Pat Heigham
A (maybe apocryphal) story – there was a riser mic in the TVT stage, which could be raised remotely (AKG C451 on a long shaft). Rumour had it that Clodagh Rodgers missed her mark and it came up under her dress – oohhh! Anyone confirm that incident?
Geoff Fletcher
When I first heard the riser mic story it involved Shani Wallace ….
Dave Mundy
As far as I know, we never had risers in the TVT. The tracking foldback speaker was the LS3/3 mounted over a Mullard 5-20 amp., later on, a Quad 50, I think.
Barry Bonner
There used to be a rising mic in the TVT but it was removed (before 1965) leaving a nice square bump for the unaware camera people!
Geoff Fletcher
Would this be the said square bump – just below Camera 3’s lens hood? Crew 4 at TVT 8 Dec 1964.
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Barry Bonner
Yep, that’s the one!
Tony Crake
Ah! A Riser was carried up in the camera Van to Edinburgh for the infamous "Fund Raising Gala " for the Commonwealth Games ( in 1985 ? ) It was borrowed from Stolle Moss Group in London West end…
What a performance to get it rigged .. nothing to do with me at all but Jeff Baker appeared and seemed to be his little project ! Needless to say it was a Stewart Morris Production and just about everybody was fired at some time in the 4 days we were there ! The riser worked but it was’nae exactly Smooth !
Dave Mundy
I wonder if it was the one from the Palladium which had the ‘slightly modified’ C30 fitted, i.e. bent nearly straight!
Colin Hassell
Yes, Tony, that was 1985 at the Edinburgh Playhouse, which was built on such a slope that from the car park, at the back, it was something like 4 flights Up to the Orchestra Pit.
Do you remember those heavy weight drum screens we had to derig afterwards, gravity seemed to help us quite a bit on the staircases.
As for the Riser, I seem to remember the Sound Crew left our EM (John Livingstone) with the spanner to unbolt it and we all scarpered for our flight home.
And, as you say, there was Stewart Morris.
John Nottage
Many moons ago at Royal Variety Show in the Palladium, they employed some young ladies to move mic stands on and off stage.
3 Mics were to be set across the stage.
One of them carried on her ST200 with mic fitted and placed it carefully in the front centre of stage. Unfortunately the riser was still descending. As it got close to the end, the little trap door popped open to let it through, neatly tipping the ST200 over – with a crash: she had put one of the feet on the trap door.
They should have employed proper sound assistants.
