MAROON 5Steve Moles reports from Manchester Arena . . .

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It’s good to jump out of your comfort zone from time totime and for me at least Maroon 5 was completelyunfamiliar territory. Yes, I knew they wrote ‘Moves likeJagger’ and that they were of the ‘pop oeuvre’; but I really had no idea what I would find when I reachedManchester Arena. Once I settled into the show I discovered that actually they have loads of hits that I recognised, it’s just that somehow I don’t associate theband’s name with the songs. That happens in life: I takeagainst some bands just because of their names,irrational I know, but I think we all do it to some extent.

But with M5 it’s something different: both front-of-houseengineer Jim Ebdon and show designer Eric Wadeindependently asserted that “these guys are really a rockband” - and that’s the nub of the dilemma: what genre arethey? Well, several really. Skilled musicians, they turn their handreadily to any number of styles - funk, jazz, pop, and yes, rock- and with consummate ease. Imagine Steely Dan meets JustinTimberlake and you’re halfway there. They also have a skill incrafting really good pop songs, it’s just that each hit soundslike a different band. All that said, they are a great live act, thearena was full and they had just come from two sell-outs at theLondon O2. I haven’t seen the Manchester Arena this full inquite some time. If, like me, you’ve never seen Maroon 5 in thelive arena, think about it. They have the chops, and production-wise they have the wrapper to match - and then some.

SoundThis band is a long-time Clair Global act, and the PA systemwas Clair’s I5. No surprise there, but let me say right off, thiswas the best I’ve heard I5 in an age - crisp, well-defined,punchy - it had it all. In part, that’s down to the band’s musicalskills (the old adage applies: ‘shit in, shit out’); but we mustalso give Jim Ebdon his due, and so too his system tech’, LarsSchlaepfer from AudioRent Clair AG.

Ebdon has been around the block a few times since hedeparted the world of recording nearly 30 years ago.Marooned in America (pardon the pun) by his association withAerosmith, he now bides his time almost exclusively with thisband. “I had to make a choice between them, and Maroon 5keeps me busy all the time, pretty much non-stop the last fiveyears,” he says.

The band is, on this day, a slightly depleted force: one of theirtwo keyboard players had departed the previous day to see hisnew-born baby. They also didn’t get to sound-check thanks toa major pile-up on the M6 that saw it closed for two hoursnorth-bound, but at least they made it for the show. “SamFarrah is the missing component,” said Ebdon. “He’s beenwith the band since the beginning and produced their firstrecord. His dad [John Farrar] is a famous Australiansongwriter, he wrote a big hit album for Olivia Newton-Johnback in her time, so music runs in Sam’s veins. The rest of theband aren’t much different. They are very much a live band,just a few tracks for some percussion here and there, one ortwo samples. More than 90% of the content is played live andthey all play really well. There are four core musicians, plus thetwo keyboards. The second is PJ Morton, a Grammy-nominated musician, which underlines the general skill level ofthe band.”

With such a musically gifted band and a producer onkeyboards, do you have to mix to a written menu? “The bandjust let me get on with it. In fact, I don’t think we’ve discussedanything about their live sound in any meaningful way for overfour years now. Of course, if they introduce a new song, Adam[Levine, Maroon 5 frontman] will run me through how he sees

the dynamic passage of the song in the live context. That’spossibly one of the more distinctive differences about thisband: while many strive to recreate their recorded sound onstage, these guys will change arrangements, so they give a lotof consideration to their live sound, certainly in terms of howthey play it. That’s why I say they are much more of a rockband than you might think. The feel of the show is that theirmusic is a lot bigger than the recorded sound, and it’sdefinitely never a sterile run through the record.”

Ebdon continues: “The drummer drives the show and he’sphenomenal to watch; a straight sound with a touch of studiosequencer here and there.” Big and full it was, yet whateverEbdon’s enthusiasm for the drummer, he didn’t let that senserun away with him: think more the purring engine of a Jaguarthan mighty Detroit diesel.

