KASABIAN
Video Design‘s Alex Leinster; FOH Engineer Paul Ramsay; Ryan Hagan, co-founder of ER Productions; Lighting Designer, Nick Gray; Event Producer Keith Wood and Live Nation’s Head of International Production, Andrew Craig.
flying a large hang of K1SB behind the main hang as I did on the last arena tour and outdoor shows the last few summers,” explained Ramsay. “Josh Lloyd from Britannia Row came up with the initial PA design on Soundvision once he had DWG of the stadium. I then sat down with him and went through the design. For the side hangs Ramsay deployed nine L-Acoustics K2’s on the East hang with West requiring 15 K2 units. The rest of the audio rig was made up of 10 ARC 2 and 15 KARA systems from the ground front fills with the 12 K2’s being used for centre and left delays (six per hang) with eight K2’s being used for the right hand delay. For the VIP fills there the production also deployed two L-Acoustics 112Ps. Allocating equipment wasn’t the only difficulty faced by Ramsay during the manic period leading up to the gigs. Being as spontaneous as this event was, Britannia Row struggled to acquire the kind of dream team needed for such a big project. With Ramsay’s regular System Technicians Adam Smith and Josh Lloyd already committed other tours, the FOH Engineer had to work with a lot of unfamiliar faces. Nonetheless, proud to have overcome adversity, Ramsay expressed his delight with how the concerts went: “The off-site noise limit was set at 65dB on a 15-minute LEQ at first residential property. We never exceeded it and the crowd were unbelievably noisy. Some grounds tend to have open stands but the King Power is completely enclosed, meaning I could make sure it was as loud as I needed it to be.” Ramsey mixed the show on a DiGiCo SD7 running at 96K with Waves plugins using a selection of vintage style compressors on certain inputs and outputs. Distortion on vocals for key words when required using Waves Redd.17 along with four engines of H-Reverb for vocals and drums, three engines of H-Delay and some modulation effects. “The show was getting close to 100 inputs off stage as it had additions to the regular band, with a string section and choir,” commented the FOH Engineer. “We got all the audio dialed in during rehearsals at LS-Live and at the warm up shows although we didn’t have the choir on these. All system processing was done
on LA Manager running wirelessly so I could tune all the zones while walking round the stadium. I also had LM44and LM26 processors for system EQ but this was used more as a global grab EQ during the show which was barley touched.” Ramsey summed up on the show: “The shows were amazing. This was very special and everyone rose to the occasion. Well worth four stressful weeks in preparation.” Running monitors was engineer Wayne ‘Rabit’ Seargent. Flightcases and the rigours of the road were eased with bespoke products from Matt Snowball Music Cases, which looked after backline and various other areas. Matt Young of the MSM Cases Team said: “We have worked with Kasabian and the crew for several years now, building cases which are worthy of a tough life on the road. Whether its for a single show or a full tour we’re able to work with the crew to deliver a case that works for them. We’re on-hand for any modifications or repairs that are needed before any show but it’s great to see that after so many years on tour, some of the first cases we ever built for Kasabian are still going strong and able to support and protect their equipment - all over the world.” The MSM cases team was completed by Pawel Maliszewski, Robert Stepien, Lucas Wach and Dom Parker. A VISUAL SPECTACULAR Creating the visual look of the two day event was long-time calibrator and Lighting designer, Nick Gray, who collaborated once again with suppliers Neg Earth, ER Productions and Video Design to create one blinding show. “The tight turn around meant we had to be logical,” started Gray. “The previous arena show used fully manned interactive cameras, infra-red and lots of tricks. For this show however all the operators were already booked and both myself and the band fancied a massive rave with no big video accompanying the show! We all saw it as an opportunity to do something 70