Jimmy Barnes’ Hell of a Time Tour quickly sold out but had to be postponed mid-way when he became unwell.
Known for his high-energy performances, Barnes expressed his disappointment in having to reschedule the shows. “I hate to let anyone down, but I’m also never going to compromise the quality of my gigs,” he stated.
Mixing FOH and running monitors was Matt Maddock who first did monitors for Jimmy back in 2022.
“I was thrown in at the deep end on monitors for a show in Adelaide,” remarked Matt. “Kez (Phil Kesby, Jim’s full-time monitor mixer) and half the band had Covid. I was in Adelaide for another gig and had intended to go along to the show as an observer because I was to fill in for Kez on a few upcoming dates. However, I got a phone call from Hayden, Jim’s production manager of many years at that time, who said ‘How about you mix monitors this weekend?’ I’m not usually nervous before a show but on this one, I was shitting bricks! Before the set, Jim told me I came highly recommended. No pressure! Must’ve done a half-decent job because they keep asking me back.”
The first time Matt mixed FOH for Jimmy Barnes was in Bundaberg for Lighthouse Rock where he had a tremendous amount of L-Acoustics V-DOSC running on Lake processors and Crown amps supplied by JPJ from their Brisbane shop.
“Out front was a DiGiCo SD5, Waves, Lexicon 480L and an Al Smart C2,” added Matt. “Jimmy’s instructions were simple: loud and proud. To this day that’s how we roll however this tour takes a more delicate approach, not pinning everyone to the back wall.”
If Matt specifies the PA for a large-scale event it’ll be an L’Acoustics K1 on every occasion however this run has been 99% in-house PAs. With one or two exceptions, all of the PAs have been L’Acoustics or d&b. According to Matt, the worst was a JBL in a very cold place in New Zealand where, despite what the phase measurement told him, the tops and subs didn’t quite unite to form a team.
When it comes to the console, Matt’s usual request is a DiGiCo Quantum 338 with a Waves server, Lexicon 480L and an Al Smart C2 but on this run, he needed things to be compact so they would fit in the van and also be flyable.
“Most options that fit that bill only have 12 faders,” lamented Matt. “After putting the feelers out, Powa Audio in Melbourne supplied a package that worked very well; an Allen & Heath SQ6 with a GX4816 I/O machine. They also provided a very decent stage patch system, cable and mic stand package.”
As to mixing Jimmy and the band, Matt comments that they’re a pretty good bunch of musicians and that all he has to do is turn it up.
Microphones are straightforward forward with Matt describing themselves as a Shure standard mob. Neumann KM184s are used for all the detailed stuff like drum overheads. Interestingly they prefer a Shure KSM137 for the accordion top end over the Neumann.
When Jimmy is touring with Phil “Kez” Kesby on monitors, Kez mixes on a DiGiCo SD5 with d&b M2 wedges, Shure PSM1000 IEMs, Shure P9H hardwired IEM packs and d&b sidefill.
“On this run, everything is off the SQ6 and the SQ MixPad app has been a life saver allowing me to go down to the stage and manage the monitor mixes directly,” said Matt. “Tip for young players: always carry a wireless router that can easily be reconfigured. TP-Link is not recommended.”
On this tour, Jane Barnes is on IEMs and Jimmy wanted them so he could walk outside the wedges. On the bigger shows, everyone is on IEMs.
Matt’s main challenge on the tour was making it fit on the SQ6 because it became quite a big show with some nights seeing 13 people on stage!