“It’s a Ludwig custom kit. I have an SM91 and an AKG D12 inthe kick, a 57 for the top of the snare, a Mojave Audio 101 forthe bottom.” Mojave? “It’s a range by the same guy whodesigns the Royer microphones. The 101 is a condenser and itcaptures perfectly the crispness of the snare bottom withoutthe rattle you can sometimes get. It’s a mic’ that can take veryhigh pressure. For a similar reason I use Royer 121s on theguitars. But sticking to the kit, 414s for overheads, and Beyer88 on the Toms. This is a funny kit, the Toms sound OK, a bitboxy, but the drummer likes the sound. The funny thing is,when I first came to the band I tried for weeks to Eq the Tomsinto a better shape and it sounded worse; leave them flat andwith the Beyer 88 they come alive and sound better throughthe PA than they do to me on stage.”

Ebdon paused, looked reflective, and then moved on. “Oneguitar has a Royer 121 and an SM7; I double mic both guitars.Adam Levine has two cabinets, one slightly dirty, the otherclean. The ribbon mics also give me the warmth from theguitars, the SM7 the bite and high end; mixing between the twois for practical purposes a tone control. The bass takes a 4050and an Avalon DI.”

The stage looks clear of wedges, I just see one stage right,does this mean you get to use something a little more sensitivefor vocals? “Actually I have a Shure SM58 for Adam on a Shurewireless system and it’s perfect.” It is a very big stage andAdam doesn’t fail to visit all of it, so while he might spend mosttime downstage centre (“and yes, I do bring in a plexi-glassscreen for the kit when we play the smaller gigs,” says Ebdon),a lot of the time he’s well out of range of colouration from otherinstruments.

What of the desk? Ebdon has long been an adherent of theDiGiCo range, possibly one of the first I saw using a D5. Henow has an SD7. “I have the full Waves package, of course,and apart from an off-board SSL compressor I use for thedrum mix, I use the software version within the desk. It’s theusability I love most: build your snapshots and at the flick of a switch you have a live show ready to go. That said, I havebecome tired of the snap-shot mix approach, and with thisband there are few electronic cues so I can easily mix on thefly. The program material is already well sorted in terms of levelso it’s pretty straightforward. Yes, there are songs where I haveto manage the dynamics of the playing - the drummer can getpretty excited - but that just makes it more fun for me.”

What about your Clair’s system? “With the I5 rig we use theolder Crown amps, not the newer Lab.gruppen PLM2000. Onlast year’s run across the States we ran the system at 96kHzwith the newer amps and I wasn’t blown away by the warmth -the definition was almost too good - so we reverted to 48kHzand the older amps. That’s the warmth I’m used to.”

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Do you think that would apply to every act?Have Clair allowed themselves to be seducedby advancing technology at the expense ofwhat we hear? “No, I think every application isdifferent. It’s just the right sound for Maroon 5.”

The rig is as you’d expect - Clair I5Bs flyalongside the main- and side-hangs, withBT218 subs in packs of three cardioid, arrayedacross the floor. “Sixteen deep for the mains,with fourteen I5Bs flown alongside,” saidSchlaepfer, “ten deep at the sides with eightI5Bs. The Clair software makes it very easy toset up.”

I caught Schlaepfer later down at front stageright. I was waiting for the band to come on andkilling time by walking back and forth throughthe transition zone between main hangs andsides: I asked him about that statement. Heexplained: “I see a lot of guys down here in thisposition trying to adjust the delay between themain and sides with a microphone andstruggling. I just get it in the ball park then usemy ears.”

The transition was excellent, even in the near-field beside the stage. It was also evidentthat Schlaepfer has good skills with setting hisfloor-based sub array: the even spread of low-end broadcast was especially apparent onthe thump-heavy support act Robin Thicke.Their engineer lost it completely at the start oftheir show when the Mids appeared to be totallyabsent from his mix, but he recovered towardthe end.

