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In terms of class this is easily the best presentationI’ve seen in the last 12 months. You might expect a bank raid for the pension fund from an artist at thispoint in his career, but far from it: Mick Hucknall hasdug deep into his own pocket and it is worth everypenny. Production manager Chris Taplin said as muchwhen we caught up ten minutes after doors. “We’vebeen getting feedback from the promoters and they’rereally impressed; the audience response has beenamazing.”

Yes, it might be a toss of the dice, but a winning throwlike this will see them coming back for more. In terms ofvalue for money it’s a show you couldn’t fault. As I drovehome afterwards I could think of only one thing thatwould have made it better, a dry martini: but then, howcan you create a cocktail lounge for 11,000?

There are some consummate skills on display, not leastfrom the band, but in short order, FOH sound engineerChris Hedge’s open, airy mix was nothing short of a masterclass in knitting every instrument into the weft ofsound. It’s a while since I’ve heard a mix that so clearlyidentifies every instrument and effortlessly pulls themtogether. Pryderi Baskerville is operating a light showbuilt on the foundations of a Woodroffe & Bassettdesign; big credentials but every touch of the lightingwand is beautifully understated.

The most surprising element is the video directed byRichard Turner, a combination of Stufish providing theimagination and context, and a new server/softwarecombination delivering something in the 3D mappingdomain that is, frankly, jaw-dropping. The only shame isthat most of the audience will never have realised justhow complex this was to pull off, but they will certainlyhave seen how slick it looked. That’s the underlying

guile of the show: while a lot of technology wasengaged, little of it was on ostentatious display.

SoundChris ‘Privet’ Hedge is in a good position with thisparticular tour. “Mick has decided to play everything liveand has pulled much of the original band together: twoof them were playing with him in the ‘80s; I’ve nevertoured with such a band of mates. There are inevitablynew elements . . . the drummer, Roman Roth, is new -he played with Mick on his solo projects and he’sfantastic. Everything is real, there’s almost no playback,a couple of loops, a rhythm part and a small bit ofbacking vocal effects. There are no dedicated BVs: theband all sing and they do a damn fine job. The onlyreason we’re running time code is for the other parts ofthe production.”

It’s a tight little set-up: Hedge’s DiGiCo SD7 takes just50 inputs: “Just what you’d expect,” he says. “Eightchannels for keys, two for bass, fifteen on the drums, allthose BVs.” (There are six BVs in the band according toGraham Blake on monitors, though to tell the truth, thisshow was so sublime I never counted them).

“This is as natural as it gets,” continues Hedge, “there’sjust an awful lot of show around it.” That’s one of themost profound insights I’ve heard from a soundengineer: for a performance vehicle that is effectivelyMick Hucknall and his band, this knocks spots off NeilDiamond, Bette Midler, or any comparable star-plus-band I’ve seen this year.

“I’m going down to an SD10 when the tour goesworldwide,” continued Hedge, “Brit Row provides a control and monitor package for us. For me, it will justbe the desk and a rack out front with my main tools -

Live at Manchester Arena . . .words and pictures by Steve Moles

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a couple of Avalons for his voice, a TC6000 andthe Maxx Bass across the final mix. While wecan pick up racks and stacks everywhere, it’sstill a big comfort to have our own FOH andmonitors. You need to know that you havesomeone as solid as Brit Row behind you,especially when you get to South America . . .This way you’re totally in control of your wholeenvironment. It depends what you’re doing ofcourse, but for a show of this stature it’s theonly way to go.

“So worldwide, Blakey and I will each have anSD10 and two stage boxes so we havecomplete redundancy; lose a stage box and wecould still gain share. Lose a desk and Blakeycan have mine; his is the more desk-criticalposition, and I can easily load my show onto anSD8 if I have to. That said, the SD7 isintrinsically beautiful, everything is just onetouch away. If you know an SD10 then you canget round one of these.”

