The band were also asked why they weren’t going to play the Pinkpop and other festivals to which Colin replied, “The important reason for not playing Pinkpop is that we’ve already played Glastonbury before the release of OK Computer and we just don’t repeat what we’ve done before and which is playing a big festival before the release of an album.”

The wait, however, is not the main issue. The bar, as it turns out, is selling nothing other than Budweiser [actually, you can also get Virgin alcopops, but that’s hardly the point]. The beer is served from the can into big red cups – and the cups, of course, are branded. What a dirty Budweiser logo.

Select doesn’t want to be picky or anything, but this really doesn’t seem right. So, if only for the sake of conversational sport, we sidle up to Ed O’Brien at the brief aftershow soiree. it’s being held in an old farm outhouse that rather suggests the kind of room where you once hadbreakfast on a geography field trip. Everyone, incidentally, is drinking bottled Krononbourg.

So, Ed. Why are Budweiser doing all the beer?

“[Genuinely shocked] Are they?”

Oh yes.

“Isn’t it the Workers Co-op? [ie The Workers Beer Company]?”

No, you can only get a Budweiser. In a branded beer cup.

“Beer cup? OK. We’ll sort that out. That’ll change. I didn’t know that. You carry on learning. [In humorous voice] We haven’t changed the beer cups! We’ve failed!”

Amy: “Yeah. September 28th.”

Steve: “Which one was it, Amy?”

Amy: “The one in Glasgow, the first one. It was good.”

Steve: “Because they were very proud of their tent.”

John: “I’ve not seen the tent. Is it the same tent that’s going to South Park?”

Ed: “No, we’re not having… there’s no tent.”

John: “There’s no tent at South Park?”

Thom: “No tent as such, no.”

John: “Denied. No tent.”

Thom: “Denied.”

Steve: “What happens if it rains?”

Colin: “Everyone gets wet.”

Thom: “Yeah.”

Colin: “There are big trees, though, so…”

Thom: “Yeah, there’s big trees, and there’s lots of toilets.”

Steve: “I can’t believe I asked such a dumb question…”

Every item on stage has either a microphone or a direct connection allocated to it, in the case of Radiohead there were 64 inputs from the stage to the control systems. All the inputs from the stage go to a splitter box, often referred to as the stage box, this send the on stage information to 4 different sources, one going to FOH (front of house) where the information from stage is mixed for you, the audience, and is controlled by the mighty Jim Warren, who has been with the band since their very early days. The second send goes to me for the on stage mix. The third is used for the on stage technical mix and the forth is for external sources, for example, if the show is going to be recorded or broadcast on radio/TV as was the case at the UK V festivals this summer.

The Inputs

The Drums..
Kick Drum, Beyer M88, (Gate, Soft comp)
Snare 1, Shure SM57, (Soft Comp)
Snare 2, Shure SM57
Hi Hat, Shure KSM41
Rack 1, Sennheiser 504, (Gate)
Rack 2, Sennheiser 504, (Gate)
Floor, Sennheiser 504, (Gate)
Overhead Ride, Shure KSM32.
Overhead Hi Hats/ Crash, Shure KSM32.
Kit Ambience, a Shure MC50b, and placed in the middle of the drum kit, a nice ambient sound, good for the in-ear drum requests !

Jonny Toms, SM57 wireless, (Gate, Soft Comp)
Ed Toms, SM 57 wireless, (Gate, Soft Comp)

Mini Kick, Beyer M88 wireless. (Gate)
Mini Snare and Hat, Shure SM57 Wireless.

These channels are carry on and carry off items, therefore they are wireless so we can check they work before the appear on stage and there is no cable re patch necessary

The Vocals..

Thom uses a Shure Beta 87 with black pop shield. It is a microphone designed for very close proximity use, the pop shield is used to avoid direct contact with the metal end of the microphone. By employing the foam shield, Thom can sing very close to the mic with comfort. Therefore producing a loud and clear vocal sound. I reproduce the same consol settings for the spare vocal, the piano vocal, and the Rhodes piano vocal.

Phil uses a WCM15 vocal headset microphone, which can be converted to wireless if required.

Carry on vocals are at present : A beta 87 Wireless mic for Ed on There There, and a beta 87 wireless for Thom when he plays the Mini kit on one of the new songs !

