HW: Hastings - brief response

[John Majka]

>         The sound is important though, mostly because if it's wrong you
> can't *hear* the band playing. I've been to too many HW gigs where Huw was
> guesting and you could see his hands moving, and no noise reached you. And
> eventually he would start throwing his hands up and giving up because he
> could tell from the monitors that he wasn't audible either. It's a damper
> on a concert experience. I don't go to HW to guess what notes they're
> playing; if the sound is mud (Croydon Fairfield Halls 98) or all stuffed
> into the mid-range and fizzing (Shepherd's Bush 96) or just some musicians
> are inaudible (any gig I saw with Huw before Canterbury, and indeed last
> Christmas Party for much of it), there's nothing HW can do right or wrong
> to help my gig experience, because the soundman is stopping it reaching
> me.
>
>         This is why it annoys me that they post-produced _Yule Ritual_ so
> much, because where we were right behind the sound booth on the night, it
> was crystal *perfect* and the recording has spoilt the ice-cool smokiness
> of it all. Not by much, but by enough to take the shine off. And live we
> could hear Jerry of course. Grr. Anyway. Yours,
>                                                 Jon (still behind)


Yeah this is frequently a problem with more recent HW shows, it seems.
Especially on more recent live tapes I have to wonder, "Is Huw playing
anything?" but then every once in  a while I'll hear a distant note in the
background and realize he must be there... maybe.  The live mixing has been
pretty crappy for the most part, I'd have to say.  It's also odd how there
are many latter-day HW albums where it seems Dave was trying to remove
himself from the mix by keeping his guitar  far in the background.
John Majka
jmajka2 at comcast.net