The Fleece has been a fixture of the Bristol music scene since 1982. Offering live music seven nights a week it is Bristol’s largest independent venue and over the years has hosted a who’s who of international music royalty including Radiohead, Muse, Oasis, Ed Sheeran, Queens of the Stone Age, The Hives, Amy Winehouse, and hundreds more. A listed building, and named for its former role as a sheep trading market, the Fleece enjoyed a comprehensive refurbishment in 2021, upgrading its facilities for both audience and performers alike. The stage and associated production areas were completely redesigned.
Technical manager Rich Munday oversaw every aspect of the transformation which initially retained the venue’s Midas Pro 2 console at front of house. After the refurbishment, when the venue was in a position to upgrade, Munday wanted to maintain the Midas ecosystem and opted to bring in the Midas HD96 console as he explained: “We’d been using the Pro 2 for years and when we added a new monitor world as part of the stage rebuild we used our old Midas Pro 1 for monitors. When we were able to upgrade we wanted to stick with Midas and also invest in something special to match the powerful KV2 PA system that we’d installed as part of the rebuild. The Midas HD96 was the obvious choice. We knew all about it and had seen it close up at Plasa.”
As a seven nights a week venue, the Fleece welcomes a wide range of musical genres and a significant number of visiting sound engineers. Asked about the strengths of the console in this environment, Munday begins his summary with an unequivocal three word reply: “Easy to use. Workflow is completely configurable and can be set up to match an engineer’s personal workflow preference. The flexible layout configurations make multiple band shows easy. Each engineer can have their own individual layout on the same console which can be recalled at the push of a button.”
Having logged more than a thousand hours of live experience with the HD96, Munday is committed to supporting those who are new to the console, demonstrating the various features and workflow options while happily sharing tips and tricks: “Around the time we purchased our first HD96 it still had something of a mythical status – most people knew about it and were keen to get hands-on but couldn’t get hold of one. Consequently visiting engineers are excited to see one in the wild, as they perhaps hadn’t encountered one in venues of this size on their tour circuit, if at all. The console is invariably greeted with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, but all are motivated to get hands-on and get a show under their belt using it!”
With an overwhelmingly positive response to the Fleece’s HD96, the venue’s new console suffered a hiccup when an exuberant audience member caused unfortunate and significant liquid damage by throwing a drink in the air in its vicinity. Having quickly hired another HD96 to cover the time taken to repair the console, the Fleece ownership decided that it would make good economic sense to buy a second HD96 to provide redundancy and continuity, such was their trust in its value. Munday is quick to compliment Midas U.K. distributor POLAR: “POLAR provides excellent customer service. Their team always responds quickly to any enquiries and are always extremely helpful. We see Nick Bellis frequently at events like PLASA to compare notes and learn something new!”
POLAR Business Development Manager Nick Bellis commented: “The Midas HD96 goes from strength to strength in both the touring and live sound sectors. The fact that a seven days a week venue like the Fleece invested in two consoles indicates just how highly they rate the HD96 both in terms of its technical advantages and exceptional value for money.”
