More than 25 years after they first appeared into the UK charts and ten since disbanding to produce solo material, Supergrass returned to the road with audio rental house Britannia Row in February and March before the live scene was closed down by Covid-19.
Production Manager Adam King had, by his own admission, loved working with Brit Row and the Supergrass team for the band’s return to live music. Along with his hope that Covid-19 doesn’t disrupt the touring circuit and festival season ‘too much’, he regards Supergrass as fortunate to have finished their seven-date UK run – which culminated in two sold-out shows at London’s Alexandra Palace – prior to lockdown.
‘I like to think of Supergrass as a classy punk band; they’re so powerful live. I was really pleased they decided to get back together because they’re one of our great British rock bands. ‘What struck me when I met them was the pure rush of energy that hits the second they start playing. It was quite a moment. I had my brief for the mix instantaneously – try to get that energy across to an audience and make it as exciting as it had been for me in our rehearsal space.’
‘We had two fantastic gigs in London, and as these were my last two shows for what will no doubt be quite some time, it was good to go out on such a high note,’ says FOH engineer Max Bisgrove.
‘The Ally Pally soundcheck sounded incredible in an empty room,’ King agrees. ‘It’s near enough impossible to achieve that, given that the venue is half a mile of concrete and a glass roof. The engineers did an amazing job.
‘Brit Row delivers fantastic service, so they’re great team to work with,’ Bisgrove continues. ‘A sound company is only ever as good as its people, and both Nick Jorden and Richard Trow were superb assets to the tour.’
Bisgrove reckons to have he ‘kept things simple’, mixing on an Avid S6L-24C with no external outboard other than a Waves SoundGrid Card and Extreme Server. The Matrix outputs were routed to two Lake LM 44s for control of the various in-house PA systems. There was also an ‘awful lot more carving up of the PA on the Lake than normal’ but he explains that this was necessary to get any kind of sonic coherence in Ally Pally.
‘The two delay hangs rigged at around 33m helped enormously and I was very happy with how the end result sounded,’ he says.
‘Brit Row’s attention to detail is amazing and the care put into packaging is amazing,’ adds Jorden. ‘You are safe in the knowledge that, when you’re on the road, they have your back. Any extra tech support is only a phone call away. No matter where you are, they’ll source whatever you need.’
Alongside the back-to-back London headline shows, a Brit Row system was used at Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse – L-Acoustics K2 with KS28 subs, Kara as front fill and A15 as out fill was installed. In London, Trow designed K1 with K2 under hangs and KS28 subs, Kara front fill and A15 out fill with K2 delays.
Unable to make production prep due to prior commitments, monitor engineer Annette Guilfoyle was ‘extremely pleased’ to see her own gear well prepped when it turned up for the first rehearsals. Guilfoyle specified a DiGiCo SD12 console running 96 channels. Her SD rack also carried a 32-bit card.
‘Of course, there was tweaking as time went on, but all requests were dealt with very promptly. Nick Jorden was brilliant; really on top of everything that was required. He was in constant communication with those back at the Brit Row warehouse and any issues we did encounter were dealt with swiftly. DiGiCo is my choice of console. I always try to use what is most appropriate to the circumstances – I didn’t need the channel count of an SD5 or SD7, and I like to keep the footprint of monitor world as compact as possible.’
RF equipment was Shure PSM1000s running through the AXT600 Spectrum Manager. ‘Given the reduction in available spectrum these days, and the fact that the band had a potentially large run of US tour dates and festival appearances ahead of them, Shure seemed the logical choice, due to performance quality and availability,’ Guilfoyle says.
Although the band’s wider summer dates have been curtailed, Guilfoyle looks back on this experience fondly: ‘Supergrass are fantastic to work for; they love playing live together and it really shows. ‘They have great songs, great musicianship and great stage presence, so combined with a real camaraderie between them, it made this tour an absolute joy.’
More: www.britanniarow.com
