Pedigree Britpop legends the Happy Mondays, sharing a bill with Cast and The Bluetones, played a unique one-off rock gig at the Derby Arena and Velodrome, supported by a rich mix of NEXO systems.
This was the first arena-sized music concert for the new £27 million venue. PA for the event was provided by local Derby company Sound of Music, which drew on its extensive NEXO inventory to supply a STM Series modular line array for main PA, and 45°N-12 line monitors on stage.
Sound of Music’s Sash Pochibko notes that “it’s great for us to be the first touring PA company to service a big show at the new venue, especially as we are based so locally. The Derby Velodrome is by far the best-sounding arena I’ve ever heard, as an engineer or as a concert-goer. They’ve installed black-box draping and it makes a massive difference to the acoustics of the building – the absorbent properties of a good audience completed the equation.”
The Sound of Music team supplied L/R hangs of STM, using 8x M28 omni modules under 3x B112 bass modules. Two additional M28 cabinets provided front fills, sitting on top of STM S118 subs, 12 in total, arranged in a double-stacked sub array along the front of the stage. Alpha-E cabinets were used for stage fill. All consoles were Yamaha CL5.
On stage foldback for the bands was delivered by NEXO 45°N-12 line monitors, arrayed in varying combinations of two and three units using their ingenious magnetic locking system.
“Three well-known bands on the bill meant three visiting engineers, and they were all extremely complimentary about the venue and the system. It really was like listening to a BIG hi-fi rather than a large PA battling in an arena full of reverb.”
Further information from:
Sound of Music
www.pahire.com