Prep it, Pack it, Work it, Unload it, Repeat...

2008-05-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

April Til Now!

So I get worse at updating this blog! This is what I have done in the last month (And again I haven't taken any pictures)

April 5, 2008 - After a week off work I went to see Dave Spikey at Grimsby. Twas a very funny show and was good to catch up with some old mates who I had not seen in a long time.

April 9, 2008 - On my third attempt I passed my Class II LGV licence. I can now drive whacking great trucks. And so far still lovin it. Lets see how this one pans out in the summer!

April 12, 2008 - Bootleg Beatles in Cambridge. This was a funny day. A weeding in one of the University lecture theatres. Long push to the room and cramming in the band into the smallest space you have ever seen!

April 21, 2008 - Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong at Hull Uni Union. We set up our new DV-Dosc system in here for the first time. Worked really well, and was good fun!

April 26, 2008 - Tonight was Frankie Boyle in Grimsby. This was a very funny show. But very offensive. The show itself was hard work, not an easy room to do sound in. But it was rammed and I had no complaints which is a Bruce!

April 27, 2008 - Snake Davis in Hull Truck Theatre. This was a mint show. Rammed house and the best musicians about. Properly enjoyed it. I was really happy with how it sounded as well.

May 1, 2008 - Talent Trail in Hull City Hall. This is the third year I have done this show now. It was a bloomin long day, and although not particularly hard work, it was a proper endurance event. Less said the better!

May 2-5, 2008 - Spalding Flower Festival. After getting out of City Hall quite late we set off to Spalding the following day. The rig was slow, but weather held out for the first outside gig of the year!

After expecting the Saturday just to be a show in the evening, we soon found out that it was going to be a pretty full on day. And it was carnage. We all got pretty stressed out with the whole ordeal, but the night show worked out OK. A show called They Will Rock You, which played tribute to Queen, Status Quo, Dire Straits and Elton John. Some of it was very roped, but the Queen were quite good. There was also some mint dancing from some of the yocals!

After a traumatic day the day before we all took a lot more light hearted approach to the Sunday show. This turned out to be a very funny day with a variety of acts taking to the stage. The highlight being a bunch of Hungarians which were just down right lunes! Danny also dressed up as a tulip, which was sheer genius, and Chris bought a Cactus as a mascot for us! Barkin!

May 9, 2008 - Dave Spikey in Scarborough Futurist. After seeing him a month before in Grimsby a last minute call came in for the Scarborough show. This was a new venue to us, but rose to the challenge. It turned out to be quite a simple rig and I could sit and enjoy the show again. Same as a month earlier, but still just as funny!

May 11, 2008 - Global Day of Prayer in Beverley Minster. This is a repeat show from last year. And not an easy one at that. At least it wasn't out first time at it this time round. The rig was a complex distributed system with miles of cabling, but all worked first time. The get out was also fairly speedy which was good and unexpected!

Again I leave promises of trying to keep this blog updated. Lets see how that one pans out!

2008-03-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

Gig - Eliza Carthy - Hull Truck Theatre

Tonight I worked a jazz show at Eliza Carthy for Hull Truck Theatre. Playing was Eliza Carthy. She had her own engineer so the day was a fairly easy one.

The rig went in fast, we waited and then the band arrived.

During the show I stayed in the green room and got to grips with L Acoustic Soundvision. The software for setting up the new system the company I work for have bought this year. 'Twas all good. I enjoyed it, and think I got some good results.

We then packed up, and when I got back home started my week off! Get in there!

2008-03-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

Gig - Easter Praise - Hull City Hall

Today is Easter Sunday, and what a surprise when I woke up. Snow!

Anyway The day did not start excellent. Upon arrival at the warehouse to commence the brief drive to the City Hall, Iain and I were flawed in that the truck would not start. Dead Battery. Bummer!

The truck was parked in the unit, with the other truck behind it for another show. We had to jump it off using the other truck, but jump leads wouldn't reach. Do'h! A couple of 2 tonne rigging steels did a great job of bridging the gap! I did however wire up to the wrong end of the link between the two batteries in the Red Van. The resulting spark quite happily blew through a strand or two of the steel. Nice. It now resides in the bin!

Upon correct wiring the truck did start though. Genius!

After an eventful start we were only 20 minutes late for our load in, but we paggered it and were set in time.

It was a long day. I was running monitors, which ended up using nearly all of the inputs on my 48 channel desk and was 13 mixes.

One of the bands playing was theReign, who I had recorded and mixed their last album for as part of my final year uni project. It was a while since I had seen those guys, and it was good to cross paths again.

At the end of the day we packed up, went back to the warehouse, drank tea, tipped the truck and went home for much needed sleep!

2008-03-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

This week I have been learning to drive a Telescopic Forklift Truck. And today I passed!

Now i can legally tare around in one of these monsters! Get in!

And this is me during training. Hilarious! I'm a sound engineer, not a builder!

2008-03-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

Gig - Welly Club - Pnau

Tonight I was back in welly again doing a Club NME. The band were Pnau. An Australian Drum and Bass outfit.

During sound check I wasn't convinced I was going to like them. But the show was ace, and the place was rocking!

2008-03-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

Gig - Hull New Theatre

Today I did a get in for a week long musical at Hull New Theatre.

The day was going ace, until mid afternoon we realised we didn't have a distro. Then the house system had lots of faults. So boyo here had to go climbing and fix it all. Repairing connectors at height isn't fun!

At 5pm the cast arrived and Martin and I settled into a 2 hour onslaught of getting everything sorted. Mics for cast, mics on orchestra. It was brutal.

I celebrated by sleeping during the rehearsal. Result!

2008-02-29T12:55:00.000-08:00

Gigs in February

The second half of February has proved a busy time. But I have also dome some cool shows!

Feb 18 I did a show at Welly for a band called Art Brut! This was a good show and the band were hilarious.

The lead guitarist, Jasper, was in for some stick off the 16yr old crowd when they started to chant his name. The lead singer, a comical guy, interrupted his in between song banter with the following statement: "Leave Jasper alone. He's Busy!"

Along with some comedy jokes and hilarious lyrics I was in stitches for pretty much the entire set. Genius!

On the weekend of Feb 23 I was down in Stamford doing an Orchestral show for MAYC. I have worked with these guys a few times in Colchester and Luton a few months previous. It was a long day as we drove back after the show, but all went well.

On the way home Iain and I gt into a discussion about the fact he had never heard me belch. As you do. The thing is I don't belch. To prove this I downed a bottle of Coke...guess what...nothing...Not even a rumble. Ten minutes later I couldn't stop farting. That 'ul larn him not to ask me about belching!

Feb 27 and I was back working in Hull Uni. This time The Twang were playing. They were very good actually. It was a much better show than I was expecting. They are not really my sort of music. The crew were nice and the show went well. The support however were a bunch of arrogant stuck up heffers! Ah well, you cant win em all. They just need to remember they are the support act!

Feb 28 and I was in Welly. Just a standard Club NME show. The band were quite good. Not much more, but better than most of the acts that play there!

2008-02-16T12:45:00.000-08:00

London

On Thursday my Dad was 50. This however seems irrelevant as we had to put Ben to sleep yesterday morning. He was 14 and his age had taken its toll. He just couldn't go on anymore and had given up.

Rather than moping around the house we kept to our original plans and went to London. Now in a celebration of Ben's life.

In the evening we went to see the Lion King. The production was amazing, it was a great show. I would recommend it to anybody.

We were all trashed however from an emotional few days, and just getting back to the hotel seemed the best thing to do.

The following day we did some touristy stuff and then headed back to my parents in the afternoon.

2008-02-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

2008-02-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

Gigs - Biffy Clyro - York Minster

This week I was out working quite a bit. Tuesday was Biffy Clyro at Hull Uni. I was baby sitting monitors for this. Great band. Lots of noise!

Friday and Saturday i was doing monitors in York Minster for an event. This was quite a brutal weekend commuting back to Hull every night. But all went well. Our efforts were described as "finally someone has cracked how to do sound in here!"

Highlight of the weekend was doing monitors for the backing band for a mime artist. A mime artist monitor engineer. Or MAME for short!

2008-01-25T03:04:00.000-08:00

Today I passed my HGV theory test

Result!

One step closer in the bid for world domination in driving big vehicles!

2008-01-21T02:53:00.000-08:00

Gig - Hull Uni - The Futureheads

Today I embarked on my first 'proper' gig of the year. The Futureheads came to Hull Uni. We set up and waited for the band. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. Eventually the band arrived, but... the crew were stuck on a train in Leeds. Nice.

Eventually the band set up their own equipment, but were a little unsure after having crew do the task for them for the last few years. Anyway the crew arrived and an experienced engineer did a speedy sound check.

Then the support act. What a farce. Poor engineer, poor band!

Then local support...

The gig started and I endured the first two acts... But The Futureheads came to the stage and were amazing. Tight performance, brilliant engineer and good banter with the crowd.

A sharpish load out and we were home after a very indifferent day with all the waiting etc...

