FOH is not a free fire zone

The FOH is not your personnel storage area.

1- do not place your bags, camera case, laptop cover, your goody bag, your friends rucksack, your rucksack, your large office laptop bag, your umbrella, your jacket and other stuff here.
We will not take care of them.
We will not be liable for them.
We will move it if it gets in our way.
When tear down comes and you are having your drinks somewhere, we will not look after your items. We will move them. We will not let it get in our way of the tear down.
Do we owe it to you to look after it and return items to you? Nope.
If it gets " stolen" it's not our shit, it's your fucking problem.

2- do not come asking for stuff at the last min. We will not entertain you. If you come early maybe we will.
Bring your own cables. I will have x27 spares, but I will tell you that I have x02 and I will need them for emergencies, last min issues which are important to the show. Not you.
We have been setting up past night and day. You come at the last min. We will not entertain you.
We will not run your FOH cable feed for you. If you are short of cables, and if you are nice, we might just lend you some.
You will return it to us after the show. We will remember your face.
We will set up audio splitters at a certain location for all you reporters.
You will run your own cables to your own tripod.

3- we have power at the FOH. Yes. But it is not for you.
We will have run the amount that we need. We will have a few spares.
This spare points are not for you.
They are not for you to charge your phone.
They are not for you to charge your laptop.
They are not for your camera's batt charger.
It is for us. Yes. We are greedy.
You the camera person should have charged your gear.
You the video camera person should have sorted out your power requirements with the client before you came to the venue. And also your cable runs. Let them know if you need any mains. We will run it for you to a point. Or tap your own from the venue.
Like above, no entertainment at the last min. We simply have no more points to give you.
And we have no spares as usual, so sorry.
Nor do we want funny shit happening to us pre show. We have done our checks. And we don't want your faulty gear coming in at the last min giving us headaches. Which leads me to;

4- you will not plug in any of your cables or plugs into any plugs, connectors, power strips and slots that you see around. Pls seek us out and ask. We will attend to you shortly.
We will fuk you up if you do the above. We will find out about it.

Many times have we walked pass, saw something new which is not in the setup, and we have plugged  that cable out.
Trust me, we will do it.

5- electrical items and components don't go very well with your half filled glass of wine or what ever.
You will not place any of your drinks anywhere near our control area.
If you have to rush off to say hi to someone, jolly well bring your damm drink with you.

6- k that's it I think. Enjoy the show.

Regards la.

newspapers, trash bags and a dog.

ar. some one was asking me about an old post i had on facebook. so i had to recall the incident. so here it is. will speak of the past.

so i got home from work, having been away for 3 days doing some conference type show. u know, like leaving the house at 6am and getting back after 11pm. shows and reh`s and stuff.

ok. the 2nd day into this " show", was told by our family maid that thats something wrong with our dog. oh shit wads wrong now?

Side note- we had the dog, wicky, for about 5 years. he was given to us after their owners moved into a smaller flat, and could not bear to hold onto him. when wicky was sick, he was about 12 years old.

i went to have a look at him at his living space. infact, wicky walks the whole house. the whole house is his to walk. only when theres dinner (humans) does he get locked up behind.

he was looking bad. still walking. weakly. looking at you with a sad face. heavy breaths. sitting down. having issues getting up again. been going on a while as well.

getting old there wicky.

his food tray empty. his water bowl halfed. seemed to be eating and drinking ok.

i spend minutes with him. he looked tired.. like, real tired. not interested to even walk into the living room. rubbing him. talking to him. not wanting to carry him as i think it hurts him. shit..

hmm. thats bad. after a while, he sat down and looked away. wicky been doing that a while now. when ever someone walks to him, he will look away.

he knows......  i know.....

i went off to sleep, thinking and knowing that the end is near. went to work the next day. did the tear down, got home round 12am.

went looking for wicky. he was by the washing machine, towards the back end of the corridor.

lying on his side. breathing very very heavily.
his mouth was open. tongue out the side of his mouth.
some splatter of blood on the floor.
glassed eyes non focused.
piss and shit.
but still trying to breath.

did not see me, or brain dead, im not too sure. was not moving a lot. infact, not moving at all. just laying there, with deep, noisy breaths.

shit. wad the fuk to do? did the maid not see this? ( she sleeps early if theres no one at home)

i have to think. nick think. can call the vet?. can send to the vet?. ok. lets do that. shower first. u stink after day at work. ok. shower than deal with wicky to the vet. where is the fukin vet? any open at this time? shit.. fuk again.

so i did my toilet stuff. got new cloths on, rdy to handle wicky.

got back to the washing machine. i looked. hard......

no more movement of his chest.
eyes really glassed over.
finger to mouth, no air movement.

shit, my shower took me less than 10 mins!!

he`s dead. nar. cant be.. lets check again...

like said, no movement what so ever. 2 mins more went pass. ok nick. he`s dead.

nick, check again. so i did. fuk. he really is dead.

ok. wad the fuk am i to do now?

no one was home. family all on holiday pass week. back in 4 days time.
is there like, a funeral company that does dogs? do they collect and arrange burial? or burn?
do the family wanna see wicky before the burial or cremation or wad?

shit wad to do?

thannnnnn as i sat there beside him, i looked across and saw two items.

newspapers.
trash bags.

hmmmm. maybe that will work. i got to at lease place wicky in some form of "coffin" or carrier while i sort out things and think.

than i though again. why not wrap wicky up in layers of newspaper and trash bags and dispose of him down the rubbish chute?

