Sinister: Telling it how it is.... (Manc gigs)

[Mark]

This post is critical of B&S and technical. Read at your peril!

Congratulations to Paul Clarke for daring to make 90% of the listees cry by
saying that Saturday was shit. He is right - they were so bad I almost
couldn't be arsed to go to the Sunday gig.
He is also correct to say that if they're only going to play a handful of
shows a year, the very least they could do is rehearse properly for them.

I'm a concert promoter for a living and a lot of things worried me about
the gigs....

The PA was shit. As was the company that supplied it and also the FOH engineer.
On the Sunday, two people were sitting on a 100Amp 3 phase cable near to
the C-Form / Camlock connectors. Not only is this highly dangerous, it also
breaches Health and Safety regulations. As a rule, mains cables should be
flown, but if they are laid across the floor, they need to be covered with
a carpet or something similar. Someone, could easily have been killed by an
electric shock the way the PA crew had left it.

The idea of a circular stack is interesting but not very practical,
especially with the hopeless engineers the band had employed. There were
'hotspots' all over the room which meant you had to walk around to find a
good spot where you could see AND hear. Delay stacks in all four corners
would have improved things as B&S are a very quiet band. Also, one stack
doesn't allow for a stereo separation which might have helped relieve the
tinny 'vocal PA' style sound.

The PA boxes, aside from being underpowered, were useless for the type of
music B&S play. Also, given that Stuart Murdoch has an unusual mic
technique (ie. he stands about 4 inches away as though he is scared of it),
I don't think a bog standard SM58 was the right choice. It made his voice
sound thin and tinny.

The sign of a good Front of House engineer is one who is constantly
tweaking things. In a live situation, it is nigh on impossible to attain a
'perfect' sound as the variables are changing all the time. Belle and
Sebastian's engineer seemed more concerned with taking photos and chatting
to mates. They should have sacked him on the Saturday.

All of this could be overcome by employing a reputable production manager
and doing some proper pre-production rehearsals. It's not as if the band's
schedule is killing them - they hardly do any promotional work at all - so
they've got plenty of time to sort out the live situation. A production
manager would ensure the PA is suitable for the band's sound, locate a
decent FOH engineer, assist Stuart with his mic problems (the records are
great so he obviously doesn't have a problem in the studio), get them some
instrument techs to avoid a repetition of the cello debacle and basically
shake them up.

I don't want to see them running on stage shouting 'Hey Manchester - we're
here to rock you' and playing a polished set with scripted intros to each
song. That wouldn't be Belle And Sebastian. Hell, I don't even mind Stuart
forgetting the words, that is all part of the appeal. What I do object to
is paying twenty quid for two gigs where no thought has been given to the
production of the show and someone is pocketing the cash from cutting
corners.

Maybe they should think about this and employ some professionals before
they next venture out. If they don't, the live audiences will dwindle and
they'll be back to playing libraries and cafes where no-one minds if it's
shit because they've only paid three quid to get in.


Mark


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