2008-01-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

Gig - Welly Club

Tonight I worked a Welly for the first time in ages. The band were a drum and bass / happy hardcore type outfit. Not really my sort of thing if I'm honest!

Sound check came and went and I was sceptical about the show ahead as the s/c was being used as a rehearsal.

Showtime - The first few songs were very disappointing. The room was empty and I think it sounded pants. Then a few people came in and it improved a little. Plus i think the band started playing material they were more familiar with.

A couple of songs later the room was full with a bunch of people dancing away. The mix started to fall into place and with tweaking here and there I got a mix going that I was beginning to be happy with.

By the end I was loving it, and was wanting them to play for a bit longer. Bummer!

2008-01-03T01:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2007 -> Dec 21 - Jan 07 - 2 Weeks off Work, 1500 Miles In the Car, 9000 Miles Overall

Friday 21 - Just a Friday
So as soon as work was over Vicky and I jumped in the car and headed over to Manchester. In the land of the Manc we met up with all my old uni friends, some of whom I haven't seen since last year in Canada. Twas groovy night, plus we got to see robs new place and wait ages for a cheeseburger whilst Rob was trying to sleep.

Vicky, Me, Chris, Rob, Steve, Dunc (Mark and Rach where also present)

Saturday 22 - Christmas Eve Eve Eve
From Robs we woke up and drove across Manchester (GPS's Rock!) and met Vicky's Friend. After a brief brew we gave Kat a lift back to Driffield.

We then went home packed some fresh clothes, and went for a night out in Driff. Not sure I ave any pictures from this one. At the end of the night we took up residence on Vicky's parents sofa, to be greeted in the morning by a bacon sandwich. Result!

Sunday 23 - Christmas Eve Eve
Today we went round the local market and round various members of Vicky's family acting as couriers for St Nick.

This Day ended in Hull New Theatre taking Vicky's 6yr old niece to watch the local panto of Jack and the Beanstalk. Guest stars were Cannon and Ball. A funny show, but not as good as last year. We did see Bob Ball driving away at the end though. Livin' it up with the celebs this Christmas!!

Monday 24 - Christmas Eve
After a troll round the shops for some last minute shopping we took Phoebe back home and had a Christmas party with her family. Some more alcohol was consumed and I honestly don't really remember it now! Too much has happened since.
Tuesday 25 - Christmas Day
Bloomin' heck. Santa has properly been. Vick and I have bought each other loads. Where has our lounge floor gone!! After a quick open we promptly headed off to Vicky's parents to say "Merry Christmas". Plenty more presents came our way. We had done really well. Loads more than expected. Tummy's started grumbling and one of those gorgeous bacon sarnies came our way. Merry Christmas!

We then headed off to Derby to see my family. I presented Vicky a new tradition for Christmas Day. In the pub by 1. Result!

The day did its business and plenty more was drank.

Wednesday 26 - Boxing Day
Boxing day was started with another beautiful bacon sandwich and then will trolled in the car and headed to Scarborough to spend a day with Vicky's family. The night was spent drinking in Bridlington.

Thursday 27 - New York Eve
The morning was spent packing. At lunch we headed down to see my Grandparents near Birmingham. On the night we headed back to Derby to see my family for a bit more. And drink some more.

Friday 28 - New York Travel
We got up and travelled to Heathrow. An afternoon flight meant it was bedtime by the time we arrived. We headed to Times Square, grabbed some food and promptly headed to bed.

Saturday 29 - NYC Mid Town (New York is told in Pictures...)
Times Square by Day

Maybe I could get a job here...

Vicky and I (Where I text her from as soon as I arrived last time)

Public Library - The Day After Tomorrow

Grand Central Terminal

Chrysler Building - The is a good Starbucks at across the road. But some lady did spend 20 Min's in the "restroom" and I was burstin...

All Cheesy for the UN

Propping up a United Nations Gift. IF at first you don't succeed, add more force...

From here we wandered round The Mid East Side of Manhattan. Went past the Citicorp building, and went in Bloomingdale's (which did my head in cos it was hot and heaving!) We then walked down 5th Ave, wandered past some shops, and went to Rockefeller, where we saw the famous Christmas Tree. I would like to saw ours at home is better, but this is huge. Massive in fact.

By this time is was going dark. We headed back to the hotel to offload bags and decided to embark on the Empire State Building.

My mind was however else where...

I Got got down on one knee and asked Vicky to Marry Me. She said Yes!!!! This is straight after...

We celebrated by having a Chinese Takeaway!!

The best day of my life to date.

Sunday 30 - Downtown
Ground Zero currently being dug out for the Freedom Centre

Cookie...

Starbucks...

Statue of Liberty

Staten Island Ferry

Statue of Libety a tad closer

Check out the size of the shackle on the Anchor (Pier 17!)

Walking over Brooklyn Bridge

The building in the background where we where last night

Brooklyn Bridge / Downtown By Night

Brooklyn

Monday 31 - New Years Eve
Columbus Circle

Central Park

On Vickys Bridge (The picture at the top of our stairs)

Getting arty

The Rockefella Tree (It's the camera thats wonky!)

Times Square with no traffic!

4pm and people waiting for New Years (Heaving)

A dead person under the bed!

Our spot for New Years - Just before 8pm

Its Cold!

Mamma Mia it's cold!!

The New Years Countdown -> You will need to turn your head on its side!

Tuesday 1 - New Years Day
A statue growing from my head

Back towards downtown NYC from Liberty Island

Empire State Building - On our way into Macy's.

Hard Rock Cafe

Wednesday 2 - Home Time
We plodded round NYC on our last day. Did some last things including the NBC tour. Then flew home on the evening. Boooo! I got proper depressed in the airport. What a mint city. What an ace holiday it has been!

2007-12-20T11:26:00.000-08:00

It's Been A While...

So its been a while since my last post... Various things have happened...This includes...

Gigging... Shed 7 Reunion Tour, Chester Christmas Lights Switch On, An Orchestra in a Church

Maintaining / Building... Whilst gigs have been on the quiet side I have been rushed of my feet (along with others at the warehouse) designing, building, testing, implementing, staring at, glaring at, thinking whilst sleeping/working/eating/pooing, about the new systems being put in place by the company I work for. More on this next year...If i tell you now I will only have to kill you.

Holidaying...Dog sitting down in Lowestoft while my parents went off on a cruise. jammy things, but Vicky and I made the most of it and had a good week. I even baked a cake!!

Looking after(ing)...As the bunny grows you have to be ever more aware of him running round like a nutter chewing things. As I type he has bolted up the stairs, into the bedroom turned round and flew back downstairs quicker than a quick thing...

Shopping...Christmas Sucks!

And that takes us right up and till now...ish

2007-10-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

Gig - Whitby Musicport 2007

Now this was a good weekend. Bloomin hard work though. 74 hours in 4 days!

I got accused of stealing a big African guys drum key. He then started screaming at me to the point I was thinking he might actually hit me. Iain then found it on the floor by his kit and accused him of planting it. What a prat!

Headlining the weekend was Courtney Pine. What a legend. At one point during his set he was playing two sax's at once. Genius!

Also learnt the best phone response to being woken up:
After stumbling in from the pub Si and I found our front door key didn't work. We rang the people inside. The guy who picked up offered to let us in. I appologised for waking him and his response was that he had to get up anyway, his phone was ringing. Class!

Finally got home and it was time for a week off. Woo!

2007-10-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

Gig - Hull Uni - Reverend And The Makers (Should be in bold, but I am on a Mac and can't work out how to do it)

So the day started well. Post sound check I was really happy with the monitors. Tongiht was going to go well. How wrong could I have been!

Support acts were all good. 20 seconds into the set some punter threw beer over the FOH mixing desk. Pretty much instantly the desk died a death. At the end of the first song the band playing just with monitors were ushered off the stage by their people and I was told that the show was probably going to be pulled.

After a couple of minutes the lead singer of the band came out and explained to 1400 angry fans what had happened. He then turn his monitors round and said that the band would continue using just their stage monitors. Eeek!

The FOH guy was off having a strop somewhere so it was left to me and the back line tech to sort out. Eventually I came up witha way to get one stack back up, then managed to get the other up. With me behind the desk and the backline tech stood infront of the stack we managed to create a basic mix to wing our way through the show.

By the end of the set the FOH desk was in pieces in an attempt to dry off. The owner was also on his way down with the necessary cleaning tools.

Not a gig to forget in a hurry!

2007-10-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

Gig(s) - Cleethorpes Jazz Festival, Captain Sound, The Brakes, The Bootleg Beatles, Hull New Theatre Charity Night

It's been a busy month or so. Right back at the beginning it started off with Cleethorpes Jazz Festival. I don't really remember this now.

On the 24th we started what feels like a permanent residency in Hull Uni providing systems for the touring bands coming through the doors. First in was Captain Sound. I only twigged on to this half way through the day but these guys supported Keane when Vicky and I had been to see them a year ago at Hull Arena. They were much better tonight than a year ago and I really enjoyed the show.

