Gary Cooper Interviews

July 2007 was marked by an extensive heatwave that reduced the ususally lush Hyde Park in the centre of London's West End, to a sickly, burned-out yellow. Despite all the "it's end of the world" stuff from the usual suspects, the heatwave wasn't to last (in fact the summer, on balance, had flattered to deceive) but memories remain of an afternoon spent in the fine company of Mr Andy Wood (then editor of the US magazine, Live Sound) and, later, Bryan Grant, co-owner of what is probably Britain's premier sound company, Britannia Row. The gig was unusual for a lot of reasons, not least because it took place during one of England's qualifying matches for the World Cup, so the crowd had a fairly schizoid attitude to the warm-up bands, keeping half an eye on the soccer. It was also notable because Waters had specified a quadrophonic PA system. The following article appeared in Live Sound, USA, in August.

If staging any open air concert is inviting potential audio trouble, holding one slap-bang in the heart of one of the world’s most congested cities is throwing the door wide open and putting a sign outside saying ‘Come on in - and don't bother to knock’. Yet that’s more or less what Britannia Row spent nearly four weeks in June and July doing in London’s Hyde Park, where a succession of events braved the logistical potential nightmares of officious officials, frequency foul-ups, transport tantrums, crowd chaos and other alliterative nightmares, all overshadowed by the next door neighbours, in Park Lane. Just yards away from the PA system and comprising some of the most expensive real estate in the city, these are not the sort of people to take unwanted noise with a shrug of the shoulders - and they have more strings at their disposal than a puppet master’s nightmare, if the wind just happened to slam the sound into their ever-so elegant windows.

All the same, beasts were tamed, the gigs went off without a hitch - even, arguably, the most testing of the series, The Hard Rock celebrations on Saturday 1st July, when former Pink Floyd bassist and composer Roger Waters, aided and abetted by Floyd drummer Nick Mason and a band of notables, gave a rare performance of Floyd’s 1973 opus, Dark Side of the Moon. No big deal? Mr Waters wanted it in surround sound.

Britannia Row’s MD, Bryan Grant, had already got his L/R FOH system in place, on site from previous Hyde Park events, but adjustments needed to be made to accommodate the special requirements for this set. FOH duties were undertaken with the team and equipment Waters has on the road for his world tour (an Audio Rent/ Clair Audio rig, with Trip Khalaf - FOH mix, Bob Weibel - system engineer, Robin Fox - Monitor mix and Christian Holland - stage tech), but the muscle power came from Brit Row.

What considerations had Grant needed to think about when this concert was planned?

‘Our first was the size of the venue and trying to provide even and coherent coverage around a pretty big site of about 140 meters across and about 200 metres long. We supplied the L/R system - an EV X-Line, two sets of delays - V-DOSC - and a diamond quad, with two sets of speakers on each side of the field, almost 90 degrees to each other, and one rear set of speakers. Then we had another set of speakers on each of the follow spot towers, behind each mix tower, facing forward, which were delayed to the rear surround and that covered the last 50-60 metres to the stage, just to make sure that the rear quad was heard evenly in that area - it being the longest throw. They were from Outline - it’s an Italian system which we’ve just taken on and which we’re very pleased with.’

When an outfit as important as Britannia Row breaks ranks by taking on board equipment from outside the usual tight ranks of tier one suppliers, it commands interest. What’s the story behind their interest in Outline?

‘We’re in the process of evaluating Outline at the moment,’ says Grant. ‘So far, so good. We also used them on the C stage at Hyde Park on wireless, we used them at the Queen’s 80th birthday celebrations in Buckingham Palace, in June and we’re using them currently in Somerset House, so we’re giving them a fair old shake out and so far I’m very impressed. Obviously, the attraction starts with sound quality - they sound good, and they are small, light, and easy to use.

‘It’s not a totally precise science. We were looking for a mid-size box and you go for known brands first of all, as we’ve done with Turbosound the Aspect system that we have, for example, but it’s like anything you buy - Mike (Lowe - Grant’s partner and Financial Director) heard it in Turin a few months ago and he was very impressed with the quality and the evenness over a distance and the frequency range, so we decided to try it.’

