The PMG (Australia's version of the Federal Communications Commssion) had been driving around in their vans when they triangulated the location of the lawbreakers. Converging on the high school, we don't know what they expected to find, though we know what they didn't expect: 16-year-old "criminal" and future Parnelli Innovator Award honoree Bruce Jackson.
Jackson and some buddies who shared his passion for all things electronic thought it would be fun to build a radio station, and they were broadcasting illegally from the school assembly hall after school. But it got the attention of the authorities because their unusual wizardry led to such a long antenna and strong signal that they were actually broadcasting across all Sydney. "At first, they didn't believe there were no adults involved," Jackson recalls. "Finally, they just took the offending homemade transmitter and let us go with a warning." Thus ended Jackson's brief foray into hooliganism. Everyone from Mom and Dad to the hundreds of sound professionals who take his innovations for granted to the millions in the concert audiences who are dazzled when he's FOH are all glad he always chose to use his talents for good, never for evil.
At 12, he built a television set out of a green radar picture tube. He and his buddies would peruse Army/Navy surplus stores, pick up odds and ends and build things, including guitar amps. "I think I just loved the effect of being able to wire these things together and do something useful," he recalls. "The heat of the tubes, the smell of electronics– it really takes you somewhere else."
This year, he returned to his roots in Sydney, moving his wife and three of his four children back there. He spoke with us from his office at Lake Technology, which is now a Dolby Company.
Tell us about your first company.
Bruce Jackson: My house became the first registered office of what would be JANDS. It was started with a friend, Phil Storey, when we were 18. We dropped out of the local university and both kicked in $50 each.
What did you build in the beginning?
We were building psychedelic lights, dimmers, mixers, guitar amps and column P.A.s. Later, we started a rental division, mainly lights and some sound. Also, this was in the good old days of oil and water wet shows and film loops and color organs and smoke machines…we'd rent those things out to events, parties and clubs.
Was the club scene good then?
We had an active live music scene. But also remember, this was during the Vietnam War, so there were a lot of soldiers on R&R. The rental part helped finance our R&D but…we were just a couple of kids! As the company grew, we brought in other friends– one or two are still with the company today. But then, we two partners weren't exactly agreeing, so we sold out and Phil went to work for the company that bought us, and I went off doing some other lighting and sound work.
How did you meet Roy Clair?
He was out here with Clair Brothers when they were on tour with Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1969. They were big at the time and did an outdoor show at a racetrack. I got in over the fence and just went up and started talking to Roy. He had the first big sound system Australia had ever seen.
We hit it off, and Roy ended up leaving that system with me and I kept it in my garage. Six months later, we did a Johnny Cash tour with the Carter Family and Carl Perkins. I ended up touring in the States with that tour.
So you started working for Clair then?
Roy invited me to stop by their place in Lititz, Penn., and I did when I was on my way to England because…well, that's what Australians did back then. They went to England. [Laughs]
They were based in this barn and had a bunch of gear they were working on. I thought I would be able to make a lot of contributions, so I joined up working on electronics and doing various shows and tours.
What did you work on?
Probably most notable was their mixing console, which became the Clair mainstay into the 1980s. It was the first to fold out of a case, because I was tired of lifting them out of the case! It was called the Clair Folding Console, which I developed with Ron Borthwick and their crew.
It was the first console to have plasma bar graph meters, which also displayed simultaneous RMS and peak levels. And it was the first live mixing console to have parametric EQ. It's hard to imagine or remember, but before that, the only EQ options were external graphic equalizers and various stepped frequency filters. To be able to continuously tune the frequency and change the shape was a new experience.
And then there was Elvis.
Yes, I did sound for him for his last six years. I have sound bites from him, of him complaining to me for one thing or another…of times when he stopped the show and got me on stage to stand next to him to hear what he was hearing–that was embarrassing. Then other times, he would introduce me or stop the show and sing "Happy Birthday" to me.
How did that gig come about?
Things didn't operate then as they do now. It was regional. If you were doing Texas, you called Showco. Then when you moved onto to San Francisco, you called McCune. When you played the Northeast, you called Clair.
