| Sound On Stage number 7, May 1997
"Welcome to the Machine - the story of Pink Floyd's live sound: part 3"
MARK CUNNINGHAM continues his comprehensive study of Pink
Floyd's classic tours and goes behind the scenes of the
most outstanding live production of the 1980s: "The Wall".
Although their eagerly-awaited follow-up to "Animals" began life
at Britannia Row Studios, Pink Floyd were soon forced to spend most
of 1979 overseas as tax exiles and completed the recording of their
new album in the South of France, Los Angeles, and New York. In the
mind of Waters, its author, "The Wall", like The Who's "Tommy", was
always going to be more than just a double album; it also generated
a controversial Alan Parker-directed movie and one of the most
ambitiously theatrical rock concert productions of the modern era.
Harvey Goldsmith had been involved in promoting almost every
major Floyd tour of the previous 10 years, but nothing could prepare
him for the sheer expanse of "The Wall", a project originally born
of Waters's reaction against stadium rock. He says: "Roger Waters
took me out for dinner one night and said, 'I have got this idea,'
and he started to tell me about this story. He said, 'I want to
build a wall between the band and the audience, and as the show
progresses, The Wall will build up and up and up...' The bricks
were all cardboard, of course, but I told him that on the last show
there should be a concrete wall, so we could do it for real! We
talked it through and he pretty well had the whole show in his mind.
Then we started liaising with Fisher Park [set design specialists
Mark Fisher and Jonathan Park] to create that event which marked a
big turning point in the history of live shows."
Throughout the making of the album, plans were being drawn up
for the forthcoming production, based on Waters's bizarre concepts.
As well as a number of massive inflatable puppets based on Gerald
Scarfe's distinctive "Wall" cartoon sketches of the schoolteacher,
the mother, and wife, the central "prop" was the "Wall" itself:
420 white, fireproof cardboard bricks built 31 foot high and 160
foot wide. It was slowly constructed in front of the band during
the first 45 minutes of the show by the six-man Britro Brick
Company (!), until Roger Waters slotted the final brick into place
at the end of "Goodbye Cruel World" to signify the intemission.
The show climaxed with the collapse of the wall against a volley
of explosive sound effects and smoke. An encore would have been
a trivial irrelevance.
Says Robbie Williams: "I always knew 'The Wall' was a killer
album, and that we'd go out and tour it, although most of us
assumed it would just involve a slightly bigger PA system and a
few lasers. I don't think anybody had any conception of what was
going on in Roger's mind, and when we first heard that he wanted
to build a massive wall across the stadium with the band performing
behind it, we all said, 'You've got to be f**king mad!' We thought
the audience would storm the stage and that the poor guys at front
of house were going to get killed."
Unable to enter the UK for tax reasons until April 5 1980,
Pink Floyd held the live premiere of "The Wall" at Los Angeles
Sports Arena on February 7 1980, then move to Nassau Coliseum
in New York for five shows, before finally playing six London
dates at Earls Court on August 4-9.
AT FOH
In deciding upon the most suitable front-of-house engineer,
the bass player had only one person in mind, and "The Wall"'s
co-producer and engineer, James Guthrie, was approached by Waters
several times on the subject. Guthrie, who began his studio
career at Mayfair Studios in 1973, says: "I was quite opposed to
the idea initially and told him, 'Look Roger, this is a whole
different area of expertise. You should get someone more suited
to the job, because I have only ever worked in studios.' As time
went on, the project became more and more complex. Gerald Scarfe
had already begun working on the animation which was used for both
the film and live shows, as well as graphics. While we were in
France, Roger cornered me yet again and quite abruptly said, 'You
are the only person qualified to mix the live show, so you have to
do it.' He was also enticing me by saying that we could get any
piece of equipment we wanted, and being as I'd always liked a
challenge, the prospect became more exciting by the day. I finally
agreed, and in the end, we had more equipment at front of house
than most of today's studios."
Along with the excitement of making this challenge work,
Guthrie was quite naturally anxious at the prospect of working
in the radically different acoustic environment of the concert
arena, although the pressure was lifted by the luxury of spending
up to three weeks in production rehearsals at the LA Sports Arena.
This followed preliminary routining of the music with the band at
Leeds Rehearsal Studios on Sunset Boulevard (next door to where
Jackson Browne was rehearsing), while the set was assembled and
tested on a movie sound stage in Culver City. "Once the show
started to take shape, the production rehearsals had to take place
in the arena simply because the show was so enormous," says Guthrie.
"I quickly became acquainted with the acoustics of a large room,
albeit an empty one which is another issue altogether. You can
EQ and voice the PA thoroughly but, of course, when the doors open
and the audience pours in, the acoustics change dramatically. This
was particularly evident at Nassau Coliseum, where we played in the
depths of winter and many of the fans were wearing thick sheepskin
coats, which dampened the sound even further. For me though, the
first show would be the first time I would have to deal with this
phenomenon."
ON STAGE
Few bands had dared to even think of staging such an ambitious
show, let alone tried to plan one. Inevitably "The Wall" grew
into a monster, a logistical nightmare which required setting up
specialist teams within the crew to ensure precision -- a procedure
which has since become commonplace within the live industry. The
complex music also determined that each Floyd instrumentalist was
duplicated and the eight-man line-up enhanced by four backing
vocalists, but it was also Waters's idea that the Floyd members
would each have a "shadow" and this was reflected in the positioning
and lighting of the musicians. There was even a "Wall" uniform:
the crew and band alike wore black short-sleeved shirts with sewn-on
"hammer" logos. Everyone, that is, except Waters who chose to wear
a T-shirt with a large "1" emblazoned on his chest. Number One?
Top Man? Big Cheese? It made you wonder.
Waters's vision necessitated two custom-built stages, one in
front of the other at slightly different heights, which were
separated by a large black Duvetyne drape. The task of pacing the
building of the wall between the two stages and isolating the band
from the audience while the show was in motion was no mean feat in
itself. Add to this the operation of the Scarfe inflatables, the
flying pig, a crashing model Stuka, Marc Brickman's imaginative
lighting, film projections, and copious pyrotechnics, and one
begins to realise the intensity that must have built up behind the
scenes while the audiences sat there agog.
All senses were sent reeling from the very beginning of the
show, which began with a quite startling piece of deception.
Despite being introduced as Pink Floyd by a deliberately tacky MC,
the first number, "In The Flesh?" (a satirical nod to Waters's
"Animal" tour experience), was performed at the front of the stage
by the surrogate four-piece (Snowy White, Andy Bown, Peter Wood,
and Willie Wilson), who wore perfectly formed latex Floyd masks
modelled for by the genuine band at the Hollywood film studios
during rehearsals. No wonder the audience was confused when the
second number started and Waters and co. came into view!
HOLD IT! HOLD IT!
Whilst the band and crew had worked solidly on perfecting the
show over the previous weeks, not one complete run-through of
the production had been attempted without being punctuated by some
form of technical or directional problem. Rehearsals continued in
this vein right up until the first night, mostly due to Waters's
relentless perfectionism. It should be noted that the credits for
the show read: "'The Wall' written and directed by Roger Waters.
Performed by Pink Floyd." While Gilmour's role was to rehearse the
band and ensure that individual parts were reproduced faithfully
from the album, Waters's unique position in this whole production
arguably made him the only person who knew exactly how the show
should be run. Given the additional responsibility as a singer
and bassist, one can only imagine the frustration he incurred when
rehearsed sections did not quite go to plan.
Guthrie recalls: "There were so many things to coordinate that
we would get part of the way through, only to be stopped by Roger's
loud voice through the PA saying, 'Hold it, hold it!' He'd then have
a go at somebody for not bringing a puppet out at a vital moment,
or saying that the wall should have been built up more by now, and
there were also numerous occasions when he'd alert us to badly timed
sound effects or lighting cues. It went on and on like this every
day with continuous interruptions from Roger, shouting 'Hold it,
hold it', and we were becoming increasingly frustrated because we
were very anxious to do a complete run-through in order to get a feel
for the dynamic and flow of the show." Despite such wishes, the crew
had to contend with rehearsing in sections which, Waters has said, was
the only way he could accurately plot the progress of his production.