Mics & KitHedge continues: “The only new thing is a pairof Royer 112s for the saxophone and trumpet; a figure-of-eight field ribbon mic . . . they handlethe extreme high end really well. Everything elseis pretty normal- - a 57 on the snare, forexample. I really like to keep it simple and sodoes Mick. He’s still on a 58 on a cord; he won’tuse anything else. If there’s one consistentthread through his career it’s his voice - it’s aspotent today as it’s always been . . . he stillworks his mic down at waist level, and when

you consider it’s the same model of mic and stillon a wire, you know that’s true.”

I recall Hedge pointing out Hucknall’s mictechnique to me the first time I covered himmixing them, years ago. “It’s witchcraft,” hesays, “I’m still amazed. And because he oftensings so far off-mic he gets a lot of what comesback from front-of-house in there, so he has a good idea of what the room sounds like.” Key point.

“That power does take some control,” saysHedge. “While the dynamic range might befairly consistent within a particular song, therange song-to-song can be enormous. So I runhis voice through an Avalon 737, not so muchfor the compression, which I keep pretty soft,but for the ability to quickly grab lumps of EQ.He’s such an accurate and consistent singerthat I know when that EQ need is coming.Compression-wise, watch the needle on theAvalon and you’ll just see it bob up and down 1-2dB within the frame of a song. Song-to-songI’ll move the threshold accordingly. Thatprecision in his voice has only grown since hemoved away from wedges to in-ears - andagain, that’s a reflection of what he hears backfrom the room in his own mic.”

He adds: “The BVs, in particular Kevin [Horns]and Dave [MD], use SM54, the head-worn mic,and they sound fantastic. I first used them onRicky Martin: they sound a little self-compressed, but have good tone.”

Crew (from top):

Monitor engineer Graham ‘Blakey’ Blake; Production manager Chris Taplin; Co-lighting designer Pryderi Baskerville, and front-of-house sound engineer Chris ‘Privet’ Hedge.

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Hedge says this a fun show to mix. “I love tomix dynamically and with such an organic,natural sound coming from the stage it’s anabsolute joy. There are just not enough bandsat this level. The [L-Acoustics] K1 system fromBrit Row I like - I used it for Zucchero when itfirst came out. My initial reaction was that it’s a little tougher than V-DOSC, but then often youdon’t need delays, so there are benefits to behad elsewhere. Across the final mix left andright I have a Bass Maxx, a sort of finishingamp. It does that psycho-acoustic thing whereyou hear the harmonics of specified frequenciesthat fool you into thinking you can hear morelow end power, without actually applying thatpower. It also very gently pulls everythingtogether, so if a trumpet gets a little out of thezone, it will gently rein it in.”

Personally I’m not an out-and-out fan ofHucknall. He writes good, solid songs and asthis performance exemplified, he has managedto turn out great popular songs throughout hiscareer. His new songs are as good as when hestarted; there’s not many who can do that. Allthat said, this night’s performance was a joy; I felt like I was spending the evening in thelistening room of some high end hi-fi store.

Monitors“I’ve been doing this for longer than most,” saysmonitor engineer Graham ‘Blakey’ Blake, “buteach day is still slightly different. That’s reallyabout room acoustics; the whole band is onIEMs and has been for some time now, butbecause the relationship is so long it’s second

nature for me when it comes to dealing withMick. Mick’s clever - he monitors what he hears.For example, he has no drums in his IEMs; if hewants to hear them, he’ll step into their field sohe can catch some in his mic. He just likes a bitof keyboards to pitch from and he likes thedifferent solos, which obviously I fade in and outas they occur. The SM54s that Privet has addedfor Keys and Sax vocals are great, Dave on Keysdoes jump around, so we first tried him with it inrehearsals and he was immediately happy.”

