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SPADGER prides itself on it’s ability to undertake organisation,
control, and management of all matters concerning event production
and management, be it single event or multi stage festivals.
EVENT
AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
 "Now
co-directing Stroud fFestival, Production Manger for
Salisbury Festival - including the Fireworks event
in the Cathedral Close, P.A. Manager for Sidmouth and
Towersey Festivals, Site manager Priddy Folk Fayre,
involved in liaison with local authority environmental health
departments for several events, over a number of issues including
noise and its control on site, security and doorstaffing at
events and all Health and Safety aspects of entertainment
- a full and working knowledge of the "Pop Code -Purple
Book" is essential. The team has devised an essential
guide to event organisation, big or small, which has proved
itself over a number of years and differing events. Our working
knowledge of both technical and administrative parts of events
is comprehensive.
TOUR
MANAGEMENT
John has
tour managed artists for several years, in the U.K., Europe
and U.S.A., They include Richard Thompson, Rumillajta, Carmina,
Anam, and a host of others.
RECORD PRODUCTION / LIVE RADIO
 John
has involved himself in many areas of record production since
his early dabblings in his studio. His production speciality
is ‘final mix’ work, pulling together the recorded matter
into a wholly listenable project, however he has always enjoyed
studio engineering and producing total projects and some of
the artists he has been involved with follow.
Numbers
of ‘live’ albums have been produced from concerts engineered
by Spadger Engineers - we provided live sound and P.A. for
the ‘Legends – Dr Feelgood’ concert video (Castle CMP 6003)
which has since been broadcast on T.V. worldwide and provided
the same, plus stage management, for the ‘Banks Bitter Best
of Blues’ televised final concert for two years in Wolverhampton
Civic Hall.
Numerous
concerts with BBC Radio 2 and 3 have been broadcast over
the years from a wide range of venues and events including
Shetland and Sidmouth Festivals, Cheltenham Music Festival
and Salisbury Festival. We also had the pleasure of suppling
the sound system for BBC TVs ‘Blue Peter’ on Penzance Railway
Station Platform on one occasion! (and met Caron Keating!)
BBC 2
‘Young Folk Awards’ London, Dec 2002, BBC Radio 3 BBC Big
Band, Worcester Cathedral, June 2002
Studio
Albums (since1994)
| Band
of Hope - Roy Bailey, Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick,
John Kirkpatrick, Steafan Hannigan ‘Rhythm
and Reds’ Musikfolk MFCD 512 |
 |
| Thulbion
- Violet Tulloch, Andrew Tulloch, Judi Nicolson,
Ian Nicolson ‘Twilight Bound’ Greentrax CDTRAX
088~ |
 |
Alistair
Hulett and Dave Swarbrick ‘The Cold Grey Light of Dawn’ Musikfolk
MFCD 513
Live
| Rumillajta
‘Live at the Edinburgh Festival’ RUMI 912CD |
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Les
Barker ‘A Cardi and a Bloke’ DOG 011 (Towersey Festival
1995)
P.A.
PROVISION
Shooglenifty
‘Live at the Selwyn Hall, Box’ Womad Select WSCD 008
Oysterband ‘Alive and Acoustic’ Running Man RMCD
2
Ashley Hutchings All Stars ‘By Gloucester Docks
I Sat Down and Wept’ RGF/AHCD 005
Ashley Hutchings Birthday Bash Ref not available
yet!
Hammerhead World Music
: The 1994 Jersey Tipsy Toad World Music Festival HWM CD
091694
PHOTOGRAPHY
John
has also developed and eye for taking a mean photograph over
the years (following on from dad!) and has had exhibitions
of his landscape works at the Edinburgh Festival (Twice),
Salisbury Festival, and Sterts Centre, Cornwall over the years.
Promotion photographs have also been used by Brass Monkey,
Carmina, Daily Planet and various other musicians and organisations.
SOUND ENGINEERING COURSES 1 Day – 1 Week
ARTICLE WRITER
These
courses have been adapted to suit any number of applications
from all day to all week. John has been to Shetland and Cornwall
to undertake week long courses, developing a learning structure
for both beginners and intermediate knowledge students. Encompassing
both theory and practical work, the course is geared towards
the ‘live’ sound application: specifically to the ‘acoustic’
music market although studio work is covered in general terms.
Written
articles for inclusion in periodicals and magazines have been
supplied on many topics covering ‘the problems of sound’ and
it’s effects and John is a seasoned panellist and seminar
leader on subjects associated to the various businesses and
events he is involved in.
The Association
of Festival Organisers (AFO) regularly involve John in seminars
or panels and he was invited on to one of the seminar panels
at the WOMEX conference in Berlin ’99.
For more
information please contact John.
A.F.O. NEWSLETTER PROFILE JAN 2002
BORN – HAMPSTEAD, 1956
CURRENT OCCUPATIONS; DIRECTOR, JERSEY FESTIVAL OF WORLD MUSIC; CO-DIRECTOR,
STROUD FRINGE FESTIVAL; OWNER AND C.E.O. ‘SPADGER’ GROUP –
P.A. HIRE, PRODUCTION SERVICES; PRODUCTION MANAGER, SALISBURY
FESTIVAL; CO-DIRECTOR, ‘WICKED EVENTS’-EVENT MANAGEMENT.
 My
interest in the music business began back in 1975, starting
and running a number of Folk Clubs around Gloucestershire
with various bands I was playing with. Having been a choirboy
(yes hard to imagine)and with musical parents, the house was
constantly full of all manner of music forms and my twin brother
and self picked up a musical interest from the pram! Years
on, having ‘done’ the pro. muso. bit, I progressed to running
a rehearsal and recording studio which was christened with
the name ‘Spadger’ .