When the big opening night arrived, Guthrie and his front-of-house
team joked before the show that whatever occurred, at least Waters
could not interrupt the proceedings. After all, this was now playing
to a real audience of 11,000 people. But... "During 'The Thin Ice',
I could hear an intermittent electronic crackle. I thought it was
coming from one of the drum mics, and my assistant engineers Rick Hart
and Greg Walsh were going frantic, listening through headphones and
soloing everything in an attempt to find the source of this noise.
We couldn't work out what it was. Then all of a sudden, Roger shouted
through the PA, 'Hold it, hold it!', and I nearly died! I turned to
Rick and could see the colour draining from his face. I thought I was
dreaming. I looked at Greg, and he had already turned white and was
staring in disbelief -- I think we were all in shock! The pyrotechnic
guys had guaranteed that when the plane exploded at the end of 'In The
Flesh', all the flames would be out upon landing at the side of the
stage. But when they raised the drape between the two stages, some
of the embers from the spraying pyros had lodged in the material and
caught fire. The sound that we had been hearing had come from the
riggers in the catwalks above the stage trying to put out this fire
with extinguishers, so it wasn't anything electronic at all!"
Waters remained calm and informed the audience that the show would
resume as soon as the minor blaze was under control and the drapes
were flown back into the ceiling. Adds Guthrie: "Half the fans
panicked and ran to the exits, and the other half were stoned and
thought it was all a pretty far out part of the act! By the time
they restarted the show, I could just about see the stage as the
beams of light shone through the heavy, thick smoke left behind."
Vision later improved as the audience was treated to the heroic
sight of Gilmour, hydraulically lifted above the wall to perform
"Comfortably Numb" [quite possibly my most treasured memory of any
concert I have ever seen]. This scene, according to Phil Taylor,
was included in the show at the express request of Waters. "When
we were rehearsing, Roger decided it would be a fantastic idea if
Dave appeared over the top of the wall for his vocal sections and
guitar solos. He said 'You should go up on a lift and it'll look
great.' I must have been laughing a little too loud, because Roger
quickly turned to me and added 'And you can go up with him!' So
that was me with Dave every night, crouching beside him and holding
on for dear life!"
It is worth noting that the first night in Los Angeles was not
the only instance where Roger Waters was forced to bring an untimely
halt to a show. The previous occasion was in July 1977 during the
band's four night run at Madison Square Garden in New York City on
the "In The Flesh" tour, where it was not fire but a technician's
stupidity which was to blame. Snowy White says: "Because of various
union regulations in the States, we were forced to use a number of
local technicians and one of the lampies didn't have a clue. He was
focusing a spotlight at Roger's feet instead of his face and body,
and Roger reacted by bending down and 'willing' it upwards with his
hand. After a while, he'd clearly had enough of this incompetence
and he stopped the band halfway through a song, saying, "I think you
New York lighting guys are a f**king load of shit!', and we then
carried on without batting an eyelid!"
WALL OF SOUND
Problems with the opening shows in Los Angeles were not confined
to the legendary fire incident. Guthrie's spine tingles at the
memory of receiving a whole consignment of defective Altec 15-inch
woofers, which necessitated brisk replacement with Gauss 15-inch
drivers. However, such recollections pale into insignificance when
reappraising what was arguably the most potent PA system of its time.
Purchased by Britannia Row especially for "The Wall", in addition
to a new Martin quad system, was the new Altec "Stanley Screamer"
grid-flown system designed by Stan Miller, which was dubbed the
Flying Forest because of its array of different sized constant
directivity horns. Those fortunate to have witnessed any of these
magical shows will remember the awesome sensurround experience of
having low register vibrations firing up their spine. The influx of
sensurround movies in the '70s, such as "Earthquake", had inspired
Guthrie to suggest augmenting the PA with a system which would enhance
the show's sound effects.
As well as being placed either side of the stage underneath
the PA, a mixture of 16 Gauss-loaded Altec 2 x 18-inch subs and
(in Europe) an unspecified quantity of 2 x 15-inch Court DLB-1200
cabinets were positioned under seating blocks all the way around
the perimeter of the arena. The cabinets were used in conjunction
with a sub-sonic synthesizer for ultra low sub-bass at several key
points during the show, such as the helicopter buzz on "The Happiest
Days of Our Lives" and the explosive climax when the wall came
tumbling down. Guthrie says: "That was when I pushed the fader up
as far as it would go, and the whole arena literally started shaking.
Anybody lucky enough to have been sitting over those sub-woofers must
have been bouncing!"
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS
No fewer than a massive, and previously unheard of, 106
unautomated input channels (not including echo returns) were put
under Guthrie's jurisdiction at front of house. Fortunately, his
life was made easier by enlisting the help of assistant engineers
Rick Hart, from the album mixing sessions at Producer's Workshop in
LA, and Greg Walsh. "There were actually four drum kits, because
Nick Mason and Willie Wilson each had a kit on both stages, and we
used a colossal amount of microphones. And because Roger and Andy
Bown both played bass, there had to be two bass rigs on each stage
(two Altec rigs for the front stage and two Phase Linear-amplified
Martin rigs at the rear). So just concentrating on the balance of
the music was enough for me to think about," recalls Guthrie.
Once again at the heart of the mixing process was the famed
UV-lit Midas 40-channel custom board with its central quad section.
The main board, however, underwent significant repair work in
between the 1980 and 1981 "Wall" shows after being damaged in a
fire at Alexandra Palace. Despite the wealth of facilities offered
by the Midas for the "In The Flesh" tour, it could not cope alone
with "The Wall"'s demands for channels, not even with the addition
of a 24-channel stretch. Williams recalls that "we just kept
patching in 10-channel stretch units, ad infinitum!"
To simplify the complex mix, Guthrie devised a plan whereby
Hart would look after the left side of the desk and Walsh, the
right, while he mostly concerned himself with sub-groups in the
middle. This triumvirate engineering formula has since become
a Floyd norm. "They would feed me whatever was playing at the
time. If Dave was playing acoustic guitar, they would make sure
that all of his electric guitar mics were muted, so the only thing
being fed was the acoustic. I had a couple of faders that were
simply for Dave's guitars and I could balance them accordingly.
If I wanted to change the balance between mics, I could just reach
over and do that, then return to my normal balancing act. The same
regime was followed for the keyboards. Rick Hart was also flying
the quad, so when different effects needed to fly around the room,
he was operating the joysticks. Greg, meanwhile, was running the
echo spins."
Added to the outboard racks used for the "In The Flesh" tour
were several items removed from Britannia Row Studios at Guthrie's
specific request. "I just added all the stuff I liked to use in
the studio," he says. "We had Urei 1176 and dbx limiters, Eventide
Harmonisers, Publison DDLs, and for outboard EQ, I used K&H
parametric equalisers. In fact, we pretty much emptied Brit Row
and stuck everything in touring racks." This also followed through
for the microphone inventory. For drums, Guthrie's choice included
an AKG D12 on the kicks, and 202s and 421s on toms, while vocal mics
were both Shure M57s and 58s. One of the first quality radio mics,
a Nady, was also used by Waters as he wandered the stage for a large
proportion of the set.
Hardly surprising for someone of his background, Guthrie
borrowed much from his portfolio of studio techniques for the live
shows and began to work on the front-of-house mix only when he and
the band were satisfied with the sound on stage. "It's my standard
practice in the studio to get the sound right in the playing area
first and then see what I can do to improve on it on the desk, and
I was pleased to discover that it also worked well live." He even
voiced the PA in the same way that he voiced studio monitors, and
for this purpose, he carried with him to each venue a Revox and a
quarter-inch tape of "Comfortably Numb" to play through the rig at
high levels, while he listened around the arena and ran back to
the mixing area to make adjustments on the graphics.
The subtractive EQ techniques for which he had gained a
reputation in his studio career were also adopted for the shows.
He says: "When you're dealing with PA systems which tend to squawk
at you and be a little nasty, it's always a good move to start by
cranking up the volume and subtracting what you don't want to hear
in terms of frequencies. It always sounds more natural and I can
get a much bigger sound that way. You start flat and listen to
what is going on, working out if there is a problem with what you
have and how you are going to rectify it. One should never EQ for
the sake of it, although many people do."
