The Coral played to a packed and excited 5,000 capacity marquee on The Front at New Brighton, the Wirral. Their regular engineers, Adlib's Dave Kay at FOH and Paul Roberts on monitors, were in action using a JBL Vertec line array system supplied by Adlib. This came complete with a Soundcraft Series 5 console front of house, and a Midas XL3 onstage, plus another pair of consoles to deal with the support bands.
Adlib's Andy Dockerty and Nick Bellis also engineered the Southport Jazz Festival, staged at Southport Theatre. For this they used Midas Heritage 3000 consoles at both ends of the multicore and another Vertec line array system. The two-day event featured a number of international acts, including Snake Davis, Heather Small and the BBC Jazz Orchestra.
Adlib were also at work on the Morecombe Punk Festival, where contemporary and retro punks turned out in force. The three-day event was held at three separate venues in the town - the Dome, The Platform (part of the old railway station) and the Market Arena. This latter area featured a Nexo Alpha audio system, whilst the other two venues utilized Adlib FD systems. To prevent history repeating itself, Adlib's engineers ensured that the monitors were covered in Clingfilm to weather the legendary punk assault of spit and beer.
Adlib also supplied various venues throughout Liverpool with equipment for the Africa Oyé Festival. A variety of different African performances took place in bars around town, with the main Africa Oyé Festival stages in Concert Square and Sefton Park. As if that wasn't enough, Adlib also serviced a series of concerts at Manchester University's famous Academy 2. Additionally, they continued to supply their regular Merseyside clients with kit and crew.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
