LSi - January 2015

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Words & pictures by Steve Moles

I must confess I came to see Paloma Faith at YorkBarbican for purely selfish reasons. I could have waitedjust a few short months and caught her on the Arena tourin April. But who could pass up the chance to see such a vibrant and exciting star in close-up? In that cinematicsense Paloma Faith has all the presence of Greta Garbo orDorothy Lamour. If you witnessed her performance at theBAFTAs last year you’ll know exactly what I mean. She hasstar quality in abundance yet is delightfully withoutpretension. She is also possessed of the most extravagantvoice - think Tina Turner meets Shirley Bassey and youwon’t go far wrong.

There are other advantages to seeing her at York Barbican:the venue is relatively small, in keeping with the other venuesof her tour (Hull City Hall the day before, Leeds O2 Academythe day after) yet its interior design allows for a theatre-sizedproduction without compromise. This was important: as I suspected, Paloma invests in her productions and this toursports a quite extravagant stage set that was able to beshown off in its full glory. It’s also a nice room for sound, sowell worth a visit.

SoundIt’s also fair to say that another compelling reason to visitPaloma was the presence of Huw Richards at front-of-house.I haven’t seen Huw or heard his work since we met onSophie Ellis Bextor, longer ago than I realised. He and I hadtrudged through the mud at Roskilde when TurbosoundTMS3s were the dogs biscuit in modern PA audio and such experiences bind you for life, so it was a pleasure tosee him again.

“The system is from SSE,” he began, “all L-Acoustics K2, butwe are carrying KARA as well as it’s easier to deal with atvenues where we have to ground-stack rather than fly. Canyou believe it, we’ve just played Hull City Hall which they’ve

recently refurbished, yet there are still no points for flyingPA?” Hull doesn’t have the widest stage either, so a bit of anoversight really. “Here we use ARCS for fill at stage level atthe sides, with the smaller 8XTs for front-fill. I’m reallyenjoying the K2 though - there’s so much bottom in it that I’mturning it back. That’s more about the band than anything,this is a big mix with lots of content, and with a lot of programmaterial in the lower mids it could get too much. Perttu[Korteniemi], my system tech from SSE, deals with that -although very occasionally I have to do some EQ on thedesks around 250-2k when the show first starts, but Perttuusually has the system well under control. You can’t beatLakes and DiGiCo desk in the heat of battle. In fact, I thinkwe could play some of these rooms without subs, that’s howpotent the main system low end is, but with Paloma’semphasis on a dancey low end it would be a mistake toleave subs out; the music needs that 50Hz hit.”

Faith has a varied repertoire and from the evidence I’ve seenand heard on TV and CD she could probably turn her voiceto any style she wanted. “She’s the most exciting singer towork with, and she can turn her voice to anyone. She has a fantastic lower register which with her own songs she rarelygets to use. But recently she’s been singing songs by BillyHoliday, Jessie Baker. I haven’t heard anyone sing thosesongs since I worked for Diana Ross years ago at the start ofher solo career. For Paloma it’s a completely different style toher own and she does it fantastically well. That’s one of thereasons why for this tour we’ve now switched to the DPAd:facto vocal mic, it’s just much smoother in the mid-range,there is a real roundness to it and the rejection is excellent.Before, I was constantly on her fader, but now the pick-up onher mic just sits there, plus the previous mic did break up a bit in her hottest frequency, around 2kHz it can be hard forany mic to handle when she goes for it. Someone once saidto me ‘she could crack MDF’.” Who wouldn’t want to workwith a voice like that?

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“The band is big,” Richards continues. “Wehave two brass players who play on mostsongs, three backing vocalists (BVs), guitar,bass and drums, and a dummy baby grandwith a Kronos in it. Then there’s Banks, ourMD, who seems to play everything - drumpads, bit of guitar, lots of keys with stringsamples, and organ. He keeps things tighton stage though the live arrangements wereoriginally put together by David Odlum, whoconducts rehearsals as overarching MD.He’s great, we work together on all hertours. She does so many different things offtour - lots of one-offs; singing with a littlefour-piece; or maybe an acoustic backingband. So for dealing with that variety,having David there is fantastic. This showrehearsed at Black Island, which I hadn’tbeen to for years and it was fine. The thingis, David appreciates what works in the liveenvironment and what doesn’t, there aretimes when, for example, he’d like to hear a much quieter piano intro’ and he’ll alwayspush me to that, but he knows that it can’tbe like the recording. It’s just nice to havethat time with him and be able to intervenewhen the arrangements are being puttogether, and with Banks there as well wehave someone to take the reins day to day.”