On the 1st Oct, a week later, I was back in Hull uni to do monitors for the Brakes. Again a good band. Not really my sort of music, but all went well.

The 3rd and 4th of that week we all headed south into the Derbyshire Dales for the opening of a new multi purpose athletics track. This gig was a right nightmare! Stage, Sound and Light in the middle of the track with no vehicle access beyond the outside of the track. It was a right push. The Bootlegs Beatles were the band playing. A regular for us. The atmosphere was a bizarre one though as all the punters and stacks were 100m away on a grass bank. Once it has gone dark it felt like the band were playing to themselves on the stage. Very freaky!

The following week on the 8th and 9th I was on monitors for a Charity Show in Hull New Theatre. Loads of clubland singers and a massive over-run each night. Was hard work!

No pictures at all for this month. I must get back into the habbit of takin my camera!

2007-09-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

Gig - East Park Rocks

Hard gig this one. Not everything went smoothly. But the show happened at what else is there to say!

The End!

Oh yeah, The Paddingtons were headliners!

2007-08-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

Gig - Humberfest

For the bank holiday weekend I was working on a local festival called Humberfest.

For this event I was heading up monitors as well as sorting a large protortion of the technical setup in pre-production.

The FOH system in use was DV-Dosc, a system which the compny I work for a seriously considering buying for next year. Result.

Pordution consited of a Heritage 1000 and M7CL out front and a Siena and M7CL on stage.

The whole weekend was great fun and from a technical point of view ran perfect.

This is a lowdown of the acts that played:

Friday:

Beautiful Couch

Monitor World

Journey South

The Commitments

Blury Deacon Blue

Saturday:

UK Beack Boys

Born In Chicago (Blues Brothers)

Jane McDonald - > Described my works as the best on stage sound she has ever had. Result!

Sunday - Community Day:

Monday:

Badness

Pete Cox

Very Blurry Martin Fry

Tony Hadley

And that was Humberfest. Mint weekend!

2007-08-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

NEWSFLASH!

Today I interrupt this blog to bring you an important announcement.

Vicky and I are now proud owners of a rabbit.

Let me introduce you please to:

Buster

Causing trouble...

Next time... A ferret...

2007-08-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

Gig - Jamelia

Today I did a gig for Jamelia. Her band were ace and all was good!

Support was supplied by the UK Beach boys who were on fantastic form.

Again I forgot my camera! Boooooo!

Funny stories virtually none existent!

Quick Post!

Out!

2007-08-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

Gig - Country and Western Festival

So today was a country and western festival in Hull.

Three acts and and afternoon of people line dancing. I forgot my camera, made some noise with a small amount of PA then came home.

Woo!

2007-07-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

Gig - Hull Jazz Festival - Ian Shaw and Guy Williams

Tonight marks a change in style for me... I'm mixing Jazz! Get in there!

5 Channels of quality musicians. Push the faders in sound check, keep ears on top alert, sit back, put feet up, let the jazz begin.

What a great show it was, and not a single complaint! Result!

(Note to self: Learn to take pictures in the dark.)

2007-07-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

Gig - Dove House Day

Finally some flow to the summer! Outdoors, nice weather (ish, its still the middle of July so it should be doing better than this), big gigs; bring it on!

Today is Dove House Day in Hull, and I even manage to run out front and get FOH for a change.

First band on are U2opia. Bet you will never guess who they are a tribute band for?!

Anyway, there OK.

Then cue a long line of some pretty shocking acts, a terrible Hull Trains promo song, a Pink tribute band and finally the headliners for the day:

The Cheeky Girls...

With out a doubt the worst "live" act I think i have ever seen!

Ah well, it was funny.

Then on the way the home the day got interesting. A burning building! Score! I must sign up to You Tube so I can put the video online. (Along with other previously mentioned items!)

2007-07-14T12:51:00.000-07:00

Gig - Katherine Jenkins - Womersley Park

We rigged yesterday and it rained. Well it didn't just rain, it hoofed it down. We were soaking. The day therefore went really slowly results in the wet getting wetter!

The most annoying thing about this was my steelies were wet. And as I like my toes I wasn't too keen on doing tonight's get out without them. What dries shoes I wondered...What?

I'll Tell you what... 1KW Par Cans!

I'll leave the light and the shoes to its own devices for now and ill check back in the interval.

Anyway, the reason I am here. Monitors for Katherine Jenkins and The Royal Marines Band, Scotland!

As I am doing monitors you only get to see the back of her head. Google for the front! Also: If you look at the picture enlarged you can see some right comical faces in the audience. Look for the old lady who it not amused at her husband enjoying Katherine a little too much...

The load of the truck on the out was so bad that if you stood around for more than two seconds in disgust at the pack you ended you ended up being packed yourself.

I was actually attaching a ratchet strap to make it secure in some fashion...In my warm and dry steelies!

On the way home we had to pull in for a brief time because tiredness made it unsafe to drive. A five minute stop soon became 30 minutes as we were all out for the count.

The truck got tipped, and another show roughly got prepped. We then went to leave the unit to find I had a puncture. After my boss doing a quick tire change for me we all eventually got home...after being up for just shy of 24 hours. Knackered!

2007-07-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

Gig - Cleethorpes YMCA

So I'm back out gigging. After a few weeks dry time with moving and the weather postponing all activities the week before I was back out in a rather damp field to do a show.

The show was a bit different as I was acting as technical project manager and had booked fencing and Genny's and what not as well as quoting for the PA.

Yesterday the fencing and Genny's got sorted (with the Genny truck getting stuck for an hour and a half) and today I was doing the sound side of things.

I had our old GR3 system outside for the first time, and despite it having quite a bad reputation I was quite looking forward to the challenge.

I think the best description for it is brutal. I was really happy with the sound but the subs made it feel like my liver was going to be ripped out of my stomach and left in a congealed mess on the floor!

Bands consisted of a soloist, and ace five piece of original tunes and a Green Day tribute band. Was all good.

And apart from getting vehicles stuck it all went really well!

2007-06-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

New Home! Woo!

So last week I was off work so Vicky and I could move into our brand new home. A very different week and being at work would have been less tiring me thinks.

We started by painting some rooms to make it ours:

(2nd Coat required) We also painted two other rooms.

We then moved...

Bad truck packs at work have nothing on this monster!

And just as we started to get settled it rained and rained and rained and rained some more. It finally stopped a couple of inches from our door step. Very very scary!

Howdale road at the junction that leads to our road. The water is waist deep!

Our road looking back towards Howdale Road.

Bricking it as the water comes ever closer to the doorstep

But the water went away and now all is Rosy! New House - Yeeeeeah!!

2007-06-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Gig - Beverley Folk Festival

So after a night off from this festival I was back. Tonight's headliners were Bellowhead.

I have come across these guys once before and remember them being good. I don't however remember them being this good. They were amazing!

I did monitors for this band, and it was without a doubt one of the hardest monitor jobs I have done. 9 separate mixes and because of the stage size I could not see half of the band. But I did my best and the FOH guy was happy, so result!

I hope I come across these guys again soon, cos they are ace!

Time for a pack down and a week off to move house! Yeah!

2007-06-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

Gig - Leeds Royal Armouries

So after a late night last night we tazzed off to Leeds with some stage, sound and light.

We got there in another one of the North's monsoons to find there was already a stage in place. Talk about lack of communication! Anyway we couldn't get the truck anywhere near so it made the get in a lot easier.

The do was a surprise 50th party for some people with too much money. The artist, and the reason we where there was a guy called Tom Baxter. This is one of those names i have heard of, but i don't know where from. Apparently he has been on Radio 2 a lot. He was very good though. Awesome band.

There was also a swing band on afterwards. I forgot to take pictures though. They were quite good, but everyone was plastered by that point so it wouldn't have mattered if they weren't very good!

2007-06-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

Gig - Beverley Folk Festival

So Hull flooded today, and made this gig really hard work. An hour was added to our journey time making us late. But hey. We were set on time.

Headliners for the night were New Model Army. They are a slight slant on a folk theme, or more a booking agent who didn't know what he was doing, but they were very very good.

Plus this night has to set a record. The first folk festival every to have a mosh pit. Class!

There were some scary things though. The stage moved from the lack of crush barrier, and a massive guy tried to steal the lead singers mic as a souvenir. No messing with me an Stef on that one. We soon told him! Haha. (He was about twice our combined weight)

Leeds tomorrow, Back here Sunday. Bring it on!

2007-06-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Gig - Hull Uni End Of Year Ball

Three Bands...

Two you have heard of...

One I have worked with before...

One utterly amazing...

The Somewhere and the Somethings
The Automatic
Ash

The first band were local and an evening filler. They were OK.

The Automatic - One hit Wonder and they had a monitor engineer! Booo! Say no more...

Ash - Best live band I have seen in a long while. And I engineered monitors. Boom that baby goes onto the CV! And is i gave the camera to someone else I'm even on this one! Hurah!

Great Night

2007-05-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Premiership here we come!

Get in!

