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Joe Brown Celebrates Fifty Years in Great Company
Britain's most revered exponent of the Ukulele recently passed his fiftieth year on the stage, and done so in some style with a gala performance at London's Royal Albert Hall. The band that helped him celebrate included Henry Gross on guitar, Molly Marriot (daughter of the late Steve Marriot) on backing vocals, and Joe's daughter, Sam Brown.
Of course, not everyone is aware of Joe Brown's prowess with the Ukulele, but Brown has reached that point in his career where even those unfamiliar with his music know him by reputation as one of the nicest people in show business. Not convinced? Check this for a guest list of artists who were prepared to show up in Kensington and accompany the man on stage: Dave Edmunds, Jules Holland, Mark Knopfler, Chas & Dave, and Dennis Locorriere. "This was always going to be a bit of a tricky show to manage," said Ian Grove, Brown's long time sound engineer, "and not just channel counts. I've done sound in the Albert Hall many times but this was my first playing to a full house." Tickets were completely sold out, thus Grove had to cover the full circumference of this circular venue; only the monumental organ that divides the choir stalls didn't need PA. To this end Ian was helped with the system control for the show by Daniel Draper.
Ian continued: "I ended up designing a system using six hangs of d&b Q-Series loudspeakers, and a single hang of Q subwoofers. It's been my experience in here that with large centre clusters of PA, a lot of low end is put onto the stage. With a single column of Q subwoofers eight deep you have a line almost four metres long; realistically that gives you directional control down between 100 and 125 Hz. I also had six Q-SUBs and two B2s ground stacked, with the Qs running in 100 Hz mode. The results were perfect; I got none of that build up, usually somewhere around 118 Hz, that you can get at the middle of the room."
And what of the rest of the system? "With the Q1 loudspeakers it was easy to be precise; two front hangs, two on the sides, and two to the rear choir stalls. The only tricky thing was the lack of points for the side hangs, which forced us to rig them
without a hanging frame above; this necessitated tethering them to the upper balcony to set the angle - a bit of a fiddle."
Grove's own Company, RPA, provided all the equipment: further elements of the Q-Series system, Q7s and Q10s, performed fill duties around the stage, and the monitors were either MAX15s or M4s, making this a totally d&b event. "I ran 15 zones off the R1 Remote control software, all fed by a left right output; it worked very well. For mixing we had a Yamaha PM5D with a DSP5D on stage to give us enough
inputs, and in the house I used a pair of M7CLs."
And what of the challenges so many different artists present? "Generally they were no problems at all; Knopfler for example plays as if he's been part of Joe's band for
years. But there were a couple of important considerations. Joe's shows in general tend to get loud on stage as the evening progresses and naturally there is a temptation to do the same out front. This must be resisted; his audience will tolerate high volumes, but not for long periods. The other thing is the way the hall itself responds. There are two good levels at the RAH; quiet, as in acoustic, when for
example Joe did some do-wop with vocals into nice big condenser mics. That sounded especially nice through the Qs, there's just no colouration at all, very natural. The other level is louder, but you have to judge it carefully. Too loud and it's just out of control, not quite loud enough and it can be messy; you have to find that point where the direct sound off the PA just overcomes the room sound."
Fortune favours the brave; reviews of Brown's show in the mainstream press were very complimentary. Grove's mastery of the hall's dynamic idiosyncrasies providing no opportunity for the familiar complaints about the RAH sound. "I've done a lot of shows with Joe and I must say this did prove very enjoyable."
19th December 2008
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