A busy show for you? I asked: “I have 12 mixes intotal, including a back-up for Mick on a different frequency. The IEMs are all JerryHarvey ‘Roxanne’ (Siren Series) which areabsolutely amazing. They had JH16 five yearsago and I thought they were as good as it gets,but the audio quality of these is really somethingnew. Desk-wise I’ve been a Midas man for a long time, but Privet suggested the SD10 and I thought I’d give it a whirl and have found itrather good. I did go and spend a day with theguys at DiGiCo and liked what it did, eventhough I’d say it’s not pitched as a monitor deskper se. Privet also pointed out that we could eachhave our own engine, and when we get to foreignlands Brit Row gives us both SD10s, whichmeans if one falls over - mine in particular, he’llgive me his as its easier for him to reconfigureonto another model, say an SD8 if that’s what’savailable. It’s a get out of jail card for me.

“If I was going to be critical I’d say it lacks a bitof warmth compared to Midas, but partly that’sbecause I’m just so accustomed to hearing that

Midas sound, but otherwise I see nodisadvantage. It does sound very, very clean. As a small quibble I do wish they put somedistance between the PFL button and Mute.They are right next to each other; it just seemslike asking for trouble.” Not too much to worry a man of Blakey’s abilities.

VideoIf sound was sumptuous, then video wasvibrant. The key to that assessment is almostentirely due to a new piece of kit supplied byCreative Technology (CT) - who provided all thevideo equipment for the tour - Photon softwareon S10 Media servers. The simple explanation isthat six projectors (Panasonic DZ21s) mountedFOH on a truss at high trim, project onto a setof rhomboid screens that collectively orindependently track on/off stage. (There aremore video surfaces than that, but let’s stickwith the projection screens for the moment.)Image, be it content or IMAG, can track witheach screen or pass from screen to screen(even as they trollied across each other)seamlessly and with no spill anywhere else onstage, and with no loss of focus or definition.

How this works was initially explained to me byGraham Miller of CT, who had come to Leedsfor precisely this function. “There are six of thePanasonic projectors up on the truss; each hasan IR camera on it and in simple terms theseare used to map the stage in 3D.”

Hanging almost untidily from a lighting trussclose to the downstage edge, and a shorter

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upstage one around the backline position, are a series of dangling lines festooned with silveryballs and what appear to be small plastic bags.Each ball emits an IR tag, so it identifies itself toeach projector as a specific point in space.Hence you can map depth, height and width.The third element in this set-up is a surveyor’slaser theodolite in the arena to accurately mapthe coordinates of the balls within the room.

“The Photon software then crunches all thesedata together,” continued Miller, “which in turnenables the projectors to map whatever imagethey’re projecting to whatever target, includingthose in motion.”

The balls and strings are, of course, struckbefore doors. I never did find out the function ofthe plastic bags - maybe the balls go in themwhen de-rigged? Miller explained that thesoftware is unique. But added: “Lots of peopleare working on something similar, so soonerrather than later everyone will be doing it. Butthis is the first and it works very well.”

We walked out front to meet with video directorRichard Turner; a more animated man youcould not wish to meet. As we talked it became

apparent he is fully engaged with all thetechnology, not just the Photon software. “I runall the content and cut the cameras from outhere,” he began, “three manual cameras, oneout front, two on a track in the pit, and two robo-cams. All content is from Lucky Frog.”

Frog happens to be Turner’s company, so I asked about the content evolution. “Productiondirector Nick Levitt briefed that whatever I produce should be all about the liveperformance and he provided a little abstract tothat effect. I made the content with my colleagueTom Woodcroft. As a content maker you pray foran open brief, but when you get one you thenhave to think of something and it has to beappropriate. There are so many love songs thatyou have to be careful to avoid cliché.

“When we got into rehearsals we filmed a lot ofclose-ups with the intention of creating a mash-up of live and recorded footage . . . The main influence for us was a sense of thejazz club; the presence of brass instrumentsresonates powerfully in the show and I find thatvery interesting. My father happened to be a semi-pro trad’ jazz musician and I find thisband very cool and funky.”

While that may sound a little old-fashioned, I can only agree the jazz influence, it wasapparent at many stages of the show, and inevery context, sound, light and video. And notthe raucous trad’ that his father might haveplayed, nor the impenetrable polo neck sweaterjazz, this was smooth, swing and soul. Turner’smash-up of live and recorded close-up ‘live’footage only made that sense of the show morevivid.

