Mackie Interview Rhett Davies - Wed 6th Jun

Mackie Interview Rhett Davies
06 June 2001

Mackie Designs On Tour with Roxy Music

June 6th, 2001: United Kingdom–Nearly 19 years after they vowed never to play live again, Roxy Music ended years of seemingly endless speculation with the announcement that they would be back on the road this year with their entire original line-up.

Roxy Music were the creators of a decade—defining sound that was melded from a bizarre blend of diffident suavity from Bryan Ferry and sax-driven raunchiness from Andy Mackay, with Phil Manzanera and Paul Thompson holding it all together on guitar and drums. With this tour, the line up has expanded to included an interesting mix of musicians including Chris Spedding on guitar, Colin Good on keyboards, Zev Katz on bass, Lucy Wilkins on violin, Julia Thornton on percussion and Sarah Brown handling backing vocals.

Also back is producer Rhett Davies, who has been drafted as sound director for the tour. Rhett has worked with an impressive and varied roster of artists over the years including Dire Straits, Brian Eno, Talking Heads and the B52s. Well-tried and trusted, Rhett has been working with Roxy Music since 1975 when he produced the legendary Manifesto album. More recently, Davies got together with Bryan Ferry for his solo "As Time Goes By" tour, last year.

Rhett and Levi Tecofski (FOH mixer) will be using three Mackie HDR24/96 recorders to record the entire Roxy tour. All the concerts will have every feed sent to the HDRs, which in turn will provide a full 72 tracks of new recordings at every stop.

"When I started organizing the new tour, it was obvious that we would want to record every gig to the highest standard, but with the minimum of fuss" said Rhett. "The Mackie HDR24/96 fit the bill because I am "old school", and I love the fact that you can see exactly what’s going on without the ubiquitous computer screen and pull down menus. In a live environment, ease of use and clarity are all-important." Rhett continued, "I have a Mackie desk in my home studio so I knew that the quality and reliability would not be in doubt. I also have 150 Mackie Media drives, which will be enough for the entire tour. I can’t wait till the winter when the tour ends to get my hands on the them!" Rhett would not be drawn on the subject, but naturally there is speculation that the material may be used for a live album.

To see Roxy back in action after all these years won’t simply be a celebration of seventies and eighties musical zeitgeist, but a testament to a group who’s talents have produced music that is as relevant today as it was twenty years ago. The band will be performing songs from an impressive portfolio that includes such hits as Avalon, More Than This, Jealous Guy, Angel Eyes, Dance Away, Love is the Drug, and of course, the seminal Virginia Plain.

The tour kicks off in the UK on June 11th in Glasgow. Additional stops include Newcastle, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester and three nights at Wembley Arena beginning June 22nd. On July 17th, the tour moves to North America where stops include Boston, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The third leg includes three nights in Tokyo beginning September 7th returning for more European dates and a final gig in Dortmund, Germany on September 21st.

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