PA and foldback

Introduction

The Who, along with a select few peer bands in the ’60s, pioneered concert PA (“public address” or “power amplification”), basically as we know it today though at a much different scale. Not only were they well regarded as the “loudest band in rock and roll” throughout their career — even landing in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1976 — they also insisted on the highest-quality equipment and support talent to maintain and advance their exacting standards.

This page provides an approximate timeline of developments within the Who’s live setup, as well as references to industry developments. This page is a work-in-progress, as I am far from expert in this subject, and relies on you — whether expert or just observant — to keep it going.

A quote from Max the Mod:

In some ways, The Who were “louder” in 1965 than they were at any other time. A lot of the dates that they played were small pubs and clubs, often in very cramped circumstances. There were no monitors in those days and the stage volume was all there was to fill out a hall, so anybody on the front row got blasted! The stage sound was just staggering and much more exciting than it was in larger venues in later years. The Who always insisted upon a good P.A. setup. Initially there were always two 4x12 Marshall cabinets, which was more substantial than any other London band. You could always hear the vocals!

Microphones

It should also be noted that Roger (along with the rest of the group) has been an avid Shure microphone user virtually his entire career, using the following models:

• Shure SM-58
• Shure SM-78 (1981)
• Shure model 565D Unisphere 1
• Shure model 548 Unidyne IV

The rest of the band have used Shure SM-58 for vocals until recently, using Shure Beta 58s or Shure Beta 87As. For instrument application, Shure SM-57 or SM-58s or Shure 548s, with Sennheiser 421 for the bass rig in the late ’70s/early ’80s.

Excerpt from 1999 On Tour With Shure interview with Roger Daltrey

I’ve been with Shure since the Detours. The SM58, well it’s the best microphone any singer in a rock band could ever wish to have, especially in the early days of The Who. I mean we were getting drums smashed over our heads. I’d be slamming my mic into cymbals … we didn’t get our gear free then so it bloody well had to be durable. Just to let you know how tough the SM58 is, once Shure presented me with a special model. There was a small ceremony and all, and they asked me to get up and make a speech about a microphone. So I took the mike up in front of the crowd and said, “these are the best mics in the world because you can do this!” and I literally slammed it on the floor with as much force as I could muster. The crowd just sat there in horror. I bent over and calmly picked it up and carried on speaking. It was still perfect. Now if you’re someone from Shure, you can’t have a better act than that. It was a dangerous stunt to pull but it proved my point. The mic sounded exactly the same after I hurled it to the floor as it did before. What more could a rock singer need?

Shure 1977 ad text:

Who’s got Shure? You bet!

We’ve all come to expect innovative perfection from the Who. Ever since their first record blasted it’s way into Britain’s Top Ten in 1965, The Who have been pioneering rock style — from Pop Art clothes to the rock opera “Tommy”. They’ve even made a new art out of playing Shure microphones.

Why Shure mics? They’re the rugged ones with the natural sound. And that’s important for a group that draws its legendary stage aura from a unique combination of lyric sensitivity and hard-driving instrumentation.

You, too, should expect perfection. Ask your Shure dealer for a demonstration today.

Shure Brothers Inc. 222 Hartley Ave. Evanston, IL 60204

Stage lighting

The Who were also pioneers in stage lighting and lasers. See the special section on The Who’s developments in stage lighting ~new.

1963–1964

The group used both Vox and Marshall PA with column speakers for the vocals.

John (in Eyewitness The Who, regarding the High Numbers opening for the Beatles at the Opera House in Blackpool, 16 August 1964:

We were at the bottom of the bill and they were top of the bill. They couldn’t understand why we were setting up this huge amount of equipment for ourselves. When our stuff was taken off, they brought out The Beatles’ stuff, and it was half the size, and they were using the theatre’s PA system, which was diabolial. The little microphones looked like electric shavers. We couldn’t understand why they put themselves through such rubbish.

