The company, who have worked with tour manager Andy Proudfoot on other tours, won a competitive tender to supply lighting and crew for the European section of the tour. They also worked closely with Clair Brothers Europe/Audio Rent in Basle, Switzerland, to ensure the tour had the precise audio package required, which involved the new Clair Brothers i4 line array speaker system.
Lighting
LD Jim Fitzpatrick’s design - produced in conjunction with Proudfoot - is a dynamic asymmetric rig consisting of six trusses - a 60ft angled front truss, a 50ft rear truss and four others ranging between 24ft and 40ft, all hung at erratic angles. Onto this - scattered randomly - are 26 High End Studio Colors and 16 Martin MAC 2000s - the moving lights at the core of the rig. These are joined by Pars, Source Fours and Moles, plus a further six Studio Colors and four MAC 2000s on the floor. The result is a large visual canvas, strafed with beams, rich colours and textures, projecting from all angles.
Entec also supplied Fitzpatrick with his desk of choice - a Vari*Lite Virtuoso lighting console. Having had extensive experience as a VL programmer, it’s the desk he knows best, and having it allowed him to maximize the very short US-to-Europe rehearsal and programming time. Entec’s lighting team on the tour was led by Nigel (Skippy) Monk, with Simon (Boff) Howarth and Andy Mountain on the team.
Sound
"This was a great example of inter-company fertilisation to produce a great result," comments Dick Hayes, Entec’s head of sound on the slightly unorthodox sound supply. Entec supplied a Midas XL4 FOH console, outboard effects and system processing including Drawmer gates and BSS compression for FOH engineer Terry Pearson. Effects used included an Avalon 737 mic preamp compressor and a KT DN410 for Alanis’s vocals, an Eventide H3000 harmonizer, a Roland SDE 3000 delay, a Lexicon 480L, a TC M5000 and and a Yamaha SPX 990.At the stage end of the multicore, Entec supplied engineer Randy (Randbo) Bryant with a Midas Heritage H3000 console, effects, mics, wedges, IEMs and all necessary cabling. The wedges were Entec’s APWs - their own 2 x 12"+2" boxes. Alanis wears Ultimate Ears moulds and uses a Shure 600 beltpack and receiver. Bryant used 39 channels including reverb returns and talkbacks. Effects-wise he keeps it simple, with TLA tube compressors, Drawmer gates and a Lexicon PCM 80 used for her vocal and BSS 422s on the keyboards. яндекс
Bryant worked with Entec Sound’s Tristan Johnson earlier in the year, at the tiny Water Rats club in Kings Cross. Their paths had crossed before on the TFI Friday TV show - which Entec serviced for five years - and at other shows and festivals. When Bryant learned Entec had won contract to supply monitors and control, he immediately requested that Johnson be on the tour. They were also joined by Entec’s Paul Keeble.
The PA - a Clair i4 line array system - was supplied in Europe by Clair’s European partners Audio Rent, along with their new I/O drive system. For the short European leg of the tour, which followed a major two-month stint in the US, this was the most cost-effective way of sourcing Pearson’s exact audio spec.
