What type of gear is NO using live?

This is my first post so it's a hello to everyone as well as a question...I've been following NO since about 93/94 when i first heard Blue Monday and Perfect Kiss on KROQ...

i've seen them live a couple of times as well and i'm always amazed at the gear dependancy this band has had over the years (as opposed to just guitar, bass, drums)

there's an article with Stepehn and Gillian about the sequencer failures and synth failures they have had while on the road...

So after traveling to Oakland this past Friday to check out their set I started thinking about what kind of electronic gear they are using these days (last time i saw them was at the Hollywood Bowl more than 10 years ago)

I noticed the Roland XP80's and the drum triggers on the other side of the stage (for hooky to play during Blue Monday) but couldn't see the rig near the drums...

What set up is Morris using? I can see some roland drum pad triggers but couldn't make out the synths or what he's playing the triggers into.

anyone have any thoughts?

i currently play bass in a band and our drummer uses drum triggers so i'm always excited to see band's that have influenced me use similar gear.

check us out at http://myspace.com/fosforo

peace

From where I was in the stands I could have sworn I saw Steve playing a synth with the Yamaha logo on it, at least the one of top end of the stack, but I'm probably wrong as Steve was in near pitch darkness for the majority of the performance. So I don't know the details but everything on Steve's drumset looked pretty much digital save for the bass drum. I could make him out banging on a very plastic cymbal for Regret :D

Honestly I was busier with gawking at Hooky's Stingray for the first time in person. Also, I saw a roadie tuning Barney's Gibson 330 in the downtime after the Chem Bros but then he stuck in behind the clutter of speakers and sequencers on the side and it only came out for a few songs, anyone remember which these were?

Did you notice the extra Roland next to Phil's that lay untouched until Barney ran over to pound it at the very end of Blue Monday?

Steven Morris:

He's rocking Roland TD-20S V-Drums with a Yamaha acoustic bass drum. He has two additional Roland drum pads above and to the left of his hi-hats for auxiliary percussion (see the Canal+ videos of him using it for the sampled snare hits during the "Krafty" intro and "Crystal" drum beats).

I'm not sure what kind of keyboard he's using for the songs where he doesn't play drums, but I think it's something by Kurzweil. I'll have to review my 316 and 511 DVDs to be sure.

Peter Hook:

His main basses are his two (soon to be 3, from what I've heard) Eccleshall semi-hollow body 4 string basses, and Shergold 6-string basses. Pictures of his basses can be seen here: http://www.worldinmotion.net/neworder/pictures/personal/hookysguitars.htm

I believe that he's been using Ampeg bass amps lately, but I'm not 100% sure about that. He has a huge rack of gear that you can partially see here: http://worldinmotion.net/newsroom/pictures/2005/oakland1.jpg

As for effects, the legendery chorus of Hooky's bass sound comes from an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory. From the most recent pictures from Oakland, it looks like he has a Line 6 DL4 delay pedal too (the big green pedal): http://worldinmotion.net/newsroom/pictures/2005/oakland23.jpg. From what I've seen on the 316 and 511 DVDs, he has a fancy custom built control board to control all of his rack effects.

The percussion pads he's using now are the Roland SPD-S model sampling pads.

Bernard Sumner:

His main axe these days is a vintage Gibson SG Jr. (it has one P-90 pickup in it). He's been known to play a Gibson 330 as well (it's not a 335 as some believe since it has P-90 pickups and a trapeze tailpiece).

His amps are Vox AC30, and it looks like he uses 2 of them on stage... probably for stereo effects from his pedals.

As for his effects, I have no idea. I think he's using a multi-effects unit along with some pedals. Here's a picture from worldinmotion.net where you can kinda see what he has on the floor: http://worldinmotion.net/newsroom/pictures/2005/oakland24.jpg

Phil Cunningham:

Phil's main guitars are a wine-colored Gibson Les Paul Custom, and a Cherry Red Gibson ES-335.

The keyboards he uses are Roland XP-80s, and many of us other NO tech-heads believe that they're used to trigger samples and play patches from another source (possibly a computer software synth, or a rack-mounted synth with the sounds loaded into them). I don't think they use any of the onboard patches within the XP-80 itself.

Phil also uses a Vox AC30 amplifier.

His effects pedalboard is HUGE! Check out this picture: http://worldinmotion.net/newsroom/pictures/2005/oakland23.jpg. I have no idea exactly what he's using, but I know he has a hell of a lot going on there.

Thanks for the run down and the pics!

Excellent detective work Charles!

I'm not sure what kind of keyboard he's using for the songs where he doesn't play drums, but I think it's something by Kurzweil. I'll have to review my 316 and 511 DVDs to be sure.

It's surely Gillian's all-time favourite, the K2000S. I've got one myself :) and it's amazing (although more than 10 years old...).

The keyboards he uses are Roland XP-80s, and many of us other NO tech-heads believe that they're used to trigger samples and play patches from another source (possibly a computer software synth, or a rack-mounted synth with the sounds loaded into them). I don't think they use any of the onboard patches within the XP-80 itself.

Well, I actually think Roger Lyons have pre-programmed the most of their synths into pure audio on their Akai DR16s HD-recorder, and the few lines that Phil and Barney plays are probably not more than 5 presets in all. So, I guess they're just using the XP really...(and it's got an ok sound engine for live stuff, I think).:\ohwell:

Drumwise, in studio, I know that the Elektron Machinedrum has been used a lot (for the more electronic sounds of course). Don't know about the synths/samplers on last album (probably mostly VSTi's), but on GR they used the Nord Modular quite frequently (made by Clavia).

The two XP-80's have only power cord and a mono audio line in those photos. No MIDI. The sound engine in the XP-80 is quite nice and definitley works in a live situation. Can't see what synths Steve has by him in the photos but I'm quite sure he had a K2500 in 511. Looks like he has 2 of whatever stacked by him this time. Judging by Hooky's rack, he has almost 2 of everything in there so they might be doubling up on everything in case something goes wrong.

Bentley wrote: The two XP-80's have only power cord and a mono audio line in those photos. No MIDI. The sound engine in the XP-80 is quite nice and definitley works in a live situation. Can't see what synths Steve has by him in the photos but I'm quite sure he had a K2500 in 511. Looks like he has 2 of whatever stacked by him this time. Judging by Hooky's rack, he has almost 2 of everything in there so they might be doubling up on everything in case something goes wrong.

good eye! you're quite right about the XP-80s. i guess they are using the onboard sound in the synth, or they may have imported sampled sounds by way of the disk drive possibly.

according to the latest issue of Bass Player Magazine (thanks to NOOLer InTheComputer), Hooky's rig is the following:

Alembic F2-B tube preamp Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory chorus pedal Crown DC-300A tube power amp Gauss 5460 2x15" speaker cabinets

in Revenge and Monaco he use Ampeg SVT heads.

he's been playing around with Ashdown guitar amps (not bass amps) in the studio.

heck, just read these 2 pages:

http://www.criesandwhispers.net/scans/bpl07.jpg http://www.criesandwhispers.net/scans/bpl08.jpg http://www.criesandwhispers.net/scans/bpl09.jpg