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Leeds City Varieties Adds HK Contour Array

Perhaps best associated - and most identifiable - as the glamorous late Victorian/Edwardian style music hall setting for BBC Television's long-running period entertainment show, ‘The Good Old Days', the Leeds City Varieties is also the longest-surviving jewel in the crown of popular entertainment in the UK. And that's official - though other music halls from the Victorian era still exist, the 'Verts', as it is affectionately known, is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as being the longest continuous-running music hall in Great Britain today.

Beautifully appointed and with a wonderfully intimate multi-tiered hall construction, the City Varieties is today listed as a Grade II historic building of extreme rarity. Even more remarkable is that it remains in relatively untouched condition even today, retaining many of its original features - for example, the vaulted roof construction truss members still bear the original carpenter's mark.

City Varieties can trace its origins as a music hall as far back as 1865, when it was known as 'Thornton's Fashionable Lounge'. Its most famous period though was to be later in its life when it became known to millions of viewers throughout the world as the home of BBC TV's 'The Good Old Days'. Presenter Leonard Sachs compered the show throughout an incredibly successful 30-year programme run, from 1953 until 1983.

Nowadays, a quick scan of the upcoming roster of shows at the Verts reveals an incredibly diverse range of acts and performers, a fitting legacy to the hall's association with 'variety', and of course 'The Good Old Days' remains a firm house favourite, featuring on the schedule several weekends every year.

Though City Varieties already had a capable in-house audio system, a pressing requirement was the need to achieve better coverage throughout the venue including theupper tiers, and to achieve a generally 'bigger and better' higher-impact sound for shows with higher audio demands, a reflection of the quest for ever-improving levels of production in contemporary live events.

As Charles Phillipson, one of the team of in-house technicians, had successfully used HK Audio pro audio equipment on a number of previous jobs, HK was his first port of call in terms of supplying the necessary additional sound reinforcement the theatre was looking for. After auditioning a number of HK enclosure options in situ, the theatre's team settled on an HK Audio ConTour Array based set-up.

This consisted of three ConTour Array CTA208 mid/high enclosures flown as a central cluster on a CTARF rigging frame, powered by a VX2400 2 x 1,200W power amp.

Two ConTour Series CT108 full range cabs were selected as stage fills, while four IL80B's from HK's Installation Line proved a neat and effective choice as under-balcony fills.

An additonal two 'non-fixed' IL80B's were also included in the inventory to be used on a multi-task basis where required - for example, should the musical director require additional foldback sidestage, and so on.

HK Audio's recently-introduced Premium PR:O Series monitors have also been incorporated into the pro audio upgrade in the form of six PR:O 12M 12" woofer-loaded stage monitors, alongside two 600W PR:O 15X bi-functional cabinets.

All concerned at the venue encouragingly declare themselves to be "very pleased with the results". The in-house City Varieties technical team of Charles Phillipson, David Rosendale and Andrew Wrixon assert in unison that "with such a wide variety of visiting artists and shows, the demand is that we have a truly versatile audio system. We're finally satisfied we have a system which will do everything we need".

The future of the Leeds City Varieties also looks to have been secured - the much-loved theatre is due to close for total refurbishment after panto season at the end of 2008, to re-open again in time for panto season in Dec 2009, with the exisiting audio system scheduled for re-installation.

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Leeds City Varieties Adds HK Contour Array

11th April 2008

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