The Manfreds at York Grand Opera House. Never, in 55 years of going to gigs, have I experienced such awful sound.
In the stalls, ten rows back and right in the middle, with the whole band playing there's a wall of noise with individual instruments pretty much unheard. Except for a very toppy electric piano playing, apparently, out of key fiddly bits and a sax occasionally popping through but, again, seemingly at odds with the rest of the band. Backing vocals way too prominent and lead singers way too loud to the point of break up.
I thought it was my hearing aids so switched them off but mrs rlw confirmed it wasn't them, simply awful sound. There was no mixing desk to be seen, perhaps in the wings?, and the band was playing through proper amps, some of which were miced up but not all.
We left at the end of the first half and my left ear is still ringing today. It might have sounded like this on a bad day in the sixties but there really is no need for it today.
The audience was very muted too, some looking a bit uncomfortable, and the atmosphere in the hall was a bit strained.
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So why was he looking out at a muted response to the first half of the Manchester gig when he should have had us in the palm of his hand by that point? He looked puzzled. I’ll solve the puzzle for you, Marcus: it was impossible to make out what was going on in most of the songs. We couldn’t hear your guitar. All we could hear was THE DRUMS AS LOUD AS HELL.
I was stood directly behind the mixing desk, so goodness only knows what the soundman was hearing that I wasn’t.
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Three particularly memorable ones...
I walked out of the Swans after about two songs because they were so loud I thought I might experience internal organ failure. To be fair, it wasn't a surprise - they were notorious for it. Couldn't hear anything other than a wall of noise even with earplugs in - I went to the bar above the venue where it was still perfectly audible and the mix was actually quite good.
Roy Harper had an appalling combination of muddy inaudible vocals topped with hideous scratchy piezo electro-acoustic guitar, I left that one too.
Bic Runga - a singer with a beautiful, delicate voice - had a mix so bad all you could hear was drums and bass, no vocals or guitar at all... until most of the crowd turned round to the sound desk and started loudly berating the engineer about it. It was drastically improved after that, and I stayed. (Actually the same venue as the Swans - perhaps the engineer was still deaf, although it was several years later!)
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Yes but I'm wondering if there was one, or whether the band just set up themselves....
Do you think others in the audience noticed? Did you speak to anyone?
And I don’t think the band knew at all as I think they would have wound it back a bit if they did.
And there was no obvious sound man …
Nothing wrong with the sound, though. It was a perfect reproduction of an appalling load of bollocks being played in stage.
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