Guthrie's studio experience was further called upon to achieve
maximum separation between the backline amplification in a bid to
improve control. He and backline head Phil Taylor placed large
foam baffles either side of the guitar and bass amplifiers and
keyboard Leslies, almost as if they were establishing a studio
environment on stage. Says Guthrie: "We found that underneath
the stage was a huge area of low frequency rumbling, which was
reducing the definition of the low end, so we hung more of these
foam traps down there at varying intervals and it made an enormous
difference. The other thing we did was to turn everyone down on
stage so the band were playing at an unusually low level. I
thought they would tell me to piss off, quite frankly, but Roger
was actually very supportive, because he wanted to achieve the
highest resolution sound possible. It was a bit of a problem with
Dave though because, like most guitarists, he needed to play at a
certain volume to get the sustain and feedback, so his level would
tend to creep up during the show."
Even more control was provided by the ingenious, dual purpose
"hammer" flags which hung above the auditorium at Earls Court, a
venue famous for its aircraft hangar-like acoustics. A similar
idea had been introduced at the Festhalle in Frankfurt during the
"In The Flesh" tour, where, under Nigel Taylor's direction, the
installation of drapes was extremely effective, absorbing the
spurious energy which reflected off the venue's walls and domed
ceiling. This time, however, these drapes had been transformed
into highly memorable visual props. As Robbie Williams confirms,
acoustic consultant Stephen Court, whose Court Acoustics business
was then based in the Britannia Row complex, played a part in
designing the echo absorption traps for the London shows. Court
says: "Earls Court was a massive lavatory, acoustically-speaking.
I had worked with Ken Shearer who had installed the mushrooms in
the Royal Albert Hall and I'd seen how effective they had been.
So between myself and the Floyd crew we had the idea to put up some
flags, which in real terms acted as blankets to get rid of all the
echo, and the band's artwork team created these wonderful banners."
STAGE MIX
Positioned behind the wall, Seth Goldman ran the extensive
monitoring regime with a Midas Pro 2 console for the main stage
and another Midas console with Pro 2 and Pro 4 modules for when
the band performed on the front stage. All the backing vocals
were summed through a small Altec rack-mounted mixer. What might
be described as the forerunner of in-ear monitoring was also
featured in the show, as Goldman explains: "Kenny Schaffer of
Schaffer-Vega built me an ingenious wireless system with Koss 240
headphones for Roger, and he got on with them really well, which
probably accounts for why he was one of the first people to take
up the original Garwood in-ear monitors when he did his own
version of "The Wall" in Berlin in 1990."
Owing to an increase in the amount of monitoring required for
this two-stage show, Guthrie states that he was often engaged
in an amicable "battle" with Seth Goldman as he tried to persuade
the monitor engineer to reduce on-stage volume. "I was getting
quite a bit of monitor spill into the mics, and that's where the
potential feedback was coming from," says Guthrie. "But the
stage was very nicely laid out, because the wedges were facing
upwards from underneath the stage with a grid on top, so you
didn't actually see any wedges from the front of the audience."
ROLL THE SOUND EFFECTS!
The sound effects used live were typically lifted from
"The Wall" album masters and remixed to the Floyd quad format,
which had now reverted to the diamond shape, with the points at
left, right, front, and back. Also on tape were a number of
instrumental and vocal enhancements. "The band played everything
live," says Guthrie, "but I also played in orchestral tracks,
which were remixed into quad for songs like 'Comfortably Numb'
and 'The Trial', and for 'Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)' we
had all the schoolkids singing. Track 8 carried the timecode,
while on track 7, there was a click introduced by a count which
we would start in the mixing area and would be heard by the band
either through the room monitors or their headphones. They would
then play in time to the animation and recorded tracks which
served to enlarge the musical production. This was all done a
few years before the advent of samplers, so nowadays an additional
keyboard player, like Jon Carin, would play all of these extra
parts from his Kurzweil keyboard."
Adjacent to the sound equipment in the mixing area were three
35mm projectors Mag-linked to two effects-loaded eight-track tape
recorders. The Floyd's regular nine metre circular screen was
used at the back of the stage for 35mm back projections during
the first half, but once the wall was built, it acted as a giant
screen for all three of the linked 35mm projectors out front for
animation. Brit Row's head technician Nigel Taylor routinely
battled with the unreliable pre-SMPTE synchronisation of the
eight-track machines and projectors. "The timecode was on the
35mm mag, and we used Mini Mag synchronisers from a company
called Maglink. We had those on the album so we were able to
use everything that we'd already recorded," says Guthrie.
Quite simply one of the best live productions of the last
20 years, "The Wall" marked the end of what many people consider
to be the definitive Pink Floyd line-up. Their professional
relationship was soon to collapse in a battle between Waters and
Gilmour, and the chances of the four members ever sharing the
same stage again look increasingly slim. But, as their song
stated, the show must go on. And so it did.
Next month: The reformation of Pink Floyd and how their
most successful album was given new life for their triumphant
"Division Bell" shows of 1994.
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Sidebars:
THE WALL '90
Although 180,000 tickets were sold for Roger Waters's all-star,
post-Floyd performance of "The Wall" on July 21 1990 in what had
been the "no man's land" between East and West Berlin, it was
estimated that a further 120,000 East Germans gained free entry
after tearing down barriers. Several of the Floyd's backup
musicians from the original "Wall" performances of 1980 formed
the basis of Waters's Bleeding Hearts Band, such as guitarist
Snowy White, keyboard player Peter Wood (who tragically died in
December 1993), and backing vocalists Joe Chemay, Jim Haas, Jim
Farber, and John Joyce; and special guests included Van Morrison,
Bryan Adams, The Band, Joni Mitchell, Sinead O'Connor, and The
Scorpions. Meanwhile, Michael Kamen (who also played keyboards
with Pink Floyd at Knebworth three weeks earlier) conducted the
Military Orchestra of the Soviet Army and the East Berlin Radio
Orchestra and Choir. Britannia Row once again provided all PA
services, and engineering the sound at front of house was Gary
Bradshaw, while Robin Fox took care of the stage monitoring.
The 5 million pounds aimed to be raised by the concert was
in aid of the Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief, a charity
founded by World War II hero Leonard Cheshire VC.
Rather than rely on the helicopter sound effects heard on
the original album, two actual helicopters were provided by
the US 7th Airborne Corps to hover over the audience.
Since the Berlin event, Waters has seriously considered
performing "The Wall" live again. "I'd love to do it in the
year 2000. We did it in 1980, then again in 1990. I think
it works best in 10 year cycles. I've already got my eye on
the Grand Canyon as a possible venue, or somewhere equally
dramatic." We'll see.
PETE CORNISH: FX GURU
March 4 1976 was the day that Pete Cornish, one of the world's
top guitar amplification and effects authorities, started work
on designing his first effects pedalboard for David Gilmour.
And more than 20 years later, he is still assisting the band's
frontman. Gilmour's first Cornish board consisted of a two
guitar input selector and strobe tuner feed, while the actual
effects were a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, an MXR Phase 100,
Dynacomp and noise gate, a Uni-Vibe, Pete Cornish Custom Fuzz,
and a Jim Dunlop Cry Baby. The board featured three Cry Baby
sweep pedals, modified as a tone control, volume pedal, and
wah-wah respectively, and three outputs with independent on/off
switches allowed Gilmour's simultaneous use of any of all of
his amps.
Modifications, including the addition of a Colorsound treble
and bass boost unit, were made to the board for the "In The Flesh"
tour of 1977, and for the same tour, Cornish made a bass effects
board for Roger Waters plus an acoustic and an electric board for
Snowy White. But it was "The Wall" which saw Cornish working at
full stretch to build another five boards, the basis of which,
for guitars, featured a Deluxe Electric Mistress flanger and
Big Muff, and retained the sturdy Cry Baby pedals for volume,
tone, and wah.
Phil Taylor says: "I was with the band whilst they were
recording in America, and I had to work out how many pedalboards
I needed for the show. I ended up with 11, and because there
were no faxes back then, I had to send drawings to Pete by
express mail and discuss them with him on the phone.
"We were not only adding a second guitarist, but we also now
had a second bass player who needed his own board, plus we had
a complete second stage to equip and I needed another four mini
pedalboards for this. I already had some spare send and return
units to cover unseen eventualities. I put it all together by
working out with David and Roger exactly which effects would be
needed for the songs performed on each stage, and then making
the boards as compact as possible by including only the necessary
effects for each situation. Getting all those made thousands of
miles away from Pete was a bit of a headache, but he is someone
who can always be relied on to deliver the goods."