1965

During early-mid 1965 until November 1965, the Who switched from using Marshall equipment and became virtually exclusive Vox users, for both instrument amplification and PA, which consisted of a Vox 100-watt PA amplifier and four 4x10 or 4x12 column speakers.

1965–1966

Early on, the PA typically consisted of two or four Marshall model 1969 4x12 speaker columns, powered by one or two four-channel, eight-input Marshall 1963 JTM45 45-watt Super P.A. or 1968 JTM100 100-watt Super P.A. amplifiers.

Selected quotes

All quotes and references are copyright their original owners and are included for reference only.

Melody Maker, August 1965

Singer Roger possesses a £500 PA system which he pays for himself on HP. His particular stage trick, apart from singing, is accompanying the wilder guitar solos with the screeching of his mike against a cymbal. An occasional bang smashes the mike. Roger’s mike bill comes to £35 a week.

Beat Instrumental, April 1966

To compete with the instruments of the other group members Roger has a P.A. set-up which comprises of no less than 200 watts and 16x12 speakers. “And you still can’t hear me at times”, [Daltrey] complains. “In a large hall my voice travels clear of the rest and the P.A. sounds great, but in the smaller places it doesn’t get a chance. The result is that I go red in the face and lose my voice for a few days”.

New Musical Express 18 March 1966

Keith Moon: “We’ve got forty-eight 12-inch speakers, which is about 600 watts worth of power and with my drums it makes £3,000 worth of euipment on stage every night. That’s why we have three road managers to get the stuff erected. In some clubs we have to turn the speakers sideways to get them all on stage.”

Notable events

19 November 1965:

At the Empire Pool, Wembley, Roger “stormed” off the stage mid-set due to the inadequate sound system, only to return later after The Who’s own gear was installed.

November 1965:

The Who receive their four custom/prototype 8x12 Marshall “stacks” and 100-watt amplifiers. The stack is born. And thus the “ante” is upped for PA equipment to compete with the instruments.

15 December 1966:

Bobby Pridden joins The Who’s crew as a roadie.

1966:

WEM introduces the “Slave P.A.” consisting of slaved 100-watt solid-state power amplifiers.

1967–1968

The advent of better microphones, including Beyer and Shure, the WEM (Watkins Electric Music) Audiomaster five-channel mixer and multiple WEM 100-watt transistor PA amplifiers chained together changed rock PA. The Who, along with the Pink Floyd, Cream, the Move, etc., were early adopters. Also, in 1967, the PA employed the Marshall model 1966 Major P.A. 200-watt PA heads and 1976 PA Column, 4x12″ 100-watt PA cabinets, and eventually the larger slanted cabinet model 1990 8x10″ PA cabinets.

In 1968, the PA system was built around a Swedish-made Akuset mixing board, one of the first mixers to incorporate both volume faders and echo on each channel.

For U.S. tours, however, it was customary to use the usually inadequate house PA. Established venues like the Fillmore East, though, had Altec horn-loaded PA systems.

However, on or about 27 Nov., 1967, they would purchase a Sunn PA from Manny’s in New York, and begin using it on 29 Nov., 1967, at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.

As recalled by Dave Goessling, the PA at the Union Catholic High School Gymnasium gig was a Sunn Coliseum Sound System, comprising two sets of Sunn Coliseum speaker cabinets topped topped by one Coliseum Golden Sound Lens on each side of the stage.

Dave Goessling:

At Union Catholic High School in New Jersey, we were all at that show and helped road manager Bob Pridden load the groups’ gear into their bus after the show. We were all very interested in the gear, having a band ourselves. He told us that the band had bought all new gear at Manny’s in NYC just a couple days before, and that Pete had bought a number of those Coral Hornets all at the same time. He said they were fairly inexpensive, and sounded pretty good, and they expected them to last a while and be easy to piece together after smashups.

At the same time they bought the new, huge-for-the-time Sunn PA and Sunn amps. Those amps and PA made a big impression on us (see our fanciful drawings of our band’s dream gear, inspired by that show...). They were huge compared to anything we had seen anyone use up to that time.

