by Andy » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:45 pm
Interesting this, especially comments on sound.
The last time the boys were on Tubridy they played flame and i was a little disappointed with the "Half and half" approach to the sound (singing to a backing track). I felt strongly enough to write to them about it. Here's what Tubridy producer Michael Kealy had to say in their defence.
Hi Andy,
Thanks for your email about Bell X1's performance on Tubridy Tonight recently. I fully understand your disappointment at seeing a band like Bell X1 mime playing their instruments on TV. The reality of the situation is that bands on (live) TV shows tend to perform with a live vocal track to a backing track or in some cases they will do a full mime... There are several reasons for this:
1. The studio schedule generally doesn't allow for the time consuming sound checks that live bands require.
2. Bands find it very difficult to reproduce their "live" sound in a television studio and prefer a backing track as they know that the sound quality will be perfect every time... rather than rely on TV sound technicians who may not know or appreciate their music and on dodgy studio acoustics.
3. "Tubridy Tonight" already has a fully live house band... and technically we can't satisfactorily accommodate two live bands in such a short space of time without compromising other areas of production.... unfortunately we just don't have the resources that a "Later with Jools Holland" has neither do we pre-record the show (like Jools and Jonathan Ross) which would give some degree of flexibility.
4. The live vocal to backing track was driven primarily by the music industry and is often the only way we can get acts to perform on our show.
5. Most international acts on a promotional tour travel without their instruments and gear and rely on the TV shows to supply backline like guitars and drums etc. but will use them only as props not to actually play.
Of course there will always be the exceptions to all of the above but they are rare. There are other shows that will only have fully live acts perform - "Other voices" on RTE 2 for instance, so the outlook for live music isn't totally bleak!
I know the situation isn't brilliant for real music fans - I personally would love all our acts to be fully live but unfortunately this is not possible. I hope that this email has gone some way towards explaining why we do it the way we do.
Regards,
Michael Kealy,
Producer "Tubridy Tonight"
I was speaking to someone who recently performed on Tubridy this evening and he informed me that Bellx1 became the first band to perform fully live on the show this year. As far as i'm aware they're the only ones to do so thus far. We should therefore salute all involved and allow some le-way in terms of sound quality. For what it's worth, i thought the sound was quite good, however i'm not really sure what sound Paul's fancy electronic guitar was making anyway.
And was that Dominic singing falsetto, or this new fella with the funny haircut?