Taking place in London, Glasgow, and Belfast this March, Country to Country (C2C) Festival brought a taste of Nashville to the British Isles with help from Clair Global, Sound Image and Britannia Row Productions.
Now in its 11th year, C2C draws audiences in the tens of thousands. The 2024 line up saw Brad Paisley, Lauren Alaina, Kane Brown, Elle King and many more Clair Global clients take the stage, with their teams trusting the Clair Global Group to supply bespoke control packages.
Jesse Adamson, Sound Image President, explains how the company is ideally poised to support sound engineers and tour and production managers working with country music stars. “Both Clair Global and Sound Image have strong roots in Nashville and long-standing relationships throughout Nashville’s live music community,” he says.
“Having these locations and teams based in the city is crucial in supporting these acts, many of whom come home weekly, and have touring crews based locally. We have the latest inventory of high-end equipment and skilled operational teams in Nashville, ensuring we are perfectly suited to their needs.”
Many Clair Global and Sound Image clients playing C2C rehearsed in Nashville, with packages provided from the Nashville shops. Offering the same high level of service across the Atlantic has been seamless, as Clair Global UK Operations Manager, Stu Gilmore explains: “Having a UK location for US artists enables any visiting production to have peace of mind and familiarity in the system we are providing, and, in most cases, they can walk up without physically seeing it in the warehouse.
“Through active collaboration and strategic communication with both the operations team in Nashville and individual artist production, we were able to create continuity from rehearsal schedules to the live shows, even with the complexity of UK-supplied 240v backline alongside the travelling US-owned backline running at 110v.”
Control packages were built and prepped at Britannia Row Productions’ Twickenham warehouse and included one compact ‘Fly Rack’ style rig for Restless Road, comprising a Small Format Midas (M32R + M32C), a complete Allen & Heath package for Elle King using dLive S5000 consoles at FOH and Monitors, and a mixed Yamaha PM5 (FOH) and DiGiCo SD5 Quantum (monitors) deployment on Kane Brown’s duplicate rig. Duplicate packages were also created for Brad Paisley and Jake Owen, prepped simultaneously to ensure a mirror image was achieved.
Bill Szocska, Monitor Engineer for Jake Owen comments: “I can't thank Stu enough for the work he and the team did. The gear was perfect (both rigs!). [Freelance Monitor Tech] Will Hall is a true asset and represented the company very well, his work ethic and efficiency are amazing, and all wireless coordination was spot on. I look forward to working with them again in the future.”
Across the rest of the artists including Brothers Osborne, more Yamaha Rivage consoles were the preference, (front and back), including PM3, PM5, PM7 and PM10 models. The control packages also included RF across band radio mics, IEMs, and backline RF.
Courtney Warner, FOH Engineer with Brothers Osborne, reflects: “It was a mad success! It worked exactly like I’d hoped, which was flawlessly. We felt so confident in the gear and our files, that we didn't even soundcheck the second show! Big thanks to the London team and the Nashville shop for sorting everything out - I can't wait until we do a headline tour together!”
Gilmore concludes: “To meet the demand on equipment, the local and global teams collaborated to ensure all inventory was in place on time to facilitate the necessary build and prep schedules. Delivering this level of detail is a testament to the ops and warehouse teams who work hard to ensure the highest standards are met for every client, and as a result, we’re pleased to see such a positive response to an important event in the country music calendar.”