The Sunn PA was likely used in the U.S. and Canada until July 1968, when they abandoned their gear at Canadian customs in Toronto after Pete and Roger had their passports stolen and were unable (or unwilling) to satisfy a $20,000 customs bond.

For the 1968 Australia tour, Roger:

We couldn’t afford to take our own equipment so we had to hire what was there. We used these systems from, like, World War II. It was the PA. It was unbelievable.

For the 22 Feb. 1968 show at Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, The Who use the brand-new $35,000 house PA.

The first instances of foldback appears in August 1968, where a speaker cabinet is laid in front of the stage pointing back.

Notable events

1967:

• Crown introduces the DC-300 150 watts/channel stereo solid-state amplifier.
• WEM supplies the UK’s first 1,000-watt PA for the 1967 National Jazz and Blues Festival, Windsor, the festival sound was reportedly less than stellar.

1969

As the Who began to play larger venues and saw success with Tommy, PA also progressed, growing larger, reportedly using 12 to 16 WEM columns per stage-side by 1969. Also in 1969, WEM had pioneered the festival sound system. Likely around this time, bands began miking up the drums and instrument amplifiers, bringing a more balanced mix to the overall sound, projecting both vocals and instruments. The Who had long established themselves as the loudest act, but were known for high-quality PA, not just brute volume.

The Who Concert File:

The introduction of Tommy into the live act coincided with a period when The Who had established a formidable system of amplification and on-stage sound. Thyey could now vary their PA system to cover outdoor festivals and small college ballrooms and always deliver a trademark ear-splitting level of volume. But unlike a whole legion of heavy metal bands who took their cue from their pioneering “bigger-louder-wall-of-Marshalls” approach, The Who’s sound always had depth, clarity and musical muscle within the decibel output. The skills of sound-engineer Bob Pridden, and a commitment to developing and investing in new technology, mean The Who always sounded better than all other groups.

Richard Barnes:

Pete talked about “trying to sophisticate our sound a little, make it a little less ear-rending … We haven’t got any louder but our PA has got bigger. It’s now 1500 watts and it just chucks it all out. That is what’s deafening people. One our troubles is Moon — he’s so deafening. If we do a two and a half-hour show he just starts playing like a machine. I’m sure he pus out more watts than the rest of us put together.”

At some point, the Who began using the WEM Copicat (echo unit) to add sound coloration to the instrument amplification (the Copicat was not used for vocals; at times, Pete would even use three Copicats on his guitar!). The WEM Copicat first appeared in 1954 and had been used by bands in the early ’60s as a primitive PA mixer.

Moreover, the Who began using stage monitoring around this time, with stage-side and behind-the-drumkit speaker columns from WEM.

“Also in 1969, the idea of stage monitors was tentatively imported from the United States. Bobby Pridden, The Who’s sound engineer, persuaded Charlie Watkins to modify his Audiomasters, adding an extra output for stage monitors. The signal then passed to a WEM 100-watt amplifier and a speaker cabinet was placed in front of Roger Daltrey so he could hear himself. But monitors cost money and it was so unusual and satisfying to have a good PA sound out front that stage monitors were largely disregarded until the novelty of high-power PA had been surpassed.”

Festivals

The large US festivals, such as Woodstock, had festival-supplied PA. The PA sound at the Woodstock festival was reportedly “faint.” Reportedly 10 McIntosh MC-3500 350-watt tube amps powered the PA.

August 1969 – Second Annual Isle of Wight Festival

The festival featured The Who’s 2,500-watt WEM PA system. (The accounts from the era report: “WEM are supplying a 2,000 watts PA system which is claimed to be the biggest ever used anywhere in the world. … A 2,000 watt PA system is also being flown over specially from the States.”)

The Who Concert File:

The PA system was the largest that had ever been assembled at that point and Pete joked that it was built from Meccano. For The Who’s set, signs were erected on the speakers warning people to keep at least 15 feet away.

