In closing: a little note about our experiences with the Cylindrical Radiator loudspeaker system that we got from Bose for use on this tour. As some of you might know, this is the new live system from Bose, designed for use on stage. If every musician onstage has one of those cylindrical towers, there is no need for monitors, no need fo a PA (the system can fill a room up to 200 people) or a soundguy. That means the band onstage is in charge of its own sound and that's a great development. The system has been out in the States for a while with lots of success. RHP was the first band in Europe to get the system on tour and we were very proud to take it with us. Our experiences? Besides a very transparent sound that's plenty loud and everywhere in the room (because of the radiating properties of the Cylindrical Radiator loudspeaker, superior in covering the stage and audience areas with consistent sound when compared to any conventional guitar amplifier) it's a system that's very portable to take with you on the road. But the biggest kick was probably that we were in charge of our own sound.

Let me just give a couple of examples:

scenario 1) You walk up to the mike after having played a couple of songs and you want to introduce the band, tell something about the music, maybe about the album you're trying to sell. The tension has been built with a couple of songs that went great, you walk up to the mike and.. it's off. You say 'test one two' or something intelligent along those lines while you look out in the audience. Where is the soundguy? Nothing is happening. You cannot see much since there's lights in your face and the place is dark..Again, tapping the mike with your fingers, no sound. People start laughing. Everybody starts looking around the place. Audience has no clue what is going on, most people don't even know what a soundman or his function is, so they are puzzled why the band onstage is suddenly looking at them, speechless.In the meantime..the soundguy might be gone, or.. where is he? Maybe he's talking on his mobile or he's somewhere in the audience talking to somebody. After a while the soundguy gets the picture. He notices that some people are looking at him and the band onstage is now calling him. He goes back to his mixing board and starts turning up and down all 24 channels in search of the mike channel.Where is it? Some feedback occurs, more confusion and people putting their hands to their ears. And right, finally there you are. There is sound. This scenario means pretty much that the atmosphere of a very well built up gig with a carefully crafted setlist is destroyed. It will take a lot of more songs before you can draw the audience back in.

Scenario 2) You walk up to the mike after having played a couple of songs and you want to introduce the band, tell something about the music, maybe about the album you're trying to sell. The tension has been built with a couple of songs that went great, you walk up to the mike and... turn up the remote that's there. Say your thang, turn it back off and continue to the next song.

Here lies one of the great advantages of the new Bose live system, the musicians are in charge of their own sound.

Of course, not all soundpeople have the IQ of a whale. The soundguy in Blijburg was a great guy, working hard to set up the stuff with us and provided us with some tips, took care of cabling and gave some suggestions along the way. And, of course, if you have the money for a bigger tour, you would take your own soundman so the above scenario would most likely not happen. But.. if you are a band like RHP, on a budget, with a small tour in medium sized places, this scenario will sooner or later happen. Needless to say, we were very happy when our Bose's were around us.

A lot of times we did not even bring all four systems we had. Bas would connect the mikes that he had setup for his kick and snare to a small mixer and connect that to my system. For smaller cafe's, the system has such an overwhelming sound with so much defenition, that two or three cylindrical systems were enough onstage.

Thank you very much Albertus Nieuwenhuis and Wiechert Vermeulen for loaning us the Bose system and for having the patience to set it up for us and sitting through the gig, waiting patiently to tear it down again. We told lots of people about it and showed it to everybody, so we're sure that we have convinced some people about the Bose solution. Bose rocks!

Rich