Elvis & The Imposters play RAH, London 5 June '13

Pretty self-explanatory
Azmuda
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Re: Elvis & The Imposters play RAH, London 5 June '13

Post by Azmuda »

This Alison video isn't dated, but it might be from June 5th.

The imposter
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Re: Elvis & The Imposters play RAH, London 5 June '13

Post by The imposter »

Yeah that's from 5 June. The spinner (named Alison) also span the wheel on the original 80s songbook shows.
The imposter
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Re: Elvis & The Imposters play RAH, London 5 June '13

Post by The imposter »

Wolverinefan wrote:The RAH is a beautiful building and the tour was quite enjoyable, made more so by the fact that we were able to see and hear EC rehearsing at various points along the way. :) We had a nice meal beforehand in the Cafetiere, a bit overpriced for what you get, but quite tasty.

Now to the main event...

I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy this concert half as much as I thought I would, so my review is going to be quite negative compared to others. :(

We had first row seats, but not in the stalls. We were at the front of block G, which is to the left of the stage, near to the cage. When we first arrived at our seats we thought they were in a good position and we'd have a close up view of Elvis' right side, plus views of the dancing. However, unfortunately there was some kind of contraption rigged up, which looked like a bundle of microphones and maybe a camera, which stood at just the height to block out most of EC completely! Even worse, one of the stage lights was shining directly in our faces, so it turned out we had double trouble viewing EC. :cry:

The seats further to the left were vacant so we moved along to those, but the security guard got a bit anxious and said he'd have to call the ticketing manager to get our tickets officially changed. The manager came along and took us out to the corridor to discuss it, then said he'd look for some better seats for us. He walked us around the back and ended up giving us seats in a box right at the back... we were MILES away! When he came back and asked if we were happy we had to admit we weren't, as we'd travelled quite a way to see EC and had gone from close seats to distant seats. So, he moved us again... this time back to block G, but 4th row back. This felt a bit better as we didn't have the dazzling light in our eyes, but still the contraption blocked our view of Elvis. Finally we moved along the row a bit to get a better view, but there was another problem - the sound quality was just awful! We had quite a lot of echoes bouncing around and at times we could barely hear EC's voice at all! Such a shame, and when he did Oliver''s Army the whole thing sounded a real mess. So, part of me is not surprised that those people walked out, because the concert I was experiencing was nowhere near as good as previous times I'd seen EC.

To be honest, I had read previous comments about RAH having some accoustic problems, so maybe I should have known better. I don't think there was anything wrong with EC's voice, and interestingly when he stepped back and did a couple of things off mic he was pretty impressive, so I guess it was down to technical problems.

Now I'm a bit concerned about our Basingstoke seats, as once again we are left of stage, front row of side circle. I hope it's not going to be more of the same, sound-wise.

Little Fool - so pleased your friend got a good result with changing his seat. I'm beginning to wonder if I should do the same thing now, for Basingstoke. :?
There have clearly been very differing opinions on the sound at RAH on both nights, particularly on the 1st night. From how you describe your location on the side behind the cage, I would say I was more or less directly on the opposite side of the stage. On the face of it they seemed like excellent seats. I conversely had a poor view of the cage. Maybe more lighting was needed ? Incidentally the “contraption” you describe will be the searchlight that Elvis or rather “Napoleon” uses in his intro. Perhaps that could be moved aside after the intro speill ??’ I’m surprised the ushers objected to you moving to other vacant seats though.

Like yourself, I was also disappointed with the sound. (Broken amp not withstanding, that was just unfortunate.) There were many other problems with mics cutting out and every member of the band not happy with their own monitor mix at one point or another. Elvis took out his in ear device on a couple of occasions, as though he didn’t trust it. Personally I felt that Daveys vocal was not loud enough and Petes kick drum was too boomy and the guitars never sounded quite right all night. Generally a really woolly and distorted sound.

Admirably the band overcame much of this, to a degree that some in the crowd wouldn’t have been aware of many problems that they were facing.

For the 2nd night I was on the floor about 9 rows back. I felt the performance was electric and twice the show of the previous night. The band appeared to be much happier with their on stage monitor mix and I had the feeling that they wanted to make up a little bit for the previous nights problems.

Yet again, if I am honest.. although I rated the performance, the sound from out front rarely matched it… It’s clearly one of 2 things.. Either the sound in the RAH or the sound crew Elvis is using on this tour.. It was my 1st visit to the RAH so I couldn’t say. Neither was I at tonight’s show, so I’d be interested to know what people thought.

I would venture to say that the sound will be better at other venues so that should tell you where I think the bulk of the problem lay.. I would have no worries about Basingstoke.. It will be sorted.
Wolverinefan
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Re: Elvis & The Imposters play RAH, London 5 June '13

Post by Wolverinefan »

Thanks Imposter, it's good to know that others understand where I'm coming from. I will just put it down to experience and stick to the smaller venues in future. Your comments about the drums and guitars drowning Elvis out/seeming out of balance very much chime with my feelings about the sound quality and it's interesting that these problems were more obvious to you on the previous night, when you were in a side seat, than the second night when you were in a more central position. It speaks volumes about technical issues/accoustics at this venue.

I'm now reassured that Basingstoke will be much better for us, despite side seats. :)
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MistakenForLilies
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Re: Elvis & The Imposters play RAH, London 5 June '13

Post by MistakenForLilies »

Till I speak double Dutch to a real double duchess.
johnfoyle
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Re: Elvis & The Imposters play RAH, London 5 June '13

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