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P.A. Column
BAND: Madness
VENUE: Leicester DeMontforte Hall
DATE: Tuesday October 27th 1981
PA BY: TFA-Electrosound, London
THE VENUE
TO MY WAY OF THINKING, LEICESTER'S DeMontforte Hall is one of the more civilised venues on the rock circuit. It is a large multi purpose hall with a completely flat boarded floor; large, completely open stage platform and a tiered seating gallery around the three sides facing the stage. For concerts the flat floor is covered with rows of seats with gangways and aisles etc, while for dancing and other display type events, it is left clear or used as an arena with seating around the perimeter. For Madness, the floor was left clear for those of the audience who prefer to stand up and jig around to the music, while the tiered galleries were open for those who prefer the comfort of a seat. I did notice that the rule in this respect was fairly stringently enforced, as anyone found standing or dancing on the galleries were firmly but politely escorted down onto the floor so as not to cause any obstruction to others in the galleries. Equally firm about the audience behaviour were the band themselves and in one instance, the band actually stopped playing mid-number and ordered a girl (who had been seen to start a fight by guitarist Chris Foreman) from the hall and refused to carry on until the offending party had been unceremoniously ejected, to an accompaniment of choruses of "out! out! out!" from the audience. Otherwise, the concert was incredibly good humoured with a really good atmosphere.
Other plusses of this hall are the excellent bar facilities available with quick and efficient service - and again, that polite firmness in refusing to serve customers who were obviously under age; and equally efficient snack bar where fresh filled rolls, sandwiches, soft drinks, tea, coffee etc were available, and yet again, that polite but firm handling of the crowd by the hall staff.
Acoustically, the hall is fairly lively, even with a full house. However, with the judicious use of graphic equalisers in conjunction with a real time analyser, the detrimental effects of this can be largely overcome - as to a large extent they were at this particular concert.
THE BAND
Most readers of this magazine probably know more about this particular band than I do, but just for the record I will briefly give a few very basic details. They are mainly from North London and have been in existence for seven or eight years now. In that time there have been several changes in composition, but recent years have seen a settling down with the present seven piece line-up with 'Suggsy' generally fronting the band as lead singer; 'Chas Smash' in support with second lead vocals, percussion, trumpet, and general lunacy; Mike Barson on keyboards; Mark Bedford on bass, Lee Thompson on sax, Chris Foreman on guitar and Daniel Woodgate on drums. Their present recording contract is with Stiff Records.
STAGE SET
Madness were using a particularly interesting stage set for this current tour, which has been specially designed and manufactured by Simon Woodroffe and Jeremy Thoms of Plumbline. It consists of a large canopy across the front of the stage which has the effect of a false proscenium arch, the hood of which is draped with black cloth to conceal two lighting trusses. Behind this is another black cloth hung so as to form a backdrop, but with a large opening cut in it rather like the opening into a cave, and this cave is totally enclosed by means of half a twelve sided regular polygon draped with a highly reflective white material rather like a film screen mesh. Whilst the overall concept is of a cave, the cave itself looks more like one end of a large marquee due to the draping and gathering of the covering material.
The whole structure is made up from pre-fabricated welded aluminium trusses and sections and is held together by a system of hinged joints with removable hinge pins, with the result that the whole thing, complex though it looks at first sight, can be assembled or dismantled in a very short space of time. It is also remarkably rigid and uses a tiered staging platform as its base.
The 'cave' accommodates the keyboards, drum kit, saxophonist and bass guitar stack, while the rest of the band line up across the front of the stage underneath the proscenium canopy. Also part of the system is a sturdy mesh stage extension which protrudes some way forward of the actual front of the stage and is used to accommodate the monitor loudspeakers so as to leave the actual stage front clear of obstruction for the energetic performance. It is altogether a very clever and thoroughly well thought out structure, and has been exceptionally well engineered and built. It is also very effective visually, and permits many more lighting variations to be employed than on an open stage.
BACKLINE
The backline equipment used by Madness is relatively straightforward and again, has been well thought out and sensibly executed by the band's sound engineer Ian Horne and the backline roadie IC, John Wynne. The set-up employs only one conventional amplifier, the rest being custom built rack systems.
Starting with the simplest set-up, guitarist Chris Foreman uses a Fender Strat through a Fender twin reverb combo and an MXR Distortion Plus pedal - and that is all. The Twin Reverb was miked using a Sennheiser MD-421.
