Mumford & Sons to tour with Martin Audio MLA

Mumford & Sons FOH engineer Chris Pollard has taken out audio rental company Capital Sound’s Martin Audio MLA system in preparation for the band’s debut UK arena tour.

The folk group will start off with a number of warm-up regional theatre shows – featuring the MLA Compact – with the MLA servicing the major arena dates, which get underway in December.

‘”The MLA momentum is building and we knew that once Chris got to hear the system he would go for it,” said Capital Sound’s general manager Paul Timmins. “But because of the band’s hectic schedule in Australasia and North America, we had a problem simply getting him in front of it.”

Capital finally managed to introduce Pollard to the system at The O2 in London during The Killers’ first show day playing the venue. “We showed him around the equipment and then he listened to the incredible coverage MLA delivers without the need for the delay hangs that are usually necessary for The O2,” Timmins continued. “He made his decision later that day.”

The rental company is supplying a four-man PA crew, with Marty Beath, one of the newly trained MLA technicians, handling system engineering; Fabrice Quirin, who has worked with the band during the past 18 months for all their European touring, as crew chief; Mark ‘Magic’ Ellis Cope on main PA duties; and Tom Whitbread taking care of stage miking.

Pollard has also opted for a Midas XL4, while monitor man Joel Gregg will use a Digico SD10 console with Shure PSM900 in-ear monitoring systems and d&b M2 wedge monitors.

“We have really high hopes for the audio results on this tour and can’t wait to hear the rig in action,” Timmins concluded.

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