Paloma’s star is very firmly on theascendant here in the UK. How is itelsewhere? “Australia is already good, theUSA is coming, but I think she has work todo with Europe, where it feels we’ve hardlytoured. But she is a hard worker, the intro tothis show is largely her, where she had theidea to have ‘60s Tamla-style dance routine,very much in the mould of Ike and TinaTurner’s Ikettes. She never fails to surprise.We did those Forestry Commission venueslast year and they told us it was the fastestseller ever. She did a show with the GuyBarker Orchestra and on the strength of it got a Proms appearance with fullorchestra and 30-piece choir; there’s justno stopping her.”

But what of tonight’s event? “She has noproblem projecting her voice for a liveshow, and she’s not stressing her voice asmuch as she used to, in part thanks to hernew monitor man James Neale - he’sdefinitely giving her more space. The bigthing for me is reining in the multitude oftextures in those big arrangements, in someways you might say we’re looking for thatMotown sound. The BVs use Sennheiser935 caps; double bass is on a ShadowNanoflex, the ideal pick-up for thisinstrument in such an environment. There’sa regular DI on the guitar, the keys are DI’dand I’m using Royers on the Brass. It’s myfirst try with Royers - Miles Hillyard at SSErecommended them, in fact we had a verylong conversation about them, and theyhad them in stock. And yes, they really do a good job, a big fat sound but you have tobe careful with a ribbon mic, they’re notvery forgiving. Drums is all mic’d prettystandard, top and bottom 57 for snare plusa Sennheiser 604 for a timbale sound, andit’s all 604s on the Toms. The kick isinteresting, a (Shure Beta) 91, no surprisethere, and it was James [Neale] whosuggested I try a Telefunken M82, and it’sgreat; (Shure) Beta 181 for the ride cymbal,(Shure) KSM42s for the overheads. I use42s on the guitars as well, then there areDIs for days for the rest - about 50 inputs in all.”

With just a few shows under his belt, how ishis mix coming together? “When we cameout of rehearsal the ballads were gentleenough that I’d lifted the gates, but nowwe’re into the swing of things the band aredriving harder. As I said earlier, I haven’tseen performances like these since thedays of Diana Ross and I really enjoy it. The(DiGiCo) SD5 is ideal - I love the surfaceand have been a DiGiCo fan since the D5. I used an SD10 earlier in the year whichwas great, and the SD7, which would be a bit over the top for this show. Overall, the

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LSi - January 2015

Crew

Top, left: Brendan Albrey, lightingoperator.

Top, right: Huw Richards, FOH sound.

Middle: Monitor man James Neale withthe DiGiCo SD10 desk.

Bottom, left: System tech PurttuKorteniemi.

Bottom, right: Tony 'Beamer' Austin, LD.

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advances DiGiCo have made are great,there are lots of good desks but this ismore reliable. As a general rule, I always tryto limit the amount of compression I use,especially for vocals - I’d rather adjustlevel.”

And that’s what we got: Richard’s sound isas un-coloured as it’s possible to be,supported in this endeavour by a cookingband and a potent vocal source. If I had tolay criticism it would be that low end hementioned: sometimes the rumble from theMoog was out of character with the rest ofthe ensemble, but if your artist is aiming forthe modern dancey style, then that’s whatyou have to do.

LightingIt was old lags day today: Paloma hasemployed Tony ‘Beamer’ Austin prettymuch since she first appeared on the radar.“I don’t remember exactly when, around2011, I think.” He said. “She came to seeone of my shows with Portishead alreadyknowing she liked the style of presentation.Afterwards her management got in touch,and we met up later in London. Themeeting was really interesting, she wasobviously into all that moody film-stylelighting - shadow, key light - which is whatI’d been doing. We were in tune from thebeginning and I got the job.”

The set, of tall rear riser full stage width andcurving stairs to downstage, looks very slickand sets the tone of the presentation: wasthat from you or her? “Actually, it’s JoshuaGrace. Josh’ and I meet up at her houseeach time and discuss how it’s going towork. Last time was in March when she dida couple of nights at the Roundhouse. Butthis time she had been busy doing shows inthe US so that didn’t happen for once, butwe’ve worked together enough that there’sthe element of trust between us. That said,much as I like the look, the high reflectivityof the Marley fascia does create someproblems, but nothing that can’t be solvedwith some focus adjustments. We just haveto be careful when we come to venues withrestricted stages and the set has to besqueezed, that’s when we step through allthe cues where we know there are issuesand correct the focus.”