1970

Late 1969/early 1970, for front-of-house amplification, the WEM PA designed by Bobby Pridden employed 12 4x12″ column speakers on each side of the stage, totaling approximately 1,500 watts power output for the PA.

Remainder of 1970, the speaker system contains no horns, just banks of cone devices in 10″, 12″ and 15″ speakers (approximated: six 8x10 Marshall cabinets; 4x12 WEM PA columns; WEM 2x15 and 4x12 cabinets).

Foldback comprises a collection of WEM columns and cabinets variously placed around the backline, including behind the drumkit, angled forward at the far left and right sides of the stage, and directly at the front of the stage from the left and right. In addition, the first instance of the guitar and bass signal being “monitored” at the opposite sides of the stage, by a single Hiwatt amp and cab at each side of the stage — a Hiwatt amp and cab at stage left next to Pete’s four Hiwatt cabinets, and a Hiwatt amp and cab at stage right next to John’s rig.

The Who also began developing their own stage lighting in 1970.

Of note, the 3rd Annual 1970 Isle of Wight festival in August 1970 relied on the Who’s PA and featured a WEM 5,000-watt PA, the loudest ever assembled, comprised loads of WEM 4x12 PA columns and various WEM 8x10 and 2x15 enclosures, among others, per side, plus more on the towers. Each stage side was topped by WEM’s parabolic focusable reflector. (See ukrockfestivals.com for a collection of Isle of Wight photos depicting the PA.)

Anyway Anyhow Anywhere:

The Who arrived in America in June (1970) for a month-long tour, commencing with two concerts at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. Setting standards for sound and presentation, this was the Who’s first meticulous juggernaut around America, requiring three tons of specially built Charlie Watkins gear to be flown in, including a 4000 watt stereo system, designed by Townshend and Bob Pridden, that incorporated mixers placed at the front and back of each venue. A special custom-built truck, with a five-man crew, transported it across the continent.

For better or worse, the Who were pioneering that dubious animal, stadium rock.

Notable events:

1970:

WEM introduces the Watkins Festival Stack, consisting of 2x15″ woofers, 2x12″ in high bass, 6x10″ in mid and high-mid range, and Vitavox or Celestion horns.

Phase Linear introduces the 200-watt power amplifier.

1971–1972

Early 1971, additional WEM column speaker cabinets bolster side-stage foldback.

On the 1971 U.S. tour, Hiwatt foldback behind the drumkit appears, along with a switch to Sunn bins for side-stage foldback. In addition, the guitar and bass “monitoring” at each side of the backline beings using a full “stack” placed at each side of the stage to monitor each other’s instruments — a bass stack (Sunn) at stage left next to Pete’s four Hiwatt cabinets, and a Hiwatt stack and amp at stage right next to John’s rig.

As the 1971 U.S. tour progressed, the Who ceased using the WEM PA, which became problematic for larger halls. Bob Pridden contacted Sunn and was subsequently connected with Bob Heil, of Marissa, Illinois, who had designed the Sunn Coliseum Series PA and was one of America’s largest dealers of Sunn equipment. Heil had a PA flown from the Sunn factory in Tualatin, Oregon, to Boston. On Aug. 7, 1971, the Who debuted the new Sunn PA.

Roger (from the Concert File): “We spent all day today trying to sort out the problems we had last night and we’ll probably spend all day tonight sorting out for tomorrow evening. We’re using a new sound system … it sounds all right up here. How’s it sound out there, all right?”

The PA comprised:

• 16 JBL model 2440 wide-ranging compression drivers, each attached to a fibreglass radial horn.
• 16 front-loaded 1x15″ cabinets.
• 8 1x18″ woofers.
• 16 Sunn 300-watt RMS power amps.

Onstage monitors:

• 8 radial horn and driver combos
• 12 1x15″ bottoms
• 6 Crown 300-watt RMS power amps

Mixing boards (stage-left, run by Bob Pridden):

• Two custom-designed Mavis 15-channel mixer/control boards, one for the drums, one for the rest.

