LAS VEGAS — The Parnelli Awards Board of Directors has announced that Roy Clair and Gene Clair will be receiving this year’s Parnelli Audio Innovator Award honoring their decades in the live entertainment industry. Having built the formable sound touring company, Clair Bros., into one of the biggest in the industry, the two will be honored for their work, innovations and contributions at a gala award ceremony, Oct. 24, in Las Vegas.
“Roy and Gene have set the standard for touring concert audio,” declares Michael Tait of Tait Towers, an acclaimed set designer and longtime associate of the brothers. “Since the 1960s, many sound companies have come and gone, but only Clair Brothers remain. This success is due to continuous technical innovation and an uncompromising quest for perfection in equipment, personnel and service.”
From their humble origins in Litiz, Pa., the brothers built an empire of audio and later expanded into all facets of the live event business. Starting in the mid-1960s when both were attending local colleges, they took a high-end speaker and amplifier rig their dad bought for them and used it during a Franklin & Marshall College concert staring Dionne Warwick. The college was so pleased they were hired to do sound for all their shows. After performing there, Frankie Vallie was so impressed that he invited the brothers on the road, and their path was forged.
Their reputation for quality could not be kept secret and soon they were working for the likes of the Beach Boys, James Brown, Elton John and the Rolling Stones. Much of the gear was custom-crafted, and they pioneered many innovations as their company grew.
“One of their breaks was in the early 1970s, when local promoters provided the PA systems for the Yes tour,” Tait says. “I was on tour and every gig was a new adventure in bad sound. That was until Akron, Ohio, where the Clair Brothers were hired. What a difference! They provided the clear, consistent, high fidelity sound we were lacking by experienced, professional crews and engineers. And so that condition continues today.”
Today they are working 50 to 60 shows every night. Most recently, they were called on to provide audio for the Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium. They are an integral part of the Late Show with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live. They were one of the first to apply their knowledge of concert sound to houses of worship.
“From the very dawn of rock history, the Brothers Clair have stood at the head of the Touring Sound Industry,” declares Patrick Stansfield, tour manager/producer and a Parnelli Awards executive director. “Never sacrificing quality for portability, they coupled elegant packaging and quality audio into high art. The incredible roster of talents they’ve fostered and the artists in their client list alone speak their history loudly. No one has outshone the Clairs' unique combination of business acumen, audio innovation and service to artists and audiences.”
Dennis Sheehan, currently tour manager for U2, and Michael Tait, the founder of Tait Towers Co., will also be honored at the gala awards ceremony. Sheehan will receive the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award. Tait will receive the new Parnelli Visionary Award. Each honoree has devoted four decades of service to the live events industry.
“Dennis is a great, hardworking and loyal tour manager who has everyone’s best interest at heart all the time,” says fellow tour manager Jake Berry. “I think it’s his enthusiasm and love of the industry that have enabled him to maintain the breakneck speed that the job requires for all these years.” Berry has worked with Sheehan on U2 tours, and is also a veteran of acts like the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Madonna and many others.
Tait’s legacy is wrought in metallic innovation. “Of all the metal-bending geniuses who squeezed art out of aluminum, Michael Tait and his legacy, Tait Towers Co., have developed the paradigm of the artist/craftsman earlier and more completely than any other person in our stagecraft,” says Patrick Stansfield, tour manager/producer and Parnelli Awards executive director.
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For more information on the Parnellis, go to www.parnelliawards.com.
