Imagine you’re a tour/production manager and share audio duties with another. You’re having to choose the sound gear for a 10-person revue. And the entire rig you go out with — including a 48-channel console — needs to fit in your wife’s 2004 Hyundai Elantra GT. Such is the case for one Bill Girdwood, who adds, “and that leaves room for me — I’m seven feet tall and weigh almost 300 pounds!” However, he is quick to add that he’s not recommending the Hyundai as an alternative to the traditional tour bus.
On a Mission from God
“The Blues Brothers Revue is a 10-piece show with bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, two horns, two female singers, plus ‘Jake’ and ‘Elwood,’” Girdwood says. “Jake and Elwood are played by Wayne Catania and Kieron Lafferty [respectively], and they’re really good. They have been at it for a long time, doing it about 15 years.” When the late John Belushi’s wife saw them, she was so impressed she brought Dan Aykroyd in and they created this official Blues Brother Revue.
The big guns didn’t stop there: Paul Schaffer, original member of the Saturday Night Live band and the man who introduced the Blues Brothers to the world in a skit where he played Don Kirshner, is the honorary music director and actually rehearsed with the band and has sat in from time to time. “I’ve never been more impressed with a musician,” Girdwood says. “He’s fun to watch, and he gets a lot of good stuff out of the band.”
The show begins with a video set-up, if the venue is capable of such. “There’s definitely a lot of comedy — it’s not just a concert. That’s what separates it: there’s a competent blues band plus a theatrical element.” It enjoyed good reviews this past spring and early summer, and is currently taken a short break before going back out in the fall and winter.
Girdwood hails from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. In the 1970s, he found himself driving gear around for an Irish band, and then setting up said gear, followed by figuring out how to operate it. In the 1980s, he was turning knobs for the 1,000-seat Halifax Rebecca Cohn Theatre. From there, he started going out on the road with acts including The Rovers. Today he’s based in Point Clark, Ontario.
“The Blues Brother gig came about from a friend of a friend,” Girdwood explains. The drummer for what would be this incarnation of the Blue Brothers recommended him as tour/production manager. He shares production duties with Nate Stewart and, while Girdwood handled audio for the initial set and rehearsal in Las Vegas, Stewart mixes as well. “On the upcoming tour, Nate will look after the lighting rigs and handle video, and I’ll again handle audio on that run.”
Gear-wise, this well-respected engineer also made an interesting choice: He went largely with Roland equipment, including an M480 console, digital snake system and M48 personal cue mixers. “I had been dealing with Roland on other projects, and just found what they have now to be spectacular for my needs,” he says. “It’s very flexible, and there’s something for every purpose.”
Another one of his clients is David Clayton Thomas of Blood, Sweat and Tears. Girdwood used Roland with him and other acts, with no complaints. Roland pro audio is “definitely not the flavor of the month, but it’s really good when artists hire you and don’t dictate what equipment to use. When people hire me and there are no riders, I go Roland.”
Get Your Own (Monitor) Mix
Girdwood is definitely a fan of Roland’s M48s. “These personal mixers are the whole reason we’re going in the Roland direction,” he states. “Everyone in the band has their own personal mixer, so sound check is just a check to see if the equipment is working. There are no major changes, which is good, because Nate and I are in a multi-tasking situation where we’re covering a lot of the basic technical and road manager duties. Once the console is up and running, you just leave them on stage and they are pretty much on their own, just picking up from where they left off the night before.”
Another big plus with this particular Roland system is that everyone on stage has the same mixer and can route the others and assign up to 16 channels as they please. For example, the backup singers might just want all the drum mics assigned to one channel, but the rhythm section might want to divide those individual snare/bass drum/high-hat across a larger array of channels.
The system has other perks too. Each individual musician can add reverb, a little EQ and even pan. “The best thing might be the silliest thing,” Girdwood says smiling. “They put a small ambient mic on each personal mixer — probably a two-dollar Radio Shack-like mic — that allows for ambient noise to be put in the mix, so everyone can put a little bit of the room sound into the mix. Someone at Roland had the wherewithal to think of that, and it works great.”
Everyone uses the monitors, except for the always-running (when not cartwheeling) Jake (a.k.a. Wayne). “He’s got a very physical role, and I didn’t see a time when he could adjust his mix, but he and I have a system for him. Everyone else just plugs in.”
The Roland M-480 48 Channel audio console handles it all well, and it all adds up to one ridiculously compact system — as in Hyundai compact.
A Certain Standard
Shure PSM1000 in-ear systems are being used, but a good wireless for the harmonica took some trial and error. They ended up with an interesting hybrid: the Shure UR3 plug on a wireless transmitter with the 1960s model Unidyne 111 head.
“We’re a fan of the Shure vocal products and went with the UHR because of the scanning capabilities,” Girdwood notes. “We’re always confident we’ll get a clean frequency.”
The vast majority of shows just go through the house speakers, though if he ever gets a choice in the matter, he says he’s a fan of EAW, particularly their KF 730s.
The key challenge that remains is to ensure that the shows sound good in a wide array of different venues.
“The goal was to play the 1,000-to-2,000 seat theaters, but we do have a scaled-down version for places even smaller, or if we’re playing outdoors. Of course, each place requires understanding the different logistics, which is another technical reason we went with Roland. We wanted to remove a lot of variables.” This includes using Line 6 Pods for guitar and bass. With no big amps or stage monitors, all this adds up to a compellingly clean stage.
“The lineage of Jake and Elwood Blues is a major piece of pop history, and it’s nice to portray it well,” he says. “People expect a certain standard, and we try to take it up a notch from there. The Roland products make it quick and easy.”
Blues Brothers Revue
Gear
1 Roland V Series M480 console
1 Roland digital snake with two 1608 stage boxes
1 Roland S-4000D splitter and power distro
10 Roland M48 personal mixers
4 Shure PSM1000 IEMs
6 Shure UHF-R handheld systems channels
5 Shure Beta 58 heads
1 Shure UR3 plug-on transmitter for harmonica with the 1960s model Unidyne 111 head
1 Roland P-10 Video Playback
(Main PA speakers and amps supplied by venue)
