latest news headlines
Never Forget Kicks off UK Tour in Cardiff
The brand new musical Never Forget opened in Cardiff last weekend on the start of its UK tour - with plans to bring the show to the West End in the autumn. Based on the book by Danny Brocklehurst, the show is the fictional story of a Take That tribute band, featuring a host of hits and a large-scale sound system designed by Richard Brooker and supplied by Blitz. At its core is a combined analogue and digital Cadac system, comprising an 82-input Cadac J-Type Live Production Console, complemented by D16 Digital Mix Matrices and M16 Remote Controlled Microphone Amplifiers. The main PA rig is from OPUS, representing the company's largest theatre system to date, including 8 x AT1000 cabinets and8 x SB218 subs, plus Sennheiser SK50 and SK5012 radiomics, and XTA 26 processing amongst the comprehensive system.
Richard's design for the show needed to achieve a balance between the high energy pop numbers and the transition to dialogue, involving close attention to getting the dynamic exactly right. Richard elaborates: "The show is great entertainment and very well written. The songs are of course really well-known, but the dialogue is very funny and the whole story line works brilliantly. Chris Egan's orchestrations are quite brilliant, crafted not only to enhance the pop songs but also beautifully assisting the transition from dialogue to song and back to dialogue again. My challenge has been to give the sound design a theme, enabling the audience to follow the story with crisp, sensible dialogue before moving into the big numbers. The Cadac chain for the input stage gives a fantastically clear, defined and beautiful dynamic. I am using the M16 splits into the D16s, routing half into the J-Type - giving me an all-Cadac signal path into the Opus system. I am also thrilled with the separation and definition from the Opus - the whole sound is perfect. We have a 7-piece band that is working really hard all through the show, and the audiences appear to be loving it!"
Production sound is by Mike Walker and Mark Cornwell of Loh-Humm Sound. Richard's sound team comprises Tom Marshall as assistant sound designer, Chris Dunkin as operator, with Robin Conway and Roisinne Mamdani backstage. Never Forget had its world première at the Wales Millennium Centre, produced by Tristan Baker, Bronia Buchanan and Charlie Parsons, directed by Ed Curtis with choreography by Karen Bruce, and starring Stephane Anelli, Dean Chisnall, Tim Driesen, Craige Els and Eaton James as the tribute band members. The UK tour will take in Glasgow, Manchester, Stoke and Edinburgh before transferring to London's West End.
3rd August 2007
HEADLINES
news archive
search stories
FOOTNOTE: Select the news type you require in the red band above; this will enable you to see the current news stories from that section
© 1999 - 2012 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
