This weekends SL backline rig. (Photo courtesy of Matt Topping)
Pic of the PA didn’t turn out unfortunately- Turbosound Flood light. 32 boxes. Beautifully old school.
But we provided the monny-wedges, backline, risers and front and back truss +moving lights. Full production at the Apollo.
Had the joy of chain-hoisting today. I.E. The ability to fly a load (in this case truss) in the air with use of hoisting chains. I.E.E- the manual labour version of motors. If there was ever an ultimate triceps work out it be this. My arms are aching off, my brew shakes in my hand and it’s hard to type.
Fuuuuuuuuuuck!
When you think your tour had gone pretty well and you realise you’ve left the microphone stands in the last venue, which happens to be about 150 miles away from base. I have had to deal with so much torment off people today. Least my boss didn’t kick my ass. Dear me. So careless, so unprofessional! God damn it!
My First Accreditation
“*Company Name Removed* kept audio engineers Paul, Dom and Lucy busy this winter after a great summer”… “July saw Audio Operator Lucy flying solo for the first time on tour”
Can’t believe how rammed my winter is. This time last year my first paid job was end of Feb after Christmas. Since going back on the 3rd Jan I’ve had 7 days off and can’t believe how close Feb is! All I need to do now is loose my last half a stone and that’s two of my New Years Resolutions done before feb!
My personal 2013:
Although freelance, gain as much work as if working full time- if not more
Reach my ultimate goal weight: Don’t eat shit food. EVEN ON TOUR!!! Burgers and pizzas are NOT A BREAKFAST FOOD, and if I don’t eat it’s no-ones business but my own. Stay strong and refuse fast foods/ takeaways and loose weight healthily. Stop purging as damaging effects are beginning to show.
Decipher who real friends are and ditch back-stabbing bastards
Make time for real friends, family, and love life around working ‘full time’
Start a blog/diary in various forms, to monitor and track my life (life goes so fast at the min I barely remember any of it) + review it
Rid negativity and be happy in life (the above should help if not fully form this)
Make a credible name for myself professionally. Become professional (12 months starting point)
Re learn/ play more bass guitar
Learn something new (preferably something that will aid Live Sound) i.e. in depth electronics, specialise in rigging or Lighting designing, HGV licence.
Train my cat to hi five. Kelly’s cat hi fives… I want my cat to high five. IIf he can’t it’s ok… i guess. He’s and awesome little four-legged fur ball anyways.
FoH at Wembley Arena
Finished a 22 hour shift at Wembley Arena! I was on the opp! A good but terrifying experience! We had to dismantle and rebuild the pa 5 times and I still got shouted at by TV to turn it down. I’m not sure how I managed to go from a cathedral in Manchester, a sports hall in Bath to Wembley Arena, but they say there’s method in madness right? All on an Ls9-32 as well! And I was shitting them. Just got home, extending the 22 hour shift to well over 24 hours of awake time, in fact I must be hitting the 30 hours mark, had a moment where my eyes slumbered for a sec in the van and managed to lean on the satnav changing the language to russian… need to sort that before Saturday lol. Well done to my babysitters and chief Live sound engineers Paul and Dom for not passing out on the way home on the roads and for helping me sort out other peoples fuck ups and build a working sound system so I could opp it in front of a sold out Wembley arena, as smoothly as possible.
By the way moving a PA system 5 times around an arena results in many many cuts and bruises and now by body looks like I’ve been beaten with a stick. I also fell down a hole that had been covered by a bit of carpet and not been marked up and twisted my ankle which after load out proved to be substantially painful. I’m a bit in the wars after this gig. Body needs rest.
I haven’t ever had anyone come to me and complain about my mixing so far. But I’ve been involved with arsey people and people who complain about equipment or to the engineers I work with just because they want to appear they know something or appear superior. I’m going to take several copies of this photo and hang it around the fort I build myself at front of house of monitor world :)
