Tony Hadley, ex-lead singer of Spandau Ballet, has a reputation in our industry as one of the nice guys who is fun to tour with.
“He’s very down to earth with no airs or graces,” commented Martin Wharton, his FOH engineer.
Martin has worked with Tony for the past 20 years, becoming his full-time FOH guy eight years ago. Tony tours frequently, performs many one-off shows and does festival performances, which keeps Martin busy.
In Australia, the tour utilised all in-house gear with Martin wrangling a new desk every day.
“I’m sure I have a desk file for every desk in existence!” he laughed. “Ideally, I’d like to have a DiGiCo Quantum or the Yamaha Rivage PM series; they’re both very nice. I had an AVID S6L in Brisbane, and I really don’t like them. I just find that the workflow and surface layout don’t work for me. Most other desks are fine.”
At Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, Martin ran the in-house Allen & Heath S7000 console, which he has used on many occasions, without outboard gear.
“It works quite nicely,” he stated. “It doesn’t sound as good as the Quantum or the PM5, but it sounds pretty good. It’s very configurable. You can kind of move things wherever you want, and it’s got some nice compressors and other effects. It’s just a nice little desk.”
Martin says that some dynamic EQ handles a few minor tweaks, and several compressors of different kinds handle various jobs.
“There’s a model of a DBX compressor on the desk that’s quite nice, and the reverbs are okay in there,” he added. “They’ve got a Lexicon model, which I quite like.”
Tony’s strong voice and experience make Martin’s job easier, who says there’s plenty of level from Tony.
“He’s very reliable, and it’s just little tweaks,” he commented. “Once the PA sounds good, he sounds good.”
The five-piece band comprises drums, percussion, bass, guitar, and keys, all on IEMs. Tony has one IEM, but he also likes very loud monitoring, so Martin Audio LE1500 wedges were supplied by Entertainment Installations.
Martin’s main challenge when mixing the band is the volume of those wedges, as it means he must run at a certain level.
“But they’re a great band, so they’re easy to mix,” he said. “They mostly look after their own levels and sounds. I just make sure I don’t second-guess the musicians. A lot of the time, what I’m doing is learning when not to do things.”
Tony’s monitor engineer is Richard John, who has been with him for 30 years.
The touring schedule was brutal, and Martin admitted to being tired of the early-morning flights. The flight to Sydney was delayed, meaning they didn’t arrive at the venue until 2pm.
Sound check is always imperative, and at least Martin had his favourite brand’s PA system, L-Acoustic, in The Enmore Theatre.
Since they’re picking up microphones from the venues, Martin is fairly relaxed about what is provided, although Tony tours with his own Sennheiser MD5235 radio microphone.
“It has a good pick-up pattern, so it rejects feedback quite well,” explained Martin. “Because he likes his monitors very loud, it helps if the microphone isn’t prone to feedback. And it’s got a nice, flat, open sound; it suits his voice. So that’s a bit of a must-have.”
For the rest of the band, Martin favours a standard kit – Shure Beta 91 and a Beta52A for the kick drum, a couple of Shure Beta 57A and an ordinary SM57 on the snare. On the toms are Sennheiser e904s, and they usually go with AKG C414s as overheads. On the percussion, they tend to have Beta 57s and then some condensers … Shure SM81s or Neumanns, whatever’s around.
“Most microphones these days are good microphones; there are a lot of different ones that sound great,” Martin said. “I think it’s only the lead vocals that need to be constant as you get used to singing into them. The distance you are from the microphone makes a big tonal difference, and the way it reacts in the wedges and things. It’s important to keep Tony comfortable and happy.”
Photo: Alec Smart Fotos I Amnplify