Beyond tracking screens, Turner has multiplesurfaces upon which to present video: a rearlandscape of LED, and a front gauze drape(13m wide by 8.5m high) that draws open toform stage-framing legs either side, providing a soft focus, ruffled surface about 3m wide ontowhich he also projects. “I use every surface foreverything,” he said, confirming that he doesmix live and content across all surfaces and, asthe show builds to its climax, often interposingsources and surfaces in a symphony of sight.

“VYV developed the IR software and the Photonserver,” he continued. “Two men from MontrealUniversity studying computer graphics: they didthe original Photon work for Cirque [du Soleil].Once you’ve mapped the defined cones ofprojection for each projector, which takesapproximately two hours including surveying, itthen takes just 45 seconds to calibrate eachprojector. That sounds pretty casual, but it wasterrifying in rehearsal as we had no developedroutine, and there are a lot of parameters toconsider across the system: projector position,the IR system, and the mapping process. Andthere’s no room for guess-work, you either get itright or it’s totally wrong.”

Having said all that, Turner did complain as wespoke about air currents in the venue disturbingthe large front gauze - and then deftly adjustedeach projector in a matter of minutes, aptlydemonstrating that the terror of rehearsals hadbeen confined to history. An entirely workablelive tool.

LightsPryderi Baskerville, co-lighting designer withAdam Bassett, described the collaboration. “Webegan with a meeting at Stufish in January2015. That initial proposal then developedorganically over the year,” he explained.

Organic is an easy adjective, indeed ChrisHedge on sound used it several times: for onceit does seem appropriate in that ideas onceaccepted, were grown and nurtured over a period of time. “The early ideas introduced theconcept of the panels and automation.” saidBaskerville.

Baskerville described the basics of the rig andthe purpose of the instruments therein,beginning with the video. “We have some LEDstrips built into the borders of Richard’s trackingscreens, to integrate light and video.” A framingdevice used sparingly, by putting the bordersinto the lighting remit, rather than video, theyalleviated the complications of what Turner isalready doing.

“Overhead, the moving spots are Robe BMFL, a light I find very fast considering its size - youdon’t get over-shoot and they’re really bright.

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Nick Levitt, Tour DirectorThe production values exhibited on the Simply Red tour wereunexpectedly high: what drove such high investment?

“When we first planned the tour concepts, Ian Grenfell [the band’smanager] and I had established the financial parameters with theintent to create a classy and expansive show that complementedthe band’s stature, but also gave the audience a special night -whilst being respectful to the budget, of course.

“We went to see Mick Hucknall with a couple of Ray [Winkler]’sinitial ideas. This introduced the idea of using perspective andvideo to suggest a show far bigger and more expensive than inreality. Ray and Stefan then went on to complete the ideas ofautomation of the perspective screens and the overall setstructure.

“Personally, I hate simple IMAG, as does Mick. It can be very boringand uninventive as well as distracting the eye from the overallpicture that you’ve created onstage, although we understand inthe big arenas people have to be able to see the artists - I totallyget that. So we also talked to Stuart Galbraith at Kilimanjaro, ourpromoter, and asked him how far he thought we could go inbacking away from traditional IMAG. He was supportive of ourideas as long as the show still communicated with the wholeaudience. I think we achieved a balance in this respect.

“This is the first tour where we’ve had video content as well asIMAG - or rather, part content and part IMAG, blended by Richardto complement each song. The marriage of the two is nothing newof course, but the concept of combining lighting and video that areprogrammed purely to feature the music, not feature the spectacle,I think was very successful. In the end the open backdrop curtains -which became scenic legs - took that traditional IMAG role. A bitarty, a bit softer than a normal screen, I think they worked for most

people, though I must admit I did get berated by an angry man atthe Manchester show who told me they were ‘rubbish curtains’ - inno uncertain terms! Don’t think he quite got it.”