Pre-recorded tape playback (for Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again)

• Two Revox tape decks

John Entwistle also began using the first iteration of his Sunn rig at this time, a 1,200-watt system, also designed by Bob Heil. It was not miked through the PA.

The Sunn PA was used through August 1971. By October, Heil created Heil Sound, a manufacturing enterprise, along with his PA rental and retail business. A £20,000 Heil-built PA was used for the remainder of 1971, beginning with the Oval Cricket Ground, Kennington, South London, show on 18 September 1971, and featured:

• 32 front-loaded bass cabinets each with one JBL 2205 15″ speaker
• 4 mid- to high-frequency long-throw horns with JBL 2440 drivers
• 32 JBL 2405 high-frequency tweeters
• 12 Crown DC-300A 300-watt power amps

Foldback, mixing desks and tape decks same as above.

The Who would continue working with Heil until 1975, when Heil retired from the PA rental business to concentrate on manufacturing.

Courtesy the Concert File: Southampton Evening Echo 19 October regarding the 19 October Guild Hall, Southampton, gig:

“The Who must be regarded as the most exciting and loudest rock group in the world after attempting to pulverise the sound barrier in Southampton Guildhall last night. So intesne was the noise that many of the 1,600 fans who swarmed into the hall had splitting headaches and numb or aching ears. During the two-hour performance the volume was so great from elaborate equipment worth £20,000 and last used at the Oval Festival, that some fans were crying. Undoubtedly, The Who proved themselves as the finest exponents of live rock music around — so why this solid wall of sound which screamed at you? Obviously rock music has to be loud to really get across but frankly this wws ridiculous. It hardly seems good for the health to endure such a supersonic level. Someone sitting next to me had to leave for fear of being sick… despite the angony of the noise this was one of the best rock concerts I’ve ever attended.”

Also from The Who Concert File, regarding the 29 October 1971 gig at ABC Cincema, Hull, UK, as reported in the Hull Times:

The Who — louder than ever. Three five-ton trucks, a pink Rolls Royce and an assortment of other vehicles will roll into Hull on Friday, bearing the personnel and electrical accoutrements of the most exciting act in the history of rock and roll music — The Who. They hit the road 12 days ago, with an entourage resembling that of a travelling circus: a brand new £20,000 PA system, thousansds of pounds’ worth of lighting equipment, and a complete team of drivers, stage hands and technicians … On stage, under a battery of constantly changing multi-cooured light beams, the group our forth the kind of super-aggressive rock music which put them at the top and has kept them there for more than eight years.”

1973–1974

1973–1974-era details

For the Quadrophenia tour, a quadrophonic PA, involving speaker columns set at the rear of the hall, was used for the “storm and sea” sound effects from the backing tapes. According the Who Concert File, the additional speakers “provoked many complaints from the audience about their vision being blocked.” (For the 1974 tour of France, the quadrophonic PA was curtailed.)

The Heil-built PA of 1971–72 was still used, with the following additions:

• 4 Heil troughs (combination front- and rear-loaded cabinets with two Heil 12″ woofer/tweeters in each)
• 4 16-foot folded horns
• 6 Heil PFLs (ported, front-loaded cabinets) each with JBL 2205 1x15″
• An additional four Crown DC-300As

Audio tape playback

• Scully 4-track studio deck (at stage-left, controlled by Bob Pridden), with a remote variable speed control taped to PT’s monitor stack.

Front-stage wedge monitors (1974)

The advent of true front-stage foldback as we know it today: wedge monitors placed at the front of the stage for vocal foldback appear regularly in 1974, with one on each side of the stage.

Bob Heil on The Who’s use of monitoring:

We actually were the first sound company to use monitors in a major way. Nobody had figured out how to make them work at high levels without feedback. Heil Sound was the first to do that — apparent in that monster array John Entwistle is standing beside at Madison Square … there was a mirror of that on Pete’s side!! Peter and Roger hated floor wedges … it hindered their jumping, running, etc. … so they were not in vogue with them, so I devised a way — through out-of-phased microphones, amplifiers, speakers, etc., to get high level from the sides.