2007-05-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

Gig - Beverley Minster

Last time I was in a minster it was one of the hardest gigs of my life. This time was no different but for different reasons.

The rig was a distributed system of 4 lines of speakers down the main body and 2 down the side. Rigging this was hard work to say the least. Gun ho all afternoon. But it all worked first time to I was happy. I even did a dance!

One thing was for sure. It sounded a million times better than a few months previous in York Minster. Success!

This was the minster with our speakers down the side...

At the end of the night we cabled up the miles of cabling, and went on to Hull Uni to pack away another show that Happy Mondays had been playing.

Two get outs later and some cheesy chips consumed arrival back at the unit was the name of the game. Iain and I tipped the truck from each show on our own to ease the following week.

Then I had an idea. Something to boost morale in the early hours on future shows...

Some Graffiti on the truck...

Tip the row of arcs on the subs and you get the word congrats...

Tip the Subs and you get the words "U Made It!" and a big smiley face...

Something to look forward to at the end of a long hard day! Get in!

2007-05-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

Gig - All Modcons - Welly Club

I took this gig because I knew it was using a Yamaha LS9 and I wanted to play. Little did I know what a pain it would be.

Arriving at 5pm I had the carry the equipment from up to downstairs. I then set up, got some cheeky stuff going on the desk, and then waited. And then waited some more, and then some more!

The band finally arrived at 9:10pm. Sound check was slow as I was getting used the the desk, and I left the club at 10:30pm.

The band went on at 11:30 and were great. The band rocked and so did the desk. I would recommend to anyone. Then I started on cabling up. Being a bank holiday weekend I had to completely cable up as the club was in use by a different promoter the following night. What a pain. I finally got home at 2am. Shattered.

This is the band...

Pro of the day... LS9's Rock

Con of the day... Downstairs gigs at Welly don't! (When with upstairs equipment)

2007-05-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

On Monday Derby play West Brom for a place in the Premiership.

Come On!

Woo!

2007-05-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

Gig - Go West - Hamilton Park Racecourse

Last summer I did three gigs at this venue. The involve a stage, some sound and some lights. Four people go and are responsible for all three. The catch is the stage is built on an evil slope and is one of the hardest of the year to do. And this time round it was every ones first time out with the stage this year. In fact, it was my first outdoor gig.

Last year we had Sandi Thom, Matt Willis, Dani Minogue and Journey South play. Journey South was the funniest as I was engineering, the CD player was on repeat all and when they got to the end of their set they went back to the beginning and did the first song again. Very funny! Oooops!

This time round Go West were playing. exciting stuff is it not?

I didn't grab any pictures as I was looking after their engineer, and running playback for them. However I am promised some of one of the other guys, so I will update this entry as and when they arrive. I am even informed there may be a video! Time to sign up to You Tube and take the blog to the next level!

Anyway we got there on the Thursday and built the stage and stacks. Just as we were driving off it threw it down. Got lucky there on it holding out.

Show day we set the stage, then got some food then did the gig. All went well, Go West were OK and the weather just about held out bar a little shower. At the end of the show we were just ready to start dropping the inflatable stage when the clouds opened. Boy the rain was heavy. All the flight cases were lined up behind stage and the stacks were still up, not covered! It was wet. Gordy and I loaded the van as quick as while the others rolled the stage roof.

It was however a little to late, the stage was soaking, as where the speakers. So when back at the unit we had to tip them all and leave the, dry over the weekend. Lovely!

OK show, shame about the weather! Back there in a few weeks. Apparently One of the Sugarbabes are playing. Exciting stuff.

2007-05-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

Gig - The Maccabees - Welly Club

The Welly has changed in the last six months. Since starting on the Club NME tour an ever increasing amount of high profile bands have been coming through the door.

The other week the Long Blonde's came. Tonight The Maccabees where residents. The club was opened up to 14+ and the event sold out.

I was on FOH with a Heritage 1000, which made a pleasant change from monitors, and it was right good fun.

They brought their own FOH engineer, and while he was OK there was something about him that I was a little unsure about. Anyway he did his job and the crowd enjoyed it, so who cares.

Support was from a three piece who I cant remember the name. I was engineering for these and they were very good. In fact they rocked. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

But guess what, as last night (and the fact that I am writing both these blog entries at the same time) my camera has wiped all its pictures. Oh well, the show was good! Stupid camera!

Two days off now for Bank Holiday. Get in there!

2007-05-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

Gig - Barracuda Bar

So tonight I did another gig at Barracuda Bar in Hull. Last time I was here we got a parking ticket. And guess what, this time we got another. This one was while we were loading in, and had spoken to the traffic warden. Christmas bonuses all the way with these people. Muppet's!

Two bands were playing, so I engineered one and the guy I was working with engineered the other. M7CL as the desk. Great fun!

Just went to load the pictures onto my computer and it appears my digital camera card is corrupt. Gutted! Which has left me with nothing more to say really. Denied.

Moral of the Day - Good gig, but Traffic Wardens suck. May she have a good Christmas.

2007-04-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

Gig - Betfred Gold Cup - Sandown Park Race Course

So fresh from Talent Trail we got in the truck and drove down to London for the Betfred Gold Cup. Not to bet, but because the Bootleg Beatles were playing! Always good for a larff!

We got down on Friday evening, and found that we could only build one stack, as one side of the stage was a 55degree slope. we Managed to get round it by reducing site lines a little and went to our hotel.

Working on race course stuff has one feature that is both a pro and a con. This is the time you are not allowed to make sound past in the day before the show.

Today this time was 10am.

Pro - You get to rest all day

Con - You have to be on site at 7am

This is how the rest time progressed:

Lampy Si preparing the show to look its best!

We went for a walk into a local London neighbour hood (We went though a closed gate to get to this road. We got to the other end and there was another one which said no public access. Quite impressive!)

But the garage do get robbed by mysterious alien creatures...

We watched some grumpy horses before they went racing

We saw lots of people getting drunk whilst having a partial interest in some beasts running round in a circle on a field

OOo look, famous person! Frankie Dettori! I recognise the person in the back ground with the massive forehead and big nose as well, but I'm not too sure on his name.

And a Channel 4 racing presenter

And then, it gets better Frankie Dettori and Laurence Delalio!

Then out of the corner of my eyes, I see something, I wasn't sure at first, but yes it is, its the Beatles. Resurrected! Oh wait... That's the reason We're here in the first place. The Bootleg Beatles on stage.

Our new service. For places where FOH mixes are not possible. Bring a digital desk, a wireless router and do it on your laptop. Now that is cool!

Then the show finished. We packed up. And went home. Blinding. 'Twas all rather good fun!

2007-04-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Gig - Talent Trail (Talentless Trial for short)

So once a year the local news paper holds a Stars in their Eyes competition. Loads of people enter, and nine get though to the final in Hull City Hall.

The night passed. I had a rough guess who would come first and second, got it right but only cos the other seven were appalling at best. And that was about the jist of the evening.

Also worth noting was that the weather was unusually mild for the time of year. But to be smart I wore jeans for the show. This was also because I was doing a bit of stage management type stuff to make the evening run a little quicker. One role of this was to place mics on stage ready for the artist to walk on.

At the winners ceremony at the end everyone was suited up and looking very very smart.

This is me doing what I only though right for the situation

I wore Shorts! On a stage of suited up people, in front of a 1400 strong audience!

Get in!

Nuff Said!

2007-04-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Dave Cartwright methods of ruining a film some one has yet to watch...

#1 - Mention the ending before people have watched it

Last night Vicky and I sat down to watch Miss Potter. We saw it at the cinema, and admittedly it isn't my sort of film, but it's OK.

Anyway as a joke, and taking the rip a little I said to Vicky, "oh He dies you know"!

Turns out, Vicky's parents who were also watching it with us had not seen it yet, and I had just ruined it for them!

Denied!

And that is number one in the Dave Cartwright methods of ruining films.

Next week, Spiderman 3.

2007-04-21T08:28:00.002-07:00

Gig - Slavery Drama @ HCH

Last night I got to bed around midnight. this morning I was called for 8am to do a drama tour thingy wotsit that was going round local schools all over the country.

There is one word to describe this show, and that is the Dave Cartwright Word of the week: Awful!

I was working on my own, and turned up not really knowing anything about the show from lack of information.

It turned out to be three radio mics, and some ambiance mics to pick up people talking quietly on a large stage. Grrrr!

I managed to make everything audible, but the less said about shows like this the better. One of those to shovel under a rug I think.

Forget about trying to act while you have a script in your hand. You should look behind you to see the thing twice you size that is about to eat you...

Rant over.

Out.

2007-04-21T08:28:00.001-07:00

Gig - London Community Gospel Choir @ Hull City Hull

HCH seems to be home from home at the minute, but it is certainly building up stacks of experience for the summer. Tonight's show was the London Community Gospel Choir, LCGC. I have two gigs with these before, and they are undoubtedly very very good.

They have working with Madonna on their CV, so working with them is just that little bit cool!

