GORILLAZ ON THE BEACH, 2010
For the first time in five years, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett brought their fictional cartoon band Gorillaz to life in April 2010 with an extraordinary, multi-media/multi-artist live experience at London’s Roundhouse.
Planned to support the album Plastic Beach, the two Roundhouse shows featured guest appearances from Bobby Womack, Shaun Ryder, ‘Super Furry’ Gruff Rhys, Mos Def, De La Soul, Kano, Rosie Wilson and an on-screen Snoop Dogg who, along with Albarn, fronted a unique combination of world music, hip-hop, rock, drum’n’bass and melodic pop performed by no less than 60 musicians. They included former Clash colleagues Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, the Demon Strings, the National Orchestra of Syria and Hypnotic Brass, with everything falling under the stage management of Eric Durett.
While Albarn and MD Mike Smith guided the massed talent and surveyed the genius work of his cartoonist partner Hewlett, not least his virtual characters 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel Hobbs, tour director Craig Duffy and production manager Steve ‘Pud’ Jones led the entourage from backstage.
“We all happily get sucked into the Damon Albarn merry-go-round and get involved with anything he’s doing,” said Craig, above. “And Entec continue to be a big part of the fun. They’ll do anything at the drop of a hat for these guys.”
For this latest chapter in the Albarn story, Entec supplied equipment from both its sound and lighting departments, along with technicians Ryan Brown, Matt Arthur, Basil Fernley and Adam Draper.
LD Lec Croft chose a first generation grandMA full-size console to pilot a Martin-heavy rig – 18 MAC 2000 Profiles and 18 MAC 700 Washes – as well as ETC Source Fours for key lighting. Six Thomas 4-lite Molefays, a pair of Pani HMI followspots and DF50 hazers were also included.
Blur veteran Dave Byars returned to the Albarn fold to design a set of striking, onstage light boxes that spelled out the Gorillaz name as an oblique reference to ‘The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle’.
MASSED INPUTS
With so many musicians coming and going onstage, mixing the show was a complex affair involving more than 100 mic lines but, armed with a DiGiCo D5 console, FOH engineer Matt Butcher handled everything with his usual professionalism.
Gorillaz took advantage of the resident Outline line array while Entec supplied the control, monitor and mic package, which included an off-beat Shure 527B CB-style mic with a modified push-to-talk switch, used for distorted vocal sounds.
Like Matt, monitor engineer Dave Guerin also had his hands full with masses of inputs and mixes on a DiGiCo SD7. In-ear monitoring was provided by a wireless Sennheiser G2 300ew system and hard-wired Shure P6HWs, while d&b M4 wedges Q7s sidefills were also on stage.
The Roundhouse shows were a prelude to the 37-date Escape To Plastic Beach world tour that began in the following October, taking in North America, Europe, Hong Kong and Australasia. This was followed in 2017 by the Humanz tour – a production that witnessed major leaps forward by Entec’s sound team with the introduction of d&b’s new generation SL-Series system.
‘Clint Eastwood’ live at the Roundhouse, 2010
