I’ve been involved with the organisation of amateur/student gigs for like 12 years now, from the Tin Pan Alley days down the Gig@Sheffield. I’ve an inkling on what’s needed to put on a decent gig on the cheap, and 99% of the time, I leave it to the pros when it comes to the technical aspects of it. For the Gig@Sheffield, we got this chap called Waq who’s a real pro (done live work for the likes of the now-defunct The Beautiful South) and a really nice guy too (he didn’t care if the bands at the Gig@Sheffield were non-pros, as long as we pay him the dough – we’ll get a rocking great show).
Nevertheless, I remembered when I co-organised a mini-gig on the first floor of our local Indian (the infamous Pria Mambo 2 show in 2001), we were left to our own devices with renting a Peavey PA system and mics, and setting the whole thing up. This book by Ralph Denyer is way handy to this very day and it did help us to some extent. A few weeks prior to Mambo, I even asked for some help from my brother with the basics of getting a decent live sound. The end result sounded just nice, although it wasn’t perfect to a tee. Fast forward a few years, with Waq handling FOH duties, it was plain sailing.
This year saw me handling the sound for an event called SANTAI held at a venue pretty similar to the balairaya we used for our usual gigs. The challenge this time is the limitation of doing it on the cheap with limited equipment. I wasn’t complaining as it would be interesting to see if we could pull it off. The only equipment that is made available were a portable PA system with 5 channels going at 2x150W, and a couple of mics. Ouch. Hence, the first thing I told the organisers was not to expect much if we are doing things on a budget but I’ll try sort out the best possible option based on what’s laid out in front of me.
