WalkAThinLine.
12-20-2024, 10:18 AM
Here's an article I found related to the sound and lighting production of Fleetwood Mac's On With the Show tour. It's one of the most comprehensive articles on the band's live performances that I have ever read and it also discussed some of the responsibilities of Steve Rinkov, who was Mick Fleetwood's drum tech at the time and famously sat in for Fleetwood when he became ill. Just a heads up that parts of the article are very dense with technical information pertaining to lighting and audio mixing. Gearheads will likely enjoy this.
Fleetwood Mac: Nothing Less Than Perfect
Fleetwood Mac, known for their untamed sound, is a name that is instantly recognizable anywhere in the world. After touring for a number of years with different personnel configurations, all the original members of the band, including Christine McVie, are back together to present Fleetwood Mac, On with the Show! Mobile Production Monthly was at their show in Nashville, Tennessee to speak with some of the production folks working behind the scenes. Production Designer Paul “Arlo” Guthrie also tells us about his the design this stunning production.
Audio by Clair Global
Our first stop was Monitor World with Monitor Mixer Dave Coyle, who has been with Stevie Nicks for 8 years and with Fleetwood Mac for four of those. Because he had already formed a working relationship with Nicks, anytime she did a Fleetwood Mac project Coyle would help out. Coyle began his industry career as “the guy who could plug everything in.” He started working in clubs when he was a kid, just for fun. When he decided to pursue an electrical degree, Coyle signed on with Showco which was later bought out by Clair Brothers whom he is still with today.
Monitor world has two consoles, one for wedges and the other one for ears. Coyle does the mixing for the ears with a DiGiCo SD10 console. He gave high marks to the DiGiCo products, particularly because he does all of the Pro Tools recording as well. “The nice part about it is how easily they integrate with one another and how easily I can switch back and forth from live audio to recorded audio.” Pro Tools and the console are interfaced so that he can use it to play back the Pro Tools tracks as people want to listen to them.
The Pro Tools system he uses is from Diablo Digital. One of the founders, Greg Price (Ozzy Osborne’s FOH Engineer) came out with a really tight, compact Pro Tools package that fits right under the console. Coyle is grateful for such a useful product that ena- bles him to do an efficient job with killer results. Staffing FOH is FOH Mixer Dave Kob, a Clair Brothers employee since 1975. Along with him is Donovan Friedman, System Engineer, also with Clair Brothers. Kob has been with Fleetwood Mac since 1978. This is Friedman’s third tour with Fleetwood Mac; he began with them in 2009 on the Unleashed tour.
With Clair Brothers being a large part of the Fleetwood Mac tour, it’s no secret that they have their state-of-the-art products out with them. Friedman talked a little about one of Clair’s newer designs, the i5-D and to sum it up “they just sound better.” The i-5D is lighter and more compact which makes for easier transportation, easier to be flown, and can be positioned faster. Not to men- tion they sound great, as they offer exceptionally clean, tight low frequency output throughout the venue.
Kob got his start as he puts it “like 50% of the roadies you’ll ever talk to, went broke playing in blues bands in the early 70’s.” Plus, it didn’t hurt that he was always into audio. He began as a System Engineer for Fleetwood Mac in ’78 when they were doing stadium shows. He followed in the footsteps of former FOH Engineer for the band, Richard Dashut, and has been on and off with Fleetwood Mac since.
Kob uses a Yamaha PM5K, an analog console, which he refers to as the “meat and potatoes” and then a Digidesign Avid Profile sidecar for extra inputs. Kob has been working in analog exclusively and refers to himself as with the coined phrase “Analogasaurus” and says that they are few and far between but “some of us still roam the earth.”
Kob plans to retire at some point, and with his impressive career he will be short of nothing when he does. Throughout his entire career he’s felt very fortunate to get a chance to work with the folks he has gotten to work with, and especially Fleetwood Mac. Some things he won’t miss, “Indianapolis, ever see- ing a Prevo bus again, or going to an airport!” What he’ll miss the most, “I still love mixing live shows, it’s what I’ve been doing for a living my whole adult life. I’ll miss the people and mixing music.”
A constant throughout this tour is the aim for perfection. Everyone on the tour is “top notch all the way down the line” says Steve Rinkov. He is constantly impressed by the crews’ ability to bust out their 35 minute load out time and their ability to “accomplish great feats.” There’s a backline crew of nine.