MonitorsKevin Glendinning takes the faders at the otherend of the snake. He has, like Ebdon, been withthe band for five years. “I’m 35 now and havebeen doing monitors for 15 years,” he said. “I started with DB Sound in Chicago putting upsystems and soon moved from monitorassistant and mixing monitors for opening acts

to doing it full-time. And no, I have no aspirationto do front-of-house. I like monitors becauseyou’re close to the band and you get that directconnection; you know from them when you’regetting it right. For front-of-house guys there’salways the danger that one of the band’sgirlfriends will record the show on her iPhonefrom some corner of the venue and it will soundlike shit; having to talk your way out of that oneis something I can do without.”

That’s as good a rationale as I’ve heard forsticking with monitors. Glendinning has seen a fair spread of artists from the side of stage.“I’ve done monitors for Alicia Keys, LennyKravitz, Justin Timberlake - but like Jim, theseguys keep me busy all the time now. We do a lotof fly dates, which is why I’m using a YamahaPM1D, though I can fit the show on a PM5D,which is what I use for those one-off shows. We travel light: IEM system, a few mics and thebackline. In 2012 we did four shows - NewZealand, Thailand, Korea and Cleveland. Noboard, just turn up with a PC card. It’s all downto software and that’s what I like most aboutYamaha, they don’t go crazy with the updates.So long as the desk we get is well maintainedyou get global consistency. Yeah, maybe I getthe odd motor fader that doesn’t work, butthat’s acceptable. The band are very supportivein that: so long as I keep them informed they’llwork with what we have.” Glendinning has allthe confidence of someone completely on topof their job: “I tell the band, this is what we havetoday, but don’t worry, it will be fine.” Theyobviously believe him.

“The IEM system is from Shure - PSM1000,which I love. The band bought the rig, butbefore we went there we did try all the others,but Shure has always taken good care of theband and they responded to that. I said to theguys, ‘Hey you’re thirty now, nobody is gettingany younger and your hearing can only getworse, especially if you stick with wedges’.

Above, from top:

Show designer Eric Wade.

FOH engineer Jim Ebdon.

Kevin Glendinning, monitors.

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LOS ANGELES NITD KINGDOMNASHVILLE

I like the PSM1000 simply for its dual diversitything. In 2013 we had a show with LED screenmodules everywhere; my RF scenario was anightmare, but it worked out fine. The band haveJH Audio ear inserts; I switched Adam to JHplugs a few years ago and he whipped them out,came right off stage and said, ‘Wow, I can heareverything’. He’s never used anything else since.And JH are great with the support. I might needa set of duplicates at short notice for, say a TVshow in LA, and they’ll be there.”

There is one wedge on stage right for the Bassplayer - the old Showco SRM - and I have a Subfor the drum kit, but that’s it; even the guitaramps are off-stage in iso-cabs. The only things I have to deal with are Matt Flynn, the drummer,who hits hard, and the audience noise can getintense. In a bad room that can be tricky, but witha quiet stage I’m starting from a good place.”

Set, Lights & VideoEric Wade I haven’t seen in over 25 years; weused to work together at Samuelson’s in Dallas.With some background in lasers, back then heshowed no signs of moving into design, butlooking at this show he’s covered a lot of groundin the intervening years. The stage is more thanbig enough to justify an arena tour, with ampleraised wing platforms reaching out to the hockeydasher, and free hanging lighting Torms flankingthem. The main rig sits a full 55ft about the floor, a large landscape screen (24ft x 48ft / 7.3m x14.6m) of 9mm WinVision from Chaos Visualhangs beneath, and is undercut by an archedtruss that vaults the full width of the main stage.

Two things strike you immediately: the riser forkeyboards and drums is one continuousplatform, which gives the stage a plain,uncluttered look; secondly, the rig being so highmeans the centre screen, despite its size, sits a full 16ft (4.9m) above the band - giving aninteresting separation between performers andvideo. My instinct was that the show would lookdetached, but in fact it worked really well, aidedin a very meaningful way by two further screens(12ft x 24ft / 3.6m x 7.3m) also of 9mm, riggedlower each side and backing the two wingplatforms. Normally, you’d expect the centrescreen low, and those flanking to be higher; thatreversal has immediate novelty value, andgreatly supports the impression that this is a huge show, easily embracing and involving theentire audience. From where does Wade drawhis inspiration?