I was on Monitors faced with 10 mixes, and 20 people. Woo!

It proved to be quite a hard night. It was quite loud during sound check, but ticket sales were poor and it was too loud for some as they left. the FOH turned it down a little, but then the stage was too loud for him to cope. The rest of the night we were then in limbo of trying to get it to sound right, without the band or anyone else complaining.

They are without a doubt though very good! each musician is at the top of their game, and each member of the choir could be a soloist in their own right. 20 people on stage, not one of them a bad egg! Very cool to work for.

A blurry LCGC in action

2007-04-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

Dancing On Ice Live - Sheffield Hallam FM Arena

After the ITV show came the tour. And as Vicky loves Torvill and Dean I bought some tickets and took her to see it.

Me being a geek I was more interested in the production than the show. It was a cool night though, and Torvill and Dean performed five times which neither of us were expecting.

Pictures were not allowed during the show, but while the arena was filling up I took a few. All of which are blurred, but still rather cool.

Some mental production was in operation. About 200 moving head lights, 100 odd rigging points and shockingly bad sound! The thing that surprised me the most, was while we were OK, the truss was flown quite low to act as a feature, and the speakers were flown higher than the truss meaning that half the arena are not going to hear anything. Bizarre! Was an enjoyable night though.

2007-04-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

I wonder...

Yesterday Vicky and I went to Goathland and got talking about flatulence.

This led me to propose the following two questions...

"If everyone in the world was to face west and fart would the world rotate any faster?"

and...

"If everyone in the world was to face east would the world stop rotating, or even rotate in the opposite direction to a brief moment in time?"

I wonder... hmmm...

2007-04-09T06:28:00.000-07:00

North York Moors Railway + Goathland where they film Heartbeat

So with it being bank holiday weekend and having a few days off work, Vicky and I headed up to Pickering to catch a steam train to see where Heartbeat is filmed.

Pickering Station

Our Train coming into the Station

On the Train

And at that point my camera died. Boooo!

This is Bernie's Garage taken on my phone.

Across the road is The Goathland Hotel AKA The Aidensfield Arms, where we went for a bite to eat. Inside it is identical to what you see on TV, much to our surprise expecting it to have been a set. So We can now say we have eaten in the Aidensfield Arms. Yeah!!

2007-04-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

Business Proposition - Firth and Cartwright Wedding Sound

So on a quiet weekend Iain booked a Sprinter, my equipment and me and we headed off to a wedding in Horncastle to do sound for a Gospel Choir Iain does some work for who were playing at a wedding.

It was a bit surreal working with people you work with every day whilst wearing a shirt and tie... Actually looking smart... Shocking... !

Professional Wedding Sound to your door / church / wedding

Discreet PA. Less Discreet Performances. All part of the Wedding Sound service! (All Litter to be removed prior to performance start)

2007-04-01T23:23:00.000-07:00

House Sitting

Whilst Spending a week in Hull City Hall, this week Vicky and I had been asked to spend a week in a house and house sit for her brother whilst him and his family went to Center Parcs!

It was a brilliant week and was gave us new opportunities in our relationship that we would not usually get being at home. Here are three...

Our first shop:

Our first jelly:

The remains of our first jelly after helping #1:

2007-04-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Gig(s) - A week in Hull City Hall

So this week I have done three shows. All of which were in Hull City Hall.

Show #1 - Freedom Day

This show was a large church service to celebrate 200 years since the abolition of slavery. The guy responsible for this work was William Wilberforce, who was MP in Hull at the time, 200 years ago. Slightly more productive the two jags is now-a-days!

For this show I was doing monitors, and although I knew it would be a big show it developed into something a little bigger than what I was expecting. I successfully ended up using every input and output of a Midas Siena. 40 Channels into 16 mixes. Quite a lot to keep track of!

This is by far the biggest monitor spec I have ever been responsible for, but I am glad to say I didn't fall over it once.

Not many funny things happened on this day, so jokes seem sparse, phooey! The key point was that I didn't eat from breakfast until getting home. Never good!

Show #2 - Hull College Slavery Awareness Thingy

This show came in very last minute, but as soon as it did i jumped at the chance to do FOH.

FOH + rock hard venue = Result! Let the experience building session begin! Muwahahahahaaa!

The day consisted of four college bands, a few playback acts and some drama. On paper a bit of a crappy day, an guess what...it was!

One of the bands was good, one was mediocre and two were shockin. And the other parts of the day were forgettable.

Here are some pic's:

The hall before doors

One of the bands

Show #3 - Cargo

This show was the new musical of Paul Field. Paul Field is a composer / musician who has done all sorts of work within the Church. This was his new musical that was to do with the slave trade, and raising awareness of it.

I was tasked with monitors for this show. Nothing quite as mental as the week before, but a 130 piece choir is still pretty taxing!

The stage and choir

Paul Field and the band

Arty Shot #1

Arty Shot #2 (Btw, the wind player was a brilliant musician!)

And after a few long tiring days that was a week in Hull City Hall!

2007-03-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Gig - Buckcherry @ Rock City, Nottingham

Last night I was in Nottingham doing monitors for an American band called Buckcherry. It was a very good show and all went well. There were some very scary tattoo's floating around also!

The first support act. Who were so good I can remember their name as if it was yesterday. Erm...

Second Support, The Backyard Babies. Very good!

Buckcherry. Really good band. Biiiig tattoo's!

More of Buckcherry...

Until next time....gu'bye!

2007-03-18T04:43:00.000-07:00

Paddy's Day

There is one rule with St Patricks Day. You have to drink Guinness, and you have to get a Guinness hat.

To make for an even more exciting evening some friends from uni had returned to Hull for the evening.

I did however fall into utter disgust when I got into town to discover that all the hats had run out. Denied!

Anyway the night continued...

Where hats are unavailable a badge will just have to do.

A blurry Mark and Rach

Chris and Me (Rather Scary)

Rach and Mark

Eying up another drink...

Mark and Chris

All of us!

And then Vicky and I went to Welly, watched Turismo, had a takeaway, got soaked by the weather trying to get a taxi, got home, realised we had no keys so woke my parents and then went to bed! A very funny night!

2007-03-14T03:52:00.000-07:00

Gig - Welly Club, Battle of the Bands March 14, 2007

Six local bands, a variety of music, a variety of quality, all competing for a national contest.

Some of the bands that played this show had some good talent and deserve to do well. Others were just downright awful! These are some pics from the show.

One of the acts "jamming" away

A noisy Metal band...

Rappers :-S

Gain before feedback...

2007-03-10T09:17:00.000-08:00

Gig - Friday March 9, 2007 Alexandra Palace, London. Lots of Turkish People

So yesterday I did a gig in the West Hall of Alexandra Palace. The show was with two of Turkeys biggest stars, who I had never heard of until now, and involved a very large sound and staging set-up.

The acts were bring a monitor engineer to aid with communication, However, he did not speak a word of English. So with me babysitting to ensure he did not break anything communication between us was a bit poor. Another thing about this show was that the monitor setup was massive. A bigger desk was hired in that one which we own. This involved a lot of planning to get everything patched up correctly and left a lot of things to keep track of. All good experience though. Shame they brought their own engineer!

We set up in good time, and were relaxing. Then the acts turned up, and constant questions meant I just didn't stop running around like a headless chicken from mid afternoon until the stat of the show. Some people i could just about communicate with, others I had to find people who could speak a little English to act as a translator. Very very hard work!

The were some amusing requests as well. One lady was insisting that we provided her with a music stand. Rather tired and ratty and communicating through a translator I was explaining that we did not have one. We are a sound company, not a music stand company! I tried to beg one off the venue, but they were having none of it, so I manufactured one out of a couple of mic stands. Very messy, but it did the job when all else failed!

During the rig.

During the show.

Turkeys biggest star! :-S ... Demet Akalin

Lots of (slightly blurry) Turkish people

2007-03-04T05:01:00.000-08:00

Things That Turn Me Into The Incredible Hulk #2 - Driving

Firstly this can rant can be sub-categorised into two further categories, both of which turn me green and angry.

Other Drivers
My Car

1. I was driving back from Vicky's this morning, using the same route that I always use. Now as I travel this route every other day I have got to know it in extreme detail. Michael Schumacher could not do the journey as fast as I can! Not that I am implying that I am a dangerous driver, I just know how fast i can go round all the bends and know the limits of what my car will let me do.

Anyway, I was travelling along and I got stuck behind a car going 40mph. The road is a little bendy, so I don't even entertain the policy of overtaking. I love my life, I don't want to end it, or someone else's either. I just crawled along behind getting increasingly irritated until a safe passing opportunity arose.

I then had a free run for a few miles and then got onto the Beverly by-pass. The pace wasn't at the speed limit, but at least it was moving. I went past the line of cars on the dual carriage way and gave my self another free run. However, in the distance I noticed a potentially slow mover. So I floored it! But I didn't catch up in time before the road turned back to single carriage way. This potential slow mover was the most infuriating driver I think I have ever had the joy of driving behind. In a 60 he was driving at 35. When we approached a speed camera he sped up to 50. Then immediately slowed back down to 35 again.