When I left the road scene in 1977, they had to put up with SHOWCO’s wedges … lots of them, as they never could figure out how to get the level from the sides. So as you can see from some of the pictures, they stacked speakers in front of the stage like crazy to get the level that Pete needed — as he was pretty much gone in the hearing department after 4K.…

1975–1976

In 1975, additional wedge monitors placed at the front of the stage for vocal foldback, so each position has two, representing the front-stage foldback setup used on virtually every stage today.

In October 1975, Bob Pridden began working with Showco Sound of Dallas, Texas, for the Who’s sound system. The Showco PA was used November and December 1975 and March, August and October 1976.

The PA for 1975–76:

The size of the PA, designed by Showco, was varied to suit the venue, and usually averaged 56,000 watts.

• JBL bass, mid-range and high-range speaker and horn units
• Crown DC-300 power amplifiers
• Three Mavis mixing desks
• One Alice mixing desk
• One Scully 4-track tape machine
• Two vari-speed Revox tape machines
• Two WEM Copicat echo units
• One Eventide 3-channel 400-millisecond electronic delay
• One Eventide Instant Phaser unit
• Shure and Neumann microphones.

1976

The Showco PA, for the largest concerts, the system was as follows:

• 75,000 watts peak power
• 54,600 watts RMS divided into four frequency bands and distributed to transducer components as follows:
  • 28,800 watts RMS to the bass cabinets (40–250Hz)
  • 10,800 watts RMS to mid-bass (250–800Hz)
  • 7,800 watts RMS to midrange (800–6,500Hz)
  • 7,200 watts RMS to high frequencies (6,500–18,000Hz)

PA speakers, driven by Crown DC-300A power amplifiers:

1. 48 folded-horn bass enclosures with JBL K130 4x15″ speakers; each enclosure powered by one 600-watt mono amp.
2. 36 fibreglass mid-bass horns, with JBL K120 2x12″ speakers; one amp powers two horns.
3. 24 2350 90° radial mid-range horns with two JBL 2482 drivers; one amp powers four horns.
4. 12 high-frequency horn cabinets, each with two JBL 2309 horns and two JBL 2420 drivers; one amp powers four cabinets.
5. 12 Showco 60°x12° long-throw radial mid-range horns, each coupled with two JBL 2482 drivers; one amp powers four horns.
6. 24 2356 outdoor long-throw mid-range horns (one JBL 2482 driver each); one amp powers six horns.
7. 10 outdoor high-frequency assemblies, each with four Showco high-frequency horns; each horn coupled with one JBL 2420 driver; one amp powers two assemblies.
8. 8 tweeter assemblies, each with 24 piezoelectric tweeters mounted in a semi-spherical array; one amp powers two assemblies.

Front-of-house and monitor mixing board

• Two Showco 30-channel, 8-output Superboards; each channel has a three-stage parametric EQ.
• Two four-way crossover master panels are used to control the division and assignment of the four frequency bands.
• Two graphic equalizers.
• Two Urei 1176-LN limiters.
• Patch bay.
• Oscilloscopes.
• For vocal effects:
  • Eventide three-channel 400-millisecond electronic delay
  • Eventide Instant Phaser
  • Roland Space Echo
• For guitar effects:
  • Three WEM Copicat echo units (each with tape measured to specific length to vary the delay)

Bob Pridden controls the onstage monitor mix with Mavis boards from stage-left behind the PA speakers; Dick Hayes mixes guitars, vocals, effects and overall balance. Showco’s B.J. Schiller mixes the drum and house mix.

Monitors (designed by Bob Pridden)

Two systems: one for pre-recorded tape playback residing at the back corners, the other at stage-side for live sound foldback.

• Four stacks, each comprising:
  • Two JBL K130 15″ speakers mounted in 4560 bass horns.
  • One 2350 horn connected to a 2482 driver.
  • One oval horn fitted with a 45° slant lens, connected to a 2482 driver.
  • Two 2402 tweeters.
  • One 90° radial horn with 2420 driver.

