As his nickname suggests, Trevor - an arborist in his day job - is well-known for playing his concerts from the branches of trees, which somewhat limits his options for amplification to wireless-based systems. The QLX-D's extended battery life and efficient spectrum usage have proved a boon at his festival gigs, given the heavy usage of the RF spectrum at modern festivals, and the fact that replacement batteries and charging facilities are not readily available when you're performing high up in an oak with only a Chesterfield sofa and a glitterball for company, as Trevor was at Larmer.
Many musicians turn to charitable endeavours if they're lucky enough to be successful at their art, but Ben Trevor has been involved with charity work from the beginning, alongside his successful work with the band Bommerillo. His first treetop gig was played entirely as a one-off fundraiser for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, in recognition for the help the charity gave his mother. He gave scant thought to amplification. "It was," he admits, "just me up a tree with a guitar."
But the concert was so successful, and received so much media coverage, he decided to continue the theme. "I went on to play up the tallest tree in Britain, a Grand Fir, and that was a great fund-raiser too. Also, performing up a tree in front of a crowd can't help but highlight the magnificence of trees, their importance to us and our environment."
Already, Trevor has plans to go one better. "I'm thinking about playing a gig in the tallest tree in the world: Hyperion, a 380ft Coast Redwood in California - but you need permission for that." Accordingly, Trevor is now working up to generating the positive publicity he believes should sway the American authorities into letting him play in Hyperion's branches, and while doing this, he began to write his own material designed to be played from the treetops.
"I now have enough to record an album, and at the same time, some friends are helping me film this whole creative journey. Everything is a lot more organised now - at the beginning, it was just me up the tree playing and a couple of mates with camcorders. Now we are shooting with proper cameras and my guitar is wirelessly connected to a PA, which leaves me free to move freely around the tree when performing.
"I've always used Shure mics for my traditional, non-treetop gigs, so this is a logical extension of that. I have the QLX-D bodypack on my guitar, connected via a short cable to the pickup, and I wear a Beta 54 headset mic for vocals. Both of those transmit to the QLX-D receiver at the base of the tree, and that routes to a PA operated by my friends down there. It sounds terrific."
Following his two slots at the Larmer Festival, at which he performed following Femi Kuti on the Saturday night, and another Sunday morning slot, Trevor is planning pop-up gigs at festivals that will see him ranging all over the branches of a variety of tall trees, emboldened by the lack of wires on his guitar - and reaching a climax by stepping out from the branches and flying over the festival audiences in a harness. "The only worry is a health and safety one. I have to be careful that the wireless transmitters don't fall off me and into the crowd below. So we'll be lashing them to me with gaffa tape!"
(Jim Evans)