Gregory ‘Grit’ Frederick is the Lead LED Tech/Video Crew Chief and he was next on our list. Grit got his start as a “friend of a band” and dabbled in things like car- pentry, stage rigging, and then he found his love for video. After working with the country music scene all throughout the 90’s, he began with Screenworks in 1998. He now operates independently through his company Black Thirteen in Las Vegas, NV. He’s been a “gig whore” his entire life. On With the Show is Grit’s first gig with Fleetwood Mac, but he did fill in 1994 on Stevie Nicks’ Street Angels tour, which he says “was a really good time!”
Production Designer Guthrie’s design included moving LED screens and overhead lighting pods that gave him a lot of options to change the look of the stage for each song. Video content was fed from three PRG Mbox media servers to the video screens and projectors that were provided by Screenworks. “The design relies heavily on video content since there are no other scenic elements and no haze used in the show,” explained Guthrie. “We have an upstage wall and three overhead ribbon screens that provide the bulk of the scenic elements to the show. The ribbons are on hoists to vary the depth and look for each song and these provide the majority of the visual look of the show.” PRG provided the mother grid of truss and hoists and all of the lighting trussing and hoists. The motion control was via a TAIT Navigator system. Video Gear from Screenworks included the upstage concave LED wall, made from Screenworks’ X7-HD LED video modules, which is 55’-4” wide by 23’ high and three convex LED ribbons, each 56’ wide by 3’- 10” high consisting of Lighthouse DUO 12mm LED video modules.
The Ribbons move during the show via a Navigator system also supplied by Tait. Operated by Madison Wade and Britney Kiefer. The camera sys- tem is relatively straight forward. There are 4 long lens cameras; two at FOH and two High in seats or on upper concourses. And the stage is covered by an overhead remote Sony BRC 700 for mostly drum shots and another Sony BRC 700 on the drum riser. Several smaller POV cameras are used around the stage for various chores.
The LED Walls are mostly content driven and IMAG is shown via two Barco HDF 26K Projectors onto 21 by 15 side screens on stage right and left and two rear projection screens, each 12’ by 21.5.’
The lighting design for On With the Show was handled also by Guthrie and programmed by Lighting Director Chris Lose, “with me meddling, a little,” commented Guthrie. Ronald Beal is the Lighting Crew Chief with PRG for Fleetwood Mac and “is supported by a cast of favorites on the crew,” added Guthrie.
Beal has been on most of the Fleetwood Mac tours since 2002. A Nashville resident at one time, he was a Middle Tennessee State University student who worked in their Tucker Theatre as their Master Electrician. In 1993, Vari-Lite did a demo in the theatre which then led to new opportunities for Beal. He started touring shortly after and has worked with acts like Taylor Swift, Sheryl Crow, and Madonna just to name a few. Of all of the tours he has been a part of, “this is one of the top couple of tours to work on as far as enjoyability,” said Beal.
I asked him to tell me about anything exciting or interesting going on in lighting for the tour, and Beal told me, “The band prefers no haze for their show, which has become highly unusual for any tour these days. They are aware of the potential effect on their voices.” Granted without haze you get no beams of light, defined colors slashing the air, but what you do get is a clean view of the stage, artists, and any other visuals you might otherwise not see so clearly. Personally it was refreshing to see everything happening on stage without a hazy fog restricting my vision.
Lose controls the lighting with a MA Lighting grandMA2 console with an MA Lighting OnPC Command Wing and has a list of gear that includes 44 PRG Best Boy 4000 Spots, 17 PRG Best Boy Washes, 36 Clay Paky Sharpy Washes, 12 Clay Paky A.leda B-Eye K20 LED wash lights, 54 GLP impression X4 LED units, 12 GLP impression X4S LED units, 10 Philips Color Kinetic iWhite Blast TR LED wash units, and 36 TMB ProCan 4-Lite PAR36 Blinders. Power and data distribution was handled via three PRG Series 400 racks along with two PRG Node Plus units. There are also 3 PRG Best Boy 4000 Spots with the Best Boy Followspot Controllers as truss spots.
Guthrie started designing for Stevie Nicks in 1999 and has designed for Fleetwood Mac since 2003 after taking over from long time LD Curry Grant. He notes how his design reflects the band and their music. “There is an amazing legacy with this band and this time around I knew I had to facilitate the widest unobstructed viewing angle possible but still provide something that enhanced and supported the music for a 2-3/4 hour show. I try to use modern tools in a subtle way to set a scene for each song and keep the audi- ence engaged. The design for this tour is really about trying to bring a coherent vision to a show that features five very diverse personalities with their own individual tastes and priorities.”
