July 12- Manchester Show #2

Day 50-

Oh, I stayed up too late, ouch and damn, where's my phone, what time is it, uh oh! noon already? Lobby call is, where is that magic sheet that shows up under my door, oh, hey, lobby call is also noon. Hmmm, I wonder what the odds are that I will make it downstairs in zero seconds? Slim, very slim. Well, gig is close, nothing pending to be dealt with, just going to miss out on a free lunch. I send a PIN message to Dave Lee - "Dave Rat, be in later," just so I won't feel bad if the thought crosses their mind to wait for me.

It takes me about a hour at a moderate hazy pace to shower and pack and I move with solid momentum as I slip my watch on and head out the door, bags in tow. I will just grab a cab and it's 9 am now, hey wait a minute. Damn, it's 9 am! Shit. When I charged my phone from my computer it resets to the time on my laptop, aaaargh, LA time.

Wow, well once I got done feeling like an idiot, I had a nice breakfast, a huge Starbucks coffee while walking to the store and did what anyone with three free hours to spare would do, bought some hair bleach, of course:

Bleaching my hair is a very important natural camouflage to help me blend in with my surroundings and ward of any potential predators.

**** Roadies in Action ****

As far back as anyone can remember, roadies have carried an infamous reputation. Years ago I saw a joke written on the wall of some punk rock club that so accurately encompassed the roadie mind set that I never forgot those words and it went something like:

Roadie's Load Out Credo:

If it's wet, drink it

If it burns, smoke it

If it moves f*ck it

Otherwise, throw it in the truck.

In order to live up to this gritty reputation, roadies spend considerable time refining their ruthlessness. I slipped into the "crew room" and was fortunate to capture the true essence of these tough road dogs and their alpha male rituals, and please, the faint hearted may find this offensive and want to skip this next picture:

**** End Roadies in Action ****

Do you want to see something cool? Check this out! Here is a shot of the inner sanctum of one of Pepper's dressing rooms as the band would see it:

Minus the Dave Lee computing on the couch and my roll-away bag, of course.

And here is what it looks like when the magic is removed and it is back inthe state it was in when we arrived:

Say hello to Roadie Joni (assist) and Roadie Lyssa (backstage coordinator) whom are the architects of comfort and visual bliss that transform these cold ugly spaces into welcoming functional works of art on a daily basis.

And just so we do not forget that the reason we are all here is to 'rock,' here is a photo of tonights show:

Dave R

WTTIRIWTYUAFYTYS!

Fact or Fiction, Do Roadies truly love wires?

I am sure you have all heard that Roadies adore wires, not unlike the way a monkey loves bananas. Is this true? Is this just another stereotype like the one about Roadies loving stickers? Join me for a behind the scenes look at "The mystery of Roadies and their Wires."

Silently and graciously I glide out of sight, wrapped in a cloak of fear I pursue my dangerous quest to unravel mythical secrets. Stumbling across what I believe to be a Roadie Wire Shrine, I bask in awe of the discovery, yet not a single Roadie in sight. Could this be a naturally occurring phenomenon or were roadies toiling here in the not so distant past? We may never know the answer to this and many other quandaries of the ages:

But wait, notice the coffee cup, possibly a sign that roadies do indeed inhabit this region of the rock forest.

As I move deeper into the underbrush, disappointingly I spot yet another even more intricate but abandoned wire temple. Not unlike the mysteries of the great pyramids, little is known about what motivates them to build these elaborate creations. Have I unearthed a sacred prayer ground? Did aliens assist them in the construction? Is this some sort of roadie nest used to attract a mate? How many roadies does it take to screw in a light bulb? The mystery deepens.

My heart stops as I freeze in my tracks! Avoiding the risk of being seen and the roadies scurry off, I hold my breath, ever so slowly raising my camera to capture the moment. Modern science once again takes a great step forward as these roadies are documented constructing a shrine. Notice how they work together as a group. Their admiration for wires is seemingly endless:

This roadie Tracy displays a sense of elation, he clearly enjoys this wire and can not hold back his joy:

Some roadies take their wires more seriously than others, Roadie Nick the Fly admires his wires with reverence:

One thing I have now learned is that a roadie can never be close enough to wires, Roadie Lee "wire hugging":

A very unusual discovery. Spotted here are Roadies Manny and Neil enjoying something other than wires. They appear to be involved in some sort of construction.

