Eddie Izzard, one of the UK's leading stand-up acts, is currently on a major tour of UK and Europe arenas with Sennheiser equipment, but the relationship between MPP and Sennheiser goes back much further, starting with George Glossop, Izzard's long term sound designer.
"The relationship started with Eddie's production via Sennheiser US and, separately, through rental company Delicate Productions and Scott Scherban, who used to mix Eddies arena shows," says Sennheiser artist relations manager Mark Saunders.
"George and Andy Lillywhite (Sennheiser UK's chief engineer) also go back a long way on the technical side of things and when Eddie's arena European arena tour was booked, that's when my phone rang and things have rolled on from there."
Where the relationship really cemented itself was at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where MPP was promoting a number of shows and Sennheiser pulled out all the stops to help.
"We have a broad spectrum of acts on the books, with around 15 of them in Edinburgh this year. It was really good to be able to service them well," says Nick Hanford, MPP production manager.
"All the microphones we used at the Fringe were Sennheiser. To be able to give acts who are working on a very low budget, doing daytime shows, the facility to use radio equipment was a really nice thing to be able to do. It's equipment they would never normally be able to afford at the Fringe, in addition to all the other costs they incur, so it made them feel a little bit special and that we were looking after them."
Eddie Izzard's current tour sees the comedian using a Sennheiser G2 system with an 935 capsule. "It gets a bit of physical abuse, but it's been as solid as a rock all the way through. That's one of the main requirements - you turn it on and forget about it because you know it's going to work," says Glossop.
(Jim Evans)
