Touring throughout May, Rock The House featured John Paul Young, Ross Wilson, Glenn Shorrock, Brian Cadd, Russell Morris and Ella Hooper who, together, have a combined total of over 80 Top 40 hits.
Catering to this array of Aussie legends was sound engineer Michael ‘Smasha’ Pollard who had worked as a sound engineer for all these artists at some point over the years.
“Though Ross Wilson is my regular client, I have had the pleasure to mix the songs and voices of each of the principles,” he commented. “I had not worked with Ella Hooper since The Versus – a project Ella and her brother had. Everyone else had also appeared on the Good Times Tour or individual and corporate events I have mixed.
“Each of the principles is entrenched in our country’s music history and with that is the life experience that each of them brings to shows. Apart from the stories and humour, they each have developed an approach to their stagecraft. However they come together with a combined force – this is one of the special outcomes of these style shows – that group energy and entertainment. Our stage tech Damien Hutchinson is very good with keeping on top of the smaller details and preferences for each performer.”
In-house PA systems were used at each venue with Smasha saying they were all great. A couple of highlights for him included the refurbished Her Majesty’s in Adelaide, installed with a lovely Adamson S system complimenting the new build of the room to offer great consistent coverage up to the new top-level. He also says that he always enjoys QPAC’s L’Acoustics Kara and Kiva enclosures as well as the L’Acoustics in the State Theatre Sydney.
FOH control specified was a DiGiCo SD10 with Smasha saying that his DiGiCo journey has taken some time to reach the level of comfort and speed he had with AVID.
“However, now I have had some decent rehearsal/pre-production time on various tours and some awesome patient mentoring from a few industry peers prepared to help me delve into the many feature sets and answer my many questions – I am getting fairly comfy with DiGiCo SD family, but like the Avid S6L – excited to keep discovering the deeper offerings,” he added.
Some of the many attractions Smasha enjoys are desk surface layout, snapshot group updates, macro options, channel dynamic EQ and the ability to add some channel and buss tone with DigiTubes. He added that virtual soundcheck is so easy and useful via an MGB and Tracks Live.
The “house band” is a constant on stage for the duration of the show so Smasha looks to song specific processing changes to give identity to the principles that best match each song and its era of release, plus bring the signature sounds in the arrangements to the audience – those hooks and earworms are critical to feature ensuring the audience is attached to their music memory.
“I like side-chaining to keep the vocals upfront and enjoy the dynamic EQ feature on the SD family to tame and control tonal balance across a diverse group of voices,” he said. “Pretty typical changes during the show include FX, dynamics and balance settings on drums and vocals, which are both saved within snapshots and also in my real-time hands-on-fader mix to compliment the songs. I need eyes on the stage to follow both expected and off-script moments! In addition to normal CG’s for groups of signals, I have a Control Group for all the band if vocals are needing some space in the mix.”
Like others, Smasha has preferred mics that over time he has settled on as his preferences and his Pelican is a constant 22kg travel companion!
“My current options include a combination of Audix, sE Electronics, Beyerdynamic, Audio-Technica, Shure and Sennheiser,” he revealed. “I like the consistency off-stage of knowing the source (mic or DI) to get into a mix without surprises. There are enough surprises elsewhere at a show!
“Underheads on the right kit are a go-to for me – offering control and isolation for cymbals, allowing me to dry up the drum sound for those 70s vibes and also push and pull the cymbals to sit on the overall mix when detail is needed in songs.
“Pete and James have great tone and control in their guitar approach – I just follow their solos to add fader and pan drama.
“Travis is direct out from his EBS pedal for a great bass tone that needs little additional control apart from some mix rides on the Aux sub send to PA for some moments.
“Ross Wilson has been enjoying his Fractal Audio FX3 for his shows with The Peaceniks for a few months now and continued to enjoy it on this tour. This was Ross’ decision based on enjoying consistency. For me, that isolated sound can be placed in the mix amongst the band with ease.”
Luke Mulligan calmly took care of stage monitors on an Avid Profile and according to Smasha, he kept everyone in their happy place on stage via six sends of floor monitors (generally d&b M4s) and four stereo IEM mixes (Shure PSM 1000) taking care of RF Coordination plus the wireless mic management.
“Respect and thanks to the in-house tech in these venues – legends every time,” added Smasha. “Pete Robinson (stage right guitar/BVx) and Travis Clarke (bass/BVx) are on wedges which is their preference. Haydn Meggitt (Drums/BVx), James Ryan (stage left Gtr/BVx) and Stewart Wilkinson (keys/BVx) are all on IEM stereo mixes. The principles are all on wedges – typically four pairs of M4s across the downstage although Ella swapped to IEMs.
“I have worked with all of these musicians regularly, so chatted with them when we were discussing production advance, to confirm what would work for them in this style gig – from there Luke on monitors took very good care of their actual show needs.”
One of Smasha’s biggest challenges is when all principles are on-stage singing together and he has to fader chase who is on top of the mix and how the harmonies balance between the voices. An example of this is Glenn Shorrock’s Little River Band songs – signature harmonies and guitar parts critical to the overall song’s identity. Her Majesty’s in Adelaide was a treat due to its complete rebuild just before Covid, typically concert hall shows are challenging with a loud band – soundcheck can be cavernous, but showtime with full rooms often brings out the beauty of the space.
For the final show, the drummers changed with Hamish Stewart filling in for Haydn Meggitt, as he received short notice for a hip operation, after enduring a painful 2-year wait impacted by Covid. The touring party sent Haydn a special video collage to greet him after the op.
Hamish had done his homework and slipped into the show for the Sydney State Theatre seamlessly.
An additional backing vocalist Robyn Loau also joined the stage for the last show to take great care of harmonies to cover Haydn.
“A common story – after so many moved dates in Covid and the general challenge that loss of live touring and performance challenged our industry with – it was such a relief and deeply rewarding to get back around the good humour and collective spirit that gigs and people shape,” remarked Smasha. “The collective history in the Australian music industry that this line-up of performers has is never lost on me – special times with special humans.”
Jimmy James Foster kept all the production and tour details managed, allowing each venue to accurately cater to the show spec.
