Simon Hall, Tom's monitor engineer and project manager for Wigwam Acoustics, who supplied his S21, had worked with Keane for the past six years. "When Tom was ready to do some live shows, I got the call," he says. Mark Littlewood became involved via Simon, who he has toured with on and off for almost two decades, and mans the FOH position with his own S21.
"The tour started on 21 October and took in venues of various sizes," says Mark. "We also did promo and TV shows prior to the tour, which ranged from radio station 'acoustic' shows to performances in German record stores. The eight-date tour in October took in a real variety of venues from churches, boats, music halls and comedy clubs."
Space limitations in such unorthodox venues were a major factor and all the backline and sound equipment had to fit into small vans and bus trailers, whilst load ins generally involved several flights of stairs.
"After evaluating small-format desks from a number of manufacturers, we knew the S21s were a no brainer because of their small footprint, light weight and reliability," he recalls. "Also, a lot of the shows involved very limited time from arriving to performing and I had every confidence that the S21 would deliver and perform flawlessly first time."
(Jim Evans)
