Topnotch Production Crew and Meyer Sound System Ensure a Memorable First Meeting of Paul McCartney and Tel Aviv
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"Paul McCartney is a straight-ahead, old-school rocker, and that's what I aim to capture. These are songs that every person in the audience has an attachment to, and our goal is to reproduce them faithfully, with the vocals and musical hooks sounding as they should," says McCartney's long-time FOH engineer Paul "Pab" Boothroyd, who mixed the highly anticipated concert, "Friendship First," in Tel Aviv using a Meyer Sound MILO and MICA line array loudspeaker system. McCartney delivered a memorable performance to 40,000 fans in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park, forty-three years after the Israeli government banned a Beatles concert in 1965 over fears of corrupting the country's youth. Featuring McCartney and his long-time band—guitarists Brian Ray and Rusty Anderson, keyboardist Paul "Wix" Wickens and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., the historic show brought a welcome sense of unity to the troubled region, despite the extremist threats leading up to the event. Within the opening strains of "Hello Goodbye," McCartney greeted the crowd, along with just as many fans camped outside the venue. The two-hour set of classic songs had fans on their feet, with sound reinforcement through a powerful Meyer Sound system provided jointly by Israel's Kilim Electronics and Slovenia-based Festival Novo Mesto. Kilim Electronics also provided lighting for the event. "This was the first time I've gone with Meyer for a show of this scale," Boothroyd told Total Production International (TPi) magazine. "I'd used Meyer enough to know they make great, well engineered products. And the support from Meyer Sound's people has always been the best." The venue has a conventional configuration, making for a fairly straightforward system design created by Meyer Sound Technical Support with the assistance of the MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program. The main system comprised 16 MILO line array loudspeakers per side, flown from 200-foot high cranes. The wide coverage area called for additional outfill hangs, with a VIP platform at stage left dictating asymmetrical outfill arrays of seven MILO loudspeakers left and nine on the right to provide the necessary vertical coverage. A dozen UPA-1P loudspeakers covered frontfill duties. McCartney's bass lines were amply supported by 24 700-HP subwoofers per side. Further covering the massive grounds, three left-right-center delay towers were used with a total of 20 MICA line array loudspeakers. A Galileo loudspeaker management system with three Galileo 616 units, each controlling separate parts of the rig, provided processing and drive for the self-powered system. "For such a historic show as this, the Meyer Sound system really helps to make the strongest and most memorable impact on the audience," said Kilim's Gal Kilim, the show's technical producer. "The power and the clarity of the system are just the best there is." Marjan Pirnar, director of Festival Novo Mesto, points to the ease of combining Meyer Sound components from different companies into a powerful and cohesive system. "One of the great things about Meyer Sound gear is the consistency," Pirnar said. "We brought MILO systems from Slovenia and put them together with MICA systems from Israel; the systems came together quickly and the coverage is flawless." At FOH, Boothroyd mixed the band using a Digidesign VENUE system with D-Show Profile console. "We've had it out on the last two tours, and been really pleased with the sound." As he explained, the system's integration with Pro Tools has allowed him to create a multitrack archive of every show. "It's great not only for reference, but it gives Paul the opportunity to pick the best performances of each song when he's compiling material for live albums." Lighting for the event was supplied by Kilim, whose Nitai Doron worked alongside Wally Lees on a grandMA console, driving a rig that included 59 Martin MAC 2000 spots, 36 Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs, 19 Coemar Infinity 1500 washes, 15 MAC 2000 washes, 24 Xenon 4kWs, three Clay Paky 1.2 kW shadow spots and six 2.5 kW Robert Juliat follow spots. Chicago-based Nocturne Productions provided video for the concert, with video director Paul Becher presiding over Nocturne's massive 24-foot high, 74-foot wide V-Lite LED screen, projecting a program that began during McCartney's 2002 US tour and has been growing ever since. Security for the event was another major consideration. Several factions of the Palestinian movement had voiced objection to the event, and one radical Islamist cleric even issued a death threat on McCartney if he performed in the Israeli city. But thanks to the efforts of security director Mark Hamilton and his crew, working together with police and local authorities, the British Embassy and other agencies, Hayarkon Park was one of the safest places in the Middle East during the show. All in all, it was a massive undertaking for one of the biggest concerts in Israel's history. McCartney and band were in rare form, proving once again why the man remains a legend more than four decades after the Beatles' final performance at New York's Shea Stadium. Boothroyd gives the diverse crew high marks for coordination and cooperation in what could have easily been a chaotic environment. "With so many people from so many different countries, it's fantastic how smoothly everyone worked together," he concluded. "It makes everyone's job so much easier." December, 2008 |
FEATURED PRODUCTSVIDEOWatch Total Production International's documentary of McCartney's Tel Aviv concert on www.tpimagazine.com |
