Luke Cockell

On Tuesday I went to my old schools Summer Concert. To start off with I think it was an excellent concert. The students that played there are very talented. I would love to play an instrument, I tried guitar once and badly failed, but yeah!

Few things that annoyed me:

Lighting It was bad, sorry, it was. I mean, whats with lighting up the back of someones head, it really does work. If their lighting bar had been positioned correctly, they would have a good coverage of the floor as well as the stage, since the floor seems to be used at most productions. Secondly, some of the lighting has been there longer than I have been a student there, and I left Coundon Court two years ago, make an investment! Thirdly, the colour changing on the “band” in the corner looked really bad, do something about it. Fourthly, the glitter ball looked weird just because of the shadow it created, it missed like half of it out. Thats all for now, but seriously do some investment!

Sound One of the musicians or teachers making adjustments in the “band area” just doesn’t cut it for a concert. Use the skills of the students that can do sound and get them the right side of the speakers and do a proper mix! Mic people up! Half of the time I couldn’t hear the person presenting, she was too quiet. A bit of support would have helped loads, especially for people who’s hearing is worse than mine. Next, mic up or get an input from the instruments, even if its just the lead ones. I know it might be easier said than done, but with a stage hand its really not hard. When the two guys were doing their guitar thing (BTECH I think), I couldn’t hear them. Position the speakers correctly, what’s the point in them both being at the right of the room? Sounds completely out of place when there playing a backing track to the person thats on stage..

Stage Setup There’s an absolutely huge stage which is used for probably 10% of the concert. Every thing else seemed to be floor level, or on one height of movable staging (if you get me). This is rubbish for those that are sitting at floor level that are expected to see through peoples head. Move the band from the corner, onto stage, make full use of the stage for the orchestra, and if you need to do a scene change, at least you have curtains.

Credit OK, some teachers move on, it seemed half of the time the teachers/staff were the centre of attention. The attention needs to be back on the students really, it their concert. Give them full credit at the end, get them involved in the organization and the ones that have shown exception reward them instead of giving flowers or whatever to one teacher that has decided to make a slight career change.

Overall I thought it was a good concert. I’ve got some friends who were in it, and they performed very well. Sorry for the rant, mostly technical stuff but since I was sitting with David, who only half cared and Ciara who didn’t care, I had to release it somewhere!

Luke