Brendan
Here’s our Brendan. From Cork, Ireland, Mr. Galvin joined us for the European leg of the tour. He has taken over from Peter Mackay (you may remember he left us to join Rod after the US) Brendan has his work cut out making sure we’re everywhere we need to be….on time.

Fantastic show last night....Hamsterjam rocks!

The PA
Many of you have tekkies out there have requested some info on equipment. Today we look at the PA. Here’s our PA spec. supplied by sound man Jim Homan.

F.O.H.: Midas XL-4 Custom Mixing Desk 56 inputs.
Yamaha Pro Mix 01
Midas XL-88 Matrix Mixer

Effects: Lexicon 480L
Lexicon PCM 81
Lexicon PCM 90
T.C. 2290
Eventide H3000
Yamaha SPX 1000
Dynacord DRP 15

Inserts: 3 BSS Varicures
2 Al Smart Stereo compressors
1 BSS 901 4 Band compressor
3 TL Audio Stereo C1 compressors
2 Klark DN 3000
1 Klark DN 360
5 BSS 402 Stereo compressors
6 Drawmer DS 201 Stereo gates

Speakers: 22 V-DOSC
16 ARC’S
16 EAW Sub’s
6 EAW KF 300

Amplifiers: LA 48
Crest 8001

KNOBS
OK…Here’s COMPETITION No. 2. This one is a little more difficult.

Here’s a picture of SEVEN different knobs.

Can you link each one to a band member. Each knob is on piece of equipment that he uses in the show. Mark is included in this one. I’ll let this competition run a while due to it’s difficulty.

Bonus prizes will be offered to those who can also name each relevant instrument.

EXAMPLE…

A HARRY POTTER Vox Contintinental
B BILL GATES Fender Stratocaster
C JEAN LUC PONTY Violin
D FRANK BOUGH Akai s3000 sampler with 64Mb RAM
Etc.

Send your answers to fletchontour@aol.com

Waving hands
I couldn’t resist taking the camera onstage again to try and capture the in-sync hand-waving during So Far Away. Sure enough, right on cue, you guys did it again. I wonder is it just a Dutch thing? Totally spontaneous?

SFA
Here you can see where I put the camera when I play (So far away)

Competition update....

Still only 3 correct entries. I will allow 10 Winners on this one, as it's so difficult.

Tippex Strat
As some of you are aware, we’ve started playing Local Hero at the end of the show. Just Mark and myself. Mark uses his red Strat and has had trouble seeing the dots on the neck of the guitar, because it’s pre-1960 and the dots are small. Glenn came up with the solution at sound check. Fluorescent Tippex. Let’s see if it works tonight.

COMPETITION CLOSED
OK we have our winners. 12 of you actually. I thought it would take a little longer. I’ll have to devise something really tough for the next competition.

The answers were

A Mike Henderson Silvertone guitar
B Richard Bennett Gretch guitar
C Mark Knopfler Gibson Les Paul
D Geraint watkins Hammond B3 organ
E Glenn Worf Pensa 5 string bass
F Guy Fletcher Clavia Nord 2 synth
G Chad Cromwell Roland Handsonic percussion synth

Knobs Competition winners are
Pedro De Bruyckere, Belgium
Christian Almstrom, Sweden
Marco Schapp, Holland
Jürgen Van Bever, Belgium
Herman Weeda, Holland
Kevin Hart, Rochester, NY USA
Sebastiaan Fitz Verploegh, WI USA
Amy Blizzard, GA USA
Danieck Meere, The Netherlands
Mark Hunstone, Australia
William Buckland, Florida U.S.A
Mariano José Sturmer, Argentina

Mike H., wailing
A few words about the PYROMAN bass drop. I’ve had a few e-mails expressing concern for the unfortunate instrument. I feel I must point out to you that it was bought in the US SPECIFICALLY for the job. We understand how some of you may feel it contradicts the band’s love of instruments but we also like to have a bit of fun now and then. (and some guitars simply deserve a good kicking) We think the sacrifice is justified as the guitar will be auctioned at the end of the tour and the proceeds will go to a charity/well deserved cause.

It WILL almost certainly be heavily damaged by the end of the tour. However, the fact that it has survived thus far is indeed testament to it’s manufacturers. Bets are being taken on whether or not it survives in one piece.

These fanpics kindly sent in by Eric van Dorland

another one
MK with National steel gtr.