Grad Week

What a week. I arrived in Sheffield on Friday 15th to finish the setup for Graduation, running the cables for the cameras and comms and mounting a camera on the main truss. The incredible transformation of the Octagon and the university campus in general for grad week is a sight to behold and you would never think they were the same venue if you saw it compared to the aftermath of Tramlines on Saturday.

A week of very early starts was to follow. Up just after 6am before driving through the traffic to work and in for about 8am apart from Monday where it was 7:30 - and just as well as there was some last minute work to do where cables hadn't been run under the carpet as I'd planned. Thankfully, the week went without too many hitches and as the week went on, it got slicker and slicker and I was pretty impressed with it by the end of the week.

Of course, I had to take the day of on Tuesday because it was my turn to be on the stage in stead of behind it. We were one of the first groups on the stage after the PhD students and got the official line from the Pro Vice Chancellor awarding us all the degree of Master of Computing. So I am now add the letters MComp after my name - not that I will, but it's nice to know that I could if I wanted to.

A nice lunch out with the parents before returning back home to catch up on some sleep before going out for a last blast at the Union for no other than Pop Tarts made the day complete. A disappointing turn out from the Computer Science graduates but a good night nonetheless. I even found myself on stage in the fusion, totally ruining the Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love for the karaoke.

The following day, I found myself falling asleep so many times during the day due to lack of sleep but I managed to get through it without any slip ups. By now the saxophone quartet was beginning to get a little bit annoying. Hearing the same few songs three times a day for five days isn't good for anyone and by the end, I had resorted to wearing headphones and playing my music loudly down them to try and drown it out. This meant of course that I then had to pay particular attention to when the ceremony was starting as I could no longer hear when they had stopped playing.

On Thursday night, I got a chance to go down to the Leadmill and catch Guillemots playing a set as part of Tramlines. Free gigs are always the best and this was a pretty good evening. Much longer than I had expected because I thought it might just have been them playing shortly after doors. There was however, a support act in the shape of Paul Thomas Saunders and the Fever Dreams. I really liked them although they didn't say much and I didn't catch their names. When I got back I had to scour the internet to find out who they were and it took a disappointingly long time but eventually I found a website with the lineup on it. I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't know they were playing! The main gig was very strange indeed and slightly ruined by the poor positioning of a guitar amp aimed straight at my ears. I was very glad when the piano songs came on as that gave my ears a bit of a break and a chance to enjoy the madness of it all.

Saturday came around and so it was off to the Octagon once again for Tramlines. In at 12:00 for a 21:30 start with a film about Toddla T. We had so many complaints about it and when the music was going to start, in fact, I spent a lot of the night answering questions sat at front of house. A few were asking for shout-outs for their lost friends which I always find amusing. Why can't people understand that we don't have a microphone and that they are better off asking the people on the stage with the microphones who are lit up like a Christmas tree - rather than the people at the back of the room in the dark!

It gave me a chance to use my new toy that I'd bought as a present for getting a first in my degree. My new MIDI controller - the Akai ACP20. It is a beautiful thing and perfect for using with Arkaos GrandVJ despite being designed for Abelton Live. It is so much easier and much more natural to use than a keyboard and in mixer mode, you can get much better timing and a much more professional effect than with a mouse and a keyboard. It was a really good night and the music didn't even bother me too much either. I found myself rigging strobes mid event sitting on top of the truss which was a little bit odd but quite exciting and they worked first time too! I had problems with my camera all night and if the picture wasn't being obscured by the smoke on stage then the cables had come because of punters leaning against the walls they were plugged into - not an ideal place for them to be but the easiest way of getting signal across the room unfortunately. The worst bit was the out which took far too long and I didn't get home until about 09:15 which for the setup we had was a little bit ridiculous.

So that just about sums up my extended week in Sheffield. I'm not back again now until the end of August when I'm having a leaving do before starting work in September. The rest of the summer will be spent working on the new TSC website and catching up with the latest releases at the cinema. I've still got a few blockbusters on the list to see and since watching Harry Potter in 3D, I have to say, I might just be a convert to the format. I