BAND: Sade
VENUE: HAMMERSMITH Odeon
DATE: November 9, 1984
PA: ACS, London

With the proliferation of such TV series as Minder and Big Deal, the image of the shady, street-wise herbert seems to have assumed a new and disturbingly glamorous status in the minds of the general male populace.

Any self-respecting, credible advertising executive will by now have equipped himself with a pocket-full of telling cockney aphorisms with which to alert the clientelé to the wisdom of his agency's reasoning.

I have to admit that I too am a sucker for rhyming slang and happy banterisms of any description, but Friday night outside the Odeon showed me the unacceptable face of the petty criminal slut. Half-a-dozen slimy grey ticket touts paced about the shop in that affected, Jack-the-lad manner, giving it plenty of bunny and fitting up the occasional over-eager punter for a score a piece. Shouldn't there be a law?

Such a scenario is all too common, but in this case it seemed particularly odious because of the nature of the act in question. Only a few yards away, within the grimy bounds of the theatre sat the 80's personification of feminine style and artistic integrity; the contrast was stark and disturbing. Unprovoked police violence would have been too good for 'em. So that's it, I've binned the street cred parlance; from now on it's the Queen's English (someone's telling porkies — Ed). Could I be just another besotted male victim of that striking femme fatale image..? Na.

The Liverpool Sound

This was the last date of a sell-out UK tour covering 14 performances in 18 days and for all involved it seemed it was ending too soon.

In charge of sound were Dick Webber (FOH) and Dave Lawton (Monitors), and as they are both scousers I was easily able to track them down in the local pub by looking for the two with their heads submerged in pint mugs of real ale. Two nicer blokes you couldn't wish to meet. The tour had apparently been great fun and equally successful, with the occasional bout of levity supplied by certain members of the lighting crew, such as slipping the nozzle of the billowing smoke machine through a crack in the coach door wherein the driver innocently kipped. Perhaps we should do a year book giving full operational details and instructions for all the best pranks and wheezes perpetrated by road crews on unsuspecting colleagues. Writing it might just turn out to be lethal, however.

In terms of sound balance, Sade are more of a cabaret outfit than a Rock band, and thus little sophistication or gimmickry was required of the PA system. Downstairs, the main rig was driven by Amcron DC300A's via an active, Yamaha 3-way crossover and 1/3rd octave graphic, and comprised (per side):

8 x (1x15) Martin in a folded horn cabinet.
4 x (2x12) Martin philishaves.
4 x JBL 2441 with 2350 flares.

In order to cover the balcony a separate system was flown in a central position, consisting of four of the new(ish) Martin RS1200, all-in-one, systems. These were driven three-way active (Yamaha/Amcron), using a pair of Klark Teknik DN27 graphics without the extra optional box of JBL bullets for super highs. Each cabinet contains:

2 x 15 Martin drivers
1 x 12 Martin drivers
JBL 2445 with Martin horn

The FOH console was a Midas 24:6:2, and Dick had configured the sub-groups in stereo just like this:

1/2 — Vocals
3/4 — Backline
5/6 — Kit

The auxiliary rack wasn't unnecessarily cluttered, containing a Dynachord DDL 12 digital delay and DRS78 digital reverb, plus that old on-the-road stalwart, a Roland Space Echo 201. The first three of the desk's four auxiliary sends were used in that order while the fourth sent a mix to the upstairs system.

Kit — Dave Early sat competently behind a Sonor kit and a variety of microphone as follows:

Bass Drum — AKG D12
Snare — AKG D201
Hi Hat — Calrec 1056
Fourtoms — Four x Sm57's
Two Overheads — Two x Calrec 1056

Bass — Paul S Denman played a Music Man and a Westone Thunderbird III through a Trace Elliot, 11-band graphic head, and a pair of 4x10's. It sounded phenomenally good. The amp's balanced line output was used for direct connection to the desk.

Guitar/Sax — Playing a Fender Strat and an occasional Fender Tele through an array of Boss pedals and a Roland JC120 with an SM57 in front of it, was Stuart Matthewman. He was also responsible for bringing to life an unidentified Baritone sax, with a little help from an SM58.

Keyboards — Andrew Hale was fully Yamaha equipped with the simple but effective combination of a CP80 electric piano and a DX-7 synth, both of which were directly connected to the consoles.

Brass — Terry Bailey on trumpet and Gordon Matthewman on trumpet and trombone were confronted by a pair of SM58's.

Percussion — Martin Ditcham sorted out an array of congas, chimes, wood blocks, cow bells and rattles to good effect via three SM57's.

The Philistine View

Why do I get the feeling that if all the world's microphone manufacturers with the exception of Shure went bust, the majority of PA companies would suffer very little concern. It wasn't long ago that the sound engineer for the already famous Men At Work used only SM58's, including everything from vocals through guitar stacks to bass drum; and guess what, it sounded just fine. I can think of a good number of studio engineers who'd probably top themselves though.

The monitor desk was a Midas 24:10, driving a total of seven Martin LE200 wedges via three Klark Teknik DN27 graphics, and Amcron DC300A power amps. This was the first major tour for the whole band, and thus they were getting used to the techniques involved with larger PA system. Dick and Dave were working with them to keep the on stage level down to a minimum in order to maintain clarity front of house, and hence there were no side fills.

Dick prefers to use no compression, and indeed none was used, nor any gating. He prefers to preserve the true dynamic, and although Sade herself sometimes comes on a little peaky for linear gain, her mike technique is continually progressing to a point where she'll be able to maintain her own consistency.

The sound was just fine. There was nothing exceptional, but it was all very clear and distinct with Sade's voice well out in front and the kit mixed back a little, as per the cabaret style. It suited the music very well.

Fashionably Late

With no support act to bore/entertain them, a mixed but largely adult audience waited very patiently for the band's entrance which finally came about 20 minutes after the schedule time. They opened with Why Can't We Live Together followed by Your Love Is King. This was early on in the set for such a block buster, but the crowd were hot for it already, and as Stuart ripped into the soaring baritone line there wasa general surge of appreciation. Sax always seems to get the most applause, and Stuart's long-distance likeness to the cool-but-macho leading male figure in the movie Baby It's You does nothing to deplete the affect.

Then came Frankie's First Affair and Spirit intoning the age-old suggestion, 'Let the Spirit Move Me'. It certainly moved the bass and brass with an excellent slap feel and some blistering stabs respectively.

The songs were nice and well executed, with a particularly appealing rhythmical feel. Sade's voice is wonderfully affective in its dusty, lower register, but it's markedly out of control and imprecise on certain high notes, especially when attempting to articulate quickly. You don't have to be a singing instructors realise that there's room for a little professional coaching here. It's a good sound, but some specific work could broaden it out a great deal.

Most of Sade's lyrical deal with human emotional/spiritual concerns such as love, realisation of personal potential, the value of friendship etc. "I'd like to say I love you," she told 1,700 complete strangers, "but you wouldn't believe me, so I'll just say I like you very much." I wonder if that included the touts who couldn't get rid of all their tickets.

It's all very soft, young, naive and charming, but the style of their vocals tends to create a slight sameness. Romanticism alone tends to get a little bland and boring after a while. She has the softness of the dove, now she needs to develop the wisdom and edge of the serpent (semi-biblical quote there). If she's a star now, she could be a superstar tomorrow.