The Keyboards,

The upright Piano has caused more problems than anything else on stage over the last 6 years. Everything possible to go wrong has, we even nearly tipped it over once ! A multitude of different microphones have been tried and then discarded. This tour heralds a new approach, the new piano has a stereo sample built in, and originally we were going to use this as a last resort spare signal. However we found that it combines very well with the newly installed Helpinstill Piano Sensor and an ambient mic, a Shure MC50b hanging inside the lid. Gone are the days of low end feedback, hi pass filters up on the mics, let the sampler do the bottom end.

The Fender Rhodes is mic-ed with 2 SM57s one on each speaker.

Both the Piano and the Rhodes move into the centre of the stage during the bands performance, therefore they are equipped with an umbilical containing the audio, video and power requirements.

There are various other midi-controlled keyboards dotted around the stage ; the sampler rack, which lives off to the side of the stage, controls them all. This unit also controls the drum samples. There are a total of 12 lines of information coming to me for different songs from this unit.

The Guitars.

There are 3 guitar set-ups on stage,

In the centre is Thom, he has a Vox AC30, mic-ed with a Sennheiser 609, apart from an array of footswitches, he has a control unit off stage.

Ed, on Thoms right, uses a Mesa Boogie, mic-ed with A Sennheiser 609 and a Vox AC30 mic-ed with a SM57. There is also a DI effect line. There is a mountain of pedals and off stage control involved.

To Thoms left is Jonny ; he uses a Vox AC30, mic-ed with a SM57, and a Fender 85, mic-ed with an Audix OM5. There is again a DI line for effects, and 2 lines from laptops, one of which is offstage. Again a huge array of pedals but with no off stage control !

The Bass guitar is Di-ed and Mic-ed with a Sennheiser 60

The Glockenspiel is mic-ed with 2 Shure MC50bs, and a couple of Drum machines are DI-ed

All of these inputs end their connection at the splitter box (also known as the stage box). We have 2 off these on the Radiohead set up. One has 56 inputs and the other has 20, this is more than we need and allows for some degree of flexibility. This is what the splitter box does ; on the stage side there are all the input connections, on the reverse there are 4 multi-pin outlets, between each input and output there is a small isolating transformer, these lower the possibility of interference. The first output supplies all the input channels to the FOH Digidesign conversion racks, the second goes to my conversion racks for the monitors, The third is for the on stage technical mixes and the forth is used if we are recording the show for a TV or radio broadcast.

The technical split was an idea developed as we expanded the monitor system at the outset of the Hail to the thief tour, it was based on the original idea from Duncan who had previously split his four main channels to a small mixer so that he could check that Jonny was OK during the show. Also, because there was so much backline equipment on the stage it meant that the crew were forever coming over to me to listen to their instruments if they suspected that there was a problem. There was a need for them to be able to hear selected channels during the show. This is what we designed ; the 48 lines from the main splitter are sent to a patching system that allows for any 12 channels can be sent to 4 separate locations on stage. At these locations, where the backline technicians live, there are small 12 channel Soundcraft Spirit desks and self powered JBL speakers. This has also proved invaluable one unforeseen reason ! Everyone now has Thoms vocal line on their speaker for the sound check so they can here him announce which song they are going to do next, this has made sound checks a lot faster, as now we all know when, for example, the piano needs pushing over to the centre of the stage. Once this system has been patched it has its lid left on for the tour ! All we need to do is to connect one large input cable and 4 small outputs ! One of the 4 systems has been commandeered by Ed, the 12 way desk is housed in the top of his FX rack, this is one point where he can pick up information being played by the other musicians on stage.

Line 48 ! This is the only line on the input list that I have not mentioned. This is for the technical communication system. Microphones, positioned at the front of house mixing desk, the monitor desk, the sampler rack and an on stage wireless microphone system are sent to a small mixing desk, mixed down to 1 line and sent to line 48, this signal is also sent to an on stage wireless in-ear system used by myself and Clive. This means that line 48 can be picked up everywhere on stage using the technical mix system.

The Outputs

There are 2 different ways in which I provide the musicians on stage with the information they require in order for them to perform. The first is using speakers on the floor, these are called wedges, and they contain both a large speaker for creating the bass part of the sound and a small speaker for producing the high frequencies. On this tour these were provided by Firehouse productions from New York. Secondly, in-ear monitors, which are custom, moulded for the individual musicians and are mixed in stereo. Radiohead use a combination of both of these, each member has determined over the years as to how they want to hear their mix.

