FEATURE

LIVE AT KRYAL CASTLE

The good burghers of Ballarat descended on Keith Ryall’s castle for a medieval night of rock. Bruce Johnston called it his ‘best castle gig ever’.

Text: Christopher Holder

AT 38 Forsooth! It was the night that rock ‘n’ roll went Basso Profundo: A Rickenbacker bass medieval. combined with Ampeg SVT amplification A howling southerly whipped the cape of a shadowy provides the foundation figure as he scaled a Nexo Alpha PA. Holding of the Wolfmother sound. Two Audio- aloft a giant broadsword, he loudly anointed the Technica condensers adoring minions “the best audience in the world!”. are reliably set in place And, verily, a cheer erupted that shook the very with custom brackets. foundations of the castle that encompassed them. Kryal Castle, just outside of Ballarat, is a peculiar joint. It’s a full-on medieval-style structure and in its heyday was a popular place for squires and wenches to take in some jousting, falconry, etc. It was a little like Sovereign Hill in chain mail. These days, Kryal Castle has become a novelty venue for rave parties and the odd gig.

COLD COMFORT www Ballarat’s not known for its balmy weather Wolfmother and on this particular April day the castle felt Watch the video from the gig online. more like a North Sea lighthouse – an icy wind was blowing rain through the compound like audiotechnology.com.au crossbow bolts. Wall of Sound: The “I had my jumper on, my jacket on, I wrapped Ludwig kit was miked myself in the Midas console cover and I had using a collection of Audio-Technica my headphones on as much as I could just Artist Elite and Shure to keep my ears warm.” Bruce Johnston, is a microphones. legend of the game and has mixed sound in just about every venue on the planet, thanks to his commitments as long-time FOH engineer for Oasis and a history of mixing virtually every high-profile Aussie act on the world stage. But, for a bloke that’s seen it all, you get the feeling that even he was somewhat taken aback by the severity of the ‘thermal in version’ – “I think that Ballarat show was one of the coldest outdoor gigs I’ve ever done,” Bruce commented later. “I should have taken my wife’s advice and worn two pairs of socks.” Bruce’s troops soldiered on manfully, ably led by Ritchie Robinson, but the sleet wasn’t making setup particularly straightforward and the schedule had long since been ripped up. Around 6pm the Jack Daniels girls, in their (cruelly and ironically named) hot pants and crop tops, had reported for duty wearing the startled look of those who’d just been rescued from a capsized For that strangled, ‘phone’ effect vocal, ferry on the Baltic. The (soon to be) capacity Andrew Stockdale crowd was also trickling in, the early punters turns to a Hohner Blues trying to find some shelter the moment they Master harmonica mic. arrived. All the while, the Johnston Audio guys and the Wolfmother crew frantically line- checked and fine-tuned. At this point Bruce was conspicuous by his absence. “We just turned up. It was freezing cold and off we went. The stage was definitely small, in fact, the monitor system was in the back of the truck. There was no band room behind the stage. It was about zero degrees… I think it made for a really good gig!”

ROCK UP, ROCK OUT It was Bruce’s contention that with enough tension, and enough obstacles, everyone – him, the band, the crew, the audience – was simply more up for it. In fact, parachuting into a gig and instantly pushing faders is Bruce’s preferred MO these days.

