Gand Sound Installations of Northfield, IL recently had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go back in time and equip a tribute to a legendary British rock club with a sound system from the 21st century.
John Lyons, leader of Chicago charity rock band “Not For Profit” built a replica of Liverpool’s Cavern Club in the over-sized basement of a home he was having built. The original Cavern Club is the well known for giving the Beatles their start and where they perfected the sound that hugely impacted the music industry.
While Lyons was in London on business, he visited Abbey Road Studios and discovered that bricks from the original Cavern Club, which had been demolished, were for sale in a local gift shop.
Profits from the sale of the bricks are donated to charity, and that caught Lyons’ attention since he donates the sale of tickets for his band’s gigs to charity.
Carrying a brick he purchased home in his luggage to suburban Chicago, he went to work with his contractor to match the brick for an all-brick performance venue.
Complete with working bar and underground wine cellar, Lyons called upon nearby Gand Sound Installations to complete the audio portion of the club.
“John was used to high-quality audio from his portable road rig, but didn’t have the ceiling height or stage space for his tour boxes,” states Gary Gand, President. “So, we flew a pair of NEXO PS10U loudspeakers up close to the ceiling and hid a NEXO LS 500 subwoofer off stage to give him a big sound in a small package.”
In addition, Gand provided a drum shield from Clearsonic on stage, QSC RMX 850 and RMX 2450s amps driven by a NEXO PS10UTD controller, and using Lyon’s existing console, added a new custom snake from Rapco.
Since this was an in-home installation, all cabling was hidden in faux-painted wire mold.
“If the Beatles could have performed here, I’m sure they would have enjoyed the vast improvement in the audio from the days of yore,” Lyons said.
