In June we did a short west coast US tour from San Diego to Seattle. Our last stop was at the Showbox in Seattle where they have a wonderfull Gambe and Nexo rig. The board is in great shape and one of the best sounding consoles out there.

Here we see a fine collection of gear supplied to me for our show opening for Garbage at the Zenith in Lille, France by ArtoTech SA. A nexo rig made this a very enjoyable show.

Mercury Rev at the Zenith in Lille, France. Our lighting designer James seems to be having a good time. Thanks to Garbage for letting us make use of it.

We return to London once again for a show at the Royal Festival Hall for David Bowie’s meltdown festival. The in house system consists of a bunch of Meyer and a Yamaha PM-4000. A bit tricky mixing in the hall but things go well.

The Squids point of view at Glastonbury. SSE supplies my favorite desk at FOH, the Midas Heritage 2000. The turbo rig wasn’t half bad either.

We visit a new Italian town for the Arezzo Festival in, you guessed it, Arezzo, Italy. And what do we have here, a brand new Martin line-array and a Cadac at FOH. We even get to do a bit of a sound check during the day, only problem is, in the day light you can’t see the lights on the desk to save your life, so that made things a bit tricky. And what you would do with so many VCA’s and sub-groups/buses I think I’ll never know. But a damn fine sounding desk with a very beautiful layout. I wonder what you could do with the usb ports on the back…..?

You can’t see it in the picture, and you can’t hear it either, but the new Martin line array sounds pretty darn good. A very natural high end, a very flat in your face sort of box. A rep from martin was there, he spoke of trying to design a box that works compared to loads of processing on many line array boxes. Seems they pulled it off pretty well. Sounds much better than any of their old stuff I have mixed on.

Another festival show in Italy, this time in the wonderful town of Bergamo. Been awhile since I’ve mixed on a Europa. Big monster of a desk, but I always liked the soundcrafts having grown up on a delta. And I think we only lost power once during sound check! 😉

Montreux Jazz Festival – Miles Davis Hall – Inside the hall I find a Meyer line array and a Soundcraft Series V. I was thinking there were going to be extreme sound level issues, but with the limit at 100db SPL-A I have no problem. On hand they had the new TC-M6000, and it has to be the coolest effect unit out there. Sounds great and has a remote to die for with a touch screen and flying faders. I could use just one of these for a tour to do it all but at $6000+ it probably wont be happening any time soon.

To finish up this run we find ourselves on the island of Mallorca off of Spain. A beautiful day in the sun, and a dusty night at the show. We open up for Oasis and a find my self mixing sideways with the Xl-3 facing the FOH tent wall. They hadn’t really set up the house mix/lights/video tower to accommodate another desk, so they did what they could.

If the effects rack is right in front of you it does make a convenient stable surface for getting some long exposure pictures.