“I’ve been doing Usher for the past 14 years. I got called in to this at short notice lastsummer.” It’s worth bearing in mind that cominginto something on this scale mid-tour is no smallundertaking. “There was a week off and I put therig back into Upstaging and replaced every lightin the system.”

While Wade acknowledged that, “the guysprobably didn’t thank me for that,” the truth is,Upstaging has a reputation for delivering greatservice. “I wouldn’t use anyone else, and NegEarth in Europe is the same.” It’s anendorsement he returns to frequently. So whatwere the lights he brought in?

Top: Alan Hornall, production manager.

Above: Systems technician Lars Schlaepfer.

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“My hard-edge of choice is the MAC Viper. TheViper is very fast for a big light; add in thosethree gobo wheels and an amazing zoom andit’s a great light. They’ve been around for what,18 months now? They still seem to be workingwell and still seem bright. I attribute that to theservice and treatment they get at Negs andUpstaging - truly the Mercedes Benz of lighting.I also swapped a lot of the Sharpys for the newSharpy Wash, which I love, and I’ve put lots ofthe new Clay Paky Alpha 1500 series - Profilesand Washes - into the rig. It was Bob Gordon[of Clay Paky’s US distributor, ACT Lighting)who tempted me to give them a try and I’m gladI did. Even after all my time working withVari*Lite I find I prefer the 1500 Wash to theVL3500. The 1500s do all my key and overheadwash and are my base light for the whole show.At that range they’re just great. I love the SharpyWash. I arrived to around a hundred Sharpys, Iswapped maybe 50% to the Wash version; theydo all the side-lights; they’re also on the backand floor positions. When you need them tothey can tighten up enough that they almostlook like a regular Sharpy, and then there’s theCongo they produce - that’s their MasterCardfeature, a real Congo. There’s maybe 400moving lights in total so that was a busy weekback at Upstaging. But what you see now is abrand new design from the summer pick-up. Idid all the scenic design as well as the lights,and I control all the video apart from deferring toChris Keating who does the IMAG camera cuts.He’s great, understands everything I want andstill finds ways to give me more.”

The nice thing about the show is the way theband love the space Wade’s design affordsthem. “Adam and James are all over it; they lovethe ramps. They had too many gags in the oldshow; there’s almost none in this, just straightahead rock and roll.”

There is one nice gag I really enjoyed: Wadehas two large mirror balls rigged left and right ofthe main system, suspended on a Kinesys

system. He brings up all the Sharpys focussedon where the balls will arrive, and then lowersthem in to that point. It’s a simple ploy, but the15-second descent builds expectation, becausethe audience are all familiar with what willhappen when they arrive.

“The video is a mix of made content and IMAGacross all three screens. Because we’re onlydoing eight shows, the budget is tight,” (six inthe British Isles plus Paris and Amsterdam -make-up shows for a slot mid-2013 that theywere just unable to manage at the time). “Icouldn’t go and commission content so I drewon all their old material. All the content andIMAG runs through a Control Freaks system, soI do things like recolour some of the oldfootage, or apply effects over the IMAG. I didcreate some stuff myself in Final Cut, butnormally I’d bring guys in to do that for me.What we lacked was historical footage, there’svery little old stuff of them on stage which wouldhave been so nice to include in the show: thisband has a big history.”

You indicated you divide video responsibilitiesbetween yourself and Chris Keating. “Thescreens, cameras and PPU all come fromChaos Visual, the UK office supplying everythingover here. We also use their main office in LAwhen we tour the US. Like Negs and Upstaging,Chaos are simply the best; between crew andequipment I can’t tell any difference betweenhere and back home. For cameras we have twoHD Sonys out front with box lenses; two robo-cams up in the rig (Sony BRC700), and sixstatic (Bradley HD10 minicams), with two hand-helds in the pit. Control Freaks’ customvideo interface is run from my MA2 via Art-Net,so if I see the opportunity I can grab any cameralive and take over any screen when I want to;and apply any of the video effects available. In that respect Chris follows a cue-list I give himthat has some specific points in it so he knowswhere I want to switch to a specific camera shotthat matches to what I’m doing with the lights.”

