"Since we opened our event and band rehearsal facilities in East London, LSH Spaces, we've been involved with a lot of current high-profile bands and their technical support staff," explains Turner from LSH's London HQ. "We put some KSM8s in one of the rehearsal rooms there alongside the usual SM58s, and people soon started to ask us about the new mic."
Early adopters of the KSM8 were up-and-coming Essex-based Dirty Pop band Arcaves, who had previously been using Shure SM58 and Beta 87As as live vocal mics. The band auditioned prototype versions of the mic at the 2015 V Festival, and progressed to using two KSM8s as their main live vocal mics by mid-2016: the black edition for their female vocalist Bekile, and the brushed nickel version for lead vocalist Billy Wright. Both mics feature clearly in the video shot to accompany the band's most recent single, Out Of The Blue, which was one of the first videos shot in the UK using a high-resolution 8K sensor.
Arcaves were not alone, as Grant Turner continues. "Everyone who used the KSM8 gave us very positive feedback; it took off very fast. Matt Lewis, the live sound engineer for Nick Mulvey and Jamie Woon, was keen to audition it, and the next thing we knew, it went from 'Nick's trying it out' to 'Jamie would like the KSM8 for his summer tour...'. In the end, we supplied KSM8s and other Shure mics for that tour, along with PSM1000 in-ears.
"We gave LeAnn Rimes a black KSM8 to use when she was promoting her new album Remnants with a live 'unplugged' session in the piano room at the Yamaha Music London Showroom in Soho in August. And of course, the KSM8 was also used in 2016 to set a Guinness World Record."
Sure enough, in April, the KSM8 was the vocal mic used for what was subsequently certified as the World's Highest Ever Stand-up Gig. Stand Up On Everest, as it was known, involved UK comedians Tom Wrigglesworth and Martin Mor, together with Australians Wayne Deakin and Mickey D, performing on a temporary stage erected solely for the purpose at Mount Everest South Base Camp in the Nepalese Himalayas, 5365m above sea level.
"We got involved through our work with Save The Children, which sponsored the event," explains Grant Turner. "They asked us to spec a PA for the gig, and we brought Shure and Martin Audio on board...Everything worked perfectly, the gig went without any problems, and it raised lots of money for Save The Children."
To see off 2016, Arcaves threw a free pre-Christmas concert on London's South Bank on 9 December. As at many LSH-supported events throughout 2016, the KSM8 was the main vocal microphone.
(Jim Evans)