Dare I ponder that roadies may have built the great pyramids? Stonehenge? The Moon? Stay tuned for next week's "Roadies and the Other Things They Like Besides Wires, A special feature."

This is Dave Rat, on the scene capturing all the details like a net with relatively small holes, stay tuned.

MILRAIWNTSYOAFYGS!

The grueling part of the tour is done. We have done nothing but virgin stadiums and "throw and go" festivals so far. Now we have two load ins and two load outs left. Two days here in Manchester and four shows over 5 days in London and then home.

When I was a kid, I loved stereos. I loved speakers. Big speakers and power amps! I remember going with my dad to buy a receiver at Pacific Stereo and we picked on out that had 100 watts per channel, I could not wait to get home an turn it up, feel the power, push every button, feel the detents on the huge volume knob. It was not long before a slight difference of opinion regarding the preferred listening material and volume manifested itself. On one hand he favored a barely a audible duet of a flute and cello while I on the other hand felt Black Sabbath's War Pigs at full volume was more appropriate dinner music. Even the seemingly overly fair compromise of offering the soothing flute sounds of Jethro Tull's Aqualung played at 3/4 volume was rejected. We reached an insurmountable impasse and clearly his prejudicial stance left me with no other alternative than to silently rebel by huddling in the corner with headphones feeling connected and justified listening to CSNY's 4 Way Street album attempting to pick out all four guitar parts in Southern Man.

Well, I still have those headphones and 100 watts per channel, well, that is kind of like having lollipop in my pocket vs owning a candy store.

**** Start SoundNerdSpeak ****

Today c'mon, lets go look at power amps! We will start with subs. Here we have Stage left sub amps consisting of 6 Crest 7001's that each power 4 double 18" cabs. These amps develop over 2000 watts each in the configuration we run them. 12,000 watts and this is stage left and there is another 12K over on stage right.

Next in line is the power for the main system. Eighteen Crown MA5002VZ power amps that push around 5000 watts or so each, so figure 90,000 watts here plus the 4 MA3600's in the foreground driving another 12,000 watts and we can round that off to 100K in mains power on this side of stage.

And finally, the side wrap systems and center cluster is powered by Lab Gruppen 6400 amps on this tour and we see eight of those sitting next to the 6 XTA 428's acting as system processors. At around 4000 watts each the way we run them, lets toss in another 30,000 watts per side.

All in all, I am seeing around a 1/4 million watts laying around here. Ha ha, that would be roughly equal to twelve hundred and fifty of those Pacific Stereo receivers and if you stacked them all up it would be a tower over 500 feet high.

And now me and 20,000 of my closest friends gather together on a regular basis to listen to one of my all time favorite bands on big huge speakers!

And the rock show:

Pre rock stage shot:

And the other way

Scott the Lampi

And one of the perks of this whole rock things is the cool people I get to meet. Glen Hughes (Deep Purple Singer) is not only a rock legend, he is incredible down to earth, cool and an all around great person, a true honor. Glen recorded his latest CD at Chad's house and I went down and mixed one his shows a while back at House of Blues in Hollywood.

Dave Rat

MLTMGMMHFFA!

Today we say goodbye to our bus. Since we only have one more rive, it makes more financial and logistical sense to drop the busses and bring in some short haul buses to do our last drive from Manchester to London. Jans Sven, or German bus driver has been truly amazing. Having 9 to 11 Roadies on board of his land ship, is a tough gig and he was not only a pleasure to hang with but kept us laughing as well. going to miss you Jans!

Here you can see sheep and also the reflection of Jans to the left.

I found something interesting on my camera, a picture that indicates that there may be a correlation between the recent lack of ventilation in my bunk, over the last few days, and the picture of what looks like Scott's hand removing paper towels stuffed in my bunk vent. Hmmmm.

And today I rest and relax and will be back tomorrow.

DR

6 or 7 or 8 am. Eyes burn, nauseous boat dull rumble sway. Good news is the ferry is much nicer than the last time I went top side. I can't remember exactly what year that was but maybe 4 years or maybe 6?

**** Roadie Research Notes ****

Here you can observe a multitude of roadies clustering in the travel position. Roadie are know to enjoy waking up early for boat rides. Clearly these Roadies are involved in some sort of celebration ritual involving festivities.

