Solid State Logic Live in Haarlem
- Details
Patronaat was started in 1984, in the renovated patronage hall / gymnasium of a former school building by the Pop Music Foundation of Kennerlerland. The venue went from strength to strength, and in 2005, after a brief relocation, a new Patronaat building was officially opened on the original site. The Foundation has been a long-term beneficiary of a substantial arts subsidy - common in cities around the Netherlands - and a founding principal of Patronaat was to use that subsidy, and income from bigger touring acts, to give smaller, up-and-coming acts a stage to perform on. It’s a strategy that continues undiminished today.
The complex has three rooms, sized as large (950 capacity), medium (350 capacity), and small (120 capacity), with independent entrances and in-out freight vehicle access into the middle of the building via the central Schlucht street. The combined rooms see an average of 130,000 visitors a year for around 500 productions.
Benno Linnemann, head of sound at Patronaat, says that a busy week might include up to 15 gigs, functions, or events throughout the building. "That's mainly live music, plus dance and some private and corporate bookings," he explains.
There are four SSL L200 consoles at the venue, for front-of-house and monitors in both the large and medium rooms. According to Linnemann, his SSL Live experience started while he was working on a Candy Dulfer gig at Paradsio in Amsterdam - another of the Dutch pop-stages and one that also has SSL Live consoles: "I asked AEM - the SSL Live distributor in The Netherlands - if I could go there and create my show file for that gig. They were great - very helpful - and also let me try the console on another few gigs with Candy.”
(Jim Evans)