Jonny only uses wedges, 1 in front of each of his guitar pedal boards and a third behind him for when he is playing keyboards and operating his drum machines. He has very minimal requirements and likes everything quite quiet ! He has a small amount of kick drum and snare drum, piano, acoustic guitar and a touch of Thoms vocal. He also has his own guitars and keyboards. Jonny also wears custom moulded ear defenders to cut down the overall level of sound. Once he is set up and running he doesnt require many changes during a show !

Ed uses a combination of floor wedges and in-ears. He uses off the shelf Shure E5s for his in-ears and has recently converted to Shures new E500s. The wedges are mainly used for kick and snare drums. His ears are mixed in stereo with different instruments placed at different points in the stereo field to give definition. For example he has his guitars in the centre of the mix, Thoms guitar is on the right hand side and Jonnys guitar on the left, the drums are mixed with the kick and snare in the centre and the rest of the kit positioned across them. He has everything from the stage in his ears.

Colin uses wedges alone, he has never tried in ears up to now, but has shown a lot of interest in trying them on the next tour. He also has a sub bass unit behind him to add extra weight on the low frequencies, mainly the kick drum and the drum machines. He has a full mix of everything on stage.

Phil uses just in-ear monitors. He again has a full stereo mix of everything on stage and as with the other in-ear users everything is positioned in the stereo field as if he was hearing the stage without using any monitoring. Subtle changes are made throughout the show, for example when Jonny starts a song I gently increase his level so he can get the timing correct.

Thom uses a combination of both wedges and in ears. He uses the in-ears like ear defenders and uses them at quite a low level. This cuts out all the stage sounds that he doesnt want to hear. Using the ears at a low level means that he can also clearly hear the wedge mix as well. In the wedges he has all the drums, all the guitars and keyboards and in his ears he has both his and Eds vocals, the acoustic guitar and piano and different amounts of his own guitar depending on the song being played.

There are also wedge mixes for the piano and the Fender Rhodes. The piano mix has both Thoms acoustic and electric guitars in it for when being played by Jonny.

The stage plan

This is the basic layout of the stage, not drawn to scale. When touring this is precisely measured everyday !

The Control

For this tour I decided to use a digital mixing console. On Jim Warrens recommendation I opted for the Digidesign D show. This is a fantastic piece of equipment ! Apart from sounding amazing it is not difficult to learn how to use and the facilities incorporated within it are second to none ! I will be using one on every opportunity from now on.

“I am incredibly impressed with the Mac 700 Wash,” he says. “They are very complementary units to the existing 2K range. For their size the power consumption is quite low, the colours are wonderful and also the reliability of the units is fantastic. They have also been wonderful to program. We were the first to tour with the Mac 2K Wash and to be asked again with the Mac 700 Wash is just great. Our lead technician, Ed Jackson, who does a very thorough job of looking after the fixtures on the tour, has had to do very little to them.”

Watson has the 700 Wash units located on the floor and uses them to uplight cycs and side light the band. “For that the intensity is absolutely perfect,” he says. Lights are positioned at varying heights – in the overhead rig, on drop poles and on the floor – to create different layers of light. Other Mac units in the rig are Mac 2000 Performances, Mac 2000 Washes and Mac 250 Washes along with Atomic strobes.

“There are times when you don’t necessarily need that complete punch of a 2K,” says Watson. “Both the 2K Wash and 700 Wash serve their purpose but I found that the 700 Wash work even better with the Performances because the 2K Washes can sometimes outperform the profiles power wise, especially if you have a gobo with the animation wheel and you’re cutting the light intensity down.”

The lighting concept for the show was born out of conversations that Watson had with the band and incorporates video and the CCTV system they have developed over the years. “We didn’t want to do it in a conventional side screen kind of way,” says Watson. “We wanted to integrate the video even more than on the last tour so we brought the video onto the stage. The concept was to create a space in which the stage would appear a different shape and look differently from every angle. I wanted to create these perspective screens so we use 10 trapezoidal screens on stage which are angled and perspective twisted. It is almost a cubist way of looking at it.”

The screens are actually three-dimensional set pieces which were fabricated by Specialz of the UK with all softgoods by Blackout of the UK. Inside each screen are arrayed Color Kinetics iFlex SLX.

Ten cameras are used live during the show with video fed to the screens through Catalyst which allows Watson to then play with aspect ratios and distort the images. “Everything is live and nothing has been made in advance,” he says. “We have no pre-recorded content other than textures and graphical shapes. It is very spontaneous and we get some very beautiful effects.” All the video and LEDs are controlled with a combination of Catalyst and PixelMAD systems. Video equipment supply is by XL Video and Scenographic Ltd.

