SSE Hire's work schedule for Christmas and the New Year period is looking busy, with a number of tours and special events in the pipeline for the audio hire company. Tours being serviced by the company include the forthcoming tours of the UK and Europe during November and December by Travis and UB40. Front-of-house engineer for Travis is Giles Woodhead, who will be using the SSE-supplied Midas XL4 desk and the Nexo Alpha system, while Chris Leckie has a Midas XL3 looking after monitors. Front-of-house for UB40 will be Jerry Parchment and Steve 'Gonzo' Smith with an XL4, and SSE's Betamax speaker system. Monitor engineer Graham Blake will be using an XL3. For Faithless' UK and Ireland tour, FOH engineer Mark Kennedy will be using a Midas Heritage 3000 (also with a Nexo Alpha system), while monitor engineer Tim Pattison will be taking advantage of the facilities offered by the Innova Son Grand Live console. For Tori Amos, whose tour of Europe kicks off in December, both FOH engineer Mark Hawley and monitor engineer Marcel van Limbeek will be using XL3s, again with a Nexo Alpha system.Other projects lined up for SSE include the Sussex Music Awards in Brighton on 6 December, the JNF Dinner at Alexandra Palace on 11 December the Smash Hits tour (Nov/Dec) and the Smash Hits Party on 16 December, Birmingham City's New Year celebrations and Autosports 2002 at the NEC in January.