I
crashed around the local music scene, recording and managing
rock bands and progressed to doing ‘live’ sound, slowly building
up the P.A. business whilst flogging off the studio – you
can’t be in two places at once! A fortuitous tour with Ashley
Hutchings ‘Allstars’ in 1988 opened a plethora of doors and
I undertook my first ‘out of County’ Folk Festival – The Potteries
F.F. in Burslem – and the rest, as they say, is history. My
continuing 'main event' is still providing P.A.’s to artists
and events, from The Glenn Miller Orchestra through to Rolf
Harris, to Festivals the length and breadth of the country,
and ‘white glove engineering’ for artists like Brass Monkey.
A further substantial part of my life is obviously now being
taken up by administering the festivals and providing production
support.
I
took over the running of the Jersey Festival in late 2000,
from Gerry Jackson who had built up the Festival over the
previous 25 years and decided on a rest! I’d been involved
in the Festival, doing the sound for the previous 8 years,
so was profoundly aware of the intricacies of organising a
festival on an island outside the U.K. I have been involved
with the Stroud Fringe Festival since it’s inception, 6 years
ago and became a co-director, with special regards to finance
and programming, with Sue Torres, in 2000.As Production Manager
for Salisbury Festival, I get a chance to oversee and participate
in one of Britain’s biggest and more ‘mainstream’ Arts Festivals,
dealing with licensing, health and safety, quirky venues,
and the usual gamut of unlikely last minute requests!
 Over
the years I have been a promoter, agent (former owner of Brass
Tacks agency), manager (Anam++), installer, production &
tour manager and compere. I have had the luxury of travelling
widely, both here, Europe and in the U.S. and have been fortunate
to experience the differing attitudes, expectations and outcomes
of events from small to huge and their varying outcomes! The
most interesting and thought provoking trip (so far) has been
to Sarejevo, Bosnia in 1997 to do the sound at a huge show
for Jusef Islam formerly Cat Stevens in the previously bombed
Olympic Basketball arena.
My continuing
aim in administrating Festivals is to make them interesting
and affordable, which in the current economic and funding
climate enjoys being a ‘challenge’, my pet hate is the lack
of variation in festival programming that seems to continue
year on year, same artists, all over the country, at every
festival - limited vision and a lack of opportunities for
new artists will be the death of this industry if we cannot
bring on new talent; the ‘stars’ will all have retired or
quit before we know it.
ARTICLE
IN ‘DIRECT ROOTS’ BOOK 2003
HOW TO BOOK A P.A.
The days of random sound provision for concerts and events should be well
in the past by now, needs and expectations from both venue,
artist and audiences having merged to form a strong focus
for promoters to have to consider when taking the slippery
path to event production. Outlined are a few of the do’s and
don’ts you should consider when making that initial contact.
First
steps.
Accept
you need to spend money on this area of your event. Historically
within ‘roots and acoustic’ music the technical side of event
production has come well down the list of ‘necessary’ items
of expenditure - thousands on artists, pennies on production.
The end result is usually unsatisfied audiences (who now seek
c.d. quality replication of music at the right level of sound)
and artists, and justifiable complains to you, so put it in
the budget, and be realistic.
These
pieces of information are vital to have at hand from the outset
of hiring, -
Size
of venue,
size
of audience,
type
of event – i.e. concert or dance,
type
of artist(s) and their technical rider,
length
of show,
access
to venue and stage,
power
available,
numbers
of artists,
local
authority edicts,
staffing,
timings.
You
should have all or most of the above available when contacting
P.A. suppliers, and don’t be phased by the gobbledegook surrounding
technical riders, engineers should be able to decipher it!
Who do
I get?
Hiring
the P.A. that’s just finished touring with the Rolling Stones
may get you a fantastic P.A. but will probably break your
bank and supply you with very little you really need. Finding
the correct level of supply is a tricky business; a village
hall show will need a completely different technical remit
to doing a green field festival for 40,000 weekenders.
Speak
to other promoters, artists or venues as to suppliers they
hold in good regard; the local DJ, ceilidh band, or rock group
may be very willing, but are they able? Does the supplier
know the artists, have they a ‘track record’, are they professional
or hobbyists? Do they understand your ‘type’ of event; are
they usually involved in doing a very different type of work?
 Books
could be writ recording the trials and tribulations of providing
the wrong sound for the wrong job. There are now a plethora
of P.A. suppliers across the country to choose from, but only
a handful whom could or should be regarded as competent enough
to handle truly acoustic based music. Many suppliers are attracted
to the bright lights of rock n roll, others the conference
industry, few concentrate on equipment supply that correlates
to the needs of multi-timbre instruments and the variety of
music forms that cover the ‘acoustic’ base of music – and
their getting fewer! All will benefit from acquiring the correct
people and equipment to suit your event.
Suppliers
in turn should ask about the event ‘shape’, health and safety
provision, refreshment availability, accommodation and related
matters. Incorrect information, be it venue size, artists
booked or timings, provided at the outset, can neither help
quoting or provide confidence in the management of an event.
Be truthful when describing the event, acknowledge the real
amount of work you expect the ‘crew’ to undertake for you
– are they ‘onsite’ for 18 hours without a break, are they
expected to ‘run’ the show, do you have staff available to
liase, compere or ‘run’ for the crew. Manys the event the
crew running the sound has found themselves doing artist liaison,
stage managing, finding artists, compering and doing the job
at hand – and then being the whipping boys for the audience
because of expectations!
And
above all, it’s not the equipment that really counts – though
it does need to working and what you need – it’s the people
on the end of it that makes the difference, a happy sound
crew makes a happy event – for all. Period.
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