As I mentioned yesterday, Toronto is a city growing at a remarkable rate and judging by the sheer amount of construction going on, you could be forgiven for thinking the current world recession has passed it by. The ingenuity and desire of the human race to expand is no more evident than here. The Hazleton hotel in the buzzing Yorkville area is certainly a popular late night venue as the bar here, which takes last orders at 2am every night is full every night of the week.



The familiar old Four Seasons hotel is directly opposite and towers over us. Rather sadly though, our old 'haunt' has seen better days and indeed the Canadian Four seasons chain has decided to replace it with a new 'improved' version just up the street and still under construction.



It's just under nine years since last we visited the wonderful Massey Hall. Built in 1894, this hall has a distinctly 19th century feel. It reminded me, believe it or not, in some ways of a Spanish Bullring (maybe because of the bright red painted wrought ironwork) or an old time variety theatre since the audience is very close with the balconies being steep and near. The back wall of the hall is closer to the stage than is usually the case. The consequence of this is simply that the band has more 'contact' with the audience and the feeling of intimacy is enhanced.





Sound-check revealed another good sounding hall albeit with quite a lot of radio disturbance. Kerry and Ben spent most of the afternoon scanning and trying different frequencies. Kerry later commented that they ended up back on their original starting frequencies and the earlier interference was gone. Just a few blips and 'whooshes' but nothing we can't deal with. It's worth mentioning since I'm delving in detail here that the louder you have your radio pack, the louder these bursts of interference can be. I have my pack set to '4', which is fairly conservative but some of the guys go up to '5'!!! Eek, so when they get a cut-out, it can be quite a shock. The best way I can describe it is like short burst of very loud white noise.

Mike has been learning some tunes on the guitar in the dressing room and has been playing the acoustic the band got given back in Santa Rosa.





Mark decided today to raise his volume pedal since he's still playing the show on the stool due to his current left leg pain. The boys gathered round and led by Dave Hall, mocked up a little riser and adjusted it to Mark's exact height requirement. This took a solid 20-30 minutes as Mark needed to check a wide range of guitars and positions. It appeared the optimum height was achieved in an unusual way...



Richard remarked on the interesting story of the renowned jazz album recorded here in 1953 by "The Quintet", composed of some of the time's biggest names in jazz: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach. It was the only time that the five men recorded together as a unit, and it was the last recorded meeting of Parker and Gillespie. The original plan was for the Jazz Society and the musicians to share the profits from the recording. However the audience was so small that the Society was unable to pay the musicians' fees. The musicians were all given NSF checks, and only Parker was able to actually cash his; Gillespie complained that he did not receive his fee "for years and years". Charlie Mingus took the tapes to New York where he and Max Roach dubbed in the bass lines, which were under-recorded on most of the tunes, and exchanged Mingus soloing on "All the Things You Are."
A 2004 re-issue contains the full concert, without the over-dubbing which was added by Charles Mingus on the original recording. The new version was titled "Complete Jazz at Massey Hall".

Behind Danny's drum riser sits an interesting piece of stage equipment. Doubling as a table for Robbo to put Danny's MPC sequencer and click generator, a flight case containing the new power distribution transformers and line conditioners. A very sophisticated piece of equipment that essentially takes the incoming, usually two phase mains power and 'conditions' it in a way to make it steady and reliable for our much varied on-stage requirements. The small size of these two units mean they are easily overlooked and today was the first time I actually noticed them. I say them, since there is one which outputs 240 volts and one for 110. These devices are essential. Even with modern technology, there are some venues which don't necessarily provide steady power for many varying reasons. we have done a few shows in the past where power has simply failed completely and these UPS systems will cover us for a brief period but their main role is for the protection of the more sensitive gear which can react badly to 'dodgy' mains. One such piece is my old Roland JD800 which is by modern standards, a little ancient and oddly goes out of tune when it doesn't get a proper feed.



Modern equipment is generally quite efficient these days..Colin dropped off some figures for me -
Sound
120v @ 100 amps = 12,000 watts
120v @ 125 amps = 16,000 watts
x3 total = 50,000 ie. 50 Kw peak.
Lights
120v @ 200 amps = 24,000 watts
x3 = approx. 75 Kw fairly continuous.

Modern theatrical lighting has a fairly continuous power consumption. Generally the light source is on all the time and the output is electronically controlled/filtered etc. The current draw by the sound system can vary dramatically, following the dynamics of the music and therefore the input. Thumping bass notes and even the leading edge of percussive sounds will generate peak instantaneous demands on the power supply. Ambient current consumption can be remarkably low.
In the US, our incoming supply, a nominal 220v. is derived from two legs of a three phase 110v. supply. In Europe we will have a singular phase 230v. supply.
Input voltages are nominal and can vary by up to 15% but Colin can manually. Colin can manually compensate and adjust the output and will sometimes even do so during the show. Incredibly, almost daily, by the time we go onstage the voltage will have dropped by around 10 volts.
Three phase is nothing more than single phase with 2 extra coils slightly out of phase with first.  Basically "Phase" relates to the timing of the magnets passing over the coils at different times. With single phase the magnets and coils all line up with each other and are said to be in "phase". 3 phase power is typically 150% more efficient than single phase in the same power range.  In a single phase unit the power falls to zero three times during each cycle, in 3 phase it never drops to zero.  The power delivered to the load is the same at any instant.   Also, in 3 phase the conductors need only be 75% the size of conductors for single phase for the same power output.



Colin replaced the slow rotor motor in Matt's leslie yesterday...



I spent a good while at the hotel playing my new Reverend guitar