Article

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

History Files: The Genesis Of Clair Bros To Today

The building of one of the most significant entities in modern touring sound reinforcement, and still going strong

The story of Clair Brothers starts in 1954, when a grocer decided to purchase a PA system as a Christmas gift for his two sons, Gene and Roy Clair.

“He had no knowledge of electronics or anything!” exclaimed Roy Clair of the extremely unusual present.

“I like to think my father was ‘Clair’-voyent in choosing this as a gift.”

The two brothers enjoyed using their PA to provide sound reinforcement for local dances, Easter egg hunts, etc.“The PA bug had bitten us!”

In 1963, Gene and Roy had purchased a loudspeaker re-coning business from a local music store.

This allowed them to acquire loudspeakers at the dealer level, granting the opportunity to build them for a local music store in Lancaster.

When musicians would visit from out of town to purchase loudspeakers, such as Baltimore’s Billy Joel Royal, it allowed Roy and Gene to go hear their products in use at local clubs.

“It was extremely gratifying, and I believe it was then that we realized that working with musicians would somehow be a fun career.

It was the same time we realized that having fun while making money was possible.”

F&M, a local liberal arts college in Lancaster, PA soon requested the brothers’ services to support headlining acts.

Now working in a 4,000-seat facility, one of the largest in the area, the duo would see their first brush with fame in 1966 when Dionne Warwick performed at the college.

“At the time, we had a Bogen MX-60, a few Shure microphones, and two column loudspeakers containing six 8-inch full-range loudspeakers each.

The concert went well, but looking back, we were lucky to start with an easy listening performer or things may have gone entirely different!

Timing and luck is something that has stayed with us our entire careers.”

Not long after working with Warwick, the brothers’ path would cross with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons at the F&M venue.

Valli showed a vested interest in the duo’s Voice of the Theater A7-500 loudspeakers, particularly since the group had just performed in Miami, FL, and were denied the use of another artists’ sound reinforcement system.

“They were second on the bill to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass at the Fontainebleau Hotel.

Alpert was not only a musician, but also a sound fanatic. It was no surprise that they were carrying their own sound system.

Unfortunately only Alpert would be allowed to use his system, while opening acts would have to settle for using the house PA system – even the Four Seasons’ wives and girlfriends noticed how much better Alpert sounded.

Timing and luck would strike again as our A7’s helped to make their F&M show incredible.

Valli felt they needed their own system if they were going to be successful on the road, and these two young lads were available – and cheap too!”

The brothers were working for $100 per show, including transportation, per-diem and hotels. They obviously weren’t doing it to make money at that point.

“If I remember correctly, after our first tour, in Ohio, we ended up with approximately $40 profit.”

Hardly a profitable tour, even for those days. The brothers weren’t aware of other sound companies touring like they were, but they assumed that they were one of the first to do so.

Touring with the Four Seasons and their continuing work at F&M necessitated a second sound system.

“In the beginning, I think we did a lot of begging and borrowing to do both accounts. Eventually we saved up enough and bought more A7’s.

However, with musical tastes changing as bands got progressively louder, we realized that our A7’s weren’t adequate enough anymore.

We used some of our A7-825 cabinets, and added more power by inserting two loudspeakers in the same-sized box. That seems pretty straightforward by today’s standards, but back then, it was innovation.

We had a slight advantage because we had a double-woofer, horn-loaded cabinet which was portable.

We added power with the first 300 watts per channel Crown DC300 directcoupled amplifier, purchased at the AES Show in 1968 from Clive Moore. It made us unique at the time.”

In 1968, a Cream concert at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA, was the now named Clair Brothers’ first large concert with 18,000 people in attendance. “Cream was big luck for us!” states Clair. “Luck and timing rides again!

Bob Kirnan, a sound and lighting technician from New York City who we met while touring with the Four Seasons, was contracted to do the show but was too busy. He recommended Clair Brothers to the show’s promoter.”

