Spice girls sound

[James Remo]

Almost seems like there should be “local experts” at these tricky venues, maybe with an obscure PA, weird placement etc to really get the best out of it. Then just have a touring FOH package. Maybe there is, just seems strange to think you can tour a PA that size and hope it works everywhere.

 

It’s not a matter of hope, it’s the job of the system tech to model the venue and use the prediction software to design a rig to suit the venue. System techs on a gig of this scale will be experienced and road proven, so there is your expert. If the sound was good for Jess Glynne then the system tech probably did a good job. Purely speculation here, but it’s more likely that off site monitoring required shading of the array to address noise issues. Mixing a gig of this scale it doesn’t really fall into one person’s lap, it’s a collaborative effort between FOH mixer and system tech, often shackled by a noise control team.

[empyfree]

My question was more around “re-inventing the wheel”? If Jess Glynnes PA worked well, make that the default for that venue? Don’t spend the time, effort and reputation re designing unless the venue or layout has changed significantly.

 

The Spicy stage set did look to be super wide, so it may be that nothing precious is comparable.

[kerry davies]

If Jess Glynnes PA worked well, make that the default for that venue? Don’t spend the time, effort and reputation re designing unless the venue or layout has changed significantly.

I had a friend who was system consultant to a major PA supplier on major tours and he was our preferred PA supplier for events and concerts providing a superb, high quality sound in all sorts of situations. Girls Aloud still managed to make my favourite PA system sound horrific even though the artistes on before and after them were fine. It isn't necessarily the venue or the kit or the man on the desk. Sometimes the artistes really are the problem.

[Seano]

Ah gotcha, I missed the irony!

 

He described Victoria Beckham as the strongest member of the group. Posh! Should have rung at least a little irony bell. (I mean, I'm sure there are some big Ringo fans out there, but if someone told you 'Octopus's Garden' is the best thing in the Beatles' catalogue you would have to at least suspect they're taking the piss.)

 

Ok, the bar isn't super high, but fwiw I thought Mel C was really rather good as Mary Magdelene in the big ol' arena touring version of Jesus Christ Superstar a few years back. Not having followed her career I was a wee bit surprised - can sing, can act, as it turns out.

 

The Spicy stage set did look to be super wide, so it may be that nothing precious is comparable.

 

Nah. The complaints were all from the periphery of the venue - the stage layout is irrelevant really, it's delays that failed to deliver. See the post above your last for a likely explanation, but then there's also the possibility of some technical failure of a system that seemed fine at soundcheck. I don't think any show, of any size large or small, would usually be stopped because the outer delays have conked out. Carry on and deal with the complaints from the 'cheap seats' later.

[James Remo]

My question was more around “re-inventing the wheel”? If Jess Glynnes PA worked well, make that the default for that venue? Don’t spend the time, effort and reputation re designing unless the venue or layout has changed significantly.

 

The Spicy stage set did look to be super wide, so it may be that nothing precious is comparable.

 

Jess Glynne is the support on the spice girls shows. Same PA, same stage, same system tech.

[andy_s]

Ah gotcha, I missed the irony!

 

He described Victoria Beckham as the strongest member of the group. Posh! Should have rung at least a little irony bell. (I mean, I'm sure there are some big Ringo fans out there, but if someone told you 'Octopus's Garden' is the best thing in the Beatles' catalogue you would have to at least suspect they're taking the piss.)

 

 

No names, no packdrill! B-)

[Alec]

This isn't from the periphery! Admittedly, sound up by a stage can often be poor, but it's practically non-existent here. Imaging paying top dollar, queueing all day for prime position, and then being delivered this...

https://youtu.be/3WFpzhqQ2DU

 

Separately, I saw Mariah Carey at the Royal Albert Hall last night. Many occurrences of feedback during the night often for 5-10 seconds. And then a guitarist doing a centre stage solo, who was inaudible for approx 30 seconds. Surprising at this level of production...

Edited May 27, 2019 by Alec

[nuttytechy]

I decided to watch several YouTube Vids of the Spice Girls concert ( When I got caught by the wife, I blamed the daughter saying I was doing research!!), As usual there are the normal comments from the fans who are declaring their love towards the SpiceGirls which I highly doubt the girls will actually read them but I digress, there are several comments which does point out that the sound was horrific. The complaints ranges from mics dying to extreme bass and even some comments even saying that the sound issues are common knowledge now.

 

With Jess Glynne as the warm-up and everything sounded fine by the SpiceGirls sounded awful then I have some very random ideas which could be plausible!!

 

Now did the Engineer's have a grudge towards the SpiceGirls by not signing their photos ?

 

Did their makeup dept demand too much power for their Curlers, Hair dryers, Makeup lights etc so they decided to A) not bother charging up the batteries for the mics B) turn off some of the equipment ?

 

Did Jess Glynne's Management pay off the Engineers as her manager thought she should be the headline act and the SpiceGirls should be the warm-up gig ?

 

 

 

Joking aside, Someone or some company will be in some serious issue in my opinion because if one singer had a decent sound and a group had awful sound which involved people leaving then the "BLEEP" will hit the fan and the reputation of the person responsible will be tarnished.

 

Even with the power of google etc there is nothing to say who is supplying the PA but in time it will leak out.

 

With another gig tonight then we will find out if the sound was better or even worse.

 

 

 

[paulears]

Before I lost the will to live I found just one that had good sound, and to be honest on that one the vocals were quite clear and clean. What I find strange is that the area nearest the stage appeared to not have any sound at all, bat in quite a few OTT sub bass the phones clearly couldn't handle. itbwill be interesting following this one, non-disclosure agreements probably mean we won't find the cause.

[nuttytechy]

Having a look on twitter, There are still more complaints about the sound about the Spice Girls but not Jess Glynne.

 

In a completely unrelated issue to this topic.. Not only fans were moaning about the sound, they were complaining that they got soaked because the roof was open on decision from the girls as this is supposed to be an outside concert. I doubt that this tour will be a huge success like they are hoping for with the issues which keep cropping up.

 

https://www.capitalfm.com/radio/news/showbiz/spice-girls-fans-complain-that-sound-issues-h/

[Stuart91]

What I find strange is that the area nearest the stage appeared to not have any sound at all, bat in quite a few OTT sub bass the phones clearly couldn't handle.

 

With phone videos, often the level of sub bass present triggers a limiter on the microphone, which squashes all other frequencies down too.

[Just Some Bloke]

I heard on the grapevine (and, I admit that this may not be gospel) that a decision was made at the first venue not to put all the boxes up in the rig and that this decision turned out to be disastrous. Reading the links above, it seems that even at the second venue there were still intelligibility issues, which makes it sound like they just weren't touring enough boxes to do the venues they were playing. It may not be the fault of the FOH engineer, but of the person who spec'd the system in the first place. Or, of course, of the person who said how much money they were willing to pay on the PA hire. I can't imagine that the girls did the gigs on Mates Rates, so after they have been paid there may not be much left in the kitty.

[kerry davies]

Spice Girls tweet; "We have chosen to play the Principality Stadium with the roof open as the show was designed to be open air."

 

Ireland Rugby Football Union; "All well and good but they aren't facing Alun Wyn Jones."

[Zenith]

New item on the BBC site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48446798

[ninjadingle]

Wow - a well balanced and fairly well researched article, was this really written by the BBC?