Starting a topic specifically on this, as it's a common feature on many of the individual threads.

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I was amazed by how many glaring isues there were at the gigs I was at, plus the reports from other shows. In the past, the crowd would have been completely unaware that the techs were involved at all. This meant they were doing a perfect job, as the sound, lights, instrument changes etc, were flawless. This time round we've had:

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1) A guitar guy (who, as far as I can tell doesn't have any other role) who missed lots of cues.

2) Dreadful sound mixes (not all of which can be blamed on the accoustics of the venues)

3) Sound level issues on stage

4) Feedback!

5) Stage lighting issues

6) House lighting issues

7) Lighting / sound instructions being ignored, or at least having to be repeated several times

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I've been thinking about what might have caused the decline. I think maybe the band is best suited to smaller venues, so he toured with a crew that were used to that environment, and are just out of their depth in arenas.

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What has amazed me is that they haven't learned from the issues, and cut them out as the tour has gone on. If anything, it seems Glasgow and Leeds were worse than elsewhere.

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Maybe Prince is just a more relaxed employer these days. I think techs would have been fired on the spot for these issues, in years gone by. So maybe, to enjoy his more playful and warm fan-interaction we're seeing these days, we're just going to have to accept that it comes at the price of less perfectionism in his dealing with his staff.

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Discuss

May be wrong but could be a little to do with Prince changing the set list during the show? I dont think he's stuck to the ones they have printed out for each show has he? Maybe the guys are not well prepared for what he might do at the drop of a hat etc...

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I would be suprised if his guitar guy is kept on though

I agree with the above notes about technical issues ,

i was so looking forward to the Glasgow show and was lucky enough to be standing not far from front stage and saw the lighting problems for myself i was disappointed that the show seemed to have been cut short compared to earlier nights and was missing songs 'my name is prince' 'she's always in my hair''something in the water...amongst others, if the set lists on here are correct .apart from that i thought his moves were spot on, voice fantastic and i just hope he comes back soon!!

fnksoul said:

May be wrong but could be a little to do with Prince changing the set list during the show? I dont think he's stuck to the ones they have printed out for each show has he? Maybe the guys are not well prepared for what he might do at the drop of a hat etc...

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I would be suprised if his guitar guy is kept on though

Maybe it's the last minute nature of the shows? I imagine decent crews are booked up well in advance for the big name tours and finding a crew with two weeks notice might mean you're getting very amateur people.

[Edited 5/24/14 7:22am]

allwaystired said:

Maybe it's the last minute nature of the shows? I imagine decent crews are booked up well in advance for the big name tours and finding a crew with two weeks notice might mean you're getting very amateur people.

[Edited 5/24/14 7:22am]

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its not a last min show more planning has gone into them than people would think, the first lot were to test the water to see if the demand was there I know that the crew were booked into their hotel back at the end of Feb for Manchester. (I just didnt know who they were booked in for)

fnksoul said:

allwaystired said:

Maybe it's the last minute nature of the shows? I imagine decent crews are booked up well in advance for the big name tours and finding a crew with two weeks notice might mean you're getting very amateur people.

[Edited 5/24/14 7:22am]

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its not a last min show more planning has gone into them than people would think, the first lot were to test the water to see if the demand was there I know that the crew were booked into their hotel back at the end of Feb for Manchester. (I just didnt know who they were booked in for)

I still think that is probably last minute though, in terms of getting the best crew. Major artists plan their big tours nearly a year in advance, so I guess they get the best people.

It's the only explanation I think there is- there's no other reason for technical hitches at a Prince show. Plenty of bands and acts switch up the show- a decent crew should be able to react to the changes it in the same way the band can.

He will have had his own Sound engineer who he has worked with/rehersed with in advance and a whole crew himself that he travels with.

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The only other crew ther would have been would be the staging guys who will have been brought in by SJM or something but that wouldnt have effected the sound, they just build the stage. The lightling issues could be blamed on them, but I doubt anything with the sound mixing can be.

[Edited 5/24/14 10:02am]

remko said:

Shouldn't the thread title be shows over the last couple of years - technical issues?

Possibly. Have similar issues been happening over that timeframe? Do you have other examples?

Dsoul said:

It's odd considering how pristine and sterile he likes things to be on record.

Pristine and sterile are very, very low on the list of words I'd use to describe Prince's records. Most of his records are not that well recorded (clipping etc) and his vocal takes are not always perfect either. I'm sure I heard that he doesn't let anyone have more than 5 takes at the most to get something right. Susan Rogers said once that his records have never been technically great sounding because he's never really cared about that, it's all about the song and delivery.

dandan said:

Dsoul said:

It's odd considering how pristine and sterile he likes things to be on record.

Pristine and sterile are very, very low on the list of words I'd use to describe Prince's records. Most of his records are not that well recorded (clipping etc) and his vocal takes are not always perfect either. I'm sure I heard that he doesn't let anyone have more than 5 takes at the most to get something right. Susan Rogers said once that his records have never been technically great sounding because he's never really cared about that, it's all about the song and delivery.

I was meaning late 90s onwards. Produces the tracks to within an inch of their lives. Yet the sound quality during the live experience is so chaotic.

Levi said:

remko said:

Levi said:

Possibly. Have similar issues been happening over that timeframe? Do you have other examples?

The last european dates also had a lot of sound issues. I recall the north sea jazz festival and others that year.