Colors in the lighting were chosen to work with the color tone of the video throughout the show. Guthrie commented that “the lighting design starts with lights placed to theatrically light the band from a front, side, and back position then layers of fixtures add beds of color or texture. We don’t get to use beams at all in this show since there is no haze so it’s more about shifting layers and tying the color tone to the video content.” He also explained some of his equipment choices and how they helped him achieve his design. “The [PRG] Best Boys are the main spot light as well as being used as manually operated truss spot which I chose because I love how precise they are. There are also Sharpy Washes, XL4s and XL4Ss and Best Boy Washes used in my design.”
The designer has worked with PRG on many tours and works closely with PRG Account Executive Curry Grant. He told us how he found their support on this tour. “Awesome. Great crew, new lights, new truss; it was all packaged really well. Curry Grant is my personal yogi, guru, emotional crutch, and unpaid psychotherapist. Almost the entire crew is repeat offenders from last tour so there’s an automatic comfort level when you are surrounded by people you have known for a long, long time.
Backline: Drum Tech
Steve Rinkov is the Drum Tech for Mick Fleetwood’s astonishing drum kit. It’s a large kit custom made from Maple with an outer layer of Koa wood from Mick’s home in Maui. There are distinctive markings in the shapes of sharks’ teeth and fish hooks. Very Polynesian, very Mick Fleetwood.
The graphics were airbrushed by Louie Garcia from Drum Workshop, and based off of the custom necklace Mick wears by friend and artist Gary Mukai. For Mick, there is always a new kit to be admired on each tour. According to Rinkov though, “this is the most Fleetwood kit we’ve had!”
The drum kit is also representative of a Nashville company, Treeworks Chimes. They specialize in quality chimes and according to them, “It has been said that we go too far to create the perfect chime - as if your music didn’t matter. Listen. It matters.” It was impressive enough to see the chimes, but when they were rush hand delivered from a Treeworks person themselves it made them that much more notable.
Rinkov is truly one-of-a-kind and is so meticulous about Fleetwood’s kit. His favorite part about his job is “getting that nice tune on a beautiful drum set” and the fact that on this gig in particular, he gets a chance to play. Live. You’ll never see him, but he’s there filling up the spaces that call for an overdub to capture the sound Fleetwood Mac works so hard for.
https://mobileproductionpro.com/publications/mpm_issues/mobile_production_monthly_v8_i5.pdf
Fleetwood Mac: Nothing Less Than Perfect
Fleetwood Mac, known for their untamed sound, is a name that is instantly recognizable anywhere in the world. After touring for a number of years with different personnel configurations, all the original members of the band, including Christine McVie, are back together to present Fleetwood Mac, On with the Show! Mobile Production Monthly was at their show in Nashville, Tennessee to speak with some of the production folks working behind the scenes. Production Designer Paul “Arlo” Guthrie also tells us about his the design this stunning production.
Audio by Clair Global
Our first stop was Monitor World with Monitor Mixer Dave Coyle, who has been with Stevie Nicks for 8 years and with Fleetwood Mac for four of those. Because he had already formed a working relationship with Nicks, anytime she did a Fleetwood Mac project Coyle would help out. Coyle began his industry career as “the guy who could plug everything in.” He started working in clubs when he was a kid, just for fun. When he decided to pursue an electrical degree, Coyle signed on with Showco which was later bought out by Clair Brothers whom he is still with today.
Monitor world has two consoles, one for wedges and the other one for ears. Coyle does the mixing for the ears with a DiGiCo SD10 console. He gave high marks to the DiGiCo products, particularly because he does all of the Pro Tools recording as well. “The nice part about it is how easily they integrate with one another and how easily I can switch back and forth from live audio to recorded audio.” Pro Tools and the console are interfaced so that he can use it to play back the Pro Tools tracks as people want to listen to them.
The Pro Tools system he uses is from Diablo Digital. One of the founders, Greg Price (Ozzy Osborne’s FOH Engineer) came out with a really tight, compact Pro Tools package that fits right under the console. Coyle is grateful for such a useful product that ena- bles him to do an efficient job with killer results. Staffing FOH is FOH Mixer Dave Kob, a Clair Brothers employee since 1975. Along with him is Donovan Friedman, System Engineer, also with Clair Brothers. Kob has been with Fleetwood Mac since 1978. This is Friedman’s third tour with Fleetwood Mac; he began with them in 2009 on the Unleashed tour.
