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Live At The Beach 4 - Nov 5th 2010


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Um...sorry folks. That was pretty much a disaster from start to finish. We arrived at 4.30pm to the sight of a big PA being dismantled and taken away, and replaced with the world's smallest one. Honestly, it looked like a TomyTM My First PA. Apparently, according to the firm hired to do the sound, the first PA broke, and they couldn't get cost clearance to hire a suitable replacement. They pieced together a piece of shit that was wholly inadequate for a venue that holds 1000 people. It would have barely been loud enough for Tunnels Two!

Meursault, with a touring engineer, somehow managed to get a reasonable sound (albeit a quiet one), but, simply, we didn't. It honestly appeared as if the sound engineers didn't know what they were doing. We were onstage for an hour (!) at soundcheck while they tried to work out a channel list and faffed about fixing monitors that weren't broken (merely on a different channel). In that hour of soundcheck, we didn't get to play a whole song; one verse of North, and one chorus. Great.

By this point, things were running so far behind schedule (approaching 9pm for a show billed as a 7.30 start) that venue staff had to open the doors. This meant that Amber Wilson had to linecheck as people were entering the venue. Far from ideal. She actually performed well, but those circumstances (seeing her onstage, trying to start her set with a headless chicken of a sound guy messing about with amps and DIs beside her) looked pretty unprofessional. Anyway, I can't speak for her, but I can say that I would be surprised if she said she was happy with the organisation of the event.

(NB. Things were running so late that Debutant didn't play.)

And onto us. It was a disaster. We really heavily on having some sort of onstage monitor mix, as we have relatively intricate four-part harmonies. If someone can't hear themself, the whole thing suffers. The monitor mix was total pot luck; I would request less keyboard in the drum fill, and Adam would end up with more lapsteel in the bass wedge. Prior to the show, I gave a detailed setlist to the sound engineer; this had songs with violin clearly marked so that there would be no confusion, and had individual monitor mix requests. It was, frankly, ignored. I do not blame the girl who engineered FOH; she did the best she could in pretty testing circumstances. However, whichever way you look on it, there is no way that a youngster too timid to tell her boss that they need to put on some background music between bands should have been left running an event at such a big venue. I guess we're also to blame for not taking along iain, Nelly or Badger to do our sound, but we had not reckoned with the sheer incompetence of the sound firm.

After five songs (and a LOT of 'less backing vocals in the keyboard monitor please'), we gave up and decided to do the rest of the set cold. We could not hear what we were playing, and then suddenly we would hear nothing but bass or snare drum. It is the first gig that I've played, after literally hundreds with Edgar Prais, The Deportees, Be Like Pablo and countless other bands, that I did not enjoy in any way. Being onstage in a nice venue in front of an audience who had paid a lot of money to be there is meant to feel good. I just wanted for the show to end.

When I was a young un I got some good advice; never piss off the sound engineer, because they have the capability to make you sound shit. Well, they certainly achieved that! It's the only time that I've ever laid into an engineer, and he could offer nothing beyond 'I know, I'm sorry'.

We were booked for this show about five months ago, so it was far from a last minute affair. Quite how, with all of that preparation time, the bands were left with a pathetic little PA and a teenage engineer who doesn't even have a channel list is beyond me. As I said, I don't blame her; she had an impossible job for one so inexperienced. I also don't blame KingofDeon, who booked a cracking lineup, a good venue and promoted it well. But the least that he, and the bands, should expect is a setup that befits the venue and ticket price.

Once again, I'm sorry to anybody who looked forward to seeing us last night. We are our own harshest critics and are not shy in admitting our shortcomings. However, l wanted to provide an insight into what the bands were battling with onstage. All of our practice and preparation was rendered totally pointless, and we felt that we let down a big audience. We also felt let down by the organisers.

Sorry for the TL;DR

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I'm not going to lie, I noticed all the acts were struggling with the sound but I still thought they all sounded terrific.

My only real qualm is what Amber said about the cello, it was booming! But the whole set was still phenomenally tight, and very good to see a friend of mine one Danny Christie back on stage again.

Deportees were amazing as always despite the complications.

Followed by a double whopper from Burger King. Magic.

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I was horrified...

Only McEwans or Fosters for beer choice! Lucky i am partial to a Guinness or 6.

I actually really enjoyed the gig and didn't think the sound was bad at all. A bit quiet at parts maybe, but passable none the less.

Amber really suits a band. Minimal drumming and cello really fleshed out her songs. Couldn't hear the keyboard at all, but as Amber mentioned he didn't play as much as planned.

Enjoyed Deportees again, demonstrating a professional, solid performance despite sound difficulties.

Meursault were excellent. First time I've seen or heard them and was fairly blown away. Loved the acoustic songs the best and found the whole performance a joy to watch.

Lots of friendly, familiar faces present. Apologies if I never managed to say hi

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I'm glad that some people enjoyed themselves. By all accounts, the FOH sound was a damn sight better than on stage; it's just pretty demoralising as a drummer when you need to watch the singer's tapping feet to keep yourself in time because you have absolutely no idea what anybody else is playing.

I'm not in the habit of making excuses for a poor performance, but in this case it is simply an explanation. We did the best we could, but the ridiculous circumstances dictated that we would be substandard. I'm still raging about the whole event, and that 300+ people paid 7.50 each to witness such a diabolically-managed event.

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I'm glad that some people enjoyed themselves. By all accounts, the FOH sound was a damn sight better than on stage; it's just pretty demoralising as a drummer when you need to watch the singer's tapping feet to keep yourself in time because you have absolutely no idea what anybody else is playing.

I'm not in the habit of making excuses for a poor performance, but in this case it is simply an explanation. We did the best we could, but the ridiculous circumstances dictated that we would be substandard. I'm still raging about the whole event, and that 300+ people paid 7.50 each to witness such a diabolically-managed event.

If it helps any, there was nothing noticeably wrong with any of the acts imho aside from the cello being ridiculously loud during Amber Wilsons' set. Her voice was good though and Deportees harmonies by and large seemed spot on, which is all the more impressive given the circumstances (though I'm tone deaf so what the hell would I know?). I actually enjoyed all the acts, though I did really want to see Debutant, and people did pay for 4 acts, not 3. I totally empathise with this not being the promoters fault at all though and it was a very good night, this aside.

Meursalt blew me away. Great frontman with a great voice. Loved the beginning and ending of their set, too. One way to get around sound problems; leave the stage and abandon all mics and amps!

Good night, good fun.

btw Christy, did you take home the album I bought?

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Reconsidering my first post, (which I wrote in a tired grump, I was extremely excited about the gig but felt that nothing quite went according to plan) I never meant to personally insult anyone or the way they performed their job last night.

I know everyone was stressed and did the best they could given the circumstances, (which I'm appreciative of) but the circumstances involving the PA earlier in the day definitely had a knock on effect for everyone involved, it affected my performance. That was all I was trying to explain.

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