Alanis Morissette
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Entec Sound and Light has supplied full lighting production, plus sound control and a monitor system for Alanis Morissette's European tour. Entec has worked with Alanis's Tour Manager Andy Proudfoot on other tours including Pulp. Proudfoot himself has worked with Alanis since 1995, and has seen her grow from a talented unknown artist, to the international superstar she is today. Entec won a competitive tender to supply lighting and crew for the European section of the tour. Being a former LD, Andy Proudfoot was looking for the company offering the best and most attentive service for this short but exceptionally high profile tour. Entec had the added bonus of being flexible enough to supply areas of the audio and work in conjunction with Claire Brothers Europe/Audio Rent in Basle, Switzerland, to ensure the tour had the precise audio package required, which involved the new Claire I4 line array speaker system.

"This was a great example of inter-company fertilisation to produce a great result" comments Dick Hayes, Entec's Head of Sound on the slightly unorthodox sound supply scenario.

Lighting

LD Jim Fitzpatrick's design - produced in conjunction with Proudfoot - is a dynamic asymmetric rig consisting of six trusses - a 60 ft angled front truss, a 50 ft rear truss and four others ranging between 24 and 40 ft, all hung at erratic angles. Onto this - scattered randomly - are 26 High End Studio Colors and 16 MAC 2000s - the moving lights at the core of the rig. These are joined by PARs, Source Fours and Moles, plus a further 6 Studio Colors and four Mac 2Ks on the floor. The resulting picture is a large, exciting visual canvass, strafed with beams, rich colours, textures and suggestions, projecting from all angles. The lighting style very much matched the contrasting show, where Alanis rocked out one minute and throttled right back the next, taking the pace and ambience down to moments of extreme delicacy. Entec also supplied Fitzpatrick - who also operates - a Vari*Lite Virtuoso lighting console - his desk of choice. Having had extensive experience as a VL programmer, it's the desk he knows best, and having it allowed him to maximise the very short US-to-Europe rehearsal and programming time. It's the first time Fitzpatrick has worked with Entec, which he's found it a wholly positive experience "They are a very personal company and genuinely care immensely about what they do" he comments. Entec's lighting team on the tour was led by the irrepressible Nigel Monk (Skippy), who was joined by Simon Howarth (Boff) and the equally ebullient Andy Mountain.

Sound

Entec supplied a Midas XL4 FOH console, outboard effects and system processing including Drawmer gates and BSS compression for FOH engineer Terry Pearson. Effects used included an Avalon 737 mic preamp compressor and a KT DN410 for Alanis's vocals, an Eventide H3000 harmoniser, a Roland SDE 3000 delay, a Lexicon 480L, a TC M5000 and a Yamaha SPX 990.

At the stage end of the multicore, Entec supplied engineer Randy (Randbo) Bryant with a Midas Heritage H3000 console, effects, mics, wedges, IEMs and all necessary cabling. The wedges were Entec's APWs, their own 2x12"+2" boxes. Alanis wears Ultimate Ears moulds and uses a Shure 600 belt pack and receiver. Bryant used 39 channels including reverb returns and talkbacks. Effects-wise he keeps it simple with TLA tube compressors on her vocal, Drawmer gates and a Lexicon PCM 80 on her vocal and BSS 422's on the keyboards.

Bryant worked with Entec Sound's Tristan Johnson earlier in the year, at the tiny Water Rats club in Kings Cross - and was immediately impressed by the attention to detail, even on a small show. Their paths had crossed before on the TFI Fridays TV show - which Entec serviced for 5 years - and at other shows and festivals.

When Bryant learned Entec had won contract to supply monitors and control, he immediately requested that Johnson be on the tour. They were also joined by Entec's Paul Keeble.

The PA boxes - a Claire I4 line array system - were supplied in Europe by Clair's European partners Audio Rent, along with their new I/O drive system.

For the short European leg of the tour, that followed a major 2 month stint in the US, this was the most cost-effective way of sourcing Pearson's exact audio spec.

From a tour managerial point of view, Proudfoot promotes a laid-back, friendly atmosphere on the road, and in the Alanis context, they have collected crew 'that fit' over the years. He enjoys working with Entec because they have a similar attitude, offering direct access to the people that matter without layers of bureaucracy, and paying meticulous attention to detail.