Every Thursday I look back to the past
In the summer of 2016 I had the privilege of joining my favorite band on tour through Europe. It had been so many years since Soulwax did a proper tour, so it was really exciting to be part of it. The band came back with a completely new live concept by using three drummers on stage.
Those summer shows would be crucial to shape this new live version of the band, which would result in to the ‘From DEEWEE‘ album later that year.
One of the things I did on tour was taking pictures of their gear at different locations. In the end, I don’t think we published these pictures on their social media pages (but I might be wrong). So here are those pictures now!
This was the first picture of the series.
I took it backstage at BBK Live in Bilbao, a festival located in the hills around town that had these amazing view. We rolled Laima’s Mellotron through the catering tent, just to get this view.
A day later, this picture of the EMS Synthi AKS was taken in Tours, France. The crew always had to pay special attention, to make sure nothing happened to this very valuable synth. How valuable? Well, you can trade it for a brand new car if you would.
There was this little area with trees just behind were the tour bus was parked at the festival ground. So Olli and I carefully put it in the middle of the trees.
(side note: it was on this day were Abby Echiverri, who was responsible for the maintenance of the synths, came up with the name ‘Transient Program For Drums And Machinery‘ – which would become the title of the first song that was released from the album)
There are two pictures of the TTHS synth, both taken in Corse, where the band played near the sea at Calvi On The Rocks.
Above you can see the synth with its controller on the stand, below only the TTH synth on the rocks.
Both pictures were taken by Steph. I remember Dave was a bit stressed about this, because they had to perform later that night and he didn’t want anything to happen to it. This was the synth Dave played on after all. And off course the TTHS synth fell over, just after taking the picture. Luckily Abby was able to work her magic and fix it on time.
It was a really hot day at Benicassim in Spain, when I took the picture of the Macbeth synth. There weren’t a lot of interesting places backstage to take a picture, but I did like this crew entrance and it worked.
This last picture, of the Prophet, was taken at the Latitude festival in the UK – the only UK date on that summer tour. All this machinery was just behind the tent where Soulwax had to perform.
As a bonus here are some more ‘making of’ pictures:
Abby with the Mellotron in Bilbao
And here’s Abby with the TTHS in Calvi, not knowing she would have to fix it a few moments later.
Steph, supported by Blake, Olli and Chris, taking the picture near the sea.
Chris, Blake, Jasper and Abby patiently waiting for me while I was taking the picture of the Prophet, before they had to carry it back to the stage. Thanks all for that amazing summer of 2016!
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