History
Jan 1990 - August 1992
I bought my first PA system and started trading as The Bath PA Company, working with several bands on a regular basis across the South West. I continued to upgrade my equipment.
April 1991 – today
I have been the in-house sound engineer for a highly regarded regional venue, the Gloucester Guildhall responsible for hundreds of gigs and working with a wide variety of bands including Supergrass, Roger Taylor from Queen, Muse, The Blockheads and Catatonia. I have also worked at several International Blues Festivals held at the Guildhall featuring top Blues acts from places like Chicago and New Orleans.
Sept 1992
I became a single parent and had to stop working at night in order to bring up my nearly 3 year old son. Quite frustrating as I had just started to get somewhere with what I loved to do. I finished building some speakers I had started and sold the ‘loud side’ of the PA (speakers, amps etc) and kept the ‘studio side’ (mixing desk, microphones etc)
I built PCs for friends and family, did some home recording and continued to update my knowledge, including learning about MIDI sequencing, speaker design and how to use CorelDRAW. I still did the occasional gig in Gloucester and also for Midas PA in Salisbury.
April 1996
I started trading as Livewire and began working freelance at the Gloucester Guildhall regularly again for all their band nights. In 1997 I was hired as a consultant to upgrade their PA after a £20k lottery grant. I started to build my own PA system again.
Jun 1997 - Aug 1999
I provided a complete disco for kids, including sound system and lights with myself as a DJ. This started after I did a disco for my niece’s 13th birthday and some parents asked me to DJ for their children’s party. It was a good sideline but towards the end I was getting more sound engineering work so I stopped the kids disco.
Nov 1997 - Aug 2003
I started up a 7 piece 70s disco funk covers band called Studio 54, in which I played Bass guitar, arranged rehearsals and organised gigs. We dressed up in outrageous glittery costumes and did classic disco funk songs such as Disco Inferno, We are Family and September. Gigs included The University of Westminster Christmas Ball, weddings and local festivals. I recorded 2 demo CDs with my own equipment and made a video, which was filmed during 3 gigs. I used the skills I had learnt during my video production course at college when I was 17 to produce and edit this piece using Adobe Premier 6 on the PC I had built myself specifically for video and sound editing.
Sept 1998
I completed my first overseas sound engineering job. I went to Sao Paulo, Brazil for 6 days with Baka Beyond, an international 8 piece Afro-Celt band. I have since toured with them a number of times, mostly in the UK, including gigs at the Jazz Café in London. In April and May 2006, 7 of the Baka tribe from the SE Cameroon rain forest played with Baka Beyond on a tour for which I was the sound engineer. It was the first time they had been outside the rain forest and was an amazing experience to be with them. I still work with Baka Beyond today.
Jun 1999 - Dec 2000
I played bass guitar (and supplied the PA) for a successful 7 – 8 piece Soul / Party band called Mister Blue. We played various venues in the UK for corporate events and weddings mostly. I recorded a demo CD with my own equipment.
2002 – 2004
I supplied & operated the PA for a small stage for the Frome Festival, The Festival Club. This involved 10 consecutive days of varied acoustic / world music.
May 2003
As my son was now a bit older (14) I was able to go on my first tour (in the UK) as a sound engineer with Jalikunda, a 12 piece band from Senegal. I liased with venues and promotors as the band were technically demanding. I supplied equipment for rehearsals and any extras needed in order to ensure a professional standard throughout.
April 2004 – present
I am the sound engineer for Seckou Keita SKQ, an international quintet playing music based on Senegalese Mbalax style music. We have toured the UK a number of times and played in Spain, Australia, NZ, Japan, South Korea, Europe, Singapore, Senegal, Gambia, Tanzania, Zanzibar and the US among others. Tours have included several WOMAD festivals. I made a 3 minute video from footage shot on tour which was featured on Yahoo’s homepage.
Oct 2004
Thieves broke into my workshop and stole virtually my whole PA I had been gradually saving up for and building up over the previous 8 years. The insurance company didn’t pay out and although I lost a lot of work, I still had freelance work. I said I wouldn’t own a PA system again as the time, effort and money to accumulate all that equipment again would be too much to do for the third time. But I’d almost always owned PA equipment and within 18 months of feeling naked, I started to buy bits here and there and in the end decided to complete the speakers I had started to build before the burglary. These ended up as the XL15 speakers.
From 2005
I am sound engineer for the Bath Literature Festival. I am also involved in doing some events for the Bath International Music Festival and the Mozart Festival. This involves both engineering and supplying equipment and working in acoustically challenging environments.
From 2005
I have worked at several concerts for d+b Audio UK, based in Nailsworth including Nailstock (Nailsworth’s own festival) a one-off concert for the legendary Brazilian percussionist Airto Moriera and the Anniversary of Real World (Peter Gabriel’s studio & where WOMAD is based).
From April 2008
I regularly work for an established PA company, Intasound, as ‘system tech’ for Elkie Brooks. This involves loading the PA near Worcester, taking it to the venue, setting up as the band specifically require and ensuring everything works smoothly during the show. I am then responsible for packing up and returning the equipment.
2009
As well as doing many international concerts as a freelance sound engineer, I continued upgrading my PA system, whilst using it for concerts for The Bath Festival, The Mozart Festival and Seckou Keita SKQ amongst others.
Towards the end of the year I bought a pair of flying frames for my XL15 speakers. This allows me to hang them from a truss or mount on a stand and to angle them for ideal speaker position for the best coverage. A considerable advance in speaker positioning, therefore getting even more out of the XL15s.
The last thing I did for the PA in 2009 was to finally replace the last few cheap mic stands with black telescopic Beyer stands, an industry standard quality mic stand. Upgrading continues as always but I am now happy that I have a complete quality PA system for hire and if there is a need for anything extra, it can be easily hired in.