something funny

[Tungstengruvsten]

you've all seen the farside comic strip with the live sound guy and the 'suck button' right?

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...hreadid=566403

[Mark Burnley]

:D

That's too fuuny!!

...so watch how you treat the soundman in future!

;)

Mark

[ssltech]

I did a gig doing FOH sound for the Pasadenas (remember them, anyone?... didn't think so! -really nice guys though!) we did a beach festival in Northern Belgium, the 'Belga beach Festival' in 1989. Duran Duran booked the soundcheck day but didn;t bother to show up, so nobody got a soundcheck. Lots of sitting round. I got to chat to the crew for Duran Duran. They showed me to the monitor FX rack and pointed to the Eventide H3000. Apparently Simon LeBon sang so distractingly out of tune that there was a "pitch-quantized" split feed taken from his vocal mic and fed to the other band members' monitors so they wouldn't get so annoyed. Simon himself apparently had the non-altered feed, so that he had a chance of doing something about it!

...well I knew that he sang out of tune, I just though that the band wasn't that bothered!

Keef

[cjenrick]

Don't need a "suck button" for my band!

[Mundox]

sorry but that guy is EVIL!!! I mean who would bother to set up a SUCK button that way?

[Tommytones]

I love it...!!! :D

[thermionic]

Pasadenas (remember them, anyone?...

I still see one of them (can't remember name, memory like a sieve) about at the Jazz clubs in London. He's often spotted performing aerial acrobatic moves and still looks pretty sharp.

Next time I run into him I'll tell him Keef says 'ello!

Justin

[Kev]

I wish I had thought of the Suck button ... and had the gear to do it right. Most of that story sounds just like me when I did a lot of live sound. [img]graemlins/silly.gif[/img]

I did read through some of the comments that followed.

Seriously though, he sounds like a prick.
Soundguys like that make me mad, after all, they are an employee of the bands basically, they should do what they are told.

Bullshit.
Support bands rarely pay for the Soundguy or the PA system.
A support band that damages part of the PA is having a major effect of what happens by the time you get to the main act. The main act are the ones that pay for the system and people.
If you want to trash a Mic-stand and Mic as the lead singer each night THEN BRING YOUR OWN ... or factor it in as part of the budget for the show. No problem with that.
I could go on.


I lost a drum fill AND side fill one night when a bass player had trouble with what he thought was my DI box (DI was fine). No sound. I had left the faders in there typical positions and headed for the stage ... my monitor man was very side stage and on the other side of the stage to the desk and amp racks. Just as I was half to the stage the bass player finds the volume button on the bass guitar.

I caught to eye of my monitors man and saw the look of horror. I knew that my face would have looked ten times worse. He dropped a crate of cables and made like a super hero, tptally airborne for the amp racks and nailled the switches just as he landed. He must have hurt himself but clearly was glad to put his body on the line.

I didn't move a muscle ... perhaps the face muscles where sapping my energy. It was clear to me that it was already too late. I have big amps and my limiters were set for my main act (night before) ... we were still in set up and not in soundcheck mode for the support band.

All this happened in slow mo .
This bass player grinned from ear to ear and leant back as he turned up the volume. He had never heard an e note quite like that before. Loud and round but wuith a bit of an edge .. clipping at the mosfets I would say.
The sound bagan to fade and then the amps were switched off.
Bass player was distressed ... "oh man !!"
Monitor man was still making like a superhero as he put the flames out in the drum fill.
Side fill was smking but not on fire.
I still hadn't moved from the centre of the club.

It was probably 5 minute before anyone came near me. The Monitor man tore strips off this bloke but it fell on deaf eyes.

" Pack up the drum fill and side and put it back in the truck ... we will have to go with out tonight ."

During sound check bass player breaks a string. [img]graemlins/.gif[/img]
Monitor man suggests he should ask the Sound guy if he has any spare .....
This bass player was so stupid be actually believed him and came and asked me for a set of bass strings !!

" Sorry I left them back at the work shop on top of the SIX SPARE JBL2226 bass drivers ."

... once again the bass player actually believed it ...

Not even I had 6 fresh 2226 drivers just waiting as spares ... I may have had 4 and I'm sure they would have been for a speaker construction job that was in progress at the time. 6 drivers go down in one night is just too much expense.

So I didn't make any profit that night and it took and few night to get back to even.
(note - I did carry some guitar strings and drum hardware and other parts in the truck)

[ssltech]

I always remember them in left-to-right order...
Geoff, Dave, Andy, Mike and Hamish!

He'll say "Keith Who?" I'm sure! I was supposed to do a load of gigs with them when CBS were threatening to re-launch the band, but CBS hummed and hawed for so long I ended up taking a "short" studio gig in Los Angeles that ran over... and ran over.. and ran over... so they ended up having to go with someone else when they finally did get some more gigs together -they were all really pleasant guys to be around though!

When I arrived home several weeks later, my answering machine was full of messages from bands who were wondering where the hell I was and should they stop offering me work since I hadn't returned their calls from 2 months ago... One was very funny... the Buzzcocks, who had semi-confirmed a gig with me. -The string of phone calls ran from:
"Okay, Keith... that gig is on. Call me if it's a problem for you"

through:
"Keith, I haven't heard anything, so I assume you're good to go for that gig!"

to:
"Keith, we're outside your house, you haven't forgotten about that gig have you???" !!!

-They never called back, and I've never asked any of them what they did for that gig!!! :D

Most of that story sounds just like me when I did a lot of live sound.

Yeah... me too!!! I was a grumpy old codger when it got late and people started to misbehave!!! :D

Keith

[robflinn]

When I`ve done live sound at festivals it always seems like there is one band who are a bunch of wa*#k%rs, who make life difficult for everyone.