Frank Turner Tours with DiGiCo

Building a strong following without a high media profile is one of the biggest challenges for any artist, but it’s something that former Million Dead frontman Frank Turner has achieved. The icing on the cake (so far) was a sold-out show by Turner and his band The Sleeping Souls at Wembley Arena in April, where three DiGiCo consoles were on duty.

Supplied by Newcastle-based Nitelites, the show utilized two D5 consoles at the Front of House position — one for the main act and one for support acts Billy Bragg, Beans On Toast, and Dan Le Sac Vs Scoobius Pip — while an SD9 was on monitors.

“DiGiCo has always been good with us; our monitor engineer Johnny Stephenson and I did a great training day with them on the D5 a couple of years back and if we’ve had any problems or need advice on the road they are always willing to help,” says tour manager and FoH engineer Graham Kay, who has been using a D5 with Turner for several years.

“Johnny had previously been using a D5 too, but when we did a club tour in Europe last year and he needed a desk with a smaller footprint, he opted for the SD9. It worked so well he decided to stick with it for our UK tour last November and it was his first choice for Wembley.”

The Wembley show saw Turner add female quartet Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo to his live line-up, who contributed extra backing vocals, cello, violin, and accordion.

“Because of the extra musicians, we had to use the bigger DiGiRack rather than the usual 32 channel D-Rack to accommodate the extra channels. Despite the high channel count, the desks took everything thrown at them without any issue at all,” says Graham. “We also did multitrack recordings via MADI from the DiGiRack, which will be used for the DVD of the show.

“I have always loved the sound quality of DiGiCo consoles along with the flexibility they offer. I’m now considering an SD9 for FoH on our European club shows in the future… plus I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on the new SD5!”