Yep, that was in 2011. Especially the concert in cologne that year, where he was really pissed at the sound guy, aborted the concert after just one song and left the stage for about 40 minutes. Very unprofessional behaviour. A lot of people thought the concert was over. He came back and continued, but the vibe was just bad. He blamed the sound guy "John" several times.

cammille said:

If i was his guitar tech I wouldn't miss a beat cuz I wouldn't take my eyes of prince for a second!

The Guitar Tech looked very tense in Amsterdam. a few times he was like am i going to get the guitar or not. (few steps on stage, then back again) Prince made it very clear by his way of holding the guitar what he expected, still difficult for the guy.

At Arras back in 2010 he pretty much lost his temper at the lights guy who was almost totally ignoring him. None of this feels totally new.

ludwig said:

remko said:

Levi said: The last european dates also had a lot of sound issues. I recall the north sea jazz festival and others that year.

Yep, that was in 2011. Especially the concert in cologne that year, where he was really pissed at the sound guy, aborted the concert after just one song and left the stage for about 40 minutes. Very unprofessional behaviour. A lot of people thought the concert was over. He came back and continued, but the vibe was just bad. He blamed the sound guy "John" several times.

The story at the time was that he fired his entire sound crew after that show. He soundchecked himself for an hour or two in Dublin the next day and the proposed aftershow was apparently cancelled due to the all new soundcrew. I've never been able to really verify this but it makes sense.

[Edited 5/26/14 1:48am]

Some interesting comments under this Leeds review:

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http://www.yorkshireeveni...-1-6634846

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Fired staff?

Gottobefunky said:

I think it's a matter of Prince not doing long and detailed *production* rehearsals anymore.In the days of SOTT,Lovesexy, even the Gold Tour there were weeks of not only band rehearsals but also rehearsals for production because everything was planned beforehand and every detail had to fit so rehearsals included sound staff, light staff and whatnot.And because those tours were big productions they probably toured with their own sound and light staff and even their own sound&light equipment (PA).

These days it seems it has boiled down to band rehearsals and i'm even wondering if Prince has his own sound people from the States travelling with him or if it's just people hired here in Europe with maybe 2 days rehearsals with them.Because, as it's no big productions anymore, Prince probably thinks it's just a matter of "them" (the sound people) having to "do their job" or expects everything to work on autopilot because nowadays his band is smaller when before the sound people were a lot more integrated in the rehearsals, more like band members and everything soundwise was tediously practiced until every detail was right.

I think no matter how small your band is, you should always have your own sound people that you have constantly rehearsed with - in other words, it's never the sound peoples fault alone.

I mean, you just can't expect someone to do a decent mix when you've just rehearsed with them for a couple days.

strawberrybubblegum said:

Gottobefunky said:

Some interesting comments under this Leeds review:

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http://www.yorkshireeveni...-1-6634846

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Fired staff?

Wow...

Yup. The truth is, the sound was miles better at Leeds than it was on opening night in Birmingham. Goes to show how embarrassing the sound has been. Ultimately Prince has to take the blame as he's so in control of everything he does. The sound in the small venues was very good in Feb, but I'm sure pretty much everyone will agree that it was just too loud. I like really LOUD, but I have never expereinced anything as mental as the volume in KoKo this year. Needs sorting out, fast.

jasontate said:

strawberrybubblegum said:

jasontate said:

Yup. The truth is, the sound was miles better at Leeds than it was on opening night in Birmingham. Goes to show how embarrassing the sound has been. Ultimately Prince has to take the blame as he's so in control of everything he does. The sound in the small venues was very good in Feb, but I'm sure pretty much everyone will agree that it was just too loud. I like really LOUD, but I have never expereinced anything as mental as the volume in KoKo this year. Needs sorting out, fast.

Yeah Koko was ridic... Maybe it's old age with him and he's losing his hearing

Really enjoyed Leeds but from where I was standing (about 10 rows back, left side) it did look a bit of a shambles. Prince fiddled with his amp stack at the start and was clearly furious with the sound guy early on; guitar cues were missed; couldn’t hear Marissa Jack (and I don’t think just cos her voice isn’t the strongest). When he sat down at the keyboards for one of the encores his microphone wasn’t on; another time in the encores he was handed a guitar which he then had to tune while still singing – which was impressive in one way, but sort of embarrassing in another.

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Like someone else said, he didn't seem in a good mood, and I don't think he was feeling the crowd that night - they were weirdly sedate on the floor - but maybe it's cos lots of people simply couldn't hear anything.

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What I don’t get is how someone who tours as much as Prince can be having all these sound issues for so many years – at least since the 02 shows, where didn’t they need to change the sound set up half way through that run cos it was too muffled on the floor?

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Maybe it really is old age. Another time in the encores he went over to the keyboards, sat down, then got up and went back to the mic stand, covering with “we got so many hits, we don’t know what to do”. Yeah.... or you just forgot why you went over there

strawberrybubblegum said:

jasontate said:

strawberrybubblegum said:

Gottobefunky said:

Some interesting comments under this Leeds review:

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http://www.yorkshireeveni...-1-6634846

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Fired staff?

Wow...

Yup. The truth is, the sound was miles better at Leeds than it was on opening night in Birmingham. Goes to show how embarrassing the sound has been. Ultimately Prince has to take the blame as he's so in control of everything he does. The sound in the small venues was very good in Feb, but I'm sure pretty much everyone will agree that it was just too loud. I like really LOUD, but I have never expereinced anything as mental as the volume in KoKo this year. Needs sorting out, fast.

Yeah Koko was ridic... Maybe it's old age with him and he's losing his hearing