Sunday Drivers equal Grrrrrr!

2. Now my car has really started to do my nut in of recent months. There is always something wrong with it. As I spend money on getting something broken working something else breaks. And it isn't little amounts of money, it always seems in the vicinity of £200.

On the way back a stone hit my windscreen, leaving a massive crack. So I now need a new windscreen. Darn!

Add this to the fact that my left drive shaft is on the way to breaking, some thing on my rear breaks squeak when I go above 30, the car sounding like it is going to fall to pieces and the car generally being crap it all doesn't bode well. Cars are crap, I want a new one that isn't going to cost me the earth. But hey, what can you do!

P.S. Things that turn me into the Incredible Hulk #1 is bad sound!

2007-03-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Gig - Barracuda Bar - March 2, 2007

Some gigs are cool, some are bad, some are just plain awful. This was the latter. This was for 5 reasons. These are...

The gig was upstairs, and the equipment is the distinct opposite of light
The room is a big mass of open space with more reflective surfaces than one of the crown jewels.
I wasn't engineering as revenge for doing monitors for We Are Scientists a few days previous.
Drunk people thinking they are invincible getting in the way while we are loading out.
We got a parking ticket.

So here goes...

1. No pictures for this one really, as I was carrying stuff, not taking pictures. But very unfunny. Especially as neither of us had been gigging recently so we are a little out of practice with lifting.

2. This is the venue. This picture was taken from FOH. The nature and location of this bar means it is based mainly on passing trade rather than someone coming to see a gig. Behind the mixing desk was a huge screen showing the rugby, which people seemed more interested in.

This is the band rocking away.

This band did however have the funniest tour bus I have seen to date.

3. Fair enough!

4. Let me tell you something, you are not invincible. Superman is invincible! You are just an accident waiting to happen as we drop a speaker on your head. Lets leave this at that.

5. Now this is just stupid. On street parking, free after 6pm, an empty street, and a parking ticket at 8:43pm for not parking correctly within the lines. Traffic Wardens are scum! This will be contested, but in the short term we had to have some amusement out of it to make light of a crap evening...

2007-03-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

Random Things Spotted Whilst Driving...

So whilst driving back from a meeting today I saw what appeared to be a rather large yacht moving down the road. Quickly and without hesitation I did what everyone would do and removed my phone from my pocket and took a picture of this UFO travelling down the road...

Curiosity had now got the better of me and I had to find out more. So I altered my projected route to follow this exciting incident. I went the same direction as what the item in question was travelling, however other traffic was marring my progress as I couldn't catch up.

Then, success! the Red Sea parted and I got right along side the beast. It was a yacht! being pulled by a tractor. Not something you see everyday, and very very cool!

2007-02-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

Gig - We are Scientists, Hull University Union - 26 February, 2007

So last night We Are Scientists were on the bill to rock Hull University. Exciting in its own right the generic PA company for whom I work had also been booked to put in the sound equipment for the exciting occasion.

Being that my colleague was ill on the day this gig was rung through to the office I was quick to put my hand forward and do monitors, sweetened by the deal that the room sounds pap and the guy on FOH really has his work cut out, and... the generic PA company for whom I work have also just splashed out on a digital mixing desk which was to be used for monitors on this occasion. Lesson learnt, choose your sick days wisely! (If that sounds a little harsh, well, he already has revenge planned for later in the week, phooey!)

Anyway, the show went amazing, the desk was awesome and considering it was my first time on something of this format I didn't fall over it once. Get in!

Here are some of the many pictures taken from this event, and as i tasked someone else with the picture taking duties I am actually on some of them. Just proving to some of you that I do actually work and don't vedge about doing nothing all day creating false stories about my amazing job meeting z-list celebrities!

Sound check from monitor world. Ooooo, digital mixing desk, suits you sir!

Sound check / Warming up / Tuning up / Nice Gaffa Tape

A very analogue FOH area. So very 1974. At least my monitors are moving with the times.

He better not be checking me out.

We Are Scientists

Grrrr!

Local Support - "The Alones"

Tour Support - "Pull Tiger Tail"

Pull Tiger Tail had this synth call a Moog. The sub from this was unreal. At monitor world, which was right behind a stack, it felt like my liver was going to dissolve. This is reading we got from my dB meter halfway between the FOH desk and a stack. Brutal. Isn't there something somewhere that says a support act should be quieter than the headliners?!

We Are Scientists take to the stage.

It's a Shoe! And a very very very full venue.

Kieth Murray - Guitars and Lead Vocals

Chris Cain - Bass Guitar

Michael Tapper - Drums

Crowd Surfing

Rocking away

A long, but very enjoyable day. It was good fun doing a proper gig again. It felt like the first one in ages. Bring on more of this sort of stuff.

2007-02-25T06:42:00.000-08:00

Welly Club, Hull. - Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd February, 2007

So this week I did two shows on consecutive nights in the Welly Club. The only similarity between the two nights was that both bands were over two hours late, leaving me to twiddle my thumbs in utter boredom.

The first night was one of the best shows I have done in that venue. The band didn't have an engineer, and they were good. A lot of fun, well arranged music and something i could enjoy.

Friday, however, was the complete opposite. They were a two piece band, lots of synths and computers and stuff and brought their own engineer. I have sat in on this band in Welly before and remember the engineer being bad. I assumed by now they would have fired him and got someone better. Doesn't seem to work quite like that though, when they eventually turned up with the same incompetent engineer in tow. Seems a little harsh to write, but he really is that bad.

I guided him through sound check at the request of the promoter and went home dreading the evening ahead. Little did i know how bad/tiring it would be!

I arrived back at the club ten minutes before stage time and the only people present where me, my girlfriend, the promoter, a few bouncers, the bar staff, a DJ and a couple of very drunk people propping up a wall. At times like this you instantly know you are not getting home at a reasonable time.

The band eventually went on 50 minutes late and played to around twenty people. (The room holds around 300.) Que a fast pack away and an irritatingly late night. Some you win, like Thursday, this one I very much lost!

Friday's band during sound check.

A cheeky way of marking up Desk Settings. On the camera screen I can zoom right into each individual pot and it still be perfectly in focus. No more faffing about with paper! Suits me very nicely!

2007-02-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

Top Gear in America

The videos total an hour of the funniest episode ever. Watch, laugh, and be amused!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

2007-02-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

Ali Crompton at York Minster - Feb 15 + 16, 2007

A rare one for me, but this week I was white gloving it! Working outside of my normal palace i was asked to go along and engineer for a guy called Ali Crompton who I did some work with a couple of years back.

The venue for the show was York Minster, complete with twelve second natural reverb. A few weeks previous I had submitted my spec for what equipment I would need to remotely do my job in here and what was to be supplied was happily agreed.

I turned up and this spec was far from being met and what was there was sub-standard at best. I showed my disapproval a little, but considering the nature of the event i got my head down and did my best with what i could.

The main problem was that the system was concentrating just under 50% of its energy straight into the walls and pillars of the minster, which would then spew in more directions than a sick baby. By the time reached the FOH desk it was what can only be described as a mush! There were delays, but they were by no means powerful enough to cope with the task to which they had been assigned, and were already sounding mushy by the time they reached me.

I concentrated on the vocals first so they could be at least heard, then intermingled select elements of the band to make it slightly musical.

The minster just after doors.

During sound check.

FOH.

A close up of the desk channel strips. Rather than being some form of parametric, not even partially the desk had six fixed back of EQ, and one swept band across the entire frequency range. I found the six bands too far apart and with to narrower Q to be useful. What about the frequencies in between? How am i meant to change them?!

The show came and went, you could hear the vocals, which i guess is the most important thing! However, working this show has taught me one thing, how fortunate i am to be working with a company that use professional equipment and give a professional and courteous manner to their clients. Something that was lacking here. I'm sure the experience of engineering in that sort of venue will be invaluable as well. Its certainly not something everyone can say that have done.

Bring on working with familiar equipment again!

2007-02-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

Gig: Goole Leisure Centre - Friday February 2, 2007.

On a blog about gigging it feels like it has been a while since i put up a post about doing a gig. But last night i actually did a gig!

The venue was Goole Leisure Centre. This place can only be described as a rabbit warren of corridors and mazes to aid you in getting lost. Maybe even a labyrinth, which is designed to keep people in. This can also be said of Hull. Once you are in you cannot escape. Or at least not without wasting a large amount of your time sat in pointless lines of gas guzzling cars.

On the way to the show Hull and its suburbs were all in gridlock because one junction on the only road out of the city was closed. After finally negotiating out way though this a new junction being installed on the only road in and out of the city was also a car park. We dived off the road and took back roads, only to get stopped at a complete random set of traffic lights which had blatantly been put there just to stop that road becoming a "rat run".

Anyway we eventually arrived. Only to find the lift was out of service. And to make things worse we hadn't exactly got the lightest equipment every invented. But hey, these things happen and we got on with carrying it up the stairs. the stairs were pretty narrow, but getting five people round the mixing desk made moderately light work of it in the end. We were all still shattered before starting to rig though.