It’s interesting to watch: the harmony betweenvideo and lights is not always about colourblending or even matching cue steps - thatwould end up becoming bland like somecoffee table magazine in the doctor’s waitingroom. Rather, Wade will take either centre orside screens and involve their look to thestage lighting dynamics, while Keating cutsand works the remaining space to his owntake on the show. There’s some simple, funstuff too: a panel of LED sits across the frontof the continuous cross-stage riser and Wadeplays a rendering of an audio spectrumanalyser that teases the audience to screamlouder. But then it has a serious function aswell - there’s a rolling flame effect on the mainscreen (I forget which song), and fire sourceappears on the riser panels. With the twosurfaces separated by such a large verticaldistance it’s almost like the band were stoodon hot coals, while combustion occurs abovethem.

“Although the servers runs off Art-Net,everything else is off the MA Network. Thecapacity that gives is immense, I have forexample, a dozen Ayrton MagicPanels on thearch truss; at 160-odd channels per panel, I’mrunning three panels per universe. Then I havethe Solaris Flares from TMB - it’s an RGB LEDstrobe and powerful enough to wash the set.Twelve channels each, with 62 of them in the rigyou soon eat up some universes. It all takessome time to program as well.”

Wade and I had a brief discussion abouttreating them all as pixels and using a videosource to stream and manage the LEDs, butwhen I saw the show it became apparent whyhe chose to directly address each LED throughprogramming. He didn’t do it often, but some ofthe little noodles when, for want of a better term,a worm wiggled across the strobe’s surface, ora cubic pattern ran like flickering Battenbergcake across the Magic Panels, the small yetdistinct visual punctuation they gave to theprevailing lighting and video look wasunexpectedly potent. “I’m an MA man at heart:this MA2 is my own and for programming andrunning a show like this in the way I do there’sreally nothing else to beat it. I also have 42 MAC101s on the arch, more within the arched trussas toners, and a bunch of Sharpys. The arch isprobably my most useful part of the show.” Andit was true, while the Vipers and 1500s abovedid the heavy lifting of actually lighting the stageand band, the myriad sources on the archprovided an ever-changing source of dynamicanimation. “Not having the Chaos screenimmediately behind it is what makes the arch sopowerful and such a useful visual focus. TheTorms provide all the proximity lighting for theramps and side platforms, again they are a vertical collection of Vipers and Sharpys, but I also have some iPix BB4s and the Philips Nitrostrobes; they only do white, but they’re reallypowerful.”

It’s a feature he uses to maximum effect whenseemingly every Sharpy in the rig, Wash andSpot, is likewise strobed in open white out intothe arena, absolutely filling the room to everycorner. Even John Aislewood of the LondonEvening Standard commented (Monday 13 Jan,p.40) on this, “a lightshow which could have

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The stage and lighting rig.

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illuminated the dark side of the moon”. It’s notoften a regular newspaper reviewer evenmentions the lights.

Lasers feature from time to time. “Eric Taylor ofLaser Design Productions does a really greatjob for me. He was kind of puzzled when I asked him to put together a static look for theshow opening, but he gets it now.”

Wade backs the lasers with light so theybecome outline marks to the defined shape ofregular stage lighting: think blue Viper beamwith yellow laser edge, for example. It’s a stronglook that underlines Wade’s familiarity usinglasers from all those years ago. More to thepoint, with a large arsenal of lights, lasers, andsubstantial video, Wade could have justmachine-gunned the audience song by song,but there are little markers all along the showthat indicate where he chooses to take hisfinger off the trigger and instead create small,subtle touches to decorate the stage. Ratherlike the band, he can light to multiple styles.

IMAG & KeatingJudging by the way Wade spoke of Keating’sinput to the live presentation, we might assumehe’s been in place since the design waschanged last summer. “I’d actually beenapproached over a year ago,” he replied, “but I was in the middle of a run with Def Leppard inVegas at the time and simply couldn’t do it. But I really wanted to, in particular I knew AlanHornall - his reputation as a really, really goodproduction manager had always attracted me.Eric too has a great reputation as a designer,his work with Usher is really well known; thatwas interesting to me, although back when theyfirst called me he wasn’t yet involved. But whenthe opportunity came up again early lastsummer, I jumped at it.”