Now, from here on, you all will have your own views on this. Its your head and im sure you can make up your own minds.

I decided to dispose of wicky down the rubbish chute.

I took a stack of newspaper, all straits times issues, and them black trash bags.

I slowly wrapped wicky up. paper, plastic, paper, more paper, plastic, more more more paper and a final wrap of trash bag.

It felt damm weird. here i was, doing wad i did. feeling bad? sad? happy that wicky is dead as he was suffering pass weeks? why am i doing this and not calling the dog disposal people? is this the way that people would approve? is it wrong? what is the right way? will i get condemned by the dog god? wad will the family think? am i cruel? am i crude? did wicky waited just so i got home to see me one last time before giving up? why am i heartless? am i doing the right thing at this moment in time? can i bear the shouting i will get when they come back from holiday? is my head screwed on properly? who gives me the right to dispose of him this way?

all this while, wicky laid there, beside the washing machine, in his coffin of paper and plastic.

maybe he`s there in sprit, going, u fuker nick. wanker. been your friend all this while and look wad you do to me when im dead. asshole.

so i did not yet throw him down the chute. i got on my bicycle, went to 7-11 and got a 6 pack of beer. had 4 cans downstairs by the pool, and the other two by wicky, thinking of him.

finished the two cans. and i did it.

I picked wicky up, held opened the chute, and chucked him in. heard him bounce of walls 2 times, than the thump into the rubbish bin. in went my two cans of empty beer. shut the chute.

cleaned up some blood and shit and urine. mopped up.

and that is my story of wicky.

..............................

CHC Part 1, don`t know bout part 2

This are solely my views and no others. 1995. CSP. My first show working with CHC.
Fulltime engaged by them to do a show in SIS. So in we went. Hung them speakers. Set up foh and mons. Full band type.

 After all is done, we kind of handed it over to the church Snd team. All fine and dandy. Many people came and went. Asking questions bout the system and all. That's ok I guess.

 Henry I think it was. Came asking bout the PM4k Yamaha. " wads that for" " wads this button do" We were like, simi lan, lei bay hiao ar?
Thought u guys know wad is going on and how to use the gear that u yourself called for.

 No matter. Small issue. So we did teach them. Showed them things. How to use things. Basic stuff like. Ok. Now the fun part So it's time for the band.

On they came. " looks normal to me" I said. Close mic up. Input checks. Output checks. Mon checks. Foh checks. All is normal system all go!! We had to stand by too. Kinda like baby sit them all the way. Any thing that goes wrong we would "fix" for them.

 I started to question why were there 4 people on the desk. Isn't it normally one? Maybe two? But 8 sets of hands? I was a bit lost. So I dicided to look into this weird set up. Alas!
1 person does the vocal inputs.
1 does the acoustic parts of the band.
1 does all the electronic parts of the band.
And the last ones job is to pre fade all the inputs via headphones. Of coz the rest were using the x02 cue mons they asked for.

 Boy was it crowded there at monitor land. Band reh went on. Not yet at the stage where the " lead " singer came on. While band call was going on, we all kinda noticed a few people hanging round in the foh area.

I later found out they were kong hee, Ho sun, surage and hendry. Hendry I knew as he was at the desk a lot. And many others too. some ang mor called dunken or something.

 After a while, they came on. One sharp look from the female singer, and the whole bloody snd team was grovelling. "man this woman is si bay powerful"

The poor gal doing the mics nearly fell in rushing to get her shure to her.
This was the first time I was doing a CHC show I did not expect it to be like that. Why was the Snd team from the church so fearful of this woman?
I was finding it really weird that they were (fearful).  The mins passed. The reh was a start and stop type. Every 2 mins.
Every few mins she had something to say to the crew at the desk.

All this time I was just behind them on stand by mode. I can't remember who was at foh. Just one chap baby sitting that guy too. The whole lot of us standby crew just sat behind them, watching, learning new stuff as well.

Stage mons for her seemed hard to do. Cant seem to get the mix right. I pity the 8 hands on board. Daggers flown at all of them.
Shouting at all of them. And they just kept quite. Doing their jobs.

oh hail the high priestess of CHC. oh hail the woman who is right in all ways.

Many times did we do shows for CHC when they came to SIS. Always full hse. Very good turn out. and i must say, its like, happening sia!

After a longgg while, things got better. the stage crew got it to her liking. she seems happy. could see that the 8 hands on board got more relaxed. all good than. lets have a break and do the show.

but nooooo. no break. rehs done > prayers > and reh again! non stop, no breaks. the crew worked hard and long i must say. we rental boys just took it in turns to eat.

" hey nick! gtr mon not working! no sound coming out".  shit that woke me up from my slumber !

"simmi tai chee?"

