Over the weekend I had to engineer two gigs with only the top boxes of the PA as the last remaining subwoofer had been blown since the last time I engineered a live gig. During the week before last Friday the sub boxes weren’t even used as it was all club nights, last Saturday was Dark Angels, Wednesday was Alternation and Thursday was the Uni Break Dance Society DJ night. Which brings up the question; how does something break if it hasn’t been used? Someone fucking with the system who doesn’t know what their doing for example; I’ll say no more… Luckily our top boxes are pretty powerful; 5,200 watts; but I had to run them in full range and had to watch the amps like a hawk as they are designed to run with the sub boxes to fill in everything below around about 95hz. The system is missing 6400 watts of low end and it shows in the sound. But somehow the bands and the few people that actually made the effort to come to the gigs thought it sounded good; it sounded reasonably balanced because of my creative engineering; but I know what it can sound like when the system is firing on all cylinders and the sound over the weekend was a pale reflection of what the system can sound like. The problem is that the system has been raped by just about every touring engineer and guest engineer over the last 12 months; why these people insist on using all the power of the system and more baffles me; the total system power is 12,900 watts in a venue that hold 250 people. When the system was was fully working I never even got close to the red lights to get the sound I wanted, but some people don’t know when to stop and don’t give a fuck. If I went to their home venue and ran their system in the red all night, they wouldn’t be happy, so why the fuck do it to our system?
While I am on the subject of people making the effort to come out to live gigs; that’s wonderful as most people seem to prefer to go listen to a DJ play someone else’s music in a club and pay more than £5 for the privilege; but resent paying £3 to see four live bands; that’s less than £1 per band. But I have gotten used to Plymouth being a total dead end for live music; I have seen some amazing bands come through the Voodoo Lounge and The Phoenix over the years and hardly anyone came to see them play. And another thing; when people come to see their friends (local) band play who are supporting a bigger touring act; but leave as soon as their friends have played; why? Seriously why would you leave when you have paid £3 anyway; why not stay and get your money’s worth? I am very disillusioned by this city; I may not play in a band; but it frustrates me that people leave early or don’t even make the effort. It affects my night as well as I can’t get the sound I really want because there is no-one to soak up the messy high end bouncing around the room; hard and shiny surfaces do not make for good sounding rooms. I’m surprised that big touring bands even touch this city; I wouldn’t if I was in a band from outside the city.
It’s not all doom and gloom; at least it was a good weekend for my sporting interests. Plymouth Argyle came back from three games without a win with an emphatic 3 – 0 win over Norwich at Home Park on Saturday. Loan signing Lee Martin was an ever present threat to the Norwich goal and gave Plymouth the lead in the 26th minute with a spectacular overhead kick from 12 yards out. Martin turned provider for Plymouth’s 2nd; providing the pass into the penalty area for Paul Connolly to head home from close range just after the half time break. David Norris’ low drive from 12 yards made sure of all three points in the 50th minute. It didn’t go all Argyle’s way; Jamie Cureton almost got a late consolation goal by was denied by the post and Darel Russell’s 20 yard effort ricocheted off the Romain Larrieu’s crossbar. Plymouth have moved back upto 7th in the league; just one point off a play-off place; this league is so incredibly tight; it’s hard to predict anything this season; but a play-off spot is a realistic ambition for this season as no team seems to be showing any sort of consistency right now; any team can beat any other team in this league!
Liverpool are up from seventh to fifth in the premiership this week after beating Fulham 2- 0 at Anfield on Saturday. Peter Crouch almost put Liverpool into the lead in the first half with a headed effort but was denied by the woodwork. Liverpool came close many times but couldn’t make the breakthrough needed. The home side had to wait until the 81st minute to finally convert pressure into a goal. It took a moment of genius by Fernando Torres to break the deadlock twisting and turning to beat the Fulham defence then defeated Antti Niemi with a low drive. Steven Gerrard made it 2 – 0 from the penalty spot after Peter Crouch was brought down in the 85th minute. The Reds are only two points off 3rd in the league; but six points off the top; sadly it’s looking like Manchester United and Arsenal are going to be battling it out for the title this season; so Liverpool are chasing 3rd to claim the last automatic Champions League qualifying spot; which is the best we can hope for now!
In Formula One things are looking up for Jenson Button and Honda signing former Ferrari chief strategist Ross Brawn as team principle; Nick Fry now takes up the role of Chief Executive at Honda. Ross Brawn is one of the key figures (with Schumacher and Todt) in Ferrari’s revival in then mid 90s helping to guide the Prancing Horse to several successive world constructors and drivers titles. Hopefully he can have the same effect on Honda who has been languishing in the lower midfield for the last couple of seasons. Jenson had given Honda an ultimatum just days previously; either they improve dramatically or he would exercise a clause in his contract that could mean his departure from the Brackley based squad. On the subject of Ferrari; long term team boss Jean Todt is to be replaced by Stefano Domenicali in January; which means that the final part of the ‘dream team’ has gone from the Maranello based team. I am interested to see how Ferrari fair next season without Todt or Brawn who had previously said that he would only return to F1 if it was with Ferrari.