You’ve chosen straightforward front andback truss? “It was knowing we would playa real variety of stages that determined I would use a simple design; we haven’t gota lot of lights but what we have got I needto have in at every venue. The critical lighton this system is the Source Four Profile; I have 10 of them on the front truss for theband and her. With her acting backgroundshe is keen on key light and actually with a big band presentation like this I find it very

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PalomettesLights

Tony Austin on the reflectiveproperties of Marley. “I remember

working with Roy Bennett on an iceshow and he said to me ‘it’s a reallydifficult thing to light because of the

reflections’. That’s the same with thisMarley. With the height of the

trusses changing venue to venue,then their position relative to theMarley means that day to day we

have to go through all the pre-setsand adjust them. Bounce off the rear

walkway coating is the worst,bouncing light all over the backdrop.

If that loses me a lot of level frombehind then I beef up what’s coming

from the Colour Force up-lights onthe back cloth, they produce a goodambient gain from behind. I’ve used

Entec since I first tried them withPortishead six years ago: they lookafter me. When you’re working with

a growing artist that’s just thesupport you need.”

Production“We like oldies’, said Production

Manager Peter Hillier with a grin.“Having people like Huw Richards andespecially Tony Austin makes me lookand feel younger.” Hillier is under 55,

but I’d hazard not by much. “Thestage set is effectively a substructure

of LiteStructures decking systemwith the custom fascias from Josh

Grace. The fascias are delicate, thisset is not built to last, though it will

easily see out this tour. But thennext year we’re moving to bigger

venues so we’ll need something new,so this set is actually completely

cost-effective and really looks the part.”

SoundPerttu Korteniemi, SSE Audio systemtech: “I like the idea of having all thesame boxes in the rig for mains and

side-hangs, so I would consider usingK2 for the arena tour next year, noproblem. Having the same cabinet

everywhere helps me a lot and I thinkit’s better for the audience. We useSB28 for subs here, just three per

side for the York venue, though wecarry 12 boxes in total. This is old

school subs - three per side is morethan enough, you just have to pushthem harder, but I think they soundbetter when they’re pushed. That’s

just a feeling really, there’s no sciencebehind it. The real advantage of the

sub stack of three is in the poweralley. Normally that works up to

about 15ft off centre, but with lesssubs the cancellation that causes

that effect gets smaller. Thealternative is to create a sub arc, but

you need a least 12-16 to do that.”

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useful. Everybody is part of the energy ofstage and so need to be seen; the ETC S4sgive me a useful tool to tease up theirindividual levels song to song, withoutcompromising the overall look I’ve created.”

It was nice to hear Austin say this. I’d seenthis approach work day after day with HarryBelafonte in Germany over 30 years ago withan equally large band, and this simple tool,with a bit of Lee 202 in the gel frame, makesall the difference. It’s the great Americanbandstand look, and bright too, despite whatAustin says about shadow.

“Yes, one of the key elements is that late 70sVegas show-room look. The other side tothat is the funk element, but using a lot ofopen white suits both styles so there’s a lotof it. Above, on the truss fronts I have four-cell Mole lights and Atomic strobes, thestrobes generally in big combinations sothey bring sparkle to large looks rather thanstaccato imagery. The Moles are for herchats - she is warm and conversational withher audience. The Sharpy Wash, which I have on each truss more or less fifty-fiftymixed with MAC Vipers, are there most of allfor their weight. When you come into venueslike the ones we visit having something sosmall and light, and yet so powerful, is a realbonus. And I think they live up to the Sharpyname, they are certainly punchy. The VipersI’ve used before. I especially like the zoomrange, which is so useful with the variety oftrims we experience: quite often the backtruss is sitting right on the drummersshoulders,” the drum riser is just over fivefoot, but was originally seven, I learned:between TM Derek Fudge and PM PeterHillier, common sense prevailed. “The set isalso very deep relative to the amount ofstage depth we have, so lighting from therear when I can’t get a good trim height istricky. The white back-drop is actually a lightweight nylon with [Chroma-Q] ColourForce for up light. I’m really impressed withthem, nice and even and the colourtransitions are nice and smooth. We havealso resurrected the Egg Strobe.” We bothchuckled at this, but actually, set behind thewhite nylon in well-spaced single hangingchains, when Austin did use them that Vegasshow-room look he espoused was instantlyevoked; all that was missing were thesequined costumes.