Bassman Mark Bedford had a rather more sophisticated, but nevertheless straightforward set-up with an Ashley SC40 Instrument Preamp and an Ashley SC63 Parametric Equaliser feeding an Amcron PSA/2 500/500 watt power amplifier, which in turn, fed one JBL 2x15 cabinet fitted with E140 drivers on each channel. He played a Fender Precision and had another similar instrument standing by as a spare. This set-up was both DI'ed from the Ashley preamp unit and miked from the speaker cabs using an ElectroVoice RE20.
By current trends, the keyboards set-up used by Mike Barson was very basic indeed, comprising only of a Yamaha CP80 electric grand piano and a Crumar T2 Organiser. However, the way in which these were amplified was not so simple, and serves as another example of the thought that has gone into the equipment aspect of this band. The Yamaha piano was fed directly into one channel of an Ashley SC44 Keyboards Processor/Mixer unit via an Ashley SC63 parametric equaliser. The Crumar T2 organ was fed to a heavily modified Leslie 122 cabinet which had been fitted with a JBL E140 bass driver, JBL 2441 HF driver and a Quad 405 100/100 watt power amplifier. This was totally enclosed within a somewhat large flightcase. The interior of the case was divided up into sections and lined with foam padding, and had a Shure SM57 microphone in the bass compartment and a further two SM57s (mounted one each side of the Leslie for stereo), in the top two HF compartments, so that in effect, the Leslie produced no actual audible sound whatsoever, but was housed in a soundproofed cubicle and miked. Surely in these days of microprocessed everything, someone could come up with an electronic means of simulating the Leslie sound without having to go to all these lengths!
Anyway, the output from the three mikes was split between the PA and monitor desks and the remaining inputs on the Ashley SC44 Keyboard Processor/Mixer unit mentioned above, the latter going via two more Ashley SC63 Parametric Equalisers. The mixed and processed output from the SC63 was then fed to a Yamaha F1030 2-way crossover unit and thence to an Amcron PSA/2 and Quad 405 power amplifiers. The speaker system comprised two cabinets, each fitted with two JBL E140 15" bass drivers and one JBL 2441 compression driver with 2307 slant plate lense assembly. Quite a set-up that produced one of the best keyboard sounds I have yet heard.
Saxophonist Lee Thompson played a Yamaha tenor and an Armstrong 3070A baritone, both of which were miked using a Shure Unidyne 4 458. I thought the 548 gave an excellent, rasping quality to the saxes, but Gordon Lilley, TFA's engineer IC thought they were too harsh and peaky and generally too directional. I must admit that the sax sound as heard over the monitors almost sliced your head off, but I was quite impressed with the PA sound - it's obviously all a matter of personal preference I suppose.
The drum kit was without doubt one of the smallest I have seen for a very long time. It comprised a little Gretsch 20" kick drum, a Gretsch 14" x 16" floor tom and just a single 13" rack tom, with a Ludwig steel snare. All the cymbals were Zildjian and included four free cymbals including rides, crashes and a pang, as well as the hi hat. All pedals and stands were Pearl. The kick drum was miked using an ElectroVoice RE20 inside the shell, both toms used Sennheiser MD-421s, the snare had Shure SM57s top and bottom, the hi hat used an AKG C451 with CK1 capsule and 20dB attenuator pad while a pair of C451s (but with CK5 capsule and 10dB pads) served as overheads.
Besides Suggsy and Chas, three other members of the band provide vocal backing and all five vocal mikes were Shure SM58s. In addition, Chas used SM57s on his conga drums and trumpet, but these were only used for certain numbers and the extra mikes were taken off stage when not in use so as to minimise clutter on the stage front.
MONITORING
This time both desks are by Soundcraft, the monitor console being a Series II in 24 channel 8 group format. All eight groups have Klark-Teknik DN27 Graphic Equalisers in circuit, although in this case, these were masquerading under the disguise of a TFA-Electrosound front panel and all neatly racked up beside the monitor desk. In addition to these, there were two dbx 160 Limiters feeding the side-fill stacks and a Delta Lab DL1 DDL feeding the front vocal wedges.