With their new Crown amplifiers, Altec Lansing cells with 288-C drivers, paired with Clair Brothers’ bass bottoms containing dual Altec woofers, they seemed to be the perfect fit for the in-the-round performance.

“Coming from Lititz, PA, we were extremely low-profile up to this point. That show in Philadelphia would soon change that…”

The Philadelphia promoter, the Electric Factory, soon started hiring Clair Brothers for shows, in addition to introducing them to many of the San Francisco bands that were successful at the time.

They also worked for the Belkin Brothers in Cleveland, OH, doing one-off shows.

“Their particular sound was instrumental in our company’s next step.

We started appearing on riders as one of the qualified sound companies for concerts, including Hanley from Boston, Kirnan from New York, McCune from San Francisco, and Swanson from Oakland.

Needless to say, Clair Brothers from Lititz didn’t get a lot of attention.”

As business started to increase, the brothers quit their day jobs and focused on building Clair Brothers full-time. They hired their first fulltime employees.

“We were lucky to have incredibly talented people from a rural area that wouldn’t normally be associated with the sound industry in larger cities.

Donald Gehman was our first employee, who did amazing things with Clair Brothers and went on to be one of the recording industry’s best engineers (R.E.M., Still, Mellancamp).

Ron Borthwick, with an EE degree from PENN State, is one of the best engineers in the industry, is still working for Clair Brothers to this day.

Dave Hendel, EE from Lehigh University, who moved on to a computer company. These were some of the few that gave Clair Brothers its start.”

The next four years, from 1968 to 1972, would see product development expand within the company.

Many “firsts” were built by Clair Brothers, including slant monitors, four-way sound systems, electronic crossovers (built by SAE), and the Elvis aluminum hanging system.

“The fourway systems contained W boxes for low end, a double-12 cone for the mid-range – built by Clair Brothers, JBL radials for the high frequency, and JBL for the super-high frequencies. Somewhere in between 1969 and 1970, Clair Brothers switched from Altec Lansing to JBL.”

The year 1970 also saw Bruce Jackson join the company, who would bring new design ideas to the company.

“We also added a lot of accounts at this time, both American and English. Blood, Sweat and Tears was a full-time account that gave us some financial stability.

We then later added Elton John, Moody Blues, Yes, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, the Jacksons, etc., as accounts.”

In 1974, a large leap forward was made by the company with the creation of its S4, single-box loudspeaker system (the first all-in-one four-way box), with its hanging grid system.

Previewed on Rod Stewart’s tour that year, the S4 created industry buzz, to the point that when Mick Jagger came to Stewart’s show, Clair Brothers was hired for the Rolling Stones 1975 tour after he heard the system.

The S4 included high frequency drivers from JBL (2 x 18-inch, 4 x 10-inch, 2 x 2-inch, and 2 x 2405). Truck dimensions played an important role in the sizing of the S4, to allow them to fit two across in a standard trailer.

The S4 has lasted over 36 years, with updates as needed, allowing it to continually serve the touring industry.

The loudspeakers were even used in 2008 for the closing of the NY Mets stadium in New York City.

Clair Brothers’ patented i4 system along with its engineering digital processing continued to drive the company to the forefront of the audio industry. The Lake I/O originally designed by Clair Brothers, which was sold to Lake was a very important part of this next step in the history of innovation.

The dream that Gene and Roy started when they formed Clair Brothers is being kept alive with the second generation, namely Troy and Barry Clair.

The company has formed two divisions, with one son handling each one: Troy handles the touring side, while Barry has run the systems installation side since 1989.

Nearby Manheim, PA, is the site of the new facility has been constructed to house the systems division of the company, Clair Brothers Audio Systems, as the company has outgrown its headquarters.

The freed up space will allow the touring division to continue its own expansion.

Clair Brothers is proud of its rich history, from supporting just one show per night with the Four Seasons in 1966, to now delivering high quality sound systems to a multitude of world class acts, night after night, the world over. The story continues.

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