" dont know lei. no sound from gtr mon". okok i see see the tai chee.

run like dog, check this check that. knn cant find problem lei. wad the fuk could be wrong?

some one at the who was at the desk came up to me and whispered,
" nick. go look at the desk. i think they never unmute the output".

..........fuk la. simi lan chau. why lik dat one

indeed, went to the desk, aux output to gtr mon was muted.

pui. and pui again.

"hello sir, pls unmute lei. thats why no sound coming out la". ( wtf, one red light alone cant see is it?)

so the chap unmuted. things went back to normal.

the above mute/unmute story happened a lot in the earlier parts of the day.  after that, we all got wiser. we would look at the desk first before anything.

oh well. thats that. years passed. many shows with CHC. they did learn many things. and also they still forget a few things.

saw how they did things. saw the different disposition of different ppl. how they behave. how they send daggers with their eyes.

Lets zap to the present. 2012. As you all know from various means, of what is happening now. the S$50 million thinge. oh well. let the courts have their say on it. im in no position to say anything bout that i guess.

the people doing the snd back in those days are the same ppl doing the snd nowadays. the company doing the techie part for CHC, xtron, closed shop before certain people were arrested last month. oh well..... open news out there if look for it.

am really looking forward to this month, 27th i think. they all appear in court.

hey ho.. thats this story. nick.

another show, number 3431 something. i think.

So, another day another week, a show. 

Been a long time since doing a show at the old Westin ballroom. Let's call it that. Hate the new name.

Points listed below, not in any order.

1- bloody hell. Things have changed in the " food serving" department. As some of you know, the whole back passage from the loading lift all the way round coming out at the other end is a no no to storage of empties. Maybe if you have only a few cases you might get away with it.

If its a show with food being prepared, they use the damm space for themselves. No cases allowed. 

That's fine with me. No quarrels with that.

But what is different now, I think, they use up the whole passage, nearly all the way to the other end.

And, they block up all the doors too. Their tables, carts, bins, tray holders, foldable tables for preparation of food ( they cook it in the kitchens), basically the whole kitchen is there !

Imagine this. You know the corner side near the loading lift? Well, from that first door and going down 7 doors round the passage, they have something in the way of all them doors.

Those doors are serving doors, and also emergency exits. All blocked up. And most of them that were blocked had exit signs over them. Does this mean blockage of doorways meant for emergency exiting?

The backstage area is inaccessible to all. The design of the stage and video screens block off this area. And when wanting to go backstage or out of it, it's almost impossible.

and the band, the singer, the dancers > no changing room. backstage area is it. how fuked is that?

That's my rant on that shitty subject.

2- they have a small riser thing for the MC and, hell, i think for all short speakers. Hahaha I laughed hard, not too hard, people can see, when the VIP went up. He tripped over this riser. Mr tan Chuan-Jin, ministar of state for manpower and national development. 

He said," ar..hmm.. A safety hazard there".   Hahahaha pissed myself. wonder which joker shat their pants right there and than hahahahah fukin made my day that did!

No one though about his height. The mc's height was more important.

Fuking funny. And it's MOM's yearly show, WSH awards.

Like a person said, “guess we wont see that riser next year”. lol

And because of this extra height, his mouth was so far from the damm mic. Who the fuk put that platform there? Hahahahahah

Is someone’s head gonna roll?

The MC. not to tall. Melissa hydrake something chick. she needed the riser.  she places her notes on the rostrum top. ok. well done. but don’t LEAN forward when you need to glance at your notes la girl! you know the sound waves you produce get larger in amplification into the mic when you do that?

and asking the award winners to s-q-u-e-z-z-z-e together on stage for pictures, DON’T look at them! we won’t get your sound waves into our S$10 million sound system. if you want to look to your left to speak to ppl, lean to your right and look and speak “pass” the mics at the same time honey.

3- can fly cant fly. Got place no place. So wrong to stack the shit in this particular situation. But lanlan. No fly points. So how? Stack lor. Brought foldable platforms. Works fine.

No money for truss? Should have ground support and flown. like many other shows. Oh well. but maybe the client don’t want any trusses. why do ppl like large frontaged stage`s with no place to put any speakers? or even FF`s.

4- I already have mentioned somewhere, radio comms needs to be there. Fuk I can't even call the Snd op. I will not use the comms system that is being used for the show. Can't interrupt show calling. Maybe big big big emergency than can. bo pian. But the Snd op was told to off his Walkie. In fact, all FOH crew were told to off walkies. Wtf for I don't know. Gota ask the show caller why he did that. Was trying to contact op at start of the vip's speech, but can't. Found out after when I went to FOH that he was told to off his talkie.

That pissed me off bad. 

5- Singer`s rehearsal. Hmmm. with P/B, not live. maybe did not warm up at the start of reh. voice was, well, not coming out that well. but at the end of the reh, it came out ok after getting her on iem`s. mix down track for her was, not that well done. ups, downs, no lows at parts, piercing at times. poor sound man at the desk.

6- number 1 drum stooi came with the MI company. must be their best stooi, not stool. had to take a pic for old times sake. wonder if number 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 is any better.

bah. thats my rant.