So I went out with Elvis on Northeast shows, and we did a lot of pioneering on that tour. We had to hang the sound gear–not for sound quality, but to get more buns in the seats. And hanging the speakers was a real challenge–taking the lead from ice shows, we were the first sound company to take CM chain hoists and hang them upside down to pull the speakers up in the air. Now it's not uncommon to see 70 of those hoists on a tour, but in the beginning, we hung the entire P.A. system on one.
Fortunately, a lot of other companies working with Elvis had troubles, and of course, we had our troubles. But I guess they didn't realize it, and they liked me enough to ask me to go along and do all their shows. At first, I'd be their link to local sound companies, then after a while, I said, "Why don't we just take Clair Sound with us everywhere?" People don't realize he worked a lot. I did hundreds of shows with him.
And you were there when Elvis left the building–for good.
I was in Maine with his manager, Colonel Parker, at the next gig he was supposed to play when we both heard for the first time he was gone. At the time you don't realize it's a big deal, working with someone like Elvis, but later on you get perspective…
Tell us about working with Bruce Springsteen.
It was 1978, and Bruce Springsteen was going out on the road on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. They were having some trouble, and I was asked to help sort things out. I was able to offer a bunch of suggestions, and he and I hit it off and he asked me to stay.
He's known to be particularly particular about his sound.
He was on his way up then, going from theatres to bigger venues, and he was uptight about the sound. But he really supported me at doing a better job, so I could do acoustic control, put up curtains.…he'd walk around all the venues with me while the band played and ask why he couldn't hear something at a particular spot, and I'd tell him why, and he'd say, "Let's fix it." Bruce put me on retainer and I worked his tours for the next 10 years.
How did Apogee come about?
I went to Japan in the early 80s and Hibino, the sound company, gave me this new CD player, and I was all excited about it. I went and bought some CDs, thinking this was God's gift to audio, and I was so disappointed. It was harsh and clinical, and totally lacked warmth. So, I got interested in improving that.
How did you do it?
We studied the way the Japanese were converting the music to digital, and they were doing it textbook perfect, but they weren't taking into account the negatives of what the process was doing to the sound. So we were able to use different kinds of filters and make radical improvements in the sound quality.
Initially, these filters went just into digital multitrack recorders, then they went into mastering machines, then they were all over the place. Manufacturers like Otari and Mitsubishi started putting them in at the factory, and it got to the point that people wouldn't buy a machine without our equipment in it.
But then you sold that.
Yes, as a result of a divorce, believe it or not.
During this time, you started working with Barbra Streisand.
She is a perfectionist, and she was prepared to do what we needed to do, and that included carpets, hanging drapes, things like that. That's what tipped the balance to me–having this carte blanche ability to do the stuff you really want to do, but no one lets you because it costs too much money.
And now you are with Lake Technology, which you formed with Dave McGrath.
We started the company with Clair backing, called Clair Technologies LLC. It was acquired by Lake Technology.
What are you working on now?
What's great about Lake is that Dolby now owns it, and they really love what we're doing. They see it as an extension of what they started, and that is improving the quality of recording through noise reduction, etc.
We've developed new processors for live sound, which have found their way to seven out of 10 of the top tours. We have built 3,000 of them.
Right now, we're working with Lake's 5.1 surround sound experimenting with personal monitors. Around 50% of the big tours use PMs, but it can make the performer not feel connected with the band or the audience. They live in their own world.
So we're applying that technology and processing it so you can move the sound outside the performers head and create more natural space and even position different instruments around them. We're really excited about the technology.
Bruce, you don't sound like you're slowing down. No one would accuse you of the worst if you kicked back a bit….
[Laughs] No, I'm actually doing more! We're working on other things here, and I'm the director of sound of the Asian Games coming up in December next year, and that will have a whole new set of challenges.
You're being honored with the Parnelli Innovator Award at LDI in Orlando next month….
As I've said, I'm surprised I'm Parnelli recipient number two. This award tells me that my innovations were valuable and appreciated by others. Thanks!
These moments often give pause to retrospection… any thoughts?
I think it's disappointing that accountants have so much control these days, but I guess it's become a real business. It's probably a little less personal now, and tours are structured more like a corporation. The days of showing up and shooting from the hip are over, and you better know exactly what's going on before you get to the gig.
But generally, it's amazing, the technology that ends up on a tour now. The processors, the digital consoles–it's so exciting. You can do so much more now with digital than you could even dream of doing in analog.
