Hitting the road for the first time in 12 years, Scottish alt rockers Del Amitri called on rental specialist Adlib for sound and lighting. The tour, which played three weeks around the UK and Ireland, included a sell-out show at the new 8,000-capacity Hydro Arena in the band’s hometown of Glasgow.

Having mixed gigs in 2002, Adlib FOH engineer Dave Kay had stayed in touch with lead singer/bassist Justin Currie, and worked on several of his solo projects. For this tour he faced a wide mix of venues – starting in a pub in Ireland, through several arts theatres before a run of concert halls and the Hydro Arena. Both he and the production team had to be appropriately adaptable...

The tour used one of Adlib’s Coda PA systems, hooking their control into the house racks-and-stacks when possible – the most practical option with Adlib installations at Leeds and Bournemouth Academies, and the Cambridge Corn Exchange. The system comprised 12 Coda LA12 speakers per side with eight Coda SCP subs groundstacked, and with Coda ViRay cabinets for balconies, in fill and out fill.

Kay chose the Coda system because of the hi-fi sound of the band, the complexity of the mix and the system’s adaptability: ‘They are great players and I wanted a fully transparent sounding system with good dynamic range,’ he explains.

At FOH, he went analogue with a Midas H3000 console plus a big rack of outboard: This worked very well the last time I worked with Del Amitri, so I decided to adopt the if it ain’t broken don’t fix it philosophy.

‘If you don’t actually need digital snapshots and scenes, then it is an exceedingly quick and very reactive way to operate, you can literally feel the sound, and with a great sounding desk like the H3000, create a lovely, warm, rich mix,’ he adds.

The 40-input console was used to capacity, with stereo returns for effects. The usual Adlib Lake processing rack at FOH handled all the system EQ and time alignment. Outboard included three Yamaha SPX2000s multi-effects units, two TC Electronic D2 delays, four dbx 160 compressors, four BSS 402 and one BSS 404 compressors, eight Drawmer 201 gates and a BSS DPR 901 multi-band compressor for lead vocal.

Pressure pads were linked to the backing vocal mics, which switched them on and off to reduce guitar spill and other sounds coming off the stage.

Sam Proctor was Adlib’s FOH tech, and recorded all of the shows were using a DN9650 network bridge, part of the Midas Pro2 set-up used by monitor engineer Marc Peers. Peers also worked for Del Amitri for about four years at the end of the nineties and early noughties. ‘I actually can’t believe it was 12 years ago,’ he remarks, adding that it felt just like yesterday the first time he walked into rehearsals.

Like Dave Kay, he was pleased to be back, and chose a Midas Pro II console for the monitor mix so he could keep the onstage footprint extremely tidy – a bit of a contrast to the large area he needed when running in analogue mode back in 2002…

The band use a mix of wedges and IEMs, so Adlib supplied eight of their low-profile MP4 wedges, together with two L-Acoustics ARCs and an SB28 sub per side for side fill, plus a Sennheiser G3 system for the three band members on IEMs – Justin Currie, lead guitarist Iain Harvie and drummer Ashley Soan.

‘Technology has moved on exponentially since the last touring work, so the IEMs provided the main monitoring and the wedges were there for additional weight and back-up,’ says Peers, who, like Kay, went straight back into his rapport with the band.

‘They are all experienced, they know how they want to sound and they are also prepared to listen to ideas - thoroughly professional and really pleasant people – and a great rock band.

‘I went to the Liverpool show and it was frustratingly brilliant,’ says Adlib MD, Andy Dockerty. ‘Brilliant because it was one amazingly crafted hit after another, with a phenomenal band playing better now than ever. The combination of Dave Kay, the band and the incredibly defined Coda system produced great audio. Brilliant because the majority of the crew on it where the original guys with the band providing a genuine and warm touring atmosphere. But frustrating because I wasn’t mixing it.

‘Truly awesome band and people, and an honour to be associated with.’

More: www.adlib.co.uk