AT 39 Bruce Johnston: I mixed The Killers a couple CH: I guess it’s a three-piece rock ‘n’ roll band of months ago. I was on a business trip, they after all. needed a sound guy, and I just happened to BJ: And their sound is about how the songs are walk into the gig. Brandon, the singer, came up written. It’s based on a lot of jamming. It kinda to me prior to the first show and said: “do you reminded me of the ’70s when you bought an know our album well?” I had to admit that I’d LP and the B-side only had one 26-minute song not heard their album, and they looked at me as on it! though I was out of my mind. I said: “look, just let it come to me, that’s the best way I work”. I didn’t have to do much. There were moments where the band gets really tough and the whole B r uce J o h n s to n a t FO H And I had one of the best gigs of my life. I think d u r i n g t h e cold es t g ig o f it was because I had no idea what I was getting thing lifts and gets really big. They then break h i s c a r e e r. and it gave me an edge… that adrenalin kick it right down – they jam it out and get really just made me sharper. quiet. I think that’s a really good dynamic – if Wolfmother was full-on from front to back it’d These days, with Oasis I fly out a couple of days be almost too much. before we start. I certainly don’t do three weeks production rehearsals with them any more. CH: And evidently you allow them to have that light and shade – you don’t try and fight it. Christopher Holder: How did you approach the Wolfmother gigs? BJ: If I get asked my opinion, I’ll say, ‘these four songs are really heavy; it’s a good chance to BJ: It was only a two-week Australian tour break the middle of the set before the onslaught between legs of an international tour. And I at the end’ as opposed to keeping it at Warp 10 agreed to stop the gap. Initially, I took out a from front to back. I think the light and shade lot of stuff but then broke it down to what I really makes the band. thought I needed. CH: Is it hard to make a three-piece sound big? CH: What’s in your neverfail tool kit? BJ: At times there’s not a lot of sub. When the BJ: Generally I’ll take 10 or 12 compressors, bass guitarist is playing the organ you tend to “ That Ballarat show eight channels of gates, and four effects units miss the bass. But I still thought it sounded big. – a high-end Lexicon PCM80 or a TC M5000 was one of the coldest It’s a very clean sound. No matter how dirty for the vocal reverb, and a couple of Yamaha they want to get it, they sound pretty clear outdoor gigs I’ve ever SPX900s or a 2000 for the drums, a spare because there are only three people on stage. SPX990 and a delay unit. Naturally it depends done. I should have taken And that makes it easier to mix. on the band. If I was going out to mix an ’80s my wife’s advice and worn keyboard reunion I’d treat it differently – I’d CH: And how does the gear respond to the two pairs of socks.” probably have 30 compressors and 20 reverb cold? units… actually, I’d probably just take out a BJ: I like the sound of the horns in the cold. digital desk. When it’s really hot, the horns will fuzz up, CH: And what did you end up using in the case especially in the humidity. The top end seems to of Wolfmother? sound really nice when it’s cold, and I think it’s because nothing’s overheating. I reckon Kryal BJ: I kept it pretty dry – I didn’t add too much. Castle sounded pretty good for just turning up I really only just used two effects units in the and rocking, and I think the weather helped... end. I had a delay and reverb, eight compressors, ironically. six channels of gates and that was it. The band owns their own mics and their setup is well STOCKS RISING organised. Wolfmother’s Tarago entourage rolled through the portcullis over an hour later than scheduled, and the frostbitten crowd erupted when Andrew ORANGE CRUSH Stockdale arrived on stage with his sword… Jeff Mayes (Andrew looking for all the world like a Lord of the Stockdale’s guitar tech): Rings extra. It was an excellent gig and clearly Andrew’s guitar sound is Wolfmother deserve the accolades. based on two 4 x 12 amps running very, very loud. BJ: “Until these gigs I’d not paid much attention One’s dirty, the other to Wolfmother. But when I mentioned the clean and they’re run simultaneously. We’re using band’s name to a couple of people overseas a backup Marshall head at they were amazingly into it. It made me think the moment but normally he that here’s a band that’s established itself has an Orange Thunderverb really well around the world, and is probably 200W amp for the clean sound and an 80W amp for more respected than Oasis! I mean, this is the the dirty. The pedalboard ‘Grammy Award-winning’ Wolfmother. setup is only into its third show. There was a lot of mayhem in Toronto… so it’s a completely new setup. Andrew’s on a real Gibson SG kick at the moment. His main guitar is a ’74 SG, but he has four others in the rack and a double-neck SG going as well… which is his cool thing right now.

AT 40 Pedal Power: Andrew’s guitar pedal setup, post the ‘mayhem’ of Toronto. Keen observers of this type of thing will spot two Xotic AC Booster pedals, an MXR Supercomp (compressor pedal), an ElectroHarmonix Small Stone (phaser pedal), a Boss GE-7 EQ, a Fulltone Supa Trem, a Radial Tonebone JX-2 Pro Switchbone (AB-Y amp switcher), 2 x Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus, a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah, an ElectroHarmonix Micro Synthesizer, and a Foxx Tone Machine (fuzz pedal).

Chris Ross’ bass setup favours some ElectroHarmonix action including the English Muffin overdrive pedal, the Micro QTron envelope follower and the Nano LPB-1 (Linear Power Booster). Elsewhere you’ll notice two Little Lehle Looper Switchers, a Radial JDI passive DI, the Korg DT-10 tuner and a Sherlock Amplication 9V regulated power supply.

When Chris Ross isn’t playing bass he’s torturing a battered Korg CX-3 drawbar organ. To further improve the CX’s retro Hammond credentials, it’s routed through a few ElectroHarmonix pedals, including the Deluxe Memory Man (for echo/chorus/vibrato) and Black Finger compressor. A JLM Audio device takes care of the power and a Radial JDI passive DI introduces some Jensen transformer action.

AT 41