A POLICE MATTER, 1979
Towards the end of the ’70s, Entec’s relationship with The Police began when they played the first of four gigs at the Marquee Club. By 1979, however, the band’s popularity growth spurt was fast-tracking them to become the biggest on the planet.
That February, The Police performed at Hatfield Polytechnic for BBC2’s popular ‘Rock Goes To College’ (RGTC) concert series, for which Entec had been providing lighting and sound services since it started five months earlier. [During RGTC’s three-year run, Entec also worked with AC/DC, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Rory Gallagher, The Boomtown Rats, Lindisfarne, Ian Dury, Be Bop Deluxe, The Cars and The Specials, among others.]
At this stage in their career, The Police had recently made their chart début and were now touring with Entec’s support. The final gig of a UK/European tour in early ’79, the RGTC show at Hatfield Poly was notable for their brave try-out of a previously untested song, titled ‘Message In A Bottle’ – a future classic.
Returning in May from three months of shows in America, they immediately embarked on a 40-date tour of the UK and Europe, dropping in to headline at the Reading Festival, and yet still found time to record Reggatta De Blanc, which hosted two No.1 singles.
HECTIC
Notable for its new, JBL-loaded Martin Audio PA system, Entec continued with the band throughout its 1979-80 Reggatta De Blanc tour, whose crew was headed by the road manager and sound technician, Kim Turner.
Then aged 22, Adey Willson recalled a particularly hectic night in west London on December 18th when he was the ‘third man’ on the PA crew. He said: “I was brought in to assist with two shows in Hammersmith on the same night – one at the Odeon at 6pm followed by another at the nearby Palais, to which the band were transported in a US Army tank.
This might have seemed just a little over the top, but there was good reason because it was absolute pandemonium out there. We had half a dozen Territorial Army soldiers helping us amidst scenes of almost Beatlemania-level mayhem, with kids hanging off the A4 flyover just to get a glimpse of the band.
“We had to wheel Kim Turner’s Midas FOH desk along the road between venues with a security escort. The multicore was ready and Kim just plugged in the board so that the band could play another set, literally an hour after coming offstage at the Odeon.”
DOMAIN
Also on the sound crew were monitor engineer Roy ‘Tufty’ Tough, who had recently taken over from Iain Black, and backline was the domain of Tam Fairgrieve. Meanwhile, in the year before Nick Sholem took over the lighting for the rest of The Police’s formidable career, Steve Gray was the band’s LD, operating an 84-channel Alderham desk and liasing with Entec’s Derrick Unwin.
Steve recalled: “I specified a 40 foot back truss carrying 40 PARs. We also had two rows of four PARs on Genie tower frames – the Genies went up with compressed air. We decided to go over the top for the Odeon show, so I added a 40 foot front truss and put two more Genie tower frames on it for punter blinders. The top row of lights were open white, fanning out at balcony level, while the bottom row were in red and fanned over the first three rows.”
Adey summarised: “Every night was a joy; the sound and lighting were impeccable, and I remember thinking how great it would have been to join the crew permanently.”
The Police début ‘Message In A Bottle’