‘Ah - we always need more equipment!’ he laughs. ‘We’re junkies - it’s terrible! And yes, we have been expanding our stock - we’ve bought more speakers, Aspect, Outline - we’ve bought more consoles - DiGiCos, PM1Ds, we’ve bought Digidesign - I can’t think of any area we haven’t bought more stuff in really - tragic, isn’t? But the market at the moment is very buoyant - I think everybody is having a good year - though it’s hard to tell from the inside looking out. We’ve had some really good projects, like Robbie Williams, Depeche Mode, David Gilmour, Hard-Fi, Simply Red are out now and Robert Plant’s just going out - it goes on and on. With us it’s been a mix of stuff - very broad-based. We’re also doing more corporate work, for Harley Davidson as an example, more TV stuff. I couldn't put my hand on my heart and say it’s just outdoor stuff because it isn’t - it’s just more of everything’.

With Hyde Park this year involving a series of sometimes unrelated concerts spread over several weeks, what did Grant do - put up a system and leave it there?

‘Sort of. The main Left and Right system remains pretty much the same but the field itself expands and contracts, depending on what the event is. We started in Hyde Park on 17th June with the Foo Fighters and they did around 85,000 people, so for that we had a Left/Right system and four sets of delays. Then the site contracted for the O2 events that followed and we just had the main system with one set of delays. It expanded again to the main system with two sets of delays for Hyde Park Calling, which was Roger Waters on the Saturday and The Who, the day after’.

No heart-stopping moments? ‘Oh, no - it makes you concentrate, when you have all that out at once, but there were no hysterics and no stabbings!’

‘No. We set it up on the day and ran it through then, but to be fair, Roger Waters, Trip Khalaf, Bob Weibel and the team had it pretty well worked out. They’ve been travelling with it for some time, so what we were required to do in effect, was provide the speakers. They did a lot of rehearsing to make sure they knew how the surround sound as going to work. My concern was just getting it right. It’s Hyde Park, a big show and I think Trip Khalaf and Bob Weibel did a great job.

So what about those wealthy and influential neighbours? How much of a headache is organising sound in such a location?

‘It’s a question of working with the council, who set limits, and getting together to walk the very, very slippery tightrope, without a net, which is trying to keep the audience happy and the neighbours happy and worrying about things like wind, temperature etc and the music - all being factors that make one set happy and the other unhappy. It’s a tough one’.

But when the band walks on stage and their own engineer is driving the system, what control does the sound company have?

‘The engineers know the considerations, it’s all discussed beforehand and the engineers from the Foo Fighters all the way through this series are grown ups and they do work with us, rather than trying to fight us. At the end of the day we’re all on the same side. If we piss everybody off, then guess what? We don't have a concert next year.

‘Any fool can buy the equipment to do this job but in the end it’s the crew who make it work and I’m very fortunate that I have a crew of people who take their responsibilities seriously and realise that we’re all on the same side. And they do it with good grace - they’re a good bunch of people.’ If staging any open air concert is inviting potential audio trouble, holding one slap-bang in the heart of one of the world’s most congested cities is throwing the door wide open and putting a sign outside saying ‘Come on in - and don't bother to knock’. Yet that’s more or less what Britannia Row spent nearly four weeks in June and July doing in London’s Hyde Park, where a succession of events braved the logistical potential nightmares of officious officials, frequency foul-ups, transport tantrums, crowd chaos and other alliterative nightmares, all overshadowed by the next door neighbours, in Park Lane. Just yards away from the PA system and comprising some of the most expensive real estate in the city, these are not the sort of people to take unwanted noise with a shrug of the shoulders - and they have more strings at their disposal than a puppet master’s nightmare, if the wind just happened to slam the sound into their ever-so elegant windows.

What considerations had Grant needed to think about when this concert was planned?

With Hyde Park this year involving a series of sometimes unrelated concerts spread over several weeks, what did Grant do - put up a system and leave it there?

No heart-stopping moments? ‘Oh, no - it makes you concentrate, when you have all that out at once, but there were no hysterics and no stabbings!’

So what about those wealthy and influential neighbours? How much of a headache is organising sound in such a location?

But when the band walks on stage and their own engineer is driving the system, what control does the sound company have?