Simple Minds hold court
Published: MEA
UAE: Simple Minds performed to a packed tennis stadium for the band’s recent Dubai concert. In a night which saw the band play all of their best-known hits, it was local rental house, Artes Middle East, which was called in by Dave Catternach and The Irish Village team to supply the technical equipment.
‘The technical requirements for Simple Minds were quite elaborate and specific,’ said Artes’ technical manager, Karl da Costa. ‘To start with, the FOH console had to be a Soundcraft Vi6 and the monitor console had to be a DiGiCo SD10. At FOH, besides a Lexicon effects processor (carried by the engineer) and an Avalon VT737 tube compressor (supplied by Artes), no other outboard gear was used. At monitor world, they had an Aviom A16 rack mount controller (slotted into the DiGiCo SD rack) along with an A16 C remote controller. They had a host of off-stage controls for guitars and bass which was taken care of by them.’
The main PA for the event consisted of two hangs of 10 Meyer Sound Milo cabinets with 12 of the manufacturer’s HP700 subs providing the necessary punch. Front-fills combined four Meyer Sound CQ2 enclosures with a pair of M’elodie speakers. On stage, the monitor system combined five Meyer Sound MJF 212s, eight Sennheiser EW300 G3 in ears with belt packs and four Shure P6HW hardwired IEM systems.
‘The FOH engineer was Olivier Gerard, from Belgium,’ recalled Mr da Costa. ‘He was a great person to work with and one who has been touring with the band for many years as well as with the Soundcraft Vi6 console from 2007. The overall sound that he got out was fabulous, especially the drums and bass which stood out impeccably. It was indeed a privilege to hear the mix and work with him.’
The lighting rig combined conventional luminaires from Leco with intelligent lighting fixtures from Clay Paky, including 20 Alpha Spot 1200s and 16 Alpha Wash 1200s. Added to this were audience blinders and a pair of Lycian follow spots. The lighting system was controlled by a Grand MA1 board.
Mr da Costa declared the gig trouble free with the only challenge coming from windy conditions. ‘All technical requirements were sorted well in advance with the PM and myself, so when they arrived they got exactly what they needed without any hiccups.’