"That's it" I decided,
" I'm going to throw the lot in the bin."
Had I finally had enough, not of
the Mac falling over every five minutes, or the
Studio 5 turning into a stick, or even the RD1000
deciding to play the same chord forever? No, all
that was oddly familiar and reassuring. It was
the rest of the band taking about me whenever I
left the room, dropping hints about upgrading my
gear to something more reliable and making me
feel like I was the source of every problem
occurring on stage.
I liked my rig, After all, I had
been friends with the Roland RD1000 since we
first met at Barwell Court when writing Clutching
at Straws. It had the most realistic sound and
feel of any electric piano on the market. That
was 1986. Today most would say it sounds nothing
like a piano and they would be right. It still
feels like a real piano and it's still a good
friend.
I knew the time would come when I
would have to retire the RD1000 from touring. The
wake up call came on the radiation tour. About 3
days in I started to have problems with every
technicians favourite fault, Mr. Intermittent. It
worked fine during soundcheck but as soon as
there was an audience, the bloody thing started
playing up. It even made me, an experienced test
pilot with years of "seat of the pants"
giging, break out in a sweat. It wasn't an
obvious "sounds like the keyboard rigs gone
down" type of fault. It was more subtle and
unnerving than that. more like a "Why is
Mark trying to play with a boxing glove on one
hand and a bottle of beer in the other?"
type of fault. That was the beginning of the end
for the RD1000. First I needed to get through the
rest of the tour… I had a cunning plan. I
hired an RD1000 form an unsuspecting hire company
and spent the next day swapping components
between the two keyboards. Eventually as if by
magic the ghost of Les Dawson left my piano and
entered the hired one. I sent the hired keyboard
back and had an uneventful rest of the tour, at
least with regard to the RD1000.
I first became acquainted with
Macintosh computers at Hook End Manor while
recording Holidays in Eden. Steve R had a Mac SE,
A cute looking all-in-one computer-black-and-white-monitor
with a happy face. We donned our lab coats and
set to work. It was slow and boring especially
for the rest of the band while Steve and I
scratched our heads and muttered to ourselves
about how "It should be working now."
Eventually we did manage to get the beginning of
Splintering Heart on tape and I was hooked on
Macs.
A few years later we were on tour
with Brave; I was having a nervous breakdown and
Mike Hunter (my keyboard tech at the time) was
threatening to leave the tour because he couldn't
handle the stress any more. It was all due to the
MIDI control box called a MIDI-Temp. I often
wondered if 'Temp' was short for temporary,
because it only seemed to work part of the time.
I had heard about a new controller called a
Studio 5. I was instantly attracted to this piece
of gear (and not just because of the 1500 quid
price tag). Any black box with no knobs on and
that expensive must be very special. But you also
needed a Mac to program it. The Studio 5 had
everything routed through it. Like a big junction
box, it would take care of all my routing, patch
changes, disk loading, layering, key splits, and
tea making needs. All I had to do was play and
drink beer.
In true pioneering style I
decided to swap to the Studio 5 right in the
middle of the tour. Very exciting. The rest of
the band doubted the wisdom of this but they were
sick of things not working night after night and
were worried about Mike's health. I spent 2 or 3
nights and days learning how to use the S5 and
made the smooth transition from the MIDI-Temp one
night in Germany. Well, there were a few teething
problems but it was an improvement.
I carried on with this setup for
a number of tours, some were even trouble free....
well, not exactly trouble free, but I do remember
Steve R having so many problems with his gear on
one particular tour that the heat was off me for
a while. Steve didn't cope with the bands'
sarcastic comments as well as I. Years of
experience had taught me the best way to deal
with that sort of thing was to tell them all to
piss off.
One of the things that made me
bow to popular opinion and get rid of the Mac/Studio5
setup was the accidental destruction of 3 Mac
Laptop computers in as many months! They don't
travel well. Especially when the local crews all
behave like they were trained by Heathrow Airport
baggage handlers.
I gave Gordon Reid, an old mate
who has an enormous collection of keyboards and
often writes reviews for midily-widdley monthly,
a call. He recommended the Roland A90, a piano
and MIDI controller in one box. Although he did
say he was not convinced it would be able to do
everything the Studio 5 could do. I went to look
at one, and it sounded and felt like a real piano.
He was right about the MIDI capabilities, but I
gave it some thought and realised this could work
to my advantage. Up until then I was in charge of
programming and controlling the keyboard,
samplers, and pedals played by H and Pete as well.
This made my setup more complicated which I didn't
mind but it also meant I was responsible if their
gear didn't work when they came to play it on
stage. I went to the rest of the band and told
them I could switch to the A90 but it would mean
Pete & H would have to be responsible for
programming and operation of their own gear. They
bought it! Hurrah!
I went on a gear buying frenzy. I
ditched my old Wavestation and bought a Roland VK7
organ. I also had a new Roland JP8000 from the
Radiation tour. I even went over to the "dark
side" and joined the evil world of Bill
Gates. I ditched my Mac for a PC!
I still use my old Kurzweil K2000
to play samples with. The whole lot goes through
a Mackie 16 Channel Mixer where it is lovingly
mixed together into a stereo pair. I send it down
the multicore to Stewart E at the mixing desk,
out front, where it is buried under a proverbial
mountain of drums and guitars. I wonder why I
bother sometimes…..
Equipment
List
Live
Roland A90 EX MIDI Controller
Roland VK-7 Organ
Roland JP-8000 Synthesizer
Kurzweil K2000R Sampler/Synthesizer
Cry Baby Wah-Wah pedal
Mackie 16-Channel rack-mount
mixing desk
Additional Studio Equipment
Roland Space Echo
Leslie rotary speaker cabinet
Akai S6000 Sampler
Steinberg Cubase VST sequencing
software
Previous
Projects
Mark has had his production hat
on for several bands over the years. In 1995 he
produced British band Jump's album "The Myth of
Independence." Previously he has worked with
John Wesley on his debut album Under the Red and
White Sky. Mark also contributed keyboards on
several tracks on both projects.
Before joining Marillion in 1981,
Mark played keyboards for London-based band
Chemical Alice, who released the now much sought-after
EP "Curiouser and Curiouser" - now
available for download at http://www.btinternet.com/~archimedes/music.html#alice