There is something about Goole though. Last time I was here, in a venue we drove past on the way, it involved lots of lifting. Very unamusing. Dodgy town. Lesson learnt, avoid...

With the traffic and the lack of lift problem we were now running slightly behind, but we got on with it. Everything was running and when the first band to be sound checked turned up we only had the monitors to EQ.

Four bands were playing and they were all sharing a drum kit. This was possibly the worst drum kit I have ever heard, ever! The snare sounded like a metal spoon hitting a rotten cardboard box and the first tom hadn't been tuned since at least five years before the kit was built!

We sound checked the last band, and then the first band. And then one of the parents of the middle bands came along disgruntled that we hadn't sound checked them. Describing the band as the best thing you will ever hear I gave them a one song sound check just to shut him up. A right waste of time as we then had to reset the stage to a band we had already checked. Pointless. Rant rant rant!

The show started and it went really well. The best thing was, the band we didn't sound check were by far the best. Some clever arrangements and a lot of personality on stage. The headliners were without a doubt the worst act of the night, including one song where it appeared each member of the band was playing a different tune, in a different key. The organiser even came up and asked if everything was OK. We were like there is nothing we can do about that love!

And some pictures from the show:

One of the acts on stage

The window behind the drum kit was horrific. The overheads were not used at all.

The Mixing Desk - Midas Verona

"FX 1"

Then came the end of the show and packing up. I find the end of a show can create a mixed reaction depending on how good the show is. Sometimes you do not want it to end because there is a good act on who you enjoy. Others you want it to end because you think of the prospect of sleep being ever closer. However this show was a little different because I was not quite sure. After 3 good bands, the final act were quite simply appalling, and i had become extremely bored. Que lots if inappropriate delays in the last song! But in reality i didn't not want this show to end. The reason, cos it meant carrying all the equipment back downstairs. Not a fun prospect!

Luckily the organiser had sourced lots of people to help us carry the gear and we made fairly light work of it, but i was knackered by the end, and the prospect of wrapping up in bed kept me going. All in all a fun but very stressful show.

2007-01-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

Things to do before you are 30 #19 - Drive down a narrow road with grass down the middle.

Firstly let me state that not all of things on this list are to do with driving. It just seems to be my current area of exploitation.

Anyway, last night i was driving to Vicky's. And, for once, I had actually left on time and was in no massive need to make up time on the journey. How ever there is one fact in life, however hard you try, you can never arrive anywhere on time.

I had just got off the Beverly bypass and was hurtling towards Molescroft when I saw blue lights strobing away in the distance. I got to the roundabout and the road I wanted to take had been closed due to some form of accident. I went the other way and then embarked on finding an alternative route.

The map declared that there was a nice cut though, it was a bit of a white road on the map, but hey, I'm adventurous, it will do! I eventually got to this road and turned down it. This later revealed to be a road to early and as i followed the map was getting more and more lost.

The road was narrow, will the odd bunny on the verge, looking up and staring at this machine with bright lights storming past it. I then went through a village, and the road proceeded to narrow to a little wider than that the car. I was staring to get concerned, but continued forward never the less.

I then came to a cross roads that was not marked on the map. here I continued straight in a bid to get back on track. i however came across a different type of track as i went past some farm shed and ended up driving round the edge of a field with some rather bushy grass for company down the middle of this road.

Oops!

I decided it was time to return from where I came and find a new route. As there was no turning space i reversed back up the track, in the dark, and turned in the farmers sheds.

I eventually beavered my way back to a main road and arrived 30 minutes late. At least i can cross another thing off my list!

2007-01-10T15:46:00.000-08:00

Like Cheese?

Like Peas?

Try These...Skweezy Cheezy Peaz!

2007-01-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

Seattle (Jan 6-7 2007)

Over the weekend we took the car(luckily still in one piece) and headed off to Seattle. The last time i was in Vancouver John, Rob and I got a coach there but after a faultily alarm, which i still deny all responsibility for, we only eneded up being there for about 7 hours. Not really enough time to see a city. So let commence attempt number 2.

We set off on the Saturday in good time, but hit serious queues on the border which took over an hour to get through. Steve was driving and GPS woman was doing the navigating. Personally i dont think either could have survived without the others help. The Freeways around Seattle werea round 7 lanes in places with each couple of lanes going to separate places. A full lane sweep was required at one stage to keep travelling in the right direction.

Eventually we arrived at the hotel. Rough would have been an understatement, but once we got into the room everything was fine. These are some pics from the Hotel.

>Me on the phone to Vicky

>The view from the room

>The Room (With some random people)

>The Driver geting some rare(!) sleep

After exploring the digs we headed of into the city. The hotel was at the airport about 10 miles out so we drove rather than using public transport. The target was the Space Needle and surrounding area. Food was hot on the cards, and a bar from the previous visit was to be the venue, but inconsiderate Seattle people were more content with filling this bar whilst watching an NFL playoff game. Stettle Seahawks Vs Dallas Cowboys. Shocking!

We therefore went for a wander. And found a random fountain.

And a random Space Needle

We then headed to another bar, which wasnt serving food, until the "football" was over in order to pass the time. About 5 pints later an a major league baffelment as to why people find "football" interesting we went to the sports bar for food. There was abotu 20 minutes of the game remaining so we sat in the lounge to the side. Very hungry by this stage, irritated by the crap sport, which i was starting to get into and a over excited Seattleite in the corner led to a painful 20 mintues. Eventually the game finished with one of the Dallas players making an error which will haunt him for the rest of his life the Seahawks won by a single point. Woo! (or at least tahts what we were saying the make the peace, much to the disgust of a 60 yr old Dalals woman)

This is us at the table waiting for food...

We then headed back to the hotel. Rob Dunc and I went to bed while Steve and John went to the Pub for some Karaoke. They eventually got in at 6am after being to a couple of house parties! Eventually draggign them out of bed we got back into town to go up the Needle and see mroe of Seattle. However Steve decided he would spend the day sleeping in the car. Unbelievable!

John decided he didnt want to go up the Needle so Dunc, Rob and I went. This is the panoramic of the view over downtown.

John down at the ground

It was very windy up this tower. Whilst having a coffee inside we could feel the tower moving a hefty amount. Very similar feeling to sea sickness!

We then caught the Monorail to downtown to have a butchers. We had a look roud and Dunc tried on some leathers.

And that was pretty much Seattle. A better trip than the time before, but it still dis similar things. Needs a trip for a bit longer to see the other things the city has to offer. Anyway we went back to the car and there was Steve still asleep. Lazy Sod!

2007-01-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

Things to do before you're 30 #7 - Drive on a long straight American Road

There are many things I want to do in my life; Go to Australia, Drive from LA to NYC, Engineer FOH on a production tour to name a few.

Today I got to do one of my "must do" things. Drive down a long straight road in the middle of nowhere! Here is a photo blog of this happening and it eventually all going wrong!

1> Rob and I set off in an optimistic manner.

2> We drive out of built up Vancouver on Route 1 and eventually pull off onto a random road. A few turns later the GPS dumps us on this road. Looking good, but still a few many trees for my liking, could do better to live the dream! (You will notice that it has been snowing)

3> Victory is mine! I have found that dream road! Miles of nothing!

4> And the same, just slightly blurred!

5> Then all of a sudden slip on some ice and skid off the road. Car stops about 2 ft from big ditch. Flag a car. Drives Past. Truck goes past. Covers Rob and I in Sludge. Do'h! Walk to nearby farm, no one in. Things are looking bad. Car from before comes back. And stops. Offers to tow us out. Driver says he knows a few people have been killed from the same thing happening when car has gone in ditch. Shock starts to set in. Get Pulled out of verge. This was what was left of the verge. You cant see the road, but skidded in from top right of the image. You can see the place where the wheels spun on initial attempt to get out. Other tracks are where car was pulled out.

I must point out that we are only traveling 25mph. Snow is nasty. I lived the dream of driving down a long straight road in (North) America and survived! Get in!

Another thing I want to do is drive from Los Angeles to New York. Here is a cool video of a guy who has done just that.

2007-01-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

Whistler

Today we went on a trip to Whistler. This is where the skiing part of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will be held.

Whilst away we have had a car on rent allowing us to get a bit further afield. Whistler was top of the places to go list.

These are some pictures from our day here.

> On the journey there.

>On the Way there

>John and Rob in Whistler

>One of the ski slopes

>We could try bobsledding down the mountain

>Blackcomb Mountain

>Tube Park

>More Mountains

And that was Whistler. A must visit to do some skiing at some point!

2007-01-02T19:09:00.000-08:00

New Year Pictures

These are some pictures from the New Years. A wild night out was had by all!

> Rob and I Before Leaving

>Steve, Dunc and John Before

> Waiting for New Years

> In need of the toilet, a slight public performance perhaps. Never a good thing.

> Rob putting on the I'm going to kill someone face, on more than one occasion.

