Currently out on their Wild World tour, British indie pop band Bastille Day are being served by an L-Acoustics K1/K2 system supplied by SSE Audio. At FOH is Paul ‘Coop’ Cooper…
‘As Coop is a local lad to SSE one of the guys that works in our fabrications department knew him from the club scene in Birmingham,’ says SSE’s Dan Bennett. ‘They said he was working with a band that just might have something about them. At SSE we have a policy of supporting emerging talent, so I got in touch with Coop to see how we could help and it all started from there.’
Taking their name from vocalist Dan Smith’s birthday, the band have two number one albums under their collective belt and, on this latest tour, have sold out arenas around the UK and Northern Europe, including London’s 20,000-seat O2 Arena. ‘They did the summer festival run, which went really well,’ Bennett says. ‘They loaded out of SSE for the Wild World tour in October and now they’re going back out for a short run in Europe and then on to the US.’
‘My use of L-Acoustics stems from installs at venues and at festivals all over the world,’ Cooper offers. ‘As soon as it was down to me to choose a system, I had no hesitation. My first production tour was completed on V-Dosc and dV-Dosc. The K1 system was a wonderful step forward and, with the addition of K2s, we have a fully scalable rig for any occasion.’
SSE has supplied L-Acoustics K1 elements for the main hangs, with K2 under hangs. Side hangs are also K1 elements. K1-SB subs are flown behind the K1s, with KS28 subs positioned on floor, all powered by LAX12 amplifiers.
‘We’re using this combination partly because it’s the newest L-Acoustics system, but also because the fidelity of the K2 is incredible and K1 has all the benefits that you need for doing arena-sized rooms,’ Bennett says. ‘I think it really suits Bastille’s music and Coop mixes very dynamically, so he’s using the whole PA to its full capacity.’
‘With the aid of my systems tech, Pertu Korteniemi and Soundvision software, we can ensure everyone in the venue is getting the air moved correctly for the mix they should be hearing,’ says Cooper. ‘For the low end, we’ve been carrying KS28s and K1SB. There’s also been some Kara and ARCs with us for the odd infill and side area.
‘The brackets and mountings of the system means it’s simple to have a group of K2 dealing with the down hangs at larger venues. Their blend with the K1 is just right, plus K2’s variable directivity gives us extra coverage capacity up to 110°, which allows for wider horizontal coverage in the close- field when flown under K1.
‘SSE has been wonderful at providing the system for us, and adding extra bits such as delays for the much larger rooms – for example The O2 in London. Dan Bennett has been looking after us since Day One.
‘We’re about to head out on our first production tour for the US since 2014. Solotech are providing our package, which currently consists of 24 K1, 32 K2, 12 KS28, 12 K1SB and all the extras. Paul Owen over there has been looking after us and we’re sure it will be just as successful as the European leg.’
