The Development Of Large Rock Sound Systems

After watching the recent SOS video about Chris Hewitt’s efforts to rebuild Pink Floyd’s 1970s quadraphonic PA system, I subsequently discovered that Hewitt has written a trilogy (soon to be a tetralogy) of books describing the history and evolution of (mainly) British PA systems from the late ’60s through to the 1980s.

I first became interested in audio electronics and live music as a teenager in the early 1970s, and my first amateur gigs relied on second‑hand WEM PA gear. I knew nothing of the history of this gear at the time, though, and there’s very little about it in the magazine archives. So, when I learned of Hewitt’s books, I hastily acquired a set to find out more from someone who was intimately involved in that industry at the time. The three volumes are all limited‑edition print runs of 500 copies, A4 in size, and printed on silk art paper, crammed full of vintage photos, mostly from personal collections, with interviews and recollections from a large number of the leading lights of the day.

Volume One of The Development Of Large Rock Sound Systems runs to 148 pages and starts by describing the beginnings of Watkins Electric Music (WEM), who became the favoured provider of guitar amps and PA systems for all the big British bands of the day: T‑Rex, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Who, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, the Nice and countless others. Hewitt also introduces many of the key figures who worked at WEM or operated their PA systems, with fascinating insights into their working lives. Many of these people went on to have stellar careers in the pro audio business and are well‑known industry names today, creating companies including Soundcraft, Formula Sound, Martin Audio, Turbosound and many others.

WEM’s PA equipment was, by modern standards, very primitive in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A 40W amplifier and 6x10‑inch column speakers (for vocals) was considered ideal for ‘semi‑pro’ groups, perhaps driven from a five‑channel WEM Audiomaster Mk1 mixer with rotary faders! Large venue professional gigs might use two or three 100W slave amps with multiple 2x15‑inch bass cabinets, 4x12‑inch main cabinets, and horn arrays for the high end, all controlled from several Audiomaster five‑channel mixers chained together. (Wedge foldback monitoring wasn’t even a thing until the mid‑1970s!)

Apparently, the 1‑3 kHz band was audible over five miles away!

Having noted the available equipment, much of this first volume focuses on the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, featuring a genuine Who’s Who of contemporary bands. WEM custom‑built a revolutionary 4kW PA system for this festival, with the unique use of four parabolic reflectors to project the higher frequencies over the vast festival area — apparently, the 1‑3 kHz band was audible over five miles away! One of the perennial problems with outdoor concerts is getting the higher frequencies to travel as well as the lower fundamentals, and WEM tackled this by inventing a parabolic reflector fitted with a 10‑inch driver. It was first used for open‑air Fleetwood Mac concerts, and later for a Janis Joplin gig in the Royal Albert Hall in London. The PA system tech‑spec given to the performers’ road managers stated that “14 microphones were available,” including Sennheiser MD409s, Shure Unidynes and Unispheres, and Calrec condensers, with outboard effects from a Watkins Copicat or Hammond spring reverb — but not both at the same time. Heady days!

The second half of the book explores the relationship between WEM and Pink Floyd, the custom equipment WEM developed for the band and, in particular, their filmed concert in Pompeii. At 180 pages, Volume Two is a little larger and uses a landscape format, but it continues the story of Pink Floyd and Pompeii before looking at Pink Floyd’s PA developments after parting company with WEM. It also describes Hewitt’s fastidious recreation of the original Pink Floyd Pompeii sound system. Later chapters go on to describe Led Zeppelin’s affiliation with WEM, as well as returning in more depth and detail to some topics from Volume One.

There’s also a nostalgia‑filled chapter, discussing the bands’ and roadies’ transport of choice in the 1970s: the long‑wheelbase Ford Transit! Other chapters examine the rise of PA hire companies in the late 1970s, many being created by the larger bands to generate income from their PA gear investments when they weren’t using them at their own concerts.

Volume Three is a whopper, at 316 pages, with even more detailed information about the PA gear being used in the 1970s by bands like Thin Lizzy, 10cc and David Bowie (Ziggy and Ground Control tours). There are several chapters covering the development of the major PA hire companies, as well as some of the new PA manufacturers like Midas, Amek, Formula Sound, Heil Sound and others. There are also descriptions of Hewitt’s acquisition and reconstruction of vintage PA systems, and his work in supplying a number of film and TV productions with vintage‑accurate working stage PAs for musical scenes set in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

If I had to be a critic, I’d say the text often meanders and, across the three volumes, can become repetitive. Many of the vintage (personal) photos are frustratingly blurry, too. But none of that really distracts from what is a very detailed and highly engaging memoir which describes the beginnings of the British live‑sound industry from someone who was there and who retains a very clear passion for the subject.

These three books are not only fascinating from a nostalgic point of view; they represent an important and unique record of the foundations of what is now an incredibly complex and highly‑sophisticated multi‑million pound industry, as well as the history of some uniquely British manufacturers and inventors. While there are countless books about classic vintage instruments of all kinds, there are none on the development of the PA technology we now take so much for granted, and Chris Hewitt is to be congratulated for recording it all so clearly and in so much detail in these highly engaging books.

Whether you were there at the time, developed your audio on hand‑me‑downs from that era, or are intrigued to know how we got to where we are today, I can heartily recommend The Development Of Large Rock Sound Systems — it’s a unique and brilliantly informative read.