With Clair Brothers being a large part of the Fleetwood Mac tour, it’s no secret that they have their state-of-the-art products out with them. Friedman talked a little about one of Clair’s newer designs, the i5-D and to sum it up “they just sound better.” The i-5D is lighter and more compact which makes for easier transportation, easier to be flown, and can be positioned faster. Not to men- tion they sound great, as they offer exceptionally clean, tight low frequency output throughout the venue.
Kob got his start as he puts it “like 50% of the roadies you’ll ever talk to, went broke playing in blues bands in the early 70’s.” Plus, it didn’t hurt that he was always into audio. He began as a System Engineer for Fleetwood Mac in ’78 when they were doing stadium shows. He followed in the footsteps of former FOH Engineer for the band, Richard Dashut, and has been on and off with Fleetwood Mac since.
Kob uses a Yamaha PM5K, an analog console, which he refers to as the “meat and potatoes” and then a Digidesign Avid Profile sidecar for extra inputs. Kob has been working in analog exclusively and refers to himself as with the coined phrase “Analogasaurus” and says that they are few and far between but “some of us still roam the earth.”
Kob plans to retire at some point, and with his impressive career he will be short of nothing when he does. Throughout his entire career he’s felt very fortunate to get a chance to work with the folks he has gotten to work with, and especially Fleetwood Mac. Some things he won’t miss, “Indianapolis, ever see- ing a Prevo bus again, or going to an airport!” What he’ll miss the most, “I still love mixing live shows, it’s what I’ve been doing for a living my whole adult life. I’ll miss the people and mixing music.”
A constant throughout this tour is the aim for perfection. Everyone on the tour is “top notch all the way down the line” says Steve Rinkov. He is constantly impressed by the crews’ ability to bust out their 35 minute load out time and their ability to “accomplish great feats.” There’s a backline crew of nine.
Gregory ‘Grit’ Frederick is the Lead LED Tech/Video Crew Chief and he was next on our list. Grit got his start as a “friend of a band” and dabbled in things like car- pentry, stage rigging, and then he found his love for video. After working with the country music scene all throughout the 90’s, he began with Screenworks in 1998. He now operates independently through his company Black Thirteen in Las Vegas, NV. He’s been a “gig whore” his entire life. On With the Show is Grit’s first gig with Fleetwood Mac, but he did fill in 1994 on Stevie Nicks’ Street Angels tour, which he says “was a really good time!”
Production Designer Guthrie’s design included moving LED screens and overhead lighting pods that gave him a lot of options to change the look of the stage for each song. Video content was fed from three PRG Mbox media servers to the video screens and projectors that were provided by Screenworks. “The design relies heavily on video content since there are no other scenic elements and no haze used in the show,” explained Guthrie. “We have an upstage wall and three overhead ribbon screens that provide the bulk of the scenic elements to the show. The ribbons are on hoists to vary the depth and look for each song and these provide the majority of the visual look of the show.” PRG provided the mother grid of truss and hoists and all of the lighting trussing and hoists. The motion control was via a TAIT Navigator system. Video Gear from Screenworks included the upstage concave LED wall, made from Screenworks’ X7-HD LED video modules, which is 55’-4” wide by 23’ high and three convex LED ribbons, each 56’ wide by 3’- 10” high consisting of Lighthouse DUO 12mm LED video modules.
The Ribbons move during the show via a Navigator system also supplied by Tait. Operated by Madison Wade and Britney Kiefer. The camera sys- tem is relatively straight forward. There are 4 long lens cameras; two at FOH and two High in seats or on upper concourses. And the stage is covered by an overhead remote Sony BRC 700 for mostly drum shots and another Sony BRC 700 on the drum riser. Several smaller POV cameras are used around the stage for various chores.
The LED Walls are mostly content driven and IMAG is shown via two Barco HDF 26K Projectors onto 21 by 15 side screens on stage right and left and two rear projection screens, each 12’ by 21.5.’
The lighting design for On With the Show was handled also by Guthrie and programmed by Lighting Director Chris Lose, “with me meddling, a little,” commented Guthrie. Ronald Beal is the Lighting Crew Chief with PRG for Fleetwood Mac and “is supported by a cast of favorites on the crew,” added Guthrie.
