For their summer reunion shows across the UK and Ireland, This is What We Do For An Encore saw Brit Pop icons Pulp revisit their classic, coming of age anthems to take audiences on an engaging orchestral journey against a backdrop of cinematic-esque visuals.

Skan supplied the sound reinforcement package for the Latitude Festival, a headline spot at London’s Finsbury Park, the Isle of Wight Festival and TRNSMT among other sates, while Sheffield’s Utilita Arena hosted the band for two nights with a Skan d&b PA rig in tow.

‘I quickly recognised the need for attention to detail, quality equipment and a great crew, so Skan was my first and only choice for this tour,’ says Production Manager, Joel Stanley. ‘After my initial calls with Barak Koren, our FOH engineer, I knew that audio would be the only department that wasn’t going out to tender. Our monitor engineer, Ilias Andrianatos, had worked with Skan before, and so we have a happy camp all round.’

Injecting a new, live dimension into Pulp’s back catalogue, FOH mixer, Barak Koren is charged with delivering era-defining hits such as ‘Common People’ and ‘Do you Remember the First Time’ to an audience of both old and new fans. An engineer in demand, Koren was picked by the band’s management after they heard him mixing Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

‘My Nick Cave gig was supported by Eighth Day Sound, another Clair Global brand, but I’d never worked with Skan before,’ Koren says. ‘The globalisation aspect of a company can be very handy, because I know that everything is available to me everywhere I go, even if I have no previous experience with them. When I ask for the tools, my creativity is then open, and I can go in any direction I want. The way I start my process is to have listening sessions – even before conversations with the artist.’

This live mix is different from the album sounds fans grew up with. ‘The record will always be a starting point, of course, mainly for me to create it all in my mind before I even get to rehearsals,’ Koren says. ‘That’s the most important thing in a way – you have to be able to visualise the mix before you even have the tools. But with the orchestra on stage, it’s different to what people will have heard before. During rehearsals, I work with the band on the music content and in the evenings, when the band have gone, I’ll run Pro Tools and add my colours to the mix canvas.’

Barak’s own artistry is backed by an Avid Venue S6L 32D control surface, and he employs Pro Tools, Waves plug-ins and Smaart acoustic measurement software. ‘My Venue S6L is integrated with Waves,’ he says. ‘I’m a fan of Waves’ sound and products, and I have some additional hardware choices such as distressors and reverbs.’

‘When it comes to choosing a vocal microphone, it’s not just about how it sounds, it’s how it behaves, and the way it behaves depends on the way the singer uses it,’ he continues. ‘Every mic has its own character, and Jarvis has his own character; he’s very active on stage.’

The Audix OM5, Koren says, ‘suits Jarvis very well.’

Koren’s PA of choice has long been d&b audiotechnik: ‘I’ve been working with d&b systems for many years, since the J Series days, and I’ve always found d&b to be a very straightforward, great sounding system, from design to execution. Now that the SL-Series is here, it’s a real game changer.’

For the Sheffield shows, the PA was designed by Finlay Watt, Joachim Dewulf and Koren, comprising main and side hangs of KSL with flown J Subs and SL Subs in the pit. Front fills is Y10P cabinets, and delays are more KSLs, powered by D80 amps.

Monitor engineer Ilias Andrianatos has toured with Skan on various projects since 2005, explaining that Skan’s abilities as a company are impressive: ‘I trust their technicians and their gear is always immaculate, which is important to me. I’ve been working with Jarvis since 2017, on his side project, JARV IS, so there is a lot of trust between us now, and I’m honoured that he asked for me on this special tour.

‘It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done with monitors,’ he continues. ‘We’re running 109 channels, 31 mixes and there’s 17 people on stage, including the ten-piece string section. My main focus is Jarvis; he likes to hear everything in his mix, so it’s actually a front of house mix applied on stage. As you’d expect, I follow his every move closely because he’s such an energetic frontman.

‘Due to my high channel count and the number of mixes I’m dealing with, I need a desk that can handle it all. I’ve chosen the DiGiCo Quantum 5 and I try to keep things as simple as possible. I don’t use any of the toys that are available; for me, it’s just what is absolutely necessary. I go with what the desk offers, and I’m content with that.’

Andrianatos runs the Quantum 5 with two SD Racks, Reaper software and a DiGiGrid MGB. For stage fill, its L-Acoustics Arcs and LA12-x amplifierd controllers, with and d&b M4 wedges. The band uses IEMs, preferring Shure PSM 1000s.

‘This is a challenging gig because, when you have strings involved, most tours would have a second engineer to look after the string players, but I decided to take up the challenge and mix everyone’s monitors,’ Andrianatos says. ‘Everybody seems happy, which is good, because I’m only happy only when they’re happy.’

RF engineering is accounted for by Crew Chief & RF Tech Emma-Jane Lee: ‘I’ve got a lot to focus on RF wise, especially with the bigger shows, but I’ve also been learning how to balance being a Crew Chief. We’ve got such a great crew here; I’ve loved seeing our new Stage Tech, Elliott Heal, develop. He’s new to being on the road, after finishing his apprenticeship, so it’s been great to see him learning more and more, especially on a gig like this, where everyone is so interested in hearing it.’

The Skan team is completed by FOH minder, Jan Pickup, monitor minder, Alfie Wilcox, PA systems engineer, Finlay Watt and PA technicians, Tim Miller and Trystan Forbes.

‘I’ve personally forged a strong relationship with Skan’s Chris Fitch and his team, and I have a lot of time and respect for him and the company he’s built,’ Stanley says. ‘As expected, Skan’s service has been second to none.’

More: www.skanpa.co.uk