Watson projects colour effects from the Mac 700, 2000 and 250 Washes onto the screens as well. “I point the Mac 250 Washes at the screens, one per screen, and then project a black and white image on the screen so what you end up with is a colorized, dual toned effect. It’s a great look. I also project the 2K Washes onto the screens which is a more shadow and light effect that makes the screens look three-dimensional by creating back shadows. Again, the Mac 700 Washes get used on those too with others lighting the cyc. All washes point to the screens at some point.

“There is a massive variety of changes we can make in what is really a simple set up,” Watson concludes. “By combining the levels of the video with the iFlex and the wash effects on the screens we can get wonderful tricks of light and deception – great depth, three-dimensional looks and silhouettes for example.”

Neg Earth Lights is the tour’s overall lighting contractor (Upstaging in North America), and Watson’s design has been enabled in a major way by Catalyst and PixelMAD products, and especially Richard Bleasdale who has written new versions of the software that interface brilliantly with the three-dimensional aspects of the production design’s unmissable core theme: the forest of hanging LED tubes.

They also supplied two of their top engineers – Tony Szabo and George Puttock – who worked with the Radiohead audio team to ensure that the band’s quest for producing the very best sonic audience experience is achieved.

On the road, the sound crew is headed by FOH engineer Jim Warren, monitor engineer Mike Prowda and production systems designer Sherif el Barbari. Also integral to this set-up is Ross Anderson, who looks after Prowda and Brett Taylor, from New York based US audio contractor Firehouse Productions, who is overseeing the delays.

Adlib was asked to provide a quote for the tour by Radiohead’s production Manager Richard Young, and were delighted when selected. Adlib’s Director Dave Jones says “Radiohead are renowned as complete perfectionists when it comes to all aspects of their show and production, so it was a real honour to be chosen to join the team”.

The K1 system is supplied to ‘K’ standards – The main hangs comprise 14 elements of K1 per side with four KARA downfills, and next to these is an array of eight flown K1 SB subs a side.

The side/outer left-and-right hangs are made up from 10 x K1 speakers with 6 x KARA downfills, which can be split into two arrays per side for the larger venues.

On the floor are 24 L-ACOUSTICS SB28 subs in a left-centre-right cardioid arrangement.  The delay system is flown just behind FOH, consisting of three hangs, each of nine L-ACOUSTICS KUDO. The corresponding amp racks are flown directly behind each of the delay stacks to give the best sound for the audience, which is always the main concern of the band.

Radiohead are touring with their own FOH control and complete monitor system.

Additionally, Adlib is supplying four ARCS speakers per side for front fills and six KARA lip fills positioned along the front of the stage.

The biggest daily challenge is the rigging and getting a large speaker system in precisely the correct places for optimisation. Adlib is also supplying their own customised motor controllers, designed specifically to be used with line array PAs, which help make the PA rigging a smooth and efficient operation.
Larger venues like the O2 in London feature over 90 rigging points, and the daily build schedule for the stage and production set up is also extremely busy and needs to slot together like a jig-saw puzzle, with everything in its right place!

Tony Szabo has really enjoyed working to such demanding standards. “The Radiohead crew are all brilliant as well as very talented in their fields,” he comments, “All departments work together symbiotically and it’s a big collaboration which produces an amazing end result”.

“We looked at all the costs and implications, and decided that sea freight was the best way forward. We could have gone to the extreme and not shipped anything, and just rented in each territory, but that wouldn’t work with this band. Thom, for instance, likes to use his vintage Fender Twin amp, and there’s no guarantee he’d get something in precisely the same condition anywhere else.”
The ‘safer’ standard elements, like PA, consoles, motors, truss and microphones, are being rented locally, but elsewhere, the answer was to source the nearest possible duplicate set of everything — backline and lights — to send in a container via sea freight to America, and then on to Japan.
Young: “All the equipment we’re using in rehearsal will remain in the UK for our shows here. With the sea route, it’s important to make allowances for any possible delays — and believe me, delays are very likely!
“Air freight is very much based on call and response, whereas with the sea option, your freight is just added to a list of things they need to deal with, which means it could be days before it leaves the country. Then there’s the journey itself. On average, it takes 12 days to reach New York from the UK and you also need to factor in a couple of days for customs clearance.”
The crew weren’t taking any chances. The container was sent early enough for it to arrive in Miami on April 21.
Young continued: “Some might argue that, other than the vintage equipment, we’re adding to our carbon footprint by manufacturing certain elements of our duplicate kit, but what they fail to appreciate is that all of this kit will be reused, time and time again.
“On balance, I think we’re being a lot more responsible. We estimate that we’ve cut our normal air freight package of 20 tonnes down to a mere one tonne, and that’s made up of the 12 vintage guitars that the band will not go on stage without.
“Andy Lovell at Sound Moves is our regular freight agent, and I think the whole sea freight operation for this tour has proved to be as much of a learning curve for him as it has for us, because air freight has been the tour standard for so long!
“Hopefully, by successfully taking the risks that we have, and making sea freight a credible alternative, it could lead to good working relationships with shipping companies like Maersk, who may see fit to prioritise our needs and reduce delays.”

