old jobs #1

I've been working for nearly 15 years now in professional audio.  I've done a whole bunch of different types of jobs in my time, ranging from live sound for theatre, music recording, mixing and production, arranging, radio production, and lecturing in recording techniques.

One of the first jobs I ever did was working on a professional production of "The Mikado" in Brisbane and the Gold Coast as the radio microphone operator. This meant being backstage for the show, fitting mics to people, doing changeovers during the show and constantly monitoring the systems to make sure no one went on stage with a dead mic.  Here's some pics from the production.

Before the show I had to go into dressing rooms and put mics on people.  The big thing was to not be able to see the mics, so there were a bunch of different techniques used.  If someone had a wig or a headband we would just stick it to their forehead poking out from the wig a little bit.  Guys with hair got the "pen job".  This took a little while to master.  It involved getting the tube of a ball point pen, with the innards removed.  Take a tiny rubber band which was only about a centimetre in diameter, and wrap it around the end of the tube several times.   Put the the head of the mic inside the tube and grab some strands of hair just above the persons ear and poke them inside the tube as well.  Then flick the rubber band off the end of the tube so that it is now attaching the mic to the hair.   Sometimes this can be rather painful for the person and needs to be done several times before you get a secure fit without it hurting like crazy.  It's best to have the mics attached to the head so that if the singer moves their head they never go off mic.

John English was one of the stars.  I didn't have to put his mic on but after the show I had to go to his dressing room and rescue his mic from his headband which was dripping with sweat.  It was gross.

During the show there were many transmitter changes.  SG didn't want to hire enough mic transmitters for each person, so they had to be shared around, which meant I spent the whole show running around grabbing transmitters out of people's costumes as they came off stage and putting them in other's as they were about to go on.  Some of the changeovers were so fast I literally had to stick my hand down people's pants the moment they got off stage, no time for modesty, then run and find the next person as they were about to step on stage.  It was pretty tight.  At times I was sprinting from one side of the stage to another to make the pack change in time.  The stage hands knew when I was coming and kept the way clear.  There were also quick costume changes of the actors as well which meant pulling the packs out of one costume and putting them in another as the person was changing their clothes.  This was sometimes a really complicated operation involving several people as some changes needed to be done in about 30 seconds.  And you don't want to be the one responsible for someone missing their cue on stage.  Yes, hectic things go on backstage of the theatre world.