Beal has been on most of the Fleetwood Mac tours since 2002. A Nashville resident at one time, he was a Middle Tennessee State University student who worked in their Tucker Theatre as their Master Electrician. In 1993, Vari-Lite did a demo in the theatre which then led to new opportunities for Beal. He started touring shortly after and has worked with acts like Taylor Swift, Sheryl Crow, and Madonna just to name a few. Of all of the tours he has been a part of, “this is one of the top couple of tours to work on as far as enjoyability,” said Beal.
I asked him to tell me about anything exciting or interesting going on in lighting for the tour, and Beal told me, “The band prefers no haze for their show, which has become highly unusual for any tour these days. They are aware of the potential effect on their voices.” Granted without haze you get no beams of light, defined colors slashing the air, but what you do get is a clean view of the stage, artists, and any other visuals you might otherwise not see so clearly. Personally it was refreshing to see everything happening on stage without a hazy fog restricting my vision.
Lose controls the lighting with a MA Lighting grandMA2 console with an MA Lighting OnPC Command Wing and has a list of gear that includes 44 PRG Best Boy 4000 Spots, 17 PRG Best Boy Washes, 36 Clay Paky Sharpy Washes, 12 Clay Paky A.leda B-Eye K20 LED wash lights, 54 GLP impression X4 LED units, 12 GLP impression X4S LED units, 10 Philips Color Kinetic iWhite Blast TR LED wash units, and 36 TMB ProCan 4-Lite PAR36 Blinders. Power and data distribution was handled via three PRG Series 400 racks along with two PRG Node Plus units. There are also 3 PRG Best Boy 4000 Spots with the Best Boy Followspot Controllers as truss spots.
Guthrie started designing for Stevie Nicks in 1999 and has designed for Fleetwood Mac since 2003 after taking over from long time LD Curry Grant. He notes how his design reflects the band and their music. “There is an amazing legacy with this band and this time around I knew I had to facilitate the widest unobstructed viewing angle possible but still provide something that enhanced and supported the music for a 2-3/4 hour show. I try to use modern tools in a subtle way to set a scene for each song and keep the audi- ence engaged. The design for this tour is really about trying to bring a coherent vision to a show that features five very diverse personalities with their own individual tastes and priorities.”
Colors in the lighting were chosen to work with the color tone of the video throughout the show. Guthrie commented that “the lighting design starts with lights placed to theatrically light the band from a front, side, and back position then layers of fixtures add beds of color or texture. We don’t get to use beams at all in this show since there is no haze so it’s more about shifting layers and tying the color tone to the video content.” He also explained some of his equipment choices and how they helped him achieve his design. “The [PRG] Best Boys are the main spot light as well as being used as manually operated truss spot which I chose because I love how precise they are. There are also Sharpy Washes, XL4s and XL4Ss and Best Boy Washes used in my design.”
The designer has worked with PRG on many tours and works closely with PRG Account Executive Curry Grant. He told us how he found their support on this tour. “Awesome. Great crew, new lights, new truss; it was all packaged really well. Curry Grant is my personal yogi, guru, emotional crutch, and unpaid psychotherapist. Almost the entire crew is repeat offenders from last tour so there’s an automatic comfort level when you are surrounded by people you have known for a long, long time.
Backline: Drum Tech
Steve Rinkov is the Drum Tech for Mick Fleetwood’s astonishing drum kit. It’s a large kit custom made from Maple with an outer layer of Koa wood from Mick’s home in Maui. There are distinctive markings in the shapes of sharks’ teeth and fish hooks. Very Polynesian, very Mick Fleetwood.
The graphics were airbrushed by Louie Garcia from Drum Workshop, and based off of the custom necklace Mick wears by friend and artist Gary Mukai. For Mick, there is always a new kit to be admired on each tour. According to Rinkov though, “this is the most Fleetwood kit we’ve had!”
The drum kit is also representative of a Nashville company, Treeworks Chimes. They specialize in quality chimes and according to them, “It has been said that we go too far to create the perfect chime - as if your music didn’t matter. Listen. It matters.” It was impressive enough to see the chimes, but when they were rush hand delivered from a Treeworks person themselves it made them that much more notable.
Rinkov is truly one-of-a-kind and is so meticulous about Fleetwood’s kit. His favorite part about his job is “getting that nice tune on a beautiful drum set” and the fact that on this gig in particular, he gets a chance to play. Live. You’ll never see him, but he’s there filling up the spaces that call for an overdub to capture the sound Fleetwood Mac works so hard for.
https://mobileproductionpro.com/publications/mpm_issues/mobile_production_monthly_v8_i5.pdf