LEEDS, UK–"You've got to feel sorry for the English football team," said a tongue in cheek Roger Daltrey, "Having to play for ninety minutes in all that heat." This from a man old enough to be their grandfather, who for two hours, produced a performance that, had this been the world cup final, he'd be bringing home the trophy. Opening with "Who Are You?" The Who dispelled in seconds any doubts about their passion and fire; having hit the stage at pace, Daltrey, Townsend and the rest of the band then proceeded to lean gently on the accelerator and amaze us all for two hectic hot, sweaty and triumphal hours.
This show, the first in a tour that's set to run for a year was staged at Leeds University refectory, where thirty-six years earlier the band had drawn a line in the sand for live recording with Live at Leeds'. "The pressure was really on," said a remarkably relaxed Paul Ramsay at the FOH, "this needed to sound authentic."
Ramsay was in the fortuitous position of mixing for The Who thanks to a recommendation from Dick Hayes at Entec Sound and Light; Entec being the audio contractor for this short first leg before the band move into festival mode for the summer. Although this was the first time the band had played here since recording that famous live album, Ramsay had been to the refectory several times so he was fully conversant with the venue's shortcomings. To overcome them he used a d&b audiotechnik Q-Series system
"For the Leeds Uni I just did a bit of EQ to the system; the room can be a bit boomy, but in actual fact, once the audience were in, it was less of a problem." Ramsay explained. "It's not a nice sounding room generally, but being able to fly the PA, and I believe this was the first time it's ever been done in there, helped a lot." Ramsay had six Q1s dead hung from each end of the front truss, trimmed tight to the refectory ceiling. "I just had to add a couple of Q1s on top of the B2 subwoofers on the floor below. I ended up not needing the Q-SUBs at all, except for the delay PA system in the bar area immediately behind the mix position." The bar area is virtually a separate room at the opposite end from the refectory stage; here Ramsay deployed a ground stacked Q-Series system, five high SUBs in cardioid mode, as were the B2s at the stage end, with Q1s above.
As Ramsay mentioned, his misgivings regarding the refectory room acoustic were ameliorated by the effect of the large crowd. The high temperatures of a balmy June night and high humidity the audience produced enhancing sound transmission generally, and soaking up any inherent low-end boominess. When it all finally climaxed with a howling rendition of "Won't get fooled again" members of Oasis and Kaiser Chiefs, and an audience of two thousand one hundred turned open mouthed in amazement and headed for the doors.
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