>Steve in his various moods of the evening

>Dunc painting the town red. Oh wait, was that Steve?

>Me

>John

>More of Rob, cos it's funny!

>People John Pulled

>The Stars of the evening

>Random Group Pictures

And that was how New Years 2007 was done. Vancouver Style!

2007-01-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

Vancouver - Dec 28th until a week on Friday

When university finished there was a certain amount of uncertainty as to what was going to happen in the upcoming months of my life. I was in a job, only part time at this stage, but everything else was a bit of an uncertainty.

My mates from uni were all to split into various directions. Rob and John were off to work in Vancouver for a year, Mark was off to Wigan with his girlfriend, Steve and Dunc were off home for a bit and then off to Canada later in the year and Chris, well lets just not go there. Just think Steve Carell in his first movie as the main lead, say no more!

When Rob and John moved over to Canada i said i would go across at new years. Got all my flight booked, managed to bag a bargin with BA so was happy with that. I decided that i would go across for two weeks. i was not in a full timd, and i had nothing better to do with my spare time.

Roll on a week in New York, lots of txt's later and the 31st October 2006 when me and Vicky officially "hook up'! Get in there. My life has all fallen into place, and i have only been out of uni 6 months. Woo!

As great as a holiday is to Canada, at this point in my life i am content with just enjoying life as it comes and spending time with Vicky. That is all i want to be doing.

Dec 28th i flew out to Vancouver to see the mafia! i have to say flying halfway round the world, on your own, knowing you are not going to see your girlfriend for 15 days is a bit poo. anyway, i want to make the most of it, and i have been here 4 days now and having an ace time.

There hasn't been a minute where i haven't been missing Vicky, but i have kept busy and having a good time.

As you may have noticed last night was new years. As nights out go, on the random scale this was quite high up.

John had decided he was on the pull, and was soon dancing with some Canadian, who was definitely digging on him. He was well in there so went and started dancing with some minger! as the other lass looked on. after telling john he was an idiot, he went on to another girl, kissed her, and then met up with the first girl on the way out of the bar. w e all got invited bk to her house, with her friend and her friends boyfriend. Not what Rob or I wanted to be doing so we stayed on the bus until when they got off and somehow ended up at the airport. gutted! Anyways got a cab back to the house and all was good. After about 10 minutes Steve stumbled through the door after traveling on random buses in a vague attempt to find his way home. All in all a very funny evening, and helped take my mind off things a little.

To celebrate new years Rob and I went for a massive breakfast at Denny's this morning. Huge breakfast in fact. required a 20 minute sit afterwards while it attempted to settle in the stomach and not spew it self all over the Canadian sidewalk!

Pictures of the night out are to follow... I think Dunc got some good video's as well, so bring it on!

2006-11-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

Bootleg Beatles - Chester

Gigs come in a variety of styles. Some are easy and everything works, others are difficult. It is all part of the fun of the job. The Bootleg Beatles in Chester was without a doubt a hard show to work on.

A band like the bootlegs are not cheap, the show was for someones 50th birthday so everything has to be perfect. The reprecussions could be really bad if not.

One other thing is people who go about booking bands for shows like this do not really know what they are booking, They are a professional band who require professional equipment; cue my boss and I turning up with a big truck full of equipment to find a room with no room to swing a rather small baby stuffed cat.

After leaving most of the equipment in the truck and leaving cable trunks in the car park and trotting to them whenever we needed anything the next dilema became apparent. Because of the shape of the room the roof was only about a foot above headheight. Cue monitors that feedback before any level of sound is put through them. By the time the feedback is just about removed the speakers sounded very similar to the sound of someone speaking while they have a lemon in their mouth. Very upleasant.

Anyway, after a mare of a setup, which took like 6 hours, the worlds poshest meal, way out of the league of what i am used to, and had a show which went really well. Always a bruce!

On thursday I return to Chester for their christmas lights switch on. Sounds like a hint to start christmas shopping more than anything.

These are some snaps from the show...

And this is taken from the very back of the room -

2006-10-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

New York

The city that never sleeps. Without a doubt, the best place in the world. I have been twice before, and each time i come back and get depressed about how the whole English culture and inparticular 99.99999% of the population of Hull. It's enough to make you want to hit everyone, as they make a big deal about the smallest irrelevant things.

Anyway, rant over, here are some cool things that happened on my short stay in New York New York.

Brooklyn Bridge -

Manhattan Skyline -

Will Smith walking down 5th Avenue. Surely he should be arrested for armed kidnap? -

Downtown skyline from the Statue of Liberty -

Over the Hudson looking towards the bridge to Staten Island -

Statue of Liberty -

The apartment used in Friends -

And that was New York in October 2006. Woo!

2006-10-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

Keane - Hull Arena

Keane recently embarked on their new tour. I was lucky to get tickets for the first night of this tour in a sold out Hull Arena.

I love Keane and to see this show was ace. It is rare to go to a show these days and not be working at it, but it was cool. For a big tin can the sound was really good. (Well Keane were, the support were a pretty shocking).

Also for the geek in me I noticed on the way out a cardiod sub arrangement (where a sub is pointing in the wrong direction). The main FOH was DV-Dosc, and to my surprise the subs were a combination of DV-Sub and D&B B2's. The first time I have really encountered both cardiod sub and mixed branding of boxes. An ace combination, hopefully I will get the experiment with that at some stage.

2006-10-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

What's that coming over the hill?

Hull Uni was last night blessed with the pleasure of a four piece who over the last few months have reached quite extensive heights of fame. In this band there three members who get their head down, turn up to soundchecks and after soundcheck have a quick practice at things that are not going quite right. There is also a fourth member to this band, Pennie, who can only be described as a raving loon. Jumping here there and everywhere. The band in question are The Automatic.

The task today was to put a shed load of speakers in a room and for their engineers to turn up and make it remotely sound good in the worst room ever designed.

Out day could be split into several parts.

1. The worst truck pack in quite a while, modeled here by Simon.

2. The Load In - We turned up at the venue and there was an 18tn truck full of lighting for the band. We sat and waited for about an hour while they unloaded. We then unloaded, set up FOH, but then had to wait for another hour or so before we could start work on the stage. All painstakingly slow.

3. The soundcheck - I was assigned the task of babysitting monitors for the day. However The Automatics monitor engineer was also their tour manager, and not wanting to get grief from the band he asked if i would soundcheck them. Fine by me, good experience and I can ensure that it doesn't get run so loud that everything breaks! Everything went smooth and it was really loud. Job sorted. Sound check support, bork at how slow the support FOH engineer was, doors, yey!

The band during soundcheck from Monitor World.

4. Doors - Time to grab a bit of food, plastic student hot dog etc...

5. Show - Supports play, everything runs smooth. The stage change for The Automatic. Still no sign of their monitor guy so i run the line check. The just as the band are about to walk on stage he arrives. Changes loads of stuff, and the band all ask for it to be changed back, brilliant! The show went smooth, the keyboard player bounced all over everywhere like the mad man he is.

6. The Get Out - After the show there was going to be a club night. We however needed to get out on the night, so for 10 mins they emptied the club while we got FOH out of the venue. Doors would then re open and we would pack away the stage. The was record breaking - 47 mins from end of show to driving away!

7. Back at the Unit - Just two of us to unload a full truck. Took longer than the get out. :-(

And that concludes a day in the life of the Automatic! Long day, but ran flawless.

2006-10-12T12:58:00.001-07:00

University finished 5 months ago now. In that time I have gone from fully pledged student to full time worker with odd other entities in between. All that time ago back in the days of black and white or rather when I was at uni I had to create a blog. It all seemed rather trivial and course filling stuff, but I realise now how cool they kind of are.

So from this moment on let me introduce you to the highlight of your day, the Dave Cartwright blogging extravaganza!

Currently life falls into three categories: Live Sound, Recording Studio and not enough sleep.

The company i work for is where most of my time is occupied. They offers sound, staging and a small amount of lighting to whoever is willing to pay. From starting last year i am now working pretty much full time with opportunities of learning to drive trucks and more just around the corner. This job has offered many opportunities and currently is ace!

The recording studio is a small studio that is also a part of a youth charity. After recording a full album as part of my degree the studio is now in a time of finding clients as well as the youth in the project how to become the next generation of sound engineer. All good fun and at times rewarding.

Not enough sleep. By working full time and squeezing the studio in around this this occasionally leaves the odd amount of time to embark on the mission of sleeping. Sometimes i wish that i could be like that guy in one of the James Bond movies...Be super hard and never need to sleep! Now how could and time saving would that be. However i know people that get less than me, so I will hold back on that rant, and put my ranting skills into action at a later date on something far more important.

And until the next, hopefully more exciting, installment, let me leave you with an irritating, if rather amusing problem from a show i was involved with in August.

When ends don't met the best advice is stop now and go home. It is only going to get worse. (In this case the making this connection would prove pointless as the yellow generator would later cut out mid show, certainly a show that won't be forgotten in a hurry.)