Capital Productions raises a pint to the Pub Landlord

Comedians are becoming the new rock and roll. They have gone from performing to theatre sized venues to now being able to sell out arenas with audiences similar in size to a pop or rock concert. Over the past 5 years, Capital have worked on tours for modern day comedians such as Eddie Izzard, Frank Skinner, Lee Evans and Russell Howard, with the latest being Al Murray the Pub Landlord.

Al Murray began his UK tour back in February where he spent 2 months navigating mid sized theatres, eventually arriving at Manchester Apollo where Capital Productions supplied a taster for the sort of production that could be achieved in larger venues for the arena leg in April.

In continuing their relationship with Avalon Promotions, Capital Productions went on to supply a full production package consisting of sound and sourced lights and video for the Pub Landlord’s 18 date arena UK tour. Tour Manager Adam Booker also twisted Paul Timmins’s arm to venture out of the office and back on the road again as Production Manager.

With Paul Timmins involved, he built upon the theatre system to design a stage look that would give an intimate feel in large venues, from smaller arenas like the CIA in Cardiff to the O2 Arena in London. The art is to create the right intimate feel in a large space and Capital Productions worked hard on the design to create a suitable stage feel for Al Murray and the audience.

Paul Timmins explained, “The main challenge is always delivering a high end sound reproduction for the spoken word, something we’re proud of managing to do over the years. Since the earlier years with Eddie Izzard, we’ve worked towards coming up with a design which involves a distributed system aimed at overcoming the natural room ambiance associated with many UK large arenas.”

The tour cruised along smoothly from start to finish. No seat relocations were required due to sound or production problems and as a result of Paul’s close involvement with management at each venue, he was able to monitor this issue closely. However, a daunting challenge was to discover that Al’s main microphone consisted of a miniature lapel microphone inserted into his Pub Landlord tie rather than the use of a more conventional one.

The speaker system supplied on this tour was a sizeable Martin W8LC/W8LCD for the main and side hangs and Martin Audio W8LM for delays and ground fills.

Heading up mixing duties was Phil Tame who had previously worked on the Lee Evans tours in 2005 and 2008, with Pete Hughes (PA Tech) and Liam Tucker (PA Tech) completing the sound team.

 

CSE so far this year...

A very busy start to year with Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) shows for the MOD. Capital Productions have taken a variety of Comedy, Full Band and Bandioke shows on the road to entertain the troops in Kosovo, Iraq, Salalah, Afghanistan, Falklands and Cyprus – and we’re only a few months into the year! 

The recent Afghanistan tour consisted of Full Band shows featuring Lucie Silvas, James Fox, comedians Sean Collins and Mark Walker and the CSE dancers. With transportation provided by a Hercules aircraft and accommodation in the form of tents… this obviously wasn’t your average rock n roll tour! However, all of the cast and crew were nothing but true professionals and pulled together to help create 6 shows over 7 days in 4 different venues from mess halls and gyms to the Kandahar Boardwalk entertaining audiences ranging from 200 to 1750 people!

PA was ground stacked Martin Audio 3 x 218X subs and up to 5 x Martin Audio W8LC per side. For the first time we sent a Yamaha LS9 out as a Monitor console and FOH was an Allen and Heath GL4000

Capital provided production including a full sound, light and video package.  Crew included: Charles Ellery (Production Manager), Simon Travis (Front of House), Liam Tucker (Monitors), John “Spoons” Clark (Lighting Designer) and Duncan Burgess (Lighting Operator).

Level 42 play shows in Denmark and Holland

Level 42 began the year with shows in Europe.  Capital supplied production for 3 shows in Denmark at venues including the Musikhus, Park Hallen and Idraetshal in February followed by 2 shows at the Theater aan de Parade in Holland.

A busy year is set for the boys including performing at the Hague Jazz Festival in May, Genk On Stage Festival in Belgium and a UK Tour in October which Capital will be supplying full production on.

We should be so lucky!

In August, Kylie celebrated her 20th anniversary of being number one in the charts and Capital Productions were so lucky, lucky, lucky to be asked to do the production on the event.  Held in a marquee at Fulham Palace, Capital supplied a package which included sound, lights, staging, video screen, dance floor, dj booth and bar for the intimate party.

 

At the races

Sony day out at Ascot Racecourse

In July, Ascot Racecourse played host to Sony’s staff day out and following on from Capital’s previous work with the electronics and entertainment giant, a package of sound, lights and staging was supplied for the post race concert featuring top UK Sony artist Lemar.

 

Sony the one and only

Sony Weybridge

After previously being involved on the same event back in 2003/04 Capital were back on board providing production for Sony’s gala staff dinner held at their headquarters in Weybridge. A full sound, lights and staging package was supplied for the awards ceremony and performances by the band Satellites and X-factor finalist Ben Mills.

 

Sony Radio Awards Aftershow

Following on from that event, Capital were asked to provide production for the Sony Radio Awards Aftershow party in the Ballroom at the Grosvenor House Hotel. In addition to the full sound, lights and staging provided, it was the first time Capital had supplied a laser package which was a visual spectacular. Natasha Bedingfield performed onstage with a full band and the evening ended with a DJ set by Radio 1’s JK & Joel.

And all that jazz

Grammy award winning jazz band the Manhattan Transfer approached Capital in April to provide production for the Okritie Finance Jazz Party in the Ballroom at the Sheraton Park Lane hotel. A full sound, lights and staging package was supplied for this corporate event attended by employees of the Russian finance industry who had flown into London for a conference during the week.

CSE heating things up in Dubai

Capital Productions and Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) headed to Dubai at the beginning of April to entertain the sailors of HMS Sutherland. The full band Going Out Tonight show held in the Ballroom at the Le Meridian hotel included the band Space, the lovely CSE dancers and comedians Terry Alderton and Paul Tonkinson. Capital Productions supplied crew and a full sound and lights package was provided by a local supplier.

 

The Empires of rock strike back with a sold out arena tour

Capital finished a busy 2006 with Paul Timmins as Production Manager on Kasabian’s sold out UK Arena Tour. 

The tour saw 2 days production rehearsals at Bray Studios followed by 2 hometown shows at Leicester’s De Montford Hall and arena dates around the country with the highlight being London’s Earls Court. Capital designed the production along side Vince Foster to meet the powerful dynamics required of the band and to suit the budget supplied. All shows demonstrated that fantastic sound and light production combined with an energetic band are still the main ingredients needed to deliver a powerful rock show.

 

 

CSE Soldiering on

Capital Productions and Combined Services Entertainment (CSE) travelling to many territories entertaining the troops with bands, dancers and comedians in 2006. 

In September a small comedy package headed out to Kosovo as well as shows in Cyprus. This was followed by a full band package at the Hilton in Jakarta for the Navy in November.  The most recent event involved Capital providing a full production package for a great show on the white-sand beach by the Hilton Salalah in Oman.

Level 42 tour Europe

Capital Productions masterminded Level 42’s touring needs across the UK and Europe.

These shows were tour managed between Paul Timmins and Charlie Ellery allowing them to concentrate on other projects during the tour. Rehearsals took place at John Henrys in late September before a warm up show at Café de Paris in early October, followed by a 5 week full production tour of the UK and 4 weeks in Europe. With Mike Lindup rejoining the band, business was good with the highlight being the sold out Royal Albert Hall show in late October. Capital are looking forward to a busy 2007 with Level 42 commencing with shows in Indonesia in late February and a busy summer predicted.