THE "BRITRO" CUSTOM BRICK
Parallel to the first recording sessions for "The Wall" at
Britannia Row Studios in October 1978 were the first stages in
the development of the live show concept. On December 8 1978,
Mark Fisher sent to Britannia Row's Graeme Fleming a dozen
"genuine Britro brand kiddie bricks", along with a covering
note which explained that "although a bit of care may be
necessary to assemble them, they do form an elegant executive
paperweight... when completed and interlocked." The letter
was signed "M. Fisher, president, Britro Brickworks".
PREMIERE SOUND
A full Britannia Row concert sysem accompanied the first
public preview of "The Wall" movie at the Cannes Film Festival
in April 1982. Understandably, Pink Floyd were anxious that
the sound quality for the world premiere at the Leicester Square
Empire on July 14 should mirror the efforts which went into
producing the music. It was discovered that the cinema's own
loudspeakers would not cope with the demand for low frequency
fidelity, and a joint decision was made by James Guthrie and
Nigel Taylor to hire a more suitable bottom-ended system, namely
a Court "Black Box" rig.
Stephen Court says: "It was a bit of a panic, because the
Empire thought their system was more than adequate, and it was
probably the best in Europe at the time. But when we turned up
for a private screening, it was embarrassing, especially when
the wall came down, because the sound just completely broke up.
So we very hastily threw up some Court bass bins in the theatre,
and the end result was a real first for cinema."
MISSING BRICKS: THE LOST DOCUMENTARY & LIVE ALBUM
Pink Floyd performed live for the last time with Roger Waters
when they staged a final run of "Wall" shows on June 13-17 1981
at Earls Court. One of the purposes of these shows was for the
filming of live footage originally intended for use in the Alan
Parker-directed film of the album, which starred Bob Geldof.
This live footage, however, has never been seen. Neither has a
"behind the scenes" documentary on the production, filmed during
the 1981 performances by lighting designer Marc Brickman, which
included interviews with the band and all the key crew members.
James Guthrie recalls: "Floyd's manager Steve O'Rourke was the
executive producer, and it was all put together for television,
but although fascinating to watch [Guthrie owns a rare edited
copy], it never saw the light of day. In the archives, there are
multitracks and video footage of the whole show, none of which
have ever been released.
"'The Wall'" shows at Earls Court were recorded at 15 ips
on 48 tracks, using two-inch analogue tape and Dolby A, and we
had four 24-track Studer [two A800s and two A80s] machines
overlapping to ensure the whole show was recorded without a gap.
Our mobile studio didn't have nearly enough channels so we
supplemented them by installing another Trident console, making
room for it by removing the tape machines and putting them in
an adjacent Portacabin. Unfortunately, the live recording of
"The Wall" wasn't even mixed. There are numerous boxes of tapes
for the original studio album, what with the sound effects and
different versions of songs, and I believe Roger has possession
of them all in a vault somewhere."
Sound On Stage number 8, June 1997
"Welcome to the Machine - the story of Pink Floyd's live sound: part 4"
MARK CUNNINGHAM concludes his unique 4-part documentary
with a look at Pink Floyd's live achievements following
the departure of Roger Waters, including the record-
breaking Division Bell tour of 1994.
As the dust settled after the multi-faceted "Wall" project, it
became clear that Pink Floyd would not be able to withstand the
internal problems which had been growing since the making of
"Animals" in 1976. Whilst it had not been announced officially,
Rick Wright had left the band, and with Roger Waters establishing
a virtual autocracy, little room remained for the input of other
members. Not surprisingly, the band's next album, "The Final Cut
(A Requiem For The Post War Dream)", released in March 1983, was
little more than a Waters solo venture, even though he valued
(and continues to value) the guitar work of David Gilmour.
Nevertheless, so distanced was Gilmour from the bass player,
both creatively and personally, that he withdrew his own name from
the production credits of "The Final Cut" and, immediately following
the last session began work on his second solo album, "About Face".
Waters, meanwhile, returned to a song cycle he had demoed in 1978
as a possible Floyd album, and in 1984, he issued his "Pros and Cons
Of Hitchhiking". Both musicians embarked on solo tours in Europe
and America that year. Waters hired Eric Clapton as his lead
guitarist and staged a live production that won the approval of many
a discerning Floyd fan, while Gilmour favoured a lower key approach.
It soon became obvious that the Pink Floyd name was always going to
attract a far greater audience than any of the individual members,
even though Waters might not have found it comfortable to agree with
such sentiment.
To those close to Pink Floyd, it came as no shock when the
tension within the band resulted in Waters quitting in December
1985. "It took a lot of strength to walk away," he said later.
A well-publicized feud followed over the next two years, with a
legal battle which saw Gilmour eventually winning the rights to the
Floyd monicker. By the summer of 1986, he was back in the studio
with Mason and the newly re-elected Wright (and a host of session
musicians) to work with "The Wall"'s co-producer Bob Ezrin on the
first album from this new regime, "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason",
and rehearse for the first Pink Floyd live dates since 1981.
The new Floyd was fleshed out by, among others, Gilmour's friend
from Cambridge and erstwhile Mike & The Mechanics guitarist Tim
Renwick, ex-Icehouse bassist Guy Pratt, percussionist Gary Wallis,
and keyboard player Jon Carin, who helped Wright renew his skills
as a musician after succumbing to Waters's autocratic behavior
during the "Wall" project. Talking about the acrimonious split with
his former bass playing partner during an interview to publicize the
tour, Gilmour said: "There are many things that Roger contributed to
Pink Floyd that are missed, such as his positive drive, his concepts,
and especially his skill as a lyricist. But I think the awful ex-
perience of living with Roger's megalomania burned Nick and Rick out
to a certain degree, and it affected their confidence as musicians."
On their "Momentary Lapse" tour of 1987-89, the Floyd performed
199 shows to a total worldwide audience of 5.5 million, despite
their initial plan to simply promote the album with an 11 week trek.
Typically for Floyd, it was the largest production ever taken on the
road at the time and featured the world's biggest outdoor stage,
custom-built by Paul Staples. The proscenium alone was 85 foot high
by 98 foot wide. Transportation required four steel systems on the
road at any one time, and 45 trucks were used to move the steelwork
and equipment.
In 1984, during the band's inactive period, Britannia Row
Productions became an independent company, purchased from Pink
Floyd by Robbie Williams and Bryan Grant. For this tour, Brit Row
merged their own facilities with those of their close associates,
American-based Maryland Sound Inc. (MSI) whose proprietory PA stock
formed the core of the touring system. This featured quantities of
4 x 15-inch low packs, 4 x 12-inch high packs and a TAD 2001 high
end driver, all powered by P500 amplification.
The tour began in Ottawa on September 9 1987, with MSI also
fulfilling the band's quad requirements. However, by the time
the shows hit Europe, Brit Row exercised its wishes to introduce
Turbosound TMS-3s as the quad replacements. Grant says: "The point
at which Brit Row began to seriously consider Turbosound as its main
source of arena and stadium systems came in September 1988, when
Samuelsons was being radically restructured and we saw an opportunity
to purchase its entire TFA Turbosound stock, while also employing most
of the accompanying crew."
SOUTHERN FRIED SOUND
A new face among the Pink Floyd crew in 1987 was American
front-of-house engineer Buford Jones whose experience in the sound
reinforcement business began in 1971 as part of Showco's team in
Dallas, Texas before he turned freelance in 1980. By the time of
his introduction to the Floyd, his live mixing credits had included
ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne,
and David Bowie. Quality references indeed, but 10 years on, Jones
is still not clear as to why his name was suggested for the Floyd
tour.
He says: "The phone rang one day and Robbie Williams asked if I
was interested, so an appointment was set up for me to see David
Gilmour in LA, and the next day I was officially on board. Unlike
James Guthrie, I had not worked with them in the studio so it was
new ground for both parties. Maybe they were looking for someone
who was used to working for live bands all year round, in which
case I was a perfect candidate. I treated the gig with the same
degree of musical sensitivity that I have always relied upon. My
objective is always to learn the music and reproduce it as closely
as possible for an audience."
