04/17/2007
The backline technician’s role within the team that produces a live music show is one of the most demanding and delicate, since the main job is to prevent any failure or problem that gets in the way of the musician’s relationship with his instrument, which is, in fact, the foundation of the whole show.
Among the qualities required are technical and musical knowledge, an always-vigilant attitude, and a stage presence that is partly innate and partly learned. The job puts a premium on discretion and a certain focus on the inside of the show, on the musician, unlike lighting or sound technicians, who are much more outward-facing, toward the audience.
Backline training is not as standardized as it is for other technicians. The traditional way of learning has been on the stage, alongside more experienced backliners, learning from experience. To improve and systematize the transmission of knowledge, Call & Play decided to organize an annual intensive course covering the main lessons and keys to this kind of technician’s work. And so, recently, in mid-February, the Second Backline Technician Course took place, aimed at training its live staff.
Once again, the sessions, which were intensive and combined classroom theory with hands-on practice, aimed to give attendees the knowledge needed to competently carry out a backline technician’s tasks and to gain responsiveness and self-confidence.
As in the previous year, the course director was Ovidio García, who has done a great job organizing into a structured syllabus knowledge that, although it comes from different fields, is all fundamental to a backliner’s effective work.
The syllabus was organized around three core areas: the backline technician’s work within the context of a show’s production; basic knowledge of electricity, electronics, and sound; and hands-on knowledge of instruments: drums and percussion, string instruments, guitars and basses, amplifiers (with special attention to tube amps), keyboards (with an emphasis on vintage), and DJ gear.
The instructors were all professionals with extensive experience in the industry. Among them, we should highlight Isidro Matamoros, director of the Trade Dj’s School in Madrid, who taught the DJ classes, and José Mª Rosillo, a sound engineer, Pro Tools instructor at the Centro de Tecnología del Espectáculo, and director of Call & Play’s pro audio division, who covered sound for backliners.
Jorge Bueno came from Barcelona. He is the director of Amptek, a company that manufactures and distributes George GTA “boutique” amplifiers and distributes high-end brands such as Carl Martin, T-Rex, Rio Grande, Evidence Audio, and T.A.D. Amptek also has a service department specializing in tubes.
Alongside them, live-sound professionals such as Ricardo Checa, Olivier Galán, and Xavier Sologaistua contributed their more experimental, hands-on expertise.