The Australian Pink Floyd Show UK 2022
January 9th 2023
22live has completed its first full production tour with arguably the greatest cover band on the road today. The Australian Pink Floyd Show provide a hugely authentic tribute to all things Gilmour and Waters, working hard to bring their show to venues within easy reach of audiences around the world, this time it was the UK that had the privilege of their presence.
Paul Timmins, 22live Hire Director comments “Me and the Aussie Floyd go way back. I’ve worked with the team for many years and while I’ve been a supplier to them, I like to think that I act as part of the team. Because of that history, and the relationship I have with Kevin Hopgood, Trevor Gilligan and Chris Gadd in particular, to me the Aussie Floyd was always a key target to pursue in my new guise as 22live.”
Despite the ‘close knit’ relationship that Timmins holds with the Australian Pink Floyd Show production team, he still had to be confident that the time was right to make an approach to the group.
In order to take the decision and commit to his pursuit of the show it was necessary for Timmins to consult with the 2 recently recruited director’s Stefan Phillips, Operations Director, and Simon Gladstone, Technical director. Timmins comments “I sat down with Simon, and Stefan who had recently joined the team and we went over it…there were a number of topics to consider; How do we make the bid fit the bill for the tour? Would Trevor be happy to switch to a new brand of PA? Could we get the infrastructure together in time for the job? Etc.”
Timmins continued “We knew the absolute key to delivery of the Australian Pink Floyd Show was the amount of space the kit would occupy on the truck. Keeping production costs down was essential to the success of our bid, and truck space is a key part of this.”
With regard to the PA choice we knew that we couldn’t offer the tour in this scenario anything other than Martin Audio, as sub-hiring would not have worked in the circumstances. The discussion with Stefan and Simon progressed to a build schedule where Simon concluded that; “Although tight, it was possible to deliver the package the way we wanted.”
Stefan went on “We already had everything in the pipeline to deliver this job so from my perspective it was more about getting the job confirmed as early as possible, so we could start planning the labour, and buying the bits of kit we knew we’d need to get it all built.”
Paul set about reaching out to the tour, and building a proposal for them. Timmins comments “In basic terms what we were aiming to build for the tour needed to offer an improvement over what they were using currently, while maintaining truck space.”
Paul Timmins
“What we were aiming to build for the tour needed to offer an improvement over what they were using currently, while maintaining truck space.”
It was at this early stage that it also became clear that both FOH engineer Trevor Gilligan and Monitor engineer Kevin Smith wanted to stick with the DiGiCo Quantum 5 consoles they were comfortable with.
So now the only task for Timmins was to see if the Martin Audio system would be an acceptable solution for the team? “I think overall that Trevor was happy to try out something new, the thing that we really had to demonstrate to make the argument however, was that the Martin Audio SXCF118 (1 x 18” + 1 x 14” Cardioid) was enough of a sub to provide the low end the tour required.” It was decided the only method for proving its capability performance wise, was to put it to the test, and a demonstration was organised onsite at Martin Audio HQ in High Wycombe.
Trevor put his faith in PA system technician, Mark Edwards, to be present at the demo alongside 22live personnel, Timmins comments “Both Trevor and Mark were very familiar with the Martin Audio SX218, and so it was quite easy to demonstrate the capability of the SXCF118 by using the 218 as the benchmark, and in fact the demo concluded with the SXCF118 coming out on top in terms of both performance and flexibility. It was at that this point I knew 22live were really in with a chance of getting this over the line.”
Paul Timmins
“It was at that this point I knew 22live were really in with a chance of getting this over the line.”
Kevin Hopgood put it simply when explaining the initial approach by Paul Timmins; “He explained to both me and Chris what he was working on with 22live and asked if he’d be able to quote for the European run for this show,” stated Hopgood. “Everyone has those companies they want to work with, but periodically it’s good to freshen things up and we were happy to take on 22live for this run.”
Paul Timmins added “It was a massive victory for myself, Stefan and Simon to have secured the tour, and we were very happy. We had actually already commenced much of the infrastructure build as we simply didn’t have the time to wait, but there were still a few holes to fill kit wise, namely in the shape of 2 x DiGiCo Q5! We were very excited though.”
From the point of confirmation everything started to come together quickly. Simon Gladstone explains in a little more detail some of the challenges he faced in the build. “All of the key parts to the line system were custom built from scratch. That means custom metalwork, and custom PCB’s. We wanted the whole line system to use PCB mounting connectors in all of our own proprietary boxes, the main reason for this is actually to improve reliability and to speed up the manufacturing process when you need to build more.”
Unlike other products Simon had built historically he also wanted to utilise RJ45 and CAT6 for connecting the PCB’s within the assemblies, meaning that the only solder required in a stage box was physically on the PCB itself to mount the connectors. He went on “The modular approach to the line system actually extends beyond the modular practicality of how you use the system, but also to how it is assembled. There are common parts or common modules that are accommodated across the various boxes which not only helps to keep costs down, but also gives you more redundancy on the road too, and you can carry spare and replaceable parts which is a first for line system.”