Jones may have worked with some of the biggest names in the
world, but even he was not accustomed to working with a quad sound
system in a stadium production. During rehearsals in Toronto, it
became clear to Gilmour that even though he had broad shoulders,
the responsibilities he had set himself in pulling the show together
were just too much to bear on his own. Inevitably, he called upon
James Guthrie and Bob Ezrin to help smooth the way and offer their
informed opinions. It was Guthrie who coached Jones as a newcomer
to 'the Floyd way', taking him through the vital cues, fader rises,
and dynamics of the mix.
Says Jones: "The Floyd project made for an incredibly interesting
challenge, and to do that quad mix and analyse it was a hell of an
education, because it was not something that came from the book.
It was something quite unique to Floyd. What you could achieve by
panning an instrument around the room was amazing. You could
actually shift the reverb of something into the centre of the room
or to the back. Those sorts of things were judgment calls that I
would use to determine what I thought was exciting. You wouldn't
have those opportunities with other artists."
In easing Jones into the situation, David Gilmour made himself
available to answer important technical queries and give his views
on the engineer's suggestions. "He always gave me a straight answer,"
says Jones. "But I found that the person who was best at explaining
exactly what was needed was Jon Carin. Whenever I am working on a
tour, I always focus on one individual from a band, and Jon was my
music source. Night after night, we would religiously listen to the
show tapes and analyse them so that we could improve on the mix with
each performance."
At the start of rehearsals, Jones was using a Midas Pro 4C
console, which had become a little tour-weary by 1987 and was
in need of replacement. For the meantime, it would still cope
admirably with Mason's and Wallis's drums and percussion (with
the aid of a 16-channel stretch board), but it was also decided
to take on two Yamaha PM3000 consoles. Added to this equipment
was a new quad console designed and built expressly for the tour
by Britannia Row. This configuration stayed in place until a
third PM3000 finally replaced the Midas setup for the 1989 legs,
for which the crew personnel remained virtually identical.
Jones comments: "I thing the complexity of MSI's wiring, to
get those three consoles working together, was astounding, and
those desks were really working for me. I felt the partnership
between MSI and Brit Row was very smooth, mainly because of Robbie
Williams, for whom I have tremendous respect. The cooperation
with regards to what I needed was always there, 100%, and Robbie
was always around to back me up.
"We had 136 input channels over three consoles, so that was
a lot different to what I'd been used to. In addition to the
personnel from MSI and Brit Row, Pink Floyd let me choose two
people to help me with the engineering so that I could concentrate
more on the musical elements of the mix and ensure a consistency
from gig to gig. I had worked on several tours with assistents
to whom I would delegate certain responsibilities. When we started
out, I had James Geddes, a studio engineer for Jackson Browne, and
Bob Hickey, who had mixed James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. I hired
Bobby to handle the drum mix for me, while James took control of the
effects returns and quad tape returns. Their consoles dumped into
mine and I would blend their levels into the rest of the mix."
Once the crew's initial excitement from the early tour dates
began to dissipate, Jones started to relax and enjoy working on
what he describes as a major highlight of his engineering career.
He then watched with amusement as, later in the tour, his assistent
engineers were replaced with some new blood, namely Larry Wallace
and Dave Lohr. "There were lots of mistakes on the first two shows
when the change took place. When the new guys came on, it was quite
funny to see them struggle through their initial freak out stage
with the sophisticated demands of the show. We'd already been
through that and it made us realise the extent of what we were
doing. A little bit of every emotion is going to flow as you get
to grips with it."
Seth Goldman began mixing the Floyd's monitors in America with
a Midas Pro 40 console, but a lack of channels forced him to switch
to a Ramsa 840 and a Yamaha PM3000 for mixdown to sub-groups when
the tour reached Europe on June 10 1988. Buford Jones comments:
"Very seldom did I have any problem with the feedback that you can
sometimes get with loud monitoring. Although much of that was down
to Seth's sensitive skills, the stage design was also responsible
in the way that the wedges were pointing upwards from underneath
the stage grating, so there was very little interaction between the
monitors and the front-of-house mix. Certainly, the signals that
were coming off stage did not require me to do much in the way of
extensive EQing."
KNEBWORTH '90
Having already played at Wembley Stadium and Manchester City FC's
Maine Road ground in the August of the previous year, Pink Floyd
returned to the UK and performed at London Arena on July 4-9 1989,
two weeks before completing the last leg of their long-running
"Momentary Lapse" tour in Marseilles.
Following a year which saw the Floyd members individually
guesting at friends' gigs and appearing on studio sessions,
the band reassembled for a memorable one-off performance in
front of 125,000 people at Knebworth on June 30, 1990, where
they "headlined" above Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Genesis,
Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Tears For Fears, Status Quo, Cliff
Richard & The Shadows, and Robert Plant & Jimmy Page -- easily
the greatest gathering of British stars since Live Aid. The
concert was in aid of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and the
BPI's BRIT School for Performing Arts, and 60,000 UKP of Pink
Floyd's own money was spent on an outstanding firework display
as the finale.
The Brit Row PA for the occasion consisted of Turbosound TMS-3
cabinets, stacked eighty per side, ten wide and eight deep, and
MSI high and low packs on three delays. "The prevailing wind shot
right down the site and we had more sound out backstage than out
front!" recalls Bryan Grant. Although on tour in Canada that June
with David Bowie, Buford Jones was allowed to skip two dates to work
with Pink Floyd at Knebworth, and was supported by Andy Jackson who,
four years later, would slide into Jones's front-of-house shoes
with consummate professionalism.
At this show, his last with the Floyd, Jones was only able to
arrive in time for the soundcheck on the previous evening, and
in hindsight, he feels that his task was hampered by his lack of
pre-rehearsal. He says: "Knebworth was a wonderful opportunity
to reunite with the band and crew, and be able to look back on
the previous tour with great fondness. I gave it my best shot
at Knebworth, but I did suffer from the disadvantage of a tight
schedule which didn't allow for any preparation. Nonetheless,
Andy was a big help by doing what the other two guys had done for
me on the last tour; I think we maybe had two different approaches.
And the only thing I regret was not having enough time together to
map the show out in detail beforehand." Despite such problems and
even in the face of a rain storm, Pink Floyd's set completed a
fabulous day, but the band's most outstanding tour was still yet
to come.
THE TOLL OF THE BELL
Recorded aboard The Astoria, David Gilmour's houseboat studio
on the River Thames, "The Division Bell" signified the true
renaissance of Pink Floyd. For the first time in many years,
Mason and Wright were playing with passion and confidence, while
Gilmour felt he was in a real band once more, instead of "shaping"
music with a bunch of associates as had largely been the case
with "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason". With the album in the can,
Pink Floyd flew to America in February 1994 to begin production
rehearsals for their forthcoming tour in the world's largest
aircraft hangar at Norton Air Base in San Bernardino, California,
under the jurisdiction of the appointed rehearsals project manager,
Richard Hartman and production director Robbie Williams.
These days, it is hard to think of the name Britannia Row
without thinking of stadium shows and blue boxes. But Floyd's
"Division Bell" tour was one of the first occasions where the
Turbosound Flashlight system was used on a full-scale stadium
production, on this occasion delivering no less than 232,000
Watts of unbridled music power. Rarely does a rock'n'roll show
garner praise for its sonic fidelity in the general press, but
throughout the tour, newspapers the world over raved about the
"perfect quadraphonic sound system". One reporter, Michael Norman
of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, was moved to write: "No rock band
can match Pink Floyd when it comes to making a stadium show come
off sounding as if it's being held in your living room."
Although the touring system went through several changes
following the opening dates in America, the PA itself normally
consisted of 200 cabinets with 112 of these forming the front-of-
house system across two steel towers. The main PA consisted of
32 Flashlight mid/high cabinets per side, eight wide by four deep,
with a further 32 sub-boxes at stage level in the wings. Wide
dispersion Floodlights were positioned at the front of the stage
as fill-in cabinets, and both Floodlight and Flashlight enclosures
were used for the three quadraphonic stacks. Each of the delay
towers, meanwhile, carried six focused mid/high and six bass
cabinets. The configuration of the PA provided maximum horizontal
and front-to-rear coverage, with dispersion spread out to the
extremes of the audience. This coverage was further enhanced by
having flown mid/high boxes and tall, narrow bass stacks.