Also notice that in the background there is a TeeVee, much to these Roadies delight.

**** End Roadie Research Notes ****

Ferry Riding Rule #7 - Never get off the bus when riding a Ferry in the wee hours of the morning on a show day.

Exception - If significant amounts of water gets inside the boat, promptly exit the bus, find the ferry exit and swim hastily in an upwards direction.

Here we can the front of the boat at a less than optimum angle opening as we head to dock so the cars and busses can escape the belly. There are other doors that keep the water from getting in. I feel much happiness that the doors are currently closed.

The colony of fans, often referred to as "Punters":

and some show pics:

Ratman

Oh the joys of the Scotish summer! It rained, it winded, it colded and it mudded us all. The crowd was great, the weather was poo. Though nowhere near the coldest gig I have ever mixed. That was the Foo Fighters playing the winter Olympics awards ceremony. I was in a tower about 16 feet up that was sealed except for the sub zero wind blasting in sound listening opening directly in front of me. I had read stripes down my fingers from blood seeping from frozen cracks in my fingers. Bad aim that kept me banging sore fingers accross the console knobs.

The wettest gig I mixed I believe was Peppers at the first Mount Fuji festival in Japan. There was word of a typhoon coming in and so I go to confirm with one of the locals, I ask about a Typhoon and he replies in a Japanese accent and a level of emotion that cracks me up "No, Super Typhoon!" I remember Dave Navarro leaning at nearly a 45 degree angle over the audience that was standing in 2 feet of water and sideways rain. People were panicing but Peppers played on. Electricity and water is bad for humans but aparently not bad for Peppers that night. The show the next day cancelled due to sunken stage.

Compared to those shows, T in the Park was warm and wonderful.

Here you can clearly see the wind, well, maybe not but Kaiser Cheifs were awesome! Not big in the US but really cool to see.

Sound wise, it was another two banana system at a windy site. Another giant Leslie. (For those not familiar witha a Leslie, it is a speaker where parts spin around and create a wobbly loud/soft sound plus doppler effect that is often used with keyboards). At least it was V-Dosc. The goal for me is not perfection, that is the job of the studio engineers. The goal for me is to play my part in creating the the most memorable experience possible with the tools at my disposal and in that, I was happy.

One of the things that makes this all worth while is the energy and excitement of the fans. I can not help but smile when so many people are unified in a comon happiness!

Drat

MDTBWYFAYPM!

After spending most of my time surrounded by high quantities of humans, a relaxing wander in a stunning city really is grounding. So I will share a few highlights:

An old and intricate church made with lots of stones. Tracy (bass tech, Leif Scott's tech), Scott (lighting human) and Nick the Fly (FOH sound tech) enjoy the task of standing and looking around:

This window, while beautiful, is not very funtional for seeing outside and a does not open::

And I realize that betwixt is a word I need to use more often:

Especially of note is the small tree adorning the helmet:

This made my heart hurt:

Definitley not Los Angeles:

How often do you get to see one of these:

And tomorrow, well, how about a rock show for a change?

Dave Rat

TMISYASIYWRTDOOC!

Today we get to play a game called "count the projectile!"

How many flying items you can see count in the photo below?

And I must admit that I did enjoy watching the shoulder riding challengers take on the bottle tossers, I also enjoyed the relative safety of the mix riser tent.

**** Roadie Research Segment ****

Roadies are known to get hungry. When hunger sets in, a Roadie must hunt. The hunt can involve several hundreds of steps in a given direction, last for 1's, 2's or even 5's of minutes and involve a plethra of dangers and obstacles including doorways and various things to step over. Never come between a Roadie and its food and more importantly, never attempt to pet a Roadie while it is tacking its prey.

Roadies often refer to their hunting grounds as "Catering." Some Roadies are better hunters than others. Here we can observe the fierce hunting Roadies preparing critical nutrition for the herd:

Without this food, this herd will surely perish. Take note that this particular hunt has been highly fruitful. They will eat well once again today. Their chance for survival is strong indeed:

**** End Roadie Research Segment ****

Wonderful show and the last of the stadium gigs this trip. Bigger venue, more open sounding and all around, it just felt good. I am so looking forward to a proper day off.

Davus Ratticus

ILTHYASYIAT!