It was the PRS Music Members Benevolent Fund's Helping The Heart Of Music event which grabbed all the headlines, mainly because of the reunion of one of Britain's most iconic bands, The Faces. Three of the four remaining Faces took to the stage, joined by Bill Wyman on bass, with guest vocalists replacing the absent Rod Stewart. Among the singers were Mick Hucknall of Simply Red, Mike And The Mechanics frontman Paul Carrack, Amen Corner vocalist Andy Fairweather-Low, Spice Girl Mel C and Kiki Dee.
For Yan Stile of Canegreen, now part of the SSE Audio Group, this sell-out show was a great opportunity to specify Nexo's distinctive Geo T tangent-array system. "It was when I heard Muse playing through the system on the main stage of the V Festival last summer that I first thought this is bloody good," says Stile. "Since our merger with SSE, I've had the opportunity to use it for several different touring shows and events, and have been pleasantly surprised by its abilities.
"In a sold-out Royal Albert Hall, we've had to trim the system pretty high to address the upper levels, right the way up to the gallery. Geo T has proved to be exactly the right box for the job - it's easy to use and to put up, it is tiny, tiny, tiny, yet it provides full coverage for the venue. We haven't had a single complaint, and it is rare to get not a single complaint."
Typical configurations in this world-famous venue use 20+3 Geo T enclosures in each main array, with a further 14+3 for the out-fill hangs. "Dynamically, Geo T is at its best on a MOR/light rock act like Michael Bolton," comments Stile, "and it was very well suited to the PRS Fund concert because it was mixed like a charity gala event at 98dB. I'm happy to be speccing and using this system, all the more so because Michael Bolton has already asked for it again on the next leg of the tour in January."
(Jim Evans)