Plus front-stage floor wedge monitors for vocals, one or two per position.

Notable event: 31 May, 1976

The Who set the record for the loudest group ever. Tasco built the PA specially for the Charlton show at a cost of £7,000(?), and was reportedly audible 10 miles from the stadium. The Guinness Book of World Records entry:

Loudest Pop Group

The amplification for The Who concert at Charlton Athletic Football Ground, London, England, May 31, 1976, provided by Tasco PA system, had a total power of 76,000 watts from eighty 800 W Crown DC 300 A amplifiers and twenty 600 W Phase Linear 200’s. The readings at 50 m (164 ft) from the front of the sound system were 120 decibels. Exposure to such noise levels is known to cause PSH — Permanent Shift of Hearing or partial deafness.

The £100,000 lighting system for the show: 30x Par 64 1,000-watt lamps, 32x Leko 1,000-watt lamps, Hydraulic “Genie” towers, Electrosonic control desks, Electrosonic Dimmer packs, Strand Patt 765 follow spots, 38 “00” three section truss, Vermet towers, Ramport Lasers.

Richard Barnes:

“The whole tour was a massive operation involving … 30 tons of equipment … Although loud, the sound was clear and sharp. The sound system specially built for the show by Tasco, and costing £7,000 just for that night alone, had never before been used in England. The long throw bass speakers ensured that even people at the back got high quality sound … At the climax of Listening to You all the £100,000 lights including the huge arc lights set up behind the group, facing out into the audience, were switched on, and the effect from this simple piece of theatrics produced one of rock’s greatest and most climactic moments…”

The Who’s permanent road crew at this time:

• John “Wiggy” Wolff (Lasers/Production Manager)
• Bob Pridden (Sound Engineer)
• Roger Searle (Lights Tech)
• Mick Double (Drum Tech)
• Alan Smith (Sound Engineer/Guitar Tech)
• Alan Rogan (Guitar Tech)
• Tony Haslam (Lights Tech)
• Jim Hubbard (Lights Tech)
• Bill Harrison (Bass Tech)
• Dick Hayes (Sound Tech)

1977–1978

Although The Who weren’t touring at this time, they’d reinvested the proceeds from the Tommy movie into various endeavors, including Shepperton Studios and PA equipment hire — the stored PA can be seen on the cover of Who Are You.

[Shepperton] serves as a home for the equipment hire company that the Who set up for their road crew, ML Executives. The Who had built up the biggest and finest collection of sound equipment of any band in the world, but were touring less and less. This expensive equipment, plus their top road crew were very much in demand by other bands, so they set up ML Executives to hire out the equipment when they weren’t using it. ML added more equipment and also bought a fleet of specially adapted trailer trucks and a fleet of luxury coaches with beds, TV, showers and so on for groups to tour in.

Read more about the history of ML Executives.

1981

The PA in 1981:

Amcron PSA/2 power amplifiers. Each PA speaker stack comprises: Martin Audio 215 bins fitted with Gauss 400-watt drivers; eight Martin Audio “Philishave” midrange cabinets fitted with RCF L12P/24 12″ drivers; nine JBL 2350 radial horns and a single JBL 2396 slant plate lens to provide near-field coverage — all fitted with JBL 2350 and five JBL 2355 radials, along with a single JBL 2390 crinkle plate lens — fitted with a mixture of JBL 2440 and 2441 drivers to cover the high frequencies; ultra highs covered by three boxes of four JBL 2402 “bullets.”

Foldback

Three monitor systems:

• A system of sidefills and floor wedges fed from a Midas 24 into 8 PR series monitor desk. The monitors were either Showco 3-way, Tasco/Harwell 2-way or Martin LE200’s; the side-fills were 4560-type bins with JBL acoustic lenses on top.
• A drum monitor system fed from another Midas 24/8 desk, driving two 4560-type bins fitted with Gauss 400-watt drivers and JBL acoustic lenses.
• The third to replay backing tracks off tape onto the stage, from two Scully 4-track (½″) varispeed tape machines controlled by Bobby Pridden at stage-left, sent to two Martin stacks for stage foldback, as well as sent to the PA.