What about the wider issues beyond IMAG? “For Mick it’s all aboutrepresenting the music and the musicians and he has stated thatto me on every tour we’ve done. That said, you have to presentsomething in a big arena that also gives value for money andcreates an environment to complement the music, and I thinkwe’ve achieved that. What we did was look to the experience ofRay, Richard, Adam and Pryd’. When you buy into that level ofexperience, you’re investing in their ability to interpret the artist’sand management’s ideas. The important thing is to clearly definewhat you want to achieve and why, therefore allowing their inputand that experience to really count.”

All the visual elements of the show - set design, video and lighting- can leave sound loitering as a poor cousin, but even here thequality appeared excellent.

“Privet [Chris Hedge] is extraordinary, and incredibly consistentshow-to-show. All the time he’s coping with Mick’s unique mictechnique while busily layering the rhythm and the music. I think heunderstands the composition of the songs way beyond most andis able to use his experience to hold the dynamics in any venueformat and get this across clearly.

“Consistency is so important, it’s the same with Pryd’ - his timing isimmaculate; his attention to detail and constant updating of theshow is paramount in stopping the show from stagnating. I go tomany shows and do wonder at some operators’ inability to eitherprogramme or operate in sync with the music! Mick expectsnothing less from his musicians - why should production values beany less important?”

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Adam Bassett, Woodroffe Bassett Design

As Pryderi Baskerville indicated in the main review, it was AdamBassett from Woodroffe Bassett Design who drove the lighting

design for the show. I called him during a break in the tour to discussthe main aspects of the creative process . . .

“It comes down to the starting point, the earliest point of discussionsbetween myself, Ray Winkler at Stufish, Pryd’, Richard Turner on video,

and tour director Nick Levitt. For us, this was to be a show of severalacts, something that would celebrate the catalogue of Simply Red’s

music across different eras in the two hours of the show. So it opened upfrom an intimate beginning, passed through different stages, and then

ultimately it closed down, returning to that intimate starting point. Whenyou start with that concept in mind you can then set about translating it

to a distinct vision. Moving from that idea to a storyboard frameworkallows you to take the focus off the technology and concentrate on what

you want to be seen.”

So you visualise the image first, then figure out how that will actuallybe achieved? Could you give an example?

“In a simple way, the IMAG images that were used were frequentlytreated, and that provided something more sensual. More elaborately,

Ray Winkler’s stage design gave us an intimacy through architecture. Forthe opening number, for example, you could focus in on Mick centre stage

and it appeared there was just a few musicians on a riser behind him -almost a club-like setting. That Stufish design gave a false perspective,allowing your eye to drift naturally into that intimate dimension. But it

also enabled us to open up wide to the full arena dimension presentationlater. For the development of the acts throughout the show, each was

presented in a way that either opened up, or later in the show, closed itback down again.”

How do the moving video projections contribute to that idea ofdevelopment? “The projection on the scenic panels became in some ways

a digital set. Rather than just moving screens with content, the passingimages took attention away from the upstage LED screen. So for the

audience their familiarity with a screen at the back of stage was altered,the dynamic of the images and movement of the panels added a new

depth and dimension.”

What determines your choice of hardware? “Choice is driven by basic assumptions: the generic options to fulfil the

needs of spot, wash, and brightness are decided by budget andavailability. Then, somewhere in there, are specific requests. In the case

of Simply Red we wanted moving LED bar-style lights; we ended up withAyrton MagicBlades and Robe CycFX for distinct reasons. The Blades inparticular are very visual and allowed me to bring an architectural feel to

the upstage wall. What I didn’t want was that look as if overhead trusseshad just been stood on end backstage and we’d put lights in the

audience’s faces. The Blade’s ability to both pan and tilt was reallyimportant in that sense; they gave us a lot of variety from a vertical wall

as well as helping to break up the wall of LED screen at the rear.”

