Italian-born Lombardi secured the position on Capital's recommendation, after they had experienced his mixing expertise with Will Young during the summer of 2012. They also knew he had classical experience working with Andrea Bocelli, and were certain he would be a good option for Il Divo.
"The guys from Capital came and listened, mentioned my name and I was lucky enough to be chosen," says LOmbardi. "The very first show was BBC Proms in the Park with a live BBC orchestra, which was good experience for me as it was in front of thousands of people."
This was swiftly followed by a three week stint in Eastern European followed by a South American tour, and then the decision to embark on a six week tour with Katherine Jenkins, which took in venues around Europe and ended with two weeks in UK arenas, including London's The O2, the MEN in Manchester and NEC Birmingham.
"As far as equipment goes, I asked for a DiGiCo SD7 for my FOH desk and Capital Sound has been very kind to give me that," Lombardi continues. "I have always been a DiGiCo fan because their consoles are very approachable and very easy to use. I used the more compact SD10 on the previous tours, but the SD7 was ideal for this tour as we already had 56 channels with Il Divo and, with the addition of Katherine, I needed the facility to have more options available on the console. With the SD7, I can work on three different sections independently, as I've got three different screens. With other desks, I would just have one screen."
Capital also provided a DiGiCo SD8 for the monitor position, along with a Meyer Sound loudspeaker system comprising 14 Milo per side, with two Milo 120s providing additional coverage on either side of the stage. 14 Mica per side were utilised for side-hangs, with five flown 700 HPs subs per side and two subs ground stacked left and right.
Microphones were a combination of Audix and AKG for instruments, with Sennhieser vocal mics for Il Divo and Audio Technica for Katherine Jenkins.
The Il Divo and Katherine Jenkins tour is currently in the US and continues on to Eastern Europe until the end of June.
(Jim Evans)