See excerpt from International Musician and Recording World, March 1981, for more information.

1982

Technically speaking, the most ambitious [tour the Who had undertaken]. More than 1,300,000 lbs. of equipment move thousands of miles in 19 tractor-trailer trucks. 50 roadies setting up and knocking down enough electrical equipment to power a small city, over and over again. 50 miles of cable, unravelled and laid out. 200 speakers set up and checked. And finally, 14,000 lbs. of lights raisded to the ceiling. Townshend’s and Entwistle’s guitars, Daltrey’s microphone, speakers, amplifiers, all run by 5 million watts of power.

Following the band’s breakup in 1983, the assets of ML Executives — sound equipment and trucking — were sold off to its employees.

Read more about the history of ML Executives.

2002 and beyond

Reference from JBL 2002 tour sponsorship:

JBL Presents The Who – Equipment.

Sound services for the tour will be provided by Clair Bros. Audio (Lititz, Pennsylvania), one of the world’s leading rental-system providers. Clair Bros., which has relied on JBL loudspeakers for more than 30 years, will supply The Who with a concert audio system having in excess of 120,000 watts of amplifier power. The custom systems used by Clair Bros. feature JBL drivers and components, chosen by the company for their sonic performance, high-power-handling capability and long-term reliability.

Michael MacDonald, President, JBL Professional, added, “The Who will truly be heard at its best, thanks to Clair Bros.’ state-of-the-art concert sound system, which utilizes JBL’s latest and most advanced drivers, components and technologies to deliver remarkably clear, powerful and articulate sound quality, even at rock-concert levels.”

Other references

• See article on 2004 PA and mixing setup.
• See article on 2006 PA and mixing setup.

Resources and Information

Acknowledgements

• Bob Heil
• Dave Goessling

Special thanks to John Hughes (john@pureneasy.fsnet.co.uk) for assistance with this page.

Sources and related sites:

• Cream amplification: twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/amplification.htm
• Pink Floyd amplification: geocities.com/deadhead20.geo/PFlive.html
• The Grateful Dead’s “Wall of Sound”: dead.net/cavenweb/deadfile/newsletter19soundrap.html
• Max The Mod: westminsterinc.com/who1965/equip.htm.
• Rock Hardware: The Instruments, Equipment and Technology of Rock. Edited by Tony Bacon. Harmony Books. 1981.
• The Who Concert File, by Joe McMichael and ‘Irish’ Jack Lyons. Omnibus Press.
• Guitar Player: The Who’s Sound System. How it grew from 200 to 75,000 watts. By Steve Caraway and Tom Wheeler. November 1977.
• repfoto.com.
• Sunn: Unofficial Sunn Museum and The Sunn Shack
• Watkins Guitar World: watkinsguitars.co.uk
• ML Executives: mlexecutives.org

Articles

• “Rock hall hails Heil’s wizardry. Metro-east native created equipment for stars.” From the Belleville (Illinois) News-Democrat (archived version), Tuesday, 9 May, 2006
• “Bob Heil: A Living Live-Sound Legend,” from Musician’s Friend, May 2006
• Guitar Player: The Who’s Sound System. How it grew from 200 to 75,000 watts. By Steve Caraway and Tom Wheeler. November 1977.

Manufacturer’s sites

• Watkins Electric Music (WEM): wemwatkins.co.uk
• Bob Heil: heilsound.com
• Marshall Amplification: marshallamps.com
• Vox: voxshowroom.com
• Crown Audio: crownaudio.com
• Showco: showco.com
• Phase Linear History: phaselinearhistory.com
• Shure: shure.com
• Sunn: sunnamps.com
• Revox: revox.ch and reeltoreel.de