Hey, Kaj!!! Do you know this guy?? An eyewitness!!!
groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.audio.pro.live-sound/browse_thread/thread/9431c4152805faf0/ee4219843a8d88fd?lnk=st&q=journey+weirdness&rnum=1#ee4219843a8d88fdSvante Pettersson - Date: Mon, Jun 12 2006 12:15 am
I am just back from Sweden Rock Festival, one of Europe's biggest hard
rock festivals. At the festival, I was working for Swedish Radio as a
producer for some of the live recordings done for the radio. Normally,
I am a live sound engineer but once a year, I tag along with my old
friends at Swedish Radio to have some fun on this great festival.
The biggest topic of discussion among our crew during the festival was
without doubt the Journey show. Things started off weird in the
afternoon when we realised that not only had they brought their
producer and studio engineer Kevin Elson along to mix the show, he had
also set up his FOH world at the very back of the house, backstage! He
was standing behind our recording truck with his stuff, listening to
the mix through two stage wedges standing on top of his console.
We were recording the show for the radio and the SRF dvd but beside our
48 track Pro Tools recording, we were told by Elson numerous times that
we also needed to record his mix that went to the PA. Fine, an extra
stand alone CD recorder was brought in.
I watched the show from out front and had a great time. The band
sounded excellent. I decided to watch the rest of the show from the
recording truck. Good sound and tv monitors with a feed from the big
screen out front. Even better than watching in your living room. :^) I
went backstage and on the way, I checked out Kevin Elson in action at
the same time.
When I got into the truck, our engineers was making funny faces and
saying things like, "poor guy!" Lead singer Steve Augeri could not sing
at all! No, it's not the old rethoric of calling a singer with a bad
day someone who "can't sing". Steve Augeri was constantly out of tune
and when he tried to reach the high parts, his voice just died in a sad
croak. But didn't it sound good in the PA out front? I went out to
check again. Yes, the vocals sounded terrific. Was I going insane?
I went back into the bus and the engineers started to question my
sanity too as nothing could be done out front to fix this disaster. The
main project manager for our business at the festival showed up and was
as surprised and puzzled as I was when he heard what was coming down
that vocal line to the truck.
After a lot of running back and forth and scratching of heads, one of
the recording engineers plugged in a pair of headphones into the CD
recorder that was recording Elson's house mix. In that mix, the vocals
were perfect. With one headphone on and the other listening to our feed
in the bus it was obvious that something fishy was going on.
We looked at our surveillance camera on stage and noticed a guy sitting
a bit out of place to the left of the drum tech. I went up on stage to
have a look and there was a guy with two digital multitrack recorders,
apparently sending a prerecorded, correct vocal to the house mix but
not to our bus. There were also some prerecorded synth pads and backing
vocals but we got those to the bus.
This raised so many questions and things running in our heads:
* This was not a temporary solution to help a guy having a bad day on
tour. You don't bring that rack with recorders and one extra guy on
tour to have a backup in case the singer gets a cold. Ok, the rack and
the operatot could have been flown in but wouldn't it have been easier
to just cancel the show if the guy was sick?
* Another thing suggesting this was not just a guy with a bad throat
was that in our feed, the "real" live vocal line, Mr. Augeri was not
holding back like he probably should have done if he had a bad throat.
He was launching head first into the performance screaming his lungs
off. If he has a throat problem, it will only get worse by this
behaviour.
* Neal Schon of Journey has said in interviews that Augeri had throat
problems on the last tour, forcing them to use the drummer to sing lead
vocals on some songs. On the last album, Augeri sings half the songs
and the other members sing the rest. "Because it was fun" according to
interviews with band members. Yeah, maybe so but maybe also to help a
singer who can't sing?
* If the singer really is this bad, why not just kick him out?
* The other band members put on a stellar show. How do they feel on the
bus every night knowing they have to substitute their singer with a
tape? How fun can that be?
* How could Kevin Elson think that our recording engineers wouldn't
notice anything? Wouldn't it have been easier to feed the prerecorded
vocals to our bus too, or just deny us to record the band. We get to
record many bands but there are those that refuse too, without giving
any particular reasons. The first time one of our engineers went out to
talk to Elson during the show, Elson had the fixed vocals in his
monitors but he told our guy that "we probably have to take this home
and fix the vocals", as if Augeri had a bad day. Why lie a colleague
right in the face like that? Later, the cd from the FOH mix was
approved for broadcast the next day. No fixing needed because it was
already fixed.
I don't have any strong feelings against spicing up a live show with
some fatter backing vocals or backup things that makes the show better
but substituting the lead vocals? Reverse karaoke? I'm a big Journey
fan and I don't get sad or angry, just very confused.
/Svante
