Live Earth, Glastonbury & Diana Concert All Beset By Sound Problems
by 
Dave Parrack on July 7th, 2007
First it was Glastonbury, then the ‘Concert for Diana‘, now as I sit here watching the ‘Live Earth‘ concert coverage from London, it’s happening again. Why are all the big concerts suffering from crappy sound systems and technical problems?
Last month’s Glastonbury festival was a great success with most pundits and fans in attendance saying it was the best ever. The main problem, apart from the annual mudbath was the shockingly poor sound quality on the Pyramid stage. The problem was most evident during the headline acts on all 3 nights, as the Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and The Who took to the stage late in the evening. During The Killers awesome set, there were even cries of “Turn it up“. The speaker system had been changed for this year’s festival, and according to organiser Michael Eavis, “the PA isn’t quite strong enough for us here“. Well that’s an understatement.
Then we had last weekend’s ‘Concert for Diana’ which was beset by a great deal of problems. Apart from the lack of quality performers and the too short sets, again there were complaints that the sound system just wasn’t up to scratch. There wasn’t even the excuse of the time of night, or local neighbours complaining, which Glastonbury could get away with using, as it was a mostly daytime event.
And now, as I’m writing this at my PC and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing in the background at ‘Live Earth’ in London, I can report similar problems with the sound system. Actually RHCP are loud enough to get past any such issues, but it was very clear during Duran Duran’s set that there were technical issues. Maybe Duran Duran are just shit, I don’t know.
So why’s it happening? Whatever the reasons, be they noise abatement guidelines in these days of NIMBYs and interfering neighbours, or just shoddy equipment being used, it needs sorting and fast. Without loud and clear music, what is a concert or festival after all? They just become places where thousands of people meet up and get annoyed by the poor quality, and suffer aching feet from standing up all day. In Glastonbury’s case, it just becomes a place to have a 3 day long mudbath, which as fun as that is, isn’t worth £150 a ticket.
| 2.5 |
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