“As far as the show goes, once I’ve balancedthe light levels on the S4s so the band areeven I use them collectively on a groupmaster to follow the dynamic of the differentscenes. It’s a versatile rig: between theSharpy Wash and Viper I can cope with anystage and set arrangement, the only thingthat caught me was the aspect of the BVscoming down to dance with her on the firstnumber, but that was easily addressed. I runthe show off a GrandMA Lite, BrandonAubrey programmed it for me and he’s partof my Entec crew. On that score I’m reallywell looked after, Entec have a done a greatjob for me.”

It’s a lovely looking show and bodes well forthe forthcoming venture onto the arenacircuit. While Paloma’s larger than lifepersonality wont fail to fill the big room, it’simportant the presentation within which sheappears lives up to her charisma, and Austindoesn’t disappoint on that score.

MonitorsIn a production crew of old lags JamesNeale is definitely the new boy on the block,having joined the team at rehearsals barely a month before this show. We last saw Nealeon Ellie Goulding last year (see LSi April2014). “I came to monitors organically,” hesays. “I was working for Adlib in my earlydays. I went to college up there and startedworking for them on the side - you know howcasual work turns into something morepermanent - but it got me varied experienceworking on all parts of working a PA system.I’ve been mixing Ellie Goulding’s monitors forthe last 26 months, but managed to squeezein a bit of FOH work with Sam Sparrow and

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M People. But this seems to be going well.She [Paloma] has a good idea of what shewants to hear and while it’s not a FOH mix byany stretch, it is very full. She has a powerfulvoice, sings well from below, from herdiaphragm, unlike Ellie G who sings more inher head. But the strength of Paloma’s voicehas its own problems in that your in-ear mixhas to overcome her own voice in her headbecause it’s so loud by the time it getsthere.”

“Basically she wants the whole band in hermix, but the instruments she pitches off arethe most important, especially guitars andkeys. She also needs the drum pads fortiming. I do rig an ambience mic, but not forthe room sound, I only really bring it in for thebetween-song banter.”

“The system is Sennheiser EM2050 for all theband, and we use EM3732 for the hand-heldmics. There is no LED screen so signalinterference is minimal, but even so I’m usingthe A5000 CP antennas and it’s all verystable.”

Neale has a DiGiCo SD10. “Every time I godown there to DiGiCo they give me anotherhandful of USB sticks,” I had commented onthe branded item sitting on his desk.“They’re great for support. They’re myfavourite of all the digital desk makers - youcan go down there with your show files to

work on them and they just let you helpyourself.” Neale was actually rather scathingabout another desk manufacturer’s support,but we’d best not go there.

“I got the SD10 by default because it was onthe previous monitor guy’s spec, but that’swhat I used for Ellie G. Starting with an SD7, I later moved to the SD10. It’s a board well

suited for monitors but I would like to try theSD5, the one thing coming from the 7 to the10 is you lose the screens, whereas the 5has three displays. Workflow-wise, it’s soimportant to be able see everything that’sgoing on.

“Once the audience is in, the room deadensand the mixes become crisper. The band allhave new plugs, they arrived today in fact,JH Audio 11s which is what they had before,but it was time to renew. I ought to do thesame really - three years of wear and youneed a new fit as the cartilage in the earchanges shape. I have an old pair ofUltimate’s that literally fall out of my ears. Sotonight the band will have more isolation forstage noise.

“Considering the position of the drummer,spill is not too much of a problem: the newDPA mic is really good, in sound-check justthe hi-hat was pinging. There are somechallenges: she doesn’t like compressors atall so when she’s not singing down the micyou do need to keep turning the volumedown instead. But not her actual vocalchannel, I just ride the other things around itto keep her voice consistent. I produce 11show mixes plus two for back-line and myown. I’ve been lucky in that the previousmonitor man had trained the band well, soall my focus is on Paloma and the show.They are a good band and I quickly sortedout a good set of pre-sets for the bandmixes.”

This was a big, vibrant show with a performerto match. Go and see the arena tour andyou’d imagine she could reach out andtouch every member of the audience.

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“Considering the position

of the drummer, spill is

not too much of

a problem: the new

DPA mic is really good.”

Monitor engineer

James Neale

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