Firehouse Productions provides K1, KARA and KUDO rig for North American trek

With no drawings of the original set available, the LS-Live team had to start from some photographs, what they had been told and the wreckage. The six winch frames from the upstage row in the roof had badly bent side plates and the six downstage ones that took most of the impact on collapse were completely buckled.

Having evaluated the damage to the winch frames, main truss syste, flying video screen and transport dolly, our team of structural engineers and designers began to create drawings of the original set from scratch, making alterations along the way.

We stripped the winch frames to analyse what was damaged beyond repair, removing all slewing motors and gearbox assemblies in the process. We measured and redrew all the components, incorporating requested modifications to video tile positions and cable routing.

We used new aluminium for the new winch frames, cut using a specialist abrasive water jet technique because they were too thick for laser cutting. After machining, we assembled the complete winch frames, installing fully tested slew motors and NDT (non-destructive testing) crack-checked cable management reelers.

LS-Live also re-designed the main truss system, to improve access and installation of the winch reels. We worked with independent structural engineer Lee Coverley to ensure the new designs could safely accommodate the weight load, before commissioning James Thomas Engineering to manufacture the system.

Finally, we supplied a 60ft by 32ft rolling house stage for the remainder of the tour and two 24ft by 12ft side LiteDeck platforms for the technicians. All was delivered on time and in budget after an emotional few weeks.

“All at LS-Live had mixed feelings about this project,” structural and mechanical engineer, Mark Blount, said. “We’re very proud of what we have achieved, but Scott Johnson died in that stage collapse. You can mend metal, but that won’t bring him back.

When Radiohead needed new automation Stage Technologies delivered

Stage Technologies has been contracted by Radiohead Production Manager Richard Young and Richard Kent of Aerial Rigging Techniques to provide a 60 axis “pod” system running 12 free flying video screens on the Radiohead tour in Europe, New Zealand and Australia this autumn. Following a well-documented roof collapse earlier in the summer the tour’s automation system had to be replaced. Despite being in the midst of its busiest year to date the Stage Technologies rental team created a new bespoke system within 30 days.

Stage Technologies provided control for the band’s existing winch system including: 10 AU:tour control racks, a 60 axis system, plus new motor looms racks, desks and programming tools.  Each pod in the system contains 4 point hoist winches each lifting a corner of the screen. Each is able to rotate to create multi-dimensional movement within the screens.

Stage Technologies Head of Training Alex Hitchcock, who managed the programming for the project, said “The Radiohead tour is a great example of what Stage Technologies can turn around in a short space of time. Creating the system and ensuring it was at Elstree studios in time for rehearsals was going to be a challenge but our team met it brilliantly.”

The band has a catalogue of 90 songs, each of which has any combination of 27 “presets” or looks for the screen positions; and each night of the daily touring has a differing set list. The team arrive onsite around 7am and expect to be fully rigged by 2pm because in many cases the concert doors open at 4pm.  This is a slim window in which to program and test the show for each night.

Hitchcock said, “Programming the show is another test altogether and only really possible once the system is complete.  Our solution, for now, is to model the screens geometry in 3D studio Max and employ the Stage Technologies toolkit to output axis profiles and “deads” for each preset to the winches. This allows the operators to pick the presets in order of the songs and simply re-time and save as a cue.”

Stage Technologies’ Director of Rentals Services Ted Moore said “When the call came I knew this was a big ask. Delivering something so quickly that had needed to interface with equipment that had already been produced once by someone else is always a challenge, but my team delivered with dedication, hard work and professionalism.”