Simon Gladstone
“There are common parts or common modules that are accommodated across the various boxes which not only helps to keep costs down, but also gives you more redundancy on the road too, and you can carry spare and replaceable parts which is a first for line system.”
Simon Gladstone continued “Once everything was built and we had all the bits in the right places, the biggest challenge was making sure the network was all configured correctly. It was quite a complex system as we had the 2 x DiGiCo Quantum 5’s sharing an SD-Rack. Mark Edwards had his own control rack which he was comfortable using, and we had to integrate this with hardware in our drive rack. Then we had all of the PA returns utilising Dante over fibre, with the Outline Newton being deployed as the main drive processor. We also incorporated the Green-Go comms system to the same network, so we designed and built quite a bespoke package to accommodate all of these things.” There were 2 quad fibres deployed between the master amp rack and the drive rack that carried DiGiCo Optocore A&B and Dante Primary and Secondary. There was then a further fibre link to Monitor world continuing the DiGiCo loop and extending the network to that area. Additionally we used a X-Stage Data link over CAT6 and had a full analogue redundant fall-over system in place.
The tour loaded out in mid-October to commence it’s 30 dates throughout October, November and early December. On the road the show was carrying in addition to the two DiGiCo Q5 mixing consoles, 32 x Martin Audio WPC (2 x 10”) line array, 18 x Martin Audio WPS (2 x 8”) line array, 16 x Martin Audio SXCF118 Cardioid Subwoofer, 6 x Martin Audio WPM (Lipfill) and 4 x Martin Audio TORUS T1215 (Infill/outfill). All speaker cable was done utilising a mix of both LK24 speaker multi’s and break-outs as well as NL8 and break-outs. 22live also provided Outboard LV6 motor controllers for the duration of the tour. The system proved to be a success out on the road.
Paul Timmins was very grateful to receive this first communication from Trevor following the first show; ‘what can I say, I love the system, for a first show and putting my mix straight into it I am very happy, it’s great to be back on the Martin gear, please pass that on… it's a very detailed box and matches the subs perfectly, all in all a great choice by all involved, I think 22live will be a great asset to the industry. Well done Paul.’
Trevor Gilligan
“What can I say, I love the system, for a first show and putting my mix straight into it I am very happy, it’s great to be back on the Martin gear, please pass that on.”
A further positive followed this up as the tour progressed with a great report on the SXCF118 subs ‘definitely made the right decision with the little subs, the bass guitar and low end of the drum kit is way more musical, Mark did a sub array last night in a big old theatre in Bath, it's normally a bit lumpy in there but last night was great, very solid and punchy.
As the tour concluded Mark Edwards, was able to offer his verdict on the 22live delivery with the Martin Audio PA; ‘Firstly I’d like to say a big thank you for your support and the package you provided. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous about changing supplier after the USA run with the short time window between tours, but you guys delivered to our spec with minimal effort on our part. The system performed flawlessly and was a pleasure to work with. I usually dread going to most of the venues on the UK run, but each day I left thinking “that was much easier than I remember”, and that’s down to the quick and easy deployment of your package.’
The only venue which required a bigger system was the Glasgow Hydro Arena. As this was much bigger than any other venue on the tour 22live topped the PA system up for this gig alone with an additional 24 x Martin Audio WPL (2 x 12”). This invoked the following response from FOH engineer Trevor; “We had a great night in the hydro, the PA worked perfectly, best mixing time I’ve had in there.”
Mark Edwards
“The system performed flawlessly and was a pleasure to work with. I usually dread going to most of the venues on the UK run, but each day I left thinking ‘that was much easier than I remember.’”
Paul Timmins passed comment to the success of the Martin Audio system “The fact that we were able to move the production onto Martin Audio, and it delivered beyond both the engineer and technician’s expectation I think is a great sign that we made a good decision to back the brand, I’m confident there will be growing demand and opportunity for Wavefront Precision going forwards.’
In Monitor world the tour carried Shure PSM1000 IEM, as well as 4 x d&b M4 Stage Monitors. Stage line system was distributed using 22live’s new in-house 16 channel stage remote boxes, and stage mains was also supplied with 22live matching stage mains boxes which utilise PowerCON TRU. In all it was a very well presented and very well received package that met all the requirements of the tour. Chris Gadd comments “Working with a smaller boutique company that has a personal touch is really important to us,” commending the support he and the team had been given by 22live for this run. “I believe there is still room for independent small companies with a more bespoke touch,” added Hopgood. “Especially as that is exactly how we run this tour.”
Paul Timmins summarises on the success of the Australian Pink Floyd run, “It has been absolutely fantastic to have had the opportunity to work with the guys again on this great tour. We hope this will be the start of a long partnership that will work well for both parties for years to come. The band already have more dates booked from February 2023 so we expect to be going back out with the Aussie Floyd again soon… Although this has only been our second proper job as 22live, it really felt like we moved it up a gear with this one too, having the whole backbone delivered how we wanted and with Simon and Stefan there throughout to keep the operation running smoothly. So in fact even though it was only the second tour, it felt like 22live had made another leap, becoming a mature service provider, and again demonstrating its competence to operate at a high level within the rental market place.
Paul Timmins
