Central Cee Tour 2022
January 9th 2023
22live has partnered with Hire consultant Aaron Boothe to deliver Central Cee’s European tour. The UK rapper was on the road throughout October and November 2022. Central Cee credited initially as a viral success is now taking UK rap global with sights on the USA initially.
Aaron Boothe is a familiar name to many in pro-audio, he is a sound engineer, production manager and even manages his own loudspeaker brand Aaron B. Aaron has gained respect and credibility with touring professionals including many within the UK rap and grime scene where he is trusted as a consultant to help deliver tours and events.
In September 2022 Aaron was approached by Central Cee’s Tour Manager Shaun Bartlett, with a brief to aide in the design, specification, supply and logistics for a touring control package for Central Cee’s Autumn tour. Aaron works with a number of suppliers and had become aware of new company 22live, and was interested to see what they could offer. Aaron comments “I was familiar with Paul Timmins, and when Stefan Phillips and Simon Gladstone also announced they were joining 22live it made me stop and take note of the new business. 22live appeared at the right time for me, I was struggling to source what I needed and I immediately trusted that 22live would be capable if they could supply what I was looking for.”
Aaron Boothe
“22live appeared at the right time for me, I was struggling to source what I needed and I immediately trusted that 22live would be capable if they could supply what I was looking for.”
The tour’s main requirement was a FOH control package to travel with Central Cee around Europe. The system needed to be compact, the mixing console brand of choice was DiGiCo, and the package needed to be capable of providing both a monitor mix for smaller shows and also provide the flexibility of including a passive split for bigger shows where the 22live package could be supplemented locally with an additional Monitor setup. The tour would also conclude with a full production event at Alexandra Palace, where the touring system would then be complemented by a full PA and monitor system, with Central Cee playing to his home audience.
Aaron Boothe comments “I just put a call into Paul, and it became an easy thing to put together. 22live had just taken delivery of their new DiGiCo Q225, which I knew would tick the boxes for Oscar (FOH engineer), and 22live were able to deliver on all fronts. To me it just became a no brainer to give them a try.” Paul Timmins goes on “It was great to get the call from Aaron, and the timing for us was perfect. We were able to build the control setup from what we had in stock, and the Sigur Rós PA would be back in time to be deployed to Ally Pally, for the big show at the end of the run.”
Aaron Boothe
“I just put a call into Paul, and it became an easy thing to put together. 22live had just taken delivery of their new DiGiCo Q225, which I knew would tick the boxes for Oscar (FOH engineer), and 22live were able to deliver on all fronts.”
Stefan Phillips, Operations director, set to getting the system specification finalised through liaison with Aaron. “We knew all the kit that we would be putting onto the job, we just needed to ensure it was packaged correctly, and that we had all eventualities covered.” 22live would be supplying a DiGiCo Quantum 225 equipped with Waves, Sennheiser D6000 Wireless handhelds, and a Sennheiser 2000 IEM system. Phillips continues “As we’d recently completed a big line system build we had all the parts we needed ready to go, with 16 channel stage boxes, our modular split boxes and 16 way multi’s that could also be deployed to take a passive split from the stage rack.” The whole system was put together with a fairly short turnaround and delivered exactly what was required.”
Doug Maddison was called upon by the tour to act as System and stage technician, and was later asked to also mix monitors for the Alexandra Palace show, while FOH duties would be covered by Oscar Boyd-Palmer. Although Doug was known to both the production team and the 22live team this was his first time working with Central Cee. Stefan Phillips commented re Doug’s visit to 22live’s temporary premises in Coventry “We were still working out of our temporary base in Coventry for prep, but despite the humble setting Doug seemed to be very impressed with how we’d prepared the package for them to take.”
Stefan Phillips
“As we’d recently completed a big line system build we had all the parts we needed ready to go, with 16 channel stage boxes, our modular split boxes and 16 way multi’s that could also be deployed to take a passive split from the stage rack.”
From there the main job for Aaron was to determine the PA specification for the Alexandra Palace show. Aaron Boothe comments “I personally didn’t have experience of using the new Martin Wavefront systems. However I was confident enough in the team at 22live to ensure that the specification would deliver for the tour’s requirements.” Simon Gladstone, 22live’s Technical Director set to work on a system design proposal for Alexandra Palace and commented “Alexandra Palace is quite a straightforward space to cover, but not always easy to get a great result in due to the nature of the room.”
Aaron also had to ensure that both the tour and the engineers would be happy with the choice of PA. “I said that you might not have used the Martin Wavefront Precision system previously, but the fact that it has been used at Glastonbury, and that Martin systems generally have been deployed at Hyde park for many years meant that this was a system that could deliver what we needed. From there, there wasn’t any resistance, but equally we needed to make sure that we delivered a great result with it, to pave the way for future successes utilising Martin Audio.”
It was determined that the Martin PA specification should be 2 hangs of 12 x Martin Audio WPL (2 x 12”) supported by 16 x SXHF218 subwoofers and WPS Front fills. Delays were provided by way of 2 x hangs of Martin WPS. This was all controlled from a 22live drive rack running an Outline Newton processor and returns over Dante to the IK42 Amplification. Additionally a complete monitor specification was added for the Alexandra Palace show comprising a DiGiCo Quantum 338, d&b M4 Stage Monitors and Martin Audio side fills.
Aaron Boothe
“I personally didn’t have experience of using the new Martin Wavefront systems. However I was confident enough in the team at 22live to ensure that the specification would deliver for the tour’s requirements.”
Oscar Boyd-Palmer - FOH engineer and Doug Maddison - System & Stage Techncian + Monitor engineer for Alexandra Palace (pictured with Monitor DiGiCo Q338 console)
Oscar Boyd-Palmer FOH engineer for the tour comments “I had my reservations about the quantity of PA, but I was pleasantly surprised when we got in front of it - WPL really packs a punch! The cardioid sub configuration worked well for the show and I was particularly impressed by the stability of the system. Cench spent a large portion of the show in front of the PA at 102dBA and there wasn’t a peep from it. Massive thanks to the 22live team and to my man Doug Maddison. He’s a great guy and an even better engineer, it was a pleasure working together. Bring on the next one.”
Paul Timmins summarises “Overall we were very happy to be able to work with Aaron on Central Cee. It was great that we had availability to be able to deliver for the tour and produce a great result. We hope that we also demonstrated to the Central Cee production team that Martin Wavefront Precision is a very capable product that performs as well as anything else out there, and is a viable option for them long term. We look forward to continuing to partner with Aaron on future projects and very much embrace the relationship and opportunities he can help us to deliver.”
Time lapse of pre-show and doors from FOH at Alexandra Palace 360˚
Oscar Boyd-Palmer