With his inimitable repertoire of eclectic music blended with high-brow comedy, Tim Minchin’s UK tour, which began back in 2019, resumed after lockdown with a further eight-week stint. Imaginatively titled Back… Encore, this took him through a number of sold-out UK theatre shows, interspersed with a handful of arena dates.
The Australian was supported onstage by a seven-piece band — three brass players, bass, guitar, drums and percussion. Masterminding the sound production was Martin Audio rental partner, Capital Sound, with Dave Roden mixing to his favoured Wavefront Precision WPS.
Capital Sound crew on their inventory of 32 WPS line array enclosures but purchased six additional multi-channel, Dante-supporting iKON amplifiers for the tour, enabling the system to be driven in the optimum one-box resolution.
Explaining the need for the expanded WPS inventory this time around, Capital Account Manager, Martin Connolly, said that the additional elements had provided Roden with increased horsepower when matching to the main hangs and outfills.
“The WPS system is perfectly matched for Minchin,” he said. “It was so successful last time and so Dave requested it again.” Crucially, the restricted loading points at some theatres became another defining factor.
However, WPS was supplemented at the three larger capacity arenas — Nottingham Motorpoint, Leeds First Direct and Cardiff Motorpoint — where Martin Audio WPL took over main duties, moving the WPS out wide to function as side har.
“Consequently, we ended up putting them into every show between Hammersmith and Cardiff—and had we had access to more, I’d certainly have used them!”
Dave Roden and Nick Boulton were supported by fellow Capital crew members, Monitor Technician, Adam Wells and Monitor Engineer, Oz Bagnall. Production Manager was Ashley Newsome, working for promoter, Phil McIntyre Entertainments.
Summing up, Martin Connolly said the tour had been an unqualified success—not only for the warmth with which Tim Minchin’s show had been received, but the quality of the production. “He is an excellent showman, and running the PA at a comfortable level, between 98db-100db, the sound was extremely clean and the intelligibility high.”