Shure microphones helped make the "Rockin'1000 - That's live" project a reality. More than 220 wired and wireless microphones, including SM58 and SM57 models and ULX-D systems, were part of the equipment that made the dream of over 1,000 volunteer musicians come true last July 24 in Cesena, Italy.
In May 2015, a small group of fans of the American rock band Foo Fighters from Cesena, in the Italian region of Romagna, decided they were tired of traveling long distances to see their favorite band every time it went on tour. The Foo Fighters had not played in Romagna since 1997 and had no plans to return. Led by Fabio Zaffagnini, these friends decided to organize a special live performance of the Foo Fighters' song "Learn to Fly." The plan was to have 1,000 musicians playing at the same time, film the performance and send the video to the band to convince them to add Cesena to the list of dates on their next tour.
As Zaffagnini explained: "If you really want something, you have to be ready to fight for it, and it's better if you have 1,000 people with you." The project was more successful than anyone could have dreamed: the video of the performance, which was 100% crowdfunded and carried out by volunteers, went viral and racked up more than 30 million views on YouTube. Within a few days, Dave Grohl (the heart and soul of the Foo Fighters) had responded online, and in November 2015 the band opened its European tour at the Carisport arena in Cesena, with free admission to the concert for the 1,000 musicians who took part in the original "Rockin'1000" video.
Inspired by this success, Fabio Zaffagnini decided to repeat the experience and build something new on the foundation he had already laid. This gave rise to the "Rockin'1000 - That's live" project, a full rock concert performed by another mega band of more than 1,000 volunteer musicians. Once again, what began as a crazy idea became a huge success, with more than 1,200 musicians playing on July 24 at the Dino Manuzzi stadium in Cesena in front of an audience of 14,000 people.
The concert featured 250 drummers, 250 guitarists, 250 guitarists, 250 bass players, 30 keyboard players and even 30 bagpipers. Together they played a selection of hits by David Bowie, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, The Beatles, The Clash, The White Stripes and Led Zeppelin, forming what may well have been the biggest rock band in the world.
To get an idea of the band's power live, you can watch this video of "the 1,200" playing David Bowie's Rebel Rebel. After weeks of technical preparation and planning, all the musicians, conductor Mateo Sabiu, the leaders of the musician subgroups and the technical support team used Shure equipment throughout the event.
More than 170 wired mics were part of the deployment, including SM58, SM57, Beta 52, SM81 and Beta 98 A/C models. In addition, since many of the musicians moved around during the concert, wireless microphones were also used, including 56 channels of the ULX-D system. The Shure Axient AXT600 spectrum manager was used to analyze and monitor the wireless frequencies used in the stadium during the concert. The microphones for this unique concert were supplied by the Italian company Roadie Music Service, with the support of Prase Media Technologies.
Following the success of Rockin'1000 - That's live, rumor has it that Fabio Zaffagnini and the Rockin'1000 team are already planning events on the same scale, where volunteers will once again be the stars. The relevant information will no doubt be shared in due course on the website www.rockin1000.com.
The microphones and sound reinforcement for this unique concert were supplied by the Italian technical services company Roadie Music Service, with help from Shure's Italian distributor, Prase Media Technologies.