Keating continues: “What struck meimmediately is the band are reallyaccomplished musos. From my point of view,the show had already gained some momentumby the time Eric came on board, and one of thefirst things he asked me was ‘how can weenhance what you are already doing?’”

Keating already had a 12-camera package justas he has here, so presumably Wade’s requestwas all about learning where the drama is onstage during any given song? “I was alreadyfeeding two masters, in that I provided the cutsfor IMAG and we recorded a live cut for theband to HD each night. With Eric’s creativevideo ideas that came to three. But I’ve beendoing something similar for Beyoncé and MariaCarey - I think that’s maybe why I got the call,because I’m known for it.”

So now we know why you haven’t been seenmuch here in the UK in recent years? “I’ve beenwith Beyoncé and Maria since 2003, so yes, I’vespent most of my time since then in the US.That said, I still think it’s a great thing when youget the call as I did for this. But for the job, theimportant thing is not to over-complicate things,and for Maroon 5 the division of labour betweenEric and me meant I was only providing cleancamera cuts. With the experience I had gainedprior to Eric’s arrival, I was already familiar withthe live version of each song, as opposed to theway it’s recorded, and what each song entailedfor the cameras; so in many ways moving toworking with Eric was a seamless transition; wedidn’t have to stop and rebuild the show. Andalthough the three-way cut might seemcomplicated to manage, so long as thestandard of crews is good - and what I got isgood people with a great sense ofprofessionalism - then a lot of that complexity istaken off your shoulders.”

Keating is always a generous man in his praisefor others: no doubt that’s part of his success inmaking the three-way split manageable.Complexity notwithstanding, for me the simpletruth was that when I chose to look away fromthe band on stage to screen, the overwhelmingsense was always ‘Oh, that’s interesting’. I can’tsay fairer than that.

ProductionAlan Hornall is a production manager I’veknown since my earliest days in the industry. A Scot who migrated to Tinseltown long ago, hehas, with the skills of a Time Lord, managed tocompress this enormous arena show into justnine trucks. “This is just a short run - eight

shows that we just couldn’t squeeze into ourschedule last year. That applies its own financialpressures, but all our vendors have been reallysupportive. We rehearsed in LH2, DaveRidgeway’s place in West London. I’ve wantedto rehearse acts there numerous times butschedules have never allowed till now. It wasfabulous: it’s easy to find out there on the A40,or take the Express from Heathrow toPaddington and then a few stops on theUnderground. There are a couple of hotelswithin walking distance, Travelodge, Holiday InnExpress, there’s even a Crowne Plaza not faraway. The people who run LH2 are lovely andthere’s everything you need, it even has its ownpower. I believe he’s going to build another oneand I’m not surprised.

“The vendors are all old connections: ClairGlobal, Neg Earth, Chaos Visual. John Wiseman[Chaos Visual CEO] and I go way back, thesame with Neg Earth. For me there are only twolighting companies - Neg Earth and Upstaging,who we use in the US. What defines them all isthree things: good, well serviced equipment,their crews are great, and you get fantasticservice. Clair Brothers are second to none; thesedays all the different makes of black boxes canperform well, but it’s the service and back-upthat counts. They provide a much more personalservice. But we do have new suppliers: truckingis by McGuinness who I’d never used before.‘Swish’ [Anthony Curtin], the lead driver, hasdone all Maroon 5’s previous tours; he movedjobs to McGuinness and they provided a verycompetitive quote so we’ve given them a try andit’s working very well. This is our third show andbetween Harold Behrens, my stage manager,and the drivers we’re getting all nine trucksloaded in a little over two hours. The busses arenew as well, Coach Services from Germany;their equipment is very, very good. The truth is,we asked for favours to support this short run,you can’t get that unless you have anestablished relationship with your majorsuppliers; hey, I’ve worked with ML Procise atShowco/Clairs for over 25 years. When I callthem up and say I need help, they know I’m notkidding or trying to put the squeeze on them.And they know I’ll be back.”

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