On the 9th November I joined Maksim for his 2011 tour of Asia. I travelled to Tokyo from London on the 8th November, having flown back from Belfast on the 7th after the MTV EMA’s on the 6th. On arrival in Tokyo I then took the Bullet train straight to Osaka. Upon arrival I was what we colloquially describe as knackered! Luckily I could rest in the hotel until I left for the Sankei Hall in the Breeze Tower to check out the venue in the morning prior to the fit-up in the afternoon.

For the Japanese leg of the tour we travelled our own crew & equipment. The PA was compact, 3 x L-Acoustics Arcs and two SB28 Subs per side , with another single Arc cabinet each side as infill. The system was controlled via an XTA DP226 Loudspeaker management system We had a single 12″ L-Acoustics wedge monitor for Maksim plus a Shure PSM 600 IEM. The desk was an M7cl with version 3 software and playback was, as usual via an Alesis HD24 Hard Drive multitrack. A good, reliable, functional system that sadly is no longer in production.

Tom, the Sound Engineer who replaced me for the first few dates of the tour had told me how quick and efficient the Sound Crew were. The team from SANKO, led by Takayasu Komaki “Maki” had the whole system rigged, tuned and working for me in under 40 mins. I was only discover what a joy that was later in China where I had to rely on local crew and equipment provision at each venue we played. Once, having started the fit-up at 10:00 AM at 6:00 PM I was still waiting for any working IEM to be delivered, with an artist who had not been able to rehearse and a performance to a packed house at 8:00 PM!