Working under a retainer system has enabled the company to build a core of high-quality engineers who work with each other and don’t feel a need to hold information back. “When a freelance engineer works on the road and discovers a particular trick that makes the sound better in a particular space, no matter what it is, he says to himself, ‘That’s my edge. I’m a better engineer because I know that. I’m an independent person, I need the job and that helps contribute to getting me the next job.’ With our lads, whenever they bump into each other, they’ll sit down and say, ‘Listen, if you ever do this particular venue don’t ever stack it like this, do it like this.’ That’s the key to moving forward as a group.”

The current crew at Concert Sound has been together for many years and, according to Boyle, is like-minded in their desire for high-quality sound, creating a forum where anyone can bounce new ideas and new ways of doing things back and forth. “Nobody says ‘That’s my bit of information, I’m not going to tell anybody how I did that,’” notes Boyle. “When we’re looking at a system or a way of doing things, they’ll come back and say, ‘I heard so and so, it sounded really good.’ Or, ‘I heard so and so and it was rubbish.’ There’s an advantage to having a lot of voices. When three of them say it’s rubbish and three of them say it’s good, which hardly ever happens, you sit there and say, ‘well I don’t really know.’ But when six out of six or ten out of ten say I heard that, it was wonderful or I heard this and it was rubbish, you think they all heard it at different times under different circumstances. You have a more complete answer.”

Concert Sound's KF850 rig at German Festival mid 1990's

For the last dozen years, Concert Sound’s speaker of choice has been EAW. The company first came into contact with EAW when they used the speakers for a John Denver tour. Denver was playing venues such as Albert Hall, which the company was familiar with, and he had only a guitar and a piano to accompany him. “We were offered some EAW to try at quite a reasonable price. We sat there and looked at the equipment and felt at that sort of price it would certainly do. Then we listened to it and we thought, ‘well, that will certainly do it!’ We went and bought 24 boxes and after the Denver tour was over we thought, ‘well, that works alright, doesn’t it?’ And we bought some more.”

Today, the company carries a full line of EAW product including the 900 Series, which is out on Clapton’s “Reptile” tour. At Eisteddfod, Concert Sound brought EAW 850s, 750s, KF300s and JF80s to do cover that job. Boyle says the only exceptions are wedge monitors, which he designed and the company uses with the EAW systems.

The bottom line, says Boyle, is doing whatever it takes to make the artist happy. “When I’m designing anything, whether it’s a stage box , a patch-in system or a fly-in system, I always try to design it so that it goes up as quickly and efficiently as possible to give the engineers more time with the artists. Some people design systems that way so they don’t have to do too much work. But we do it so the engineers can get right what needs to be gotten right and to build a rapport with the artist. I know that’s a subtle thing, but it’s an ethos within our company.”

“The greatest improvement in sound is when the artist plays well,” continues Boyle. “I learned that when I was in a band years ago. We got played off the stage by a band with incredibly inferior equipment. I just sat there and thought you don’t make it because of the equipment, you make it because the artist plays well. It sounds good if they’re firing off of each other and having a good time onstage.”

For further information on Concert Sound go to www.concert-sound.co.uk.

Related Stories:

When Mr. Clapton Came to Town
Clapton System Network
Q&A with Spectrum's Curtis Flatt
Clapton and the EAW KF900 System