“Overhead, with the CycFX, I wanted a raft of LED above, but also tohave the ability to turn off the bulkier overhead rig - the spots and

washes. In this instance the LED bars gave us the ability to balance thepicture without the use of the more dominant and typical overheadlighting. They could be used quite delicately in fact, as a soft wash

overhead or provide balance to lights from elsewhere. They providedmovement in space but they didn’t need to perform as a standout

instrument. The design drove their use and allowed us to give a differentfeel.”

You described the storyboard approach, does that mean you arrive atrehearsals knowing exactly what you’ll programme?

“It was when we got into rehearsals and finally had all those differentconceptual elements at our disposal that the perceived potential all came

together. To all intents and purposes we had already pre-determinedsome fundamentals: the colour ways and palettes; how different

elements would work together in each of the acts; and when the panelswould be brought in. All those things were broadly agreed in advance, but

collectively the rehearsals were the first time we could nowcollaboratively finesse those elements.”

//woodroffebassett.com/

With trim generally at 15m, brightness is important. There are also seven VL3500Spots on the front projector truss which are for key light on the band. Wash lights inthe rig are PRG Best Boys - the rig is all from PRG. There are Robe Pointes spreadabout, eight overhead and in the vertical trusses that divide the rear LED screen.Then overhead, downstage of the main lighting system, is a canopy of Robe CycFX.”

These linear fixtures are in parallel rows, slightly in chevron to force the perspective.“They’re a batten light - really great. I can control each cell individually, about 360channels of RGBW.”

Baskerville doesn’t stream video but manages the task comfortably and easilywithin his Hog IV, as he demonstrated to me at the time, creating a new chaseacross the whole lot in a matter of minutes. “We also have Ayrton MagicBlades onthe vertical trusses: they’re amazing, and so compact. Even when the projectionpanels are in, they cut through and are so precise it’s easy to avoid splash onto theprojection surfaces. Richard Turner and I programmed together at LH2 and hadalready been discussing the content element throughout the summer. Becausethere are so many elements and people involved, me, Adam [Bassett], Richard[Turner], and Ray Winkler at Stufish, built a storyboard of ideas and set a scriptwhich really addressed the question, how does the show build? I’ve worked withRichard before and we have an easy understanding, so from a lighting perspectiveI’ve not found anything about video that has proved restrictive. I’ve been withSimply Red since 2008, so the music is very familiar - I was able to provide Richardwith a defined song breakdown.”

In the context of the show I might assess that as in some songs video takes thelead, in others lighting. But it’s a subtle distinction and, in terms of the overallpresentation, an irrelevance. In that sense, you can see measurable benefit fromthe time the two visual directors took to work together.

Chris Taplin, Production ManagerSimply Red started this tour around the time of the attacks on Paris: I asked howthat had affected what they did. “We do go through a security briefing each show.In Paris, we were the first show after the attacks. Mick was determined to do theshow if the Parisians wanted it. There was, as you can imagine, a lot of emotion inthe air. We loaded into the Zenith on the Tuesday; first the show was on, then it wasoff. Eventually the Minister for Culture stepped in and said ‘this must happen’. As ittranspired we had just 30 ‘no shows’ (ticket holders who chose not to attend) - lessthan we normally experience - so I think already the people of Paris weredetermined to get back to normal as quickly as possible. The venue wascompletely nailed down of course, but I have to say I think we were all relieved tobe there. It felt right.”

This was a lavish production: what were its origins? “Mick [Hucknall] drove theproduction values with Nick Levitt - something he did from the start. For me, it wasjust a case of making it a practical reality. In terms of the budget, we were helpedby a long ticket sale lead; it’s a luxury to be able to think about a tour and plan it fora long time. That said, I was managing a big corporate event in Vladivostok the daybefore we went into rehearsals, so time was not without its pressures. Thefeedback from the promoters has been very good and rightly so. It’s a lot ofinvestment but we know it’s paid off. From all perspectives, this is a good value-for-money ticket. That’s really important, especially at this time of year whenthere are so many shows to compete with.”

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