This system was amplified by BSS EPC-760s and -780s, and the
control racks dedicated to the PA were also full to the brim with
BSS wares. These included FDS-360 crossovers, TCS-804 digital
delays, MSR-604 and -602 mic splitters, DPR-502 dual graphics,
and a bank of Varicurve for accurate remote equalisation of the
house and delay rigs.
Set designer Mark Fisher and construction companies Brilliant
Stages and StageCo designed and built three enormous stage sets
(the largest ever) measuring 60 metres wide by 22 deep by 23.5
high, incorporating 700 tons of steel. Each stage (based on the
famous domed Hollywood Bowl) took three days to build, eighteen
hours to set up, seven hours to break down, and two days to fully
dismantle for load-out. Hence, a strict "leapfrogging" regime
was put into action on each leg of the tour, with 33 trucks
delivering the staging to venues well in advance of each show.
By contrast, the complete PA system, including delays and quad
towers, fitted into a paltry two trucks. Years before, a system
of similar power would have required more than double the trucking,
but the deceptive size-to-performance ratio of the compact, new
generation Turbosound system contributed to a healthy cost saving.
And yet more staggering statistics: the tour also employed eight
tour buses, another eighteen trucks for production, catering and
power, and a 161-strong crew. All in all, this required $4 million
to finance prior to the first performance, and a further $25 million
in running costs. The 100,000 UKP loss suffered by the Floyd on
their 1974 UK tour now paled into petty cash-sized insignificance.
Making his first appearance with the band since they played at
The Roundhouse in 1968 was lighting designer Peter Wynne Wilson
who brought a psychedelic flavour to the set with the live liquid
light show he previously projected onto the Floyd, back in the Syd
Barrett era. Fittingly, and much to the amazement of fans, the
band included a faithful interpretation of "Astronomy Domine"
(from their 1967 debut album) in their set. The inclusion of the
track on the live album "Pulse" would earn Barrett substantial
royalties. In an equally nostalgic gesture, Pink Floyd dusted
down and performed "The Dark Side Of The Moon" in its entirety
in Detroit on July 15, the first time the band had done so since
Knebworth in 1975. This, along with other classics, new and old,
from the Floyd catalogue, benefited from the latest in film
projection tecnology, namely four Cameleon Teleprojectors and a
Bran Ferren-designed 70mm, 10kW Xenon, SMPTE timecode-controlled
projector with the capacity for a 6,000 foot reel. Such expensive
hardware was used to display special footage conceived for the
tour by long-term Floyd associate Storm Thorgerson, formerly of
design gurus Hipgnosis.
THREE-WAY MIXING
At front-of-house, 136 channels were controlled by two Yamaha
PM4000 consoles and a PM3000, whose sole purpose was to handle
the effects returns. Added to the desk inventory was a custom-
designed Midas XL3 quad board with a central VCA section and dual
joysticks for panning. As part of Brit Row's equipment stock,
this desk would later be used on a variety of tours, including
Oasis's 1996 summer festivals.
Mark Fisher styled the mixing tower in such a way that it
would appeal to the band while they performed for two hours!
Within this structure were front-of-house engineer Andy Jackson
and his assistants Colin Norfield and Dave Lohr. Jackson, who
had engineered the new album, the "Wall" movie soundtrack, and
"The Final Cut", as well as a number of Floyd solo projects,
concentrated on mixing the bulk of the band, while Norfield
handled bass, drums, and PA management duties, and Lohr
controlled the quad system and tape effects.
This was not the first time that Norfield and Jackson had
worked together. Six months before the tour, during a break from
the "Division Bell" sessions, Pink Floyd performed a short set of
classics at an all-star charity show organised by Mike Rutherford
of Genesis in Cowdray Park, Sussex on September 18 1993. Whilst
Jackson mixed the Floyd (with Rutherford on bass), he was all too
aware of the simplicity of Norfield's front-of-house organisation
of the consoles for the sets by Eric Clapton, Genesis, and the
remaining three members of Queen. Norfield recalls: "I had three
drum kits subbed on a Yamaha PM3000 into three pairs of groups
on the PM4000. Andy came up to me and said that he thought what
I'd done was great and that it made his life a lot easier when it
was his turn to mix. So when the Floyd tour came around, he was
quite happy to have me on the tour with him. Likewise, it was a
big thrill for me."
Jackson's transition from the studio work on the album to
arriving in the States for the tour appeared to be seamless.
Ahead of him, Norfield and Seth Goldman busied themselves with
preparations for the forthcoming American trip. "Andy was doing
things on the album right up to the last minute," says Norfield.
"We were down at rehearsals in San Bernardino, and it all came
together brilliantly from the start."
The responsibility for the overall management of the PA system
was assigned to Norfield. He says: "The buck stopped with me,
so to speak. Dave Lohr would go in before me to EQ the quads,
then Paddi Addison and I would follow him to run up the PA with
pink noise and unit checking, so it was all ready to go. I then
put some music through the system that I was very familiar with
and EQ'd it to my taste. After a thorough line check, Andy would
come in, and the countdown to the show began."
Says Jackson: "In theory, I retained overall control of the
mix, because Colin's desk was sub-grouped through mine, and I had
a couple of master faders for the two drum kits. Originally, I
also controlled the bass, but I gave it over to Colin, because it
seemed to make more sense. Fortunately, we worked pretty well
together and saw eye to eye about most things, so in practice I
didn't have to start pushing his masters around as might have
happened with other engineers I've worked with."
In spite of appearances, Jackson insists that the job of mixing
the Floyd was not as complex ast it initially seemed, especially
with his partner Norfield around. "In some ways, because of the
amount of control we had, it was easier than mixing a gig in a small
club. Colin and I had many discussions on how we were going to
approach the show, and we both agreed that we would get the best
results if we kept it as simple as possible. This, we felt, would
leave us free to do the more important things better, namely organise
sounds and balances. We weren't making technical changes for the
sake of it, we were literally trying to improve the sound quality
of the shows as they progressed."
Amongst the 11-piece band (which also featured "Dark Side"/
"Wish You Were Here" saxophonist Dick Parry and backing singer
Sam Brown) was Jon Carin whose large synthesizer rig was pre-mixed
on stage for a direct stereo feed to Jackson at front of house.
"The levels were actually changed on the synths themselves,"
comments Jackson. "I might say, 'Can you make that piano sample
a touch louder?' and Jon would take it up a notch, so that when he
called up that patch, for whichever song, it was just that bit
louder. We would refine that mix between us in soundchecks before
gigs, and once it was sorted, it was the same every night. It was
so much easier than having half a desk full of keyboard channels."
In a similar vein, Colin Norfield received a stereo feed from Gary
Wallis's electronic percussion.
As the tour continued, from America to Europe, Jackson and
company set about gradually decreasing the number of channels they
were using in an attempt to further simplify their engineering tasks
and establish a more foolproof setup. Jackson says: "David Gilmour
had four guitar cabinets in stereo, with two different types of
cabinet (WEM and Marshall) each side. Intitially I had four mics up,
one on each cabinet, but I ended up trimming it down to two because
they did the job just as well and there was less to go wrong. The
same thing would happen on drums where Colin started the tour with
a top and a bottom snare mic, but we dumped the bottom mic because
it just wasn't necessary. We also lost the mic on Guy Pratt's bass
amp and resigned ourselves purely to the DI signal. Within a short
time, we had got things down pretty much to a good workable minimum.
I would much rather spend my time riding Dave's lead vocal fader
because it is more important.
"Dave's guitar sound continued to be processed from his own rack,
and we didn't really have to do anything to it at front of house.
We didn't use too much outboard really. We used some things to
brighten, fatten, and lend ambience to vocals, such as harmonisers.
There were, of course, the normal gates and compressors, and some
specific long delays on vocals, but in terms of reverbs, we didn't
go very far because there's not much need for reverb when you're
playing in stadiums!"
Gilmour used a regular Shure SM58 for vocals, while the other
singers were on SM51 condensers. The guitar cabinets were miked
with updated versions of the small, square Sennheisers, which were
favoured Floyd microphones 20 years earlier. "They sounded OK when
I pushed the faders up!" laughs Jackson. "We had some other Shure
mics on the blankets inside the kick drums," he adds. "They looked
like PZMs but were actually dynamic mics. [Shure] SM57s were placed
on Nick and Gary's snares, and on toms, we had little Ramsa tie-clip
mics that clung to the tom shells." Also for drums were AKG 414s
on overheads and SM57s and 414s on Wallis's percussion.
