Both concerts were mainly acoustic, with Holland backed by his touring rhythm section, the Cathedrals' choirs and singers including Beverley Knight, Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall. The second performance at Rochester Cathedral attracted nearly 700 people, including HRH Prince Charles. Money raised from the performances is being used to help with the upkeep of these historic buildings and to create an endowment to encourage Cathedral music.
From Fleetwood's point of view, the venues provided some interesting acoustic challenges. Fleetwood engineer Dave O'Carroll says: "The size of these buildings makes them ideal for choirs but when you have a rhythm section playing alongside, you need to be careful with microphone placement for the voices not to be drowned out. We used a mixture of microphone techniques to give the producer, Laurie Latham, options at the mix stage."
O'Carroll adds that security was particularly tight at Rochester Cathedral, thanks to the royal guest. "Every flight case and piece of equipment had to be scanned before it was allowed inside, so it did take us longer to set up," he says.
The concerts were recorded on board the Fleetwood Two mobile using Pyramix, with tape as a back-up. Dave O'Carroll was assisted by Ollie Nesham, Robin Delwiche and James Drake.
(Jim Evans)
