The professionalism is very apparent as the show is set up. This is achieved by Richard building long-term relationships with the people that work with him. Monitor engineer John 'JJ' James has been there for a remarkable 29 years, with front of house man Mike 'Bunny' Warren still a bit like the new boy with a mere 12 years under his belt.
Despite it being just a three week, 14 show tour playing in seven UK arenas, the 50th Anniversary Time Machine tour was in production rehearsals for a surprising five weeks.
"That's why he's always good, he's a perfectionist," says Bunny Warren. "The most important thing to him is that everyone has a good show and he doesn't mind paying and putting the time in to achieve that. It also means that there isn't the period of 'warming up' on tour that you get with many acts - the first show of a Cliff Richard tour is always amazing because we've spent so much time doing it."
The complexity of the live show is such that both engineers have the entire show set up as scenes on their respective PM5Ds supplied, along with the rest of the audio rig, by Britannia Row Productions.
(Jim Evans)
