During Erasure's concerts you may have noticed a mysterious figure occasionally lurking behind the synth rack. This shadowy figure is Mike Hall, Erasure's keyboard technician of the last 10 years, who kindly agreed to answer our questions via e-mail.
Mike, what did you study in school and college?
I escaped from boarding school after O levels, so I've not done a degree course or anything like that, although I did a non-vocational course in electronic music at Morley College at Westminster.
We studied the music of the classic electronic composers, such as Stockhausen etc.. and worked with EMS VCS3s and Revox B77s creating pieces of music by banging the radiator pipes and routing the sound through the VCS3 ad-nauseam.
Have you always been fascinated with electronic gear?
Yes, I've always liked tinkering about with electronic stuff ever since I was a kid.
How did you become a keyboard technician?
Originally I was in a band with the guys who became Fortran 5. This was in the early days, when synthesizers were not that common and you could get up on stage, make a right old racket and, so long as you looked sincere, people would take you seriously. After I left the band they were signed to Mute as I Start Counting. They subsequently went on to support Erasure on tour in 1987.
I took some time off from my office job and went along with I Start Counting as their keyboard technician, mainly for a laugh, as I wasn't getting paid. When they finished touring I went back to my day job. A week later, I was sitting in the office as bored as hell and picked up the phone and rang Mansi (Erasure's tour manager) to see if he knew of any work going in the music biz. Two weeks later I was in the US working for Erasure [opening for Duran Duran] as Vince's keyboard tech…
Why do you think Vince chose you to be his keyboard technician?
Mansi was too busy!
How is working for Erasure different from working for other bands?
Vince and Andy are far easier to work for than most 'musicians'.
What other bands have you worked for?
I've done tours with Jimmy Somerville, Leftfield, Marc Almond, Sparks, Go West…
What is your favourite synthesizer?
Vince gave me an EMS Synthi A (which is a VCS3 in a briefcase) which is my favourite.
Do you have your own synth collection?
In the early days I had a Korg MS20/SQ10, a Roland VP330 Vocoder and some bits of Roland 100M system along with an MC4 sequencer. These days, I just have the Synthi A, although I would like to get a keyboard for it. If I had the room (plus luck and money) I'd like to acquire a Synthi 100. I'm also the proud owner of an EMS Polysynthi which I've just liberated from Vince's rubbish skip, in his opinion, 'the worst- sounding synth ever made'. I love it.
What is the most troublesome synth?
Well, on this tour most of the gear has worked fine. I suppose the Oberheim Matrix 6R is the most bother, as it disintegrates after a while and needs to be bolted back together again every few weeks.
Do you work with Erasure in the studio?
I'm only involved in live projects. Studio work has never really appealed as I enjoy the traveling involved with the live side of the business.
Do you have panic nightmares' about things going wrong at work?
I have an ever-evolving nightmare. It has changed slowly over the years and usually occurs a couple of weeks prior to a tour. Its normally a bit like this:
I'm on stage prior to a show and a key piece of hardware / software has failed. A crowd of 5000 people are waiting impatiently for the concert to begin. Vince & Andy walk on stage to thunderous applause, unaware of the impending disaster, and then it all goes dark…
How has Erasure's keyboard setup changed since 1987?
Essentially, it's really not changed that much. However, in the live situation, we're still using the BBC Micro/UMI as the sequencer and MIDI, it's just that over the years the keyboards that are driven by the sequencer have changed slowly. There was the Phantasmagorical period when Vince decided to dump MIDI and take the MC4 CV & Gate sequencer on the road, which caused much anxiety on my part, having used this system myself in the early 80's and seen it crash on many occasions. However the problem was solved by a simple modification and the MC4s worked fine for the whole Phantasmagorical tour.
What do you think of Erasure's sound/style today?
I prefer the simpler sounds of albums like The Circus to the more recent stuff. I like the Cowboy album too.
Have you learnt anything about synths from Vince?
Where the on/off switch is.
Do you and Vince collaborate on choosing the synths to use?
Vince chooses the synths, the rest is more or less up to me. This involves racking up the synths, flight casing, connections and power management, as well as keeping the sequencer and keyboard memory data copied, backed up and stored safely.
What's the best synth to create those brilliantly solid kick drums Vince uses?
On the Wild! tour it was an R8M, on Phantasmagorical L it was an Akai Lin Sampler, probably with ARP 2600 Kick sounds, whilst on the Tiny Tour/Cowboy Concerts it was a Novation Drumstation with 808/909 sounds.
What do you think of Vince's new MIDI gizmo (that small thing he operates with a pen)?
It's a Roland PMA 5, which is a sequencer/sound source in a box the size of a VHS cassette. Vince writes the tunes in and then he can select the style in which they're played back. There's 600 odd styles to choose from, including thrash metal, northern soul, tango - in fact almost any way you like. Recently we have acquired software for converting standard midi files into PMA file format, which means we could download from the internet Erasure songs that people have covered and then blow them into the PMA 5. Theoretically they could then be used for live shows. Much of the music on the Cowboy Concerts was programmed on an MKS 80.
