Funny thing was, I was there to hear one of the classic voices of British r&b: from the early sixties with the Spencer Davis group, through Traffic and Blind Faith to a lengthy solo career, Stevie Winwood has never been less than a national treasure.
He’s not toured since the mid-90s, so this appearance was all the more welcome. How he came to be performing on stage with Brazilian guitar genius Jose Neto is a lengthy story, suffice to say good musicians attract one another like magnets, and I know from speaking to Jose (a friend, as well as a star) that he’d always wanted to re-arrange some of the Winwood canon, so this was to be a special evening in every sense.
For supporting this fledgling festival, mention must be made of Richard Knowles PA, who supplied all front-of-house and monitor control; Annette Ekers who made a first class job of running house sound for most of the week; d&b audiotechnik for supplying the PA, and the theatre staff of the Everyman for lighting, running and generally making the whole thing work.Lighting for Neto and Winwood turned out to be another revelation for me: Francis Coates is an LD I’ve known since the early 70s, but not seen since ‘82. "That’s because I’ve got into films, dear boy," he says. "Same money, and you don’t have to go away from home so much," he informed.
But it’s as a lighting man and musician I know Coates: he started off as a mandolin and fiddle player in the Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band, before moving on to light such luminaries as Thin Lizzy, Elton John, 10cc, Smokie and Mike Oldfield, "and those are just the oneswho fired me!" says Coates, who holds a healthy disregard for his contribution to the music business. However, his timing was appalling when I worked with him, and on tonight’s showing, 20 years hasn’t helped any.
His rig comprised mainly Patt 243s and 743s with about 10 Par 64s, all from the Everyman house rig, plus a collection of 500W quartz strip floods which Coates has carried around with him as long as I’ve known him. The control desk is a Strand 430: "Such desks didn’t exist last time I operated," he said, "at least not where I was working."
For colour, Coates chose mainly saturated mauves, reds and blues, much like the r’n’r palette he used all those years ago. Considering he had just 45 minutes to set the house rig, and only ever lights the band when they make their singular annual pilgrimage to the Cotswolds, this was not a bad show.
Sound was exquisite, but there were factors in their favour. The d&b system of C7s tops and subs (two each a side) had been in all week and had been set and delayed by d&b themselves. Thus it only remained for Simon Johnston, an engineer who retired about the same time as Coates, to familiarise himself with Knowles’ Midas Heritage 1000, "and these compressors that Wigwam has lent us."
Winwood, it seems, requires the earthy qualities of a Summit TLA100; the dbx160SL had been sent as an extra by Wigwam, "in case I wanted to try something different," said Johnston. What did he think of them? "I couldn’t really tell, but the flashing lights on the dbx are too bright - very distracting."
On the day, Frank Martin’s insistence on using the house grand piano proved the biggest audio headache, but a lid lowered to mic-stand level, and a surreptitiously applied length of heavy carpet across the mouth, did much to keep out Celso Alberti’s drumming, though his kit was barely two feet away. (This trick came courtesy of Annette’s better half Chris Ekers, a regular name in the audio side of the opera world, who like many had dropped in for the chance to catch Winwood in action).
Winwood’s Hammond B3, referred to as a "a JCB" by Neto and greeted with much mirth, also created problems, not least Winwood having a half-size Leslie cabinet onstage beside him for ‘listen’,