For the first time, Pink Floyd's monitoring comprised of 23
Turbosound floor wedges and three Garwood Radio Station in-ear
monitoring systems: Nick Mason exclusively used ear moulds, Gary
Wallis had moulds, headphones, and a regular three-way sidefill,
and Dick Parry used moulds plus one wedge. Normal wedges were
used by every other band member. "I tried the ear moulds out with
Rick Wright, but he didn't get on with them," says Seth Goldman
who was assisted on monitors by Alan Bradshaw. Between them,
they controlled the stage mix with two VCA-linked Midas XL3s --
one carrying the vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, and effects
returns, the other taking care of the two drum kits and percussion.
One interesting invention to aid contact between the band and
Goldman was a footswitch device by each vocal microphone, which
removed the mic from the house PA and routed the voice to a speaker
above Goldman's desks. This enabled any one of the band members
to calmly request any adjustment to monitoring levels without
resorting to the traditional screaming of abuse endured by other
monitor engineers!
Working closely with Jackson and Norfield, Dave Lohr operated
two eight-track tape machines for effects playbacks, with the
first four tracks sent to each of the four quad points, and the
others used for timecode, clicks, and feeds to the stage. Rather
than re-invent the wheel, Pink Floyd unearthed the master show
tapes from previous tours and compiled new eight-track reels to
replace their worn-out predecessors.
Jackson: "For the '94 tour, it was done using Dolby SR,
because it was the new system whereas it had previously been
dbx noise reduction. It is surprising that the Floyd have been
happy to adopt low tech solutions when they are known for being
high tech, and again a fairly low tech approach was made. The
actual effects were mainly recorded at the time of the albums,
and there were quite a few that I was involved in, such as people
running down corridors, Roger driving his car around the car park
at the back of the studio, and rowing down a river. A few effects
were timecode synched to film, but a lot of them were flown in
manually. It was a case of Dave Lohr cueing up a section of the
tape and pressing the button at the right time. It was always
close enough, because the effects were not so musically critical
that they had to be bang on time.
"Inevitably, at the end of every show, we'd have a talk about
what we did and try to tighten things up on the next one, having
listened to the DATs I recorded each night. But it didn't take
long to get the show well routined. At the end of the tour, all
the DATs were locked in a cupboard somewhere, probably in the Floyd
warehouse. They were all collected up and a list had to be made
of where each one was and who I'd given one to. A few of them
went missing... I'm sure you could find the bootleg somewhere!"
Much shorter than the previous Pink Floyd outing in 1987-1989,
"The Division Bell" tour ended in late 1994 and immediately went
into the history books as a classic Floyd period, one which was a
veritable showcase for the art of concert production in the '90s.
As David Gilmour commented: "The response to 'The Division Bell'
and the tour was beyond our wildest dreams. To still be pulling
in crowds of this magnitude [an average of 45,000 per night in
America] is pretty mind-blowing."
Colin Norfield almost certainly speaks for the whole crew when
he says: "Andy, Dave, myself, and all the guys had enormous fun
on the road with the Floyd, and it probably rates as the most
enjoyable tour I've been on in my 28 years as an engineer."
COMING BACK TO LIFE?
If there is a common thread which links those who have been
fortunate to work on the road with Pink Floyd, it is one of
immense pride and satisfaction at being part of what critics have
dubbed "the greatest show on Earth". Britannia Row's Bryan Grant
says: "I've always felt that part of Pink Floyd's success has been
because they always wanted to push boundaries and give an immense
production value to what they do. Their concerts are multimedia
events and that tradition stretches way back to their psychedelic
period with the oil slides. They are certainly hugely responsible
for the way concert productions have grown more sophisticated over
the years." Long-standing lighting designer Marc Brickman agrees:
"The thing about the Floyd is that they're always prepared to take
chances, and new things evolve because of that. They're still
right on the cutting edge."
With thirty years of madness, pigs, walls, musical innovation,
and human conflict behind them, one might say that little remains
for Pink Floyd to conquer. Critics assumed they were washed up when
Syd Barrett left in 1968. They were wrong. Immense skepticism
crept in when Floyd continued without Roger Waters. "The Division
Bell" kicked the narrow-minded firmly into touch. Despite seeming
impossibilities, with every tour they have always managed to exceed
even their own monumental standards of presentation. This obviously
begs the question, what next?
With David Gilmour mostly concentrated on family life in the
Sussex countryside at present, it would seem that if there are plans
for the Floyd machine to spring back to life, it will not occur in
the near future. But perhaps we could expect a multimedia Millenium
spectacular to end all spectaculars. It would certainly be a fitting
end to the 20th century -- the century which gave birth to rock'n'roll
and witnessed amazing leaps in concert technology.
Perhaps the next Pink Floyd shows will take place somewhere
in the outer reaches of the universe, beamed into stadiums around
Earth as three-dimensional, holographic, "virtual" performances.
Now, this may all seem just too bizarre to imagine, but no more
than the idea of Gilmour, Mason, and Wright going back to their
roots and playing a club tour of the Home Counties... with Syd
and Roger. There's more chance of seeing pigs fly.
Sidebars:
A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF CASH
Strange but true... When Pink Floyd played Moscow in June 1989,
they received no money for their troubles. Instead, they were
rewarded with items such as a large consignment of timber... to
fuel a secret Floydian guitar factory perhaps? Probably not.
GILMOUR'S KIT
Here in its breathtaking entirety is the list of contents of
David Gilmour's most recent touring rig:
* GUITARS
Fender Stratocaster, 1957 vintage re-issue.
Fender Telecaster 1952 vintage re-issue.
Gibson Chet Atkins electro-classical.
Gibson J-200 Celebrity acoustic.
Jedson lap steel.
* AMPLIFICATION
6 HiWatt Custom AP100 amps.
2 WEM 4 x 12-inch cabinets.
2 Marshall 4 x 12-inch cabinets.
2 Doppola rotary speakers (designed by Phil Taylor, built by
Paul Leader).
Samson Guitar Transmitter/Receiver system.
* EFFECTS/MISCELLANEOUS
2 Peterson strobe tuners.
Pete Cornish custom effects.
Routing system with Custom Audio footswitch board, triggering:
Boss CS-2.
compression/sustainer.
MXR Dynacomp Compressor.
Ibanez CP-9 Compressor.
Pete Cornish Soft Sustain.
Boss MZ-2 Digital Metalizer.
2 Chandler Tube Drivers.
Pete Cornish Big Muff.
Rat.
Sovtek Big Muff II.
Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress.
Univibe.
Tremulator.
MXR Digital Delay.
Lexicon PCM70 Delay.
Boss CE-2 Chorus.
5 Boss GE-7 Graphic EQs.
Digitech Whammy.
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal.
Dynacord CLS-222 Leslie Simulator.
Alembic F2B Preamp.
Jim Dunlop Heil Talk Box.
HITCHHIKER'S JAM AT EARLS COURT
The album title, "The Division Bell", was suggested by the author
of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and Floyd fan Douglas
Adams. His birthday present from David Gilmour later that year
was an invitation to play guitar with the Floyd in October 1994.
Shockingly, the first night of the band's mini residency there
was cancelled only minutes before the start of the show when
seating collapsed, injuring several of the 1,200 fans sat within
the block (see letter from the Floyd members).
[On a letterhead from Pink Floyd with a centered image of the
stone heads (and a little boy in front of the left head) at
the top of the page, is this text and large signatures of the
band members:] "We are very pleased that you were able to get
here tonight after the terrible experience of last Wednesday.
We are assured that all safety checks have been made on the
rebuilt stand and feel confident that you can sit back and
enjoy the show. Thanks for your support."
BRIT ROW AND TURBOSOUND
1991 was a landmark year for Britannia Row Productions, a year in
which Robbie Williams left the company and went on to form his own
successful independent production operation, RWP, and one which saw
Brit Row move from its original Islington base to a new site in Oslers
Road, Wandsworth. Co-director Mike Lowe had joined the company in
1987, and along with Bryan Grant, he was taking an increased interest
in Turbosound's new generation of PA Equipment, namely Flashlight.
Lowe says: "We beta tested the prototype Flashlight system in 1989
and used it at Glastonbury and Roskilde, just as we began to get
production line equipment going. Roger Waters's "The Wall" in Berlin
followed and artists such as the Pet Shop Boys and Cliff Richard went
out with it in 1991. By the time Flashlight went on its first stadium
tour with Dire Straits, we had pretty much disposed of our stock of
TMS-3s in favour of this new Turbosound product, and it was inevitable
that it would be used for 'The Division Bell' tour."
[picture caption:]
Andy Jackson and Colin Norfield extend a warm apres-gig welcome
to you at The Donkey's Knob -- the 1994 Pink Floyd crew's official
travelling pub under the second tier of the front-of-house riser.
Impromptu jam sessions with various Floyds and roadies were a
nightly affair.
GILMOUR'S RIG IN THE '80s & '90s
When Pink Floyd were recording "A Momentary Lapse of Reason"
in Los Angeles, equipment design specialist Bob Bradshaw was
recommended to David Gilmour as an ideal source for a new guitar
processing rig for the band's forthcoming 1987 world tour. Bradshaw
was duly commissioned for the job. However, the end product was
not without its problems and one show ground to a halt when the
system broke down. To solve the dilemma during a break in the tour
itinerary, Phil Taylor brought in Pete Cornish initially to rebuild
sections of the rig to ensure its roadworthiness. Says Taylor:
"Pete stabilised and altered the power supply for the Bradshaw foot
controller board which, minus its audio side, was retained when the
system was completely rebuilt for the 'Division Bell' tour. We
essentially married the board to a Pete Cornish audio routing system.
"Since the 1970s, David's systems have always given permutations
of clean, distorted, and delayed sounds. But as time has progressed,
the rig has become larger, some of the components have changed, and
there are wider choices in each area of effects."
Seventeen years after Gilmour first used a Heil voice box for
the recording of the "Animals" track "Pigs (Three Different Ones)",
the voice box returned once again to flavour his guitar sound. This
time it was a borrowed Electro-Harmonix model, employed for "Keep
Talking". Then a new Heil unit was purchased and modified by Cornish
to be taken out on the road. "The Heil has a tiny horn unit, and if
you power it with a 100 Watt amp, there is nowhere for the bottom end
signal to go and you quickly burn out the output transformers. So
Pete introduced a crossover to remove those frequencies."
When it was mooted that "The Dark Side Of The Moon" might be
dusted off and reintroduced to the Floyd live set, Taylor brought
in a Dynacord CLS-222 Leslie Simulator, which Cornish modified in
order to set the bass and treble fast and slow speeds independently.
But to enforce the rotary sound, Taylor came up with an interesting
new product. For the "Division Bell" album, Gilmour recorded with
a small Maestro Rover revolving speaker, which he had positioned
above his two 1959 Fender Bassman and two HiWatt SA 2 x 12-inch amps.
To reproduce the sound live, Phil Taylor used the basis of the
Maestro to design a larger, double speaker cabinet version named
the Doppola, which was built by Paul Leader. "We powered the two
Doppolas with HiWatts and tried out a number of different drivers
to see what would handle the power and sounded the most like a guitar
speaker. David had the Doppolas switched on throughout the whole show
and they were blended into his 4 x 12-inch mix at various points
during the set when some movement was required."
The rig is permanently set up in the Floyd warehouse and Taylor
occasionally plays through it to ensure that, just in case of
emergencies, it is all operating correctly. Taylor comments:
"Since the last date of the '94 tour, David hasn't had the need to
go anywhere near it, even though he has been doing the odd guest
session spot with people like B. B. King."
"DIVISION BELL" TOUR BACKLINE
* Nick Mason
Drum Workshop drums, hardware & pedals, Paiste cymbals, Latin
percussion, Pro Mark sticks, Dauz pads, Yamaha DTS-70 trigger
interface, Remo drum heads
* Rick Wright
Kurzweil K2000 keyboard, K2000S rack modules & MIDI board,
Hammond B-3 organ, Leslie speaker system
* Jon Carin
Kurzweil K2000 sampler/mother keyboard & K2000S rack modules,
Syco Logic MIDI router, Roland MC-500II & MC-50 sequencers,
Roland SE-70 processor, Dynatech hard drive unit, Mackle mixers,
Leslie speaker system
* Guy Pratt
1951 Fender Precision Bass, 1963 Fender Jazz bass, Spector NS2,
Status five-string fretted and fretless basses, Trace Elliot MPII
computerised preamp, JBL UREI power amps, Hartke 4 x 10-inch cabinets,
Yamaha SPX-90 & SPX-990 multi-FX, Boss SCC-700 control unit
* Tim Renwick
Fender Custom Shop Stratocasters, Takamine 6- and 12-string acoustic
guitars, Ovaton Hi-String acoustic guitars, Ovation Hi-String acoustic
guitar, Gibson Chet Atkins classical guitar, Music Man 150 Watt amps,
Marshall 4 x 12-inch cabinets, Tube Works Stereo Reverb unit, Roland
SDE-3000A digital delay, Yamaha SPX-900 & SPX-990 multi-FX, Pete
Cornish Custom pedalboard with 10 available effects
* Gary Wallis
Drum Workshop drums, hardware & pedals, Zildjan cymbals, Latin
percussion, Vater sticks, Dauz pads, Yamaha DTS-70 trigger interface,
Remo drum heads, Kurzweil K2000R sampler, Yamaha DMP-7 mixer
* Dick Parry
1950 Selmer Super Action tenor saxophone with Otto Link mouthpiece,
1994 Selmer SA80-Series II baritone saxophone with Lawton mouthpiece
THE LIVE ALBUMS
"Delicate Sound Of Thunder" was recorded in August 1988 over the
course of Pink Floyd's five concerts at Nassau County Colisseum,
New York, and released in November 1988 as a live document of the
"Momentary Lapse of Reason" tour. The album also earned the notoriety
of being the first rock music to be played outside of Planet Earth
when the cosmonauts of Soyuz 7 took a cassette with them aboard their
1988 space mission.
Front-of-house engineer Buford Jones was asked by David Gilmour
to mix the live tapes during a problematic six-week period at Abbey
Road Studio 3. Jones says of the recordings: "Dave Hewitt [the
recording engineer from the Remote Recording Services mobile] put
the tracks down for me on a 32-track Mitsubishi digital machine for
all the instruments and vocals, and for drums we recorded with a
24-track Studer. Unfortunately, the sessions coincided with some
changes at Abbey Road, and Studio 3 was still under reconstruction
with all new equipment, which had not been used nor tested, so we
had an enormous amount of downtime which affected creativity. This
meant that the album was quite rushed towards the end."
In an interview around the time of its release, it was stated
that the album was purely mixed from the live multitracks with no
additional recording. However, Jones is emphatic that an additional
32-track machine was wheeled into the studio for overdubs and sub-
mixes. He comments: "We only did three overdubs, which I think
was a positive thing. David did an acoustic guitar on 'Comfortably
Numb', Rick Wright re-recorded his vocal on 'Us And Them', and Sam
Brown replaced Rachel Fury's backing vocal on 'Comfortably Numb'.
Jones was assisted on the mixing of the album by Larry Wallace and
Abbey Road engineers Tristan "TAP" Powell and David Gleeson.
When "Pulse" was issued in [June] 1995 as a souvenir of the
"Division Bell" tour, many critics wondered whether yet another
Floyd live album was necessary so soon after its predecessor.
Even Gilmour had his doubts, although he felt that the presence
of both the Barrett-era "Astronomy Domine" and astoundingly
faithful live workout of the "Dark Side Of The Moon" suite more
than justified its existence. That "Pulse" earned platinum status
on advance orders alone proves that his assumption was correct.
With a pulsing LED on its spine as a reference to the famous
"Dark Side" heartbeat, "Pulse"'s lavish packaging rates among the
most sophisticated to ever grace an album.
Co-producer and engineer James Guthrie, who mixed the album
in three-dimensional Q sound, says: "Despite the 13-year gap,
the recording methods for both "The Wall" shows and "Pulse" were
very similar. With "Pulse", we booked a mobile from Paris called
Le Voyageur 11 and recorded in Europe and the UK yet again with
four 24-track analogue machines running at 15 ips, but this time
with Dolby SR. I went back to David's studio, The Astoria, with
116 rolls of tape and waded through them for months before settling
on the best performances."
Both "Delicate Sound of Thunder" and "Pulse" were accompanied
by video releases. |
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