What is it about it that gives the distinctive Erasure sound?
The MKS 80 is basically a Roland Jupiter 8 in a rack mount box. The JP8, in my opinion, is one of the most desirable analogue machines around - I wish I could have afforded one when they first came out! It makes great sounds - listen to the intro of the live version of Don't Say Your Love Is Killing Me for the typical MKS 80 sound.
The spare MKS 80, coupled with its MPG80 programming unit, has been used as a backup synth for this tour. Indeed, when one of our synths expired recently in Puerto Rico, Vince spent a couple of hours with the spare MKS 80 creating a set of sounds to replace those made by the bust keyboard.
Do you think Vince's philosophy about money not necessarily buying the best sounds still holds true?
Vince always seems to be able to get the best sound out of any analogue keyboard he's presented with. I don't think cost comes into the equation.
You arrive at the venue. What happens next?
Have a nice cup of tea. Maybe a spot of brunch too. After that things get rather less interesting.
Are there any particularly good or bad venues?
Places like Ilford Island should be closed down on health and safety grounds. Generally, the larger the stage, the easier the job is, as there's more room.
How long does it take to set up the synths for a show?
About an hour.
What do Erasure play for sound checks?
Anything and everything - normally at least one song on the sequencer, one on the PMA 5, and one acoustic. We usually finish the sound check with a few bars of whatever the first song in the set that night is going to be.
What do you do during the show?
Worry.
What has been the worst technical problem you have ever had to fix?
Most of the time it's just stuff like leads failing or becoming disconnected. We always carry spares of key items of equipment, so in the unlikely (it's never happened) event of the sequencer breaking down, we would simply replace it while Andy entertained the crowd for a couple of minutes.
What is the worst thing ever to happen on tour with Erasure?
At Detroit on the Wild! tour some thieves managed to wheel the trunks containing the keyboards, the sequencers and the drum machines out of the load-in bay, past the security guard and into the street. Meanwhile the band were waiting at Cleveland airport en route to Detroit. Their flight had been cancelled due to a snowstorm and so Mansi was forced to hire a car and drive the band to Detroit through the snowstorm.
In the meantime we hired a new set of gear and loaded in the songs, only to find that the hired ASO keyboards had a different version of the software to the one we were using which manifested itself by transposing all the keyboard zones upwards by 36 notes. I had to go through every song and manually transpose them down by 36 notes, a time consuming process.
Mansi skidded the hired car off the road into a snowdrift and so Erasure had to take another car to get to Detroit. They eventually arrived at the venue at about ten in the evening with the hall full of rather impatient people who had been waiting over two hours for the show. It turned out one of my transpositions was a semitone wrong, so when Vince played the middle eight of Crown Of Thorns, it was totally out of tune. Oh how we laughed…
Describe your synth emergency tool kit.
Gaffa tape.
What was Vince doing with the synthesizer at the top of the stack during the 'Cowboy Concerts'?
The keyboard at the top of the stack is a Roland SH1 synthesizer which plays the bass parts. This machine is very old and has no patch memory, so Vince has to go up the scaffolding to adjust the sound for a particular song by hand, e.g. the bass part of Chorus is a long drone, whilst in Oh L'Amour it has a very short envelope.
What do you think of Erasure's fans? Anyone particularly memorable?
I've met many fans over the years, some more memorable than others. They know who they are!
Do you think Erasure would ever do anything as elaborate as the 'Phantasmagorical' tour again?
If the money was available, yes.
Do you have a favourite Erasure concert?
Lima, Peru. Eh, Vincent?
What do you think of the various bands that have supported Erasure?
Some have been absolutely appalling, some great. Heaven 17, for example, were marvelous.
What is your favourite Erasure song?
Victim Of Love.
What are your favourite bands (apart from Erasure, of course)?
Middle of the Road, Sparks and Chicory Tip.
Would you ever consider putting on the cactus suit to fix something on stage, just to be inconspicuous?
Being inconspicuous is my trademark. It wouldn't fit me anyway, it's one size too small.
What places do you like to visit on tour and why?
Bolivia. Great weather!
What is the strangest thing you've seen on tour?
Jimmy Somerville becoming very agitated in Poland, but that's another story.
How will you look back in 20 years' time on your time with Erasure?
Well, I imagine in 20 years' time we will be opening for Bjorn Again, Upstairs At The Garage on Highbury Corner…
What will you be doing in 20 years' time?
Looking forward to drawing a state pension.
How does it feel to grow old with a band?
Absolutely fantastic.
Mike Hall, thank you.
Additional questions from Michael Crowe, Neil Hardie, Mark Harvey, Ewan Saum, Steve Ball, Mike DePaz, Stephen Hendrie, Susan O'SBrien, Doug Stockstill, Darren Su and Paul Tupaczewski.