Meet the audio team bringing Foo Fighters' stadium tour to life

Over two and a half hours into Foo Fighters’ monolithic concert at Anfield football stadium and neither band nor fans are ready to go home. Before the encores begin, the venue reverberates to the sound of 60,000 people braying the melody from ‘Best of You’. Dave Grohl and company then return to the stage and launch into ‘The Teacher’, an epic ode to the frontman’s late mother. The magic that ensues is more than just musicianship – a technical audio team is hard at work to ensure the sound is crystal clear and packing sizeable oomph.

“For Foo Fighters, great sound is not negotiable,” Lez Dwight, director at Britannia Row productions, a high-end sound rental company, tells me. “As a team we ensure sonic results are achieved with predictive software and ample set up time.”

This means equal distribution of great audio – even to fans in the nosebleed seats.

“You always want to create even coverage for the audience, with accurate tonal balance.”

Britannia has produced the audio for many a legendary show over the decades. The company grew out of Pink Floyd’s production camp in 1975 and went on to create shows for bands like Queen (including their legendary show to 150,000 at Hyde Park in 1976), Oasis (and their gigs to 300,000 at Knebworth in 1996). Madonna, Beyoncé, Metallica, The Cure, Whitney Houston, Harry Styles, all had the Britannia treatment.

Britannia’s relationship with Foo Fighters goes back to the band’s inception in 1995 - and before that to Nirvana when Grohl was still behind the drum kit.

“We are proud to have established and maintained such a long working relationship with Foo Fighters, their management and touring crew, and the current tour is testament to their staying power,” remarks Dwight.

Credit: Elizabeth Miranda

For Foo Fighters’ two shows in Anfield, Britannia deployed a large “L-Acoustic speaker system” consisting of: K1, K2, KS28s and A15 boxes. They also flew a ring delay system into Liverpool and “all the elements were driven from LA12X amplifiers.”

Within the Foo crew, Anthony King (front of house engineer) mixes what the audience hears. Ian Beveridge (monitor engineer) mixes audio for the musicians and backing crew. Adam Smith designs and tunes the PA speaker system. James Covill manages the monitor system and Alex Cerutti maintains the wireless microphones and in-ear monitors. A team of stage and audio technicians, PA technicians are hard at work under the auspices of an audio crew chief.

Britannia’s team work closely with the band’s engineers, explains Lez Dwight.

“Our job is to facilitate their needs so that they are prepared and supported for every show, which in turn allows them to concentrate on their mixing duties while we handle other technical details behind the scenes. Besides the PA, we supply the tour with all other audio requirements, from mixing desks to outboard gear, to every cable and connector.”

Foo Fighters’ Take Cover tour takes them around the world, mostly in stadiums, until January next year (at the earliest). This will require the technical audio team to adapt according to each venue:  “the PA design is tweaked depending on multiple factors including venue size and design: such as whether it’s outdoor or open air or for a closed arena.”

Great bands want to deliver unforgettable live sounds. But that is impossible, at the scale of stadium or arena sized shows, without the best technicians and equipment.