for the gated reverb that I’ve been using on drums since 1986. The SPL is to replace the Sonnox plugin I previously used and is the one thing I now can’t mix without. The DBX 120A is also an alternative to one of the Waves sub harmonic plugins, which I like just to give the kick drum and floor toms a bit of an earthquake quality at times. The Neve unit is probably the one that has had the biggest impact on this tour, though.” A Mac Mini running Waves Tracks Live is connected to the board via a DiGiGrid MGB coaxial MADI interface - multitracking all inputs on stage for future virtual soundchecking. As Roden was quick to point out, delivering a great sounding show each night has been aided massively by the help and cooperation of Cunningham and Schopman. “We’re a very tight-knit group and it’s a real pleasure to work with them both,” he said. “I’d also like to thank PM ‘Disco’ Dave Nelson, Capital Sound Hire and their Crew Chief Ross Anderson, MLA Tech Toby Donovan and PA Techs Finbarr Neenan and Finlay Watt for helping to make my job much easier again.” In terms of PA, Martin Audio MLA is used for the main hangs - up to 15 MLA plus 2 MLD downfill cabinets for extra vertical and horizontal coverage. Sidehangs are MLAC, with up to 16 per side available for the largest arenas. Subs are comprised of 2 centre hangs at 40-degree angles, 6 MLX each in cardioid configuration, then 3 MLX cardioid on the ground (L-R) to cover the areas close to the stage. All the processing is onboard the MLA series products, with 3 Lake LM44 processors used for system matrixing, alignment and most equalisation. “The Stereophonics have toured this PA since it came out, and Dave at FOH was a Martin Audio user before that with the older systems,” noted MLA Tech Donovan. “It is performing very reliably and well, we achieve nice and even coverage with plenty of headroom. The onboard processing makes us able to have a nice quiet stage, which is a particular requirement for this artist.” As noted by Martin Connolly, Senior Project Manager at audio supplier Capital Sound, the Martin Audio connection goes back a long way: “We first

worked with Stereophonics in 1998 when we supplied the sound for their show at Cardiff Castle - it was a Martin Audio system, as it is to this day.” In the 2 decades since then, the band’s relationship with Capital Sound has remained strong. “Over the years it’s been fantastic; they know what they want and hopefully our 20-year history proves we have supplied exactly that.”

GOTTA GO THERE TO COME BACKBackstage and on the road, catering for the tour is provided by Popcorn Catering, while bussing duties are split between Phoenix Bussing and CSUK, to suit the preferences of crew and management respectively. Trucks - a 45ft Mega on the European leg, and seven 45ft Megas for the UK / Ireland arena tour – were supplied by KB Events, as they have been for every UK and European tour or festival over the last 20 years, a point of particular pride for KB’s MD, Stuart McPherson. “We have built up a great relationship with management and the band, and focus on giving them exactly what they’ve asked for; working to high standards, but in an efficient and cost effective way,” he commented. “Over the last 21 years we have planned, delivered, advised and provided a consistent and reliable service for them.” It was in the clubs and theatres of Europe at the start of 2018 that many of the ideas for this most recent run took hold. A week of rehearsals in LH2 Studios and a tech day before the first show in Aberdeen meant the crew were well and truly prepared. While the tour has proved relatively straight forward, there have been the usual adjustments to accommodate. The scoreboard IMAG has been one variable - reverting to standard stage side positions where trim height has been a problem. The moving garage door was another, adapted due to weight restriction in Brighton and space constraints in Bournemouth. According to the PM, however, all of these have been handled with ease thanks to the expertise of the crew. “They’ve been stunning,” said Nelson. “90% of them did the 2016 tour - and beyond - so they all know what they’re doing. They’re all great lads and lasses - without a doubt a very good crew.” Having completed the UK / Ireland run, gear and crew will travel on to Australia at the end of April for a two weeks tour, before coming back home (via Singapore and Dubai) for a string of stadium shows this summer.TPiPhotos: Andrew Benge, http://www.andybenge.com & TPiwww.stereophonics.comwww.capital-sound.co.ukwww.negearth.comwww.oglehog.comwww. bpm-sfx.comwww.ls-live.comwww.kbevent.comwww.phoenix-bussing.co.ukwww.csuk.coach www.popcorncatering.com