Two types of wedge monitors were being used, both of which were 3-way passive systems in fairly large cabinets. One type employed a pair of JBL K120s for low and low-mid, a JBL 2440/2345 compression driver/horn combination and a pair of JBL 2402 bullet HF units, while the other was fitted with two JBL 2202A extended bass 12" drivers, a JBL 2440 compression driver with 2390 crinkle plate lens and a single 2402 HF bullet.
The side-fill and drum monitor systems were of similar composition, each comprising 2 x JBL K140 15" bass drivers, 2 x JBL K120 12" low mid, a single JBL 2390 crinkle plate lens assembly and a single JBL 2402 HF bullet. In addition to this, the side-fill stacks had a second 2440 driver with the large JBL 2395 slant plate lens to emphasise and spread the mid band.
P.A.
The main PA desk was a specially built Soundcraft Series 3 studio desk in 32 channel 8 group stereo format and was operated by Ian Horne, who doubles as sound engineer for Madness and Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and who expressed considerable satisfaction with both the Soundcraft desk and the TFA system generally. A number of outboard effects units were in use including two Roland 555 Chorus Echo machines - one used on voices, the other as a general purpose echo as and where required; a Delta-Lab DL1 digital delay unit used on the tom toms; four dbx 160 limiters used on the two front vocal mikes, saxophone and bass guitar and an Aphex Aural Exciter model 602, used variously on vocals, kick drum, rack tom and snare. The stereo output from the desk was fed via a pair of incognito Klark Teknik DN27 graphics, an Audio and Design Compex Limiter and a TFA-Electrosound 4-way stereo crossover system which incorporates phase equalising circuitry to compensate for the path length difference between the various types of driver and horn used in the loudspeaker stacks. The overall performance of the system was monitored on a Klark Teknik DN60 real time spectrum analyser.
The power amplifiers were Amcron DC300/As for the most part, with Quad 405s driving the high frequency section of the loudspeaker stacks.
Although I have described the TFA loudspeaker system before, this was some two years ago when we covered the 1979 Paul McCartney & Wings Christmas tour, and so it will probably not go amiss to repeat the information here. The system is made up of just two types of cabinet - a bass bin and a combined low-mid high-mid and HF cabinet. Both cabinets are exactly the same size and are visually identical, thereby enabling the system to be stacked symmetrically in any desired configuration. The bass bin is a twin folded horn design and is fitted with a pair of the superb JBL K151 18" bass drivers. The low-mid section of the mid/HF cabinet comprises a pair of JBL K120 12" drivers in turbo loaded tubes; the hi-mid section is a single JBL 2440 compression driver behind a JBL 2350 radial horn; and the HF section employs a pair of JBL 2402 'bullets'. For this particular gig there were six bass bins and six mid/hi cabinets on each side of the stage and these were stacked with a pile of four bass cabinets inside, a pile of four mid/hi cabinets centre and an outside pile made up of alternating bass and mid/hi, the general idea being that the stacked cabinets would provide throw to the back of the auditorium, while the alternated stack would provide some near field coverage.
IMPRESSIONS
As soon as the band launched into their first number, it was evident that we were in for a good evening's entertainment. The stage set, the lighting, excellent sound quality and an imaginative and very much together band all combined to produce one of the best rock concerts I have seen for some time. The sound quality was bright and clear over the upper mid and high frequency bands, while a particularly open and predominant bass and an articulate low mid added plenty of guts and drive to the system. I think that for a saxophone sound, and for a Yamaha electric grand piano sound, this is about the best yet, and the bass guitar sound was full and rounded, yet with plenty of drive. I think that the rather live acoustic characteristic of the hall helped in producing some of the 'liveliness' over the mid band, even though this was to some extent 'tamed' by the use of graphic equalisers - especially to subdue several specific ringing modes of the hall at around 500Hz, 1kHz and 4kHz. I measured a sound pressure level of between 98dB and 102dB at various times during the performance - both figures being 'A' weighted and with a 'slow' response setting to BS3489 for the benefit of any acousticians who may be reading this report. The level did not change very much anywhere in the hall except right up in front of the loudspeaker stacks - due largely to the natural reverberation characteristics of the building in diffusing the sound.
It was a very good humoured concert altogether - due in part to the reasons mentioned earlier in this report, and also to the attitude of the band and their various crew members - an attitude of responsibility which somehow came across and was reciprocated by the audience. It was altogether a good concert and one which I personally rather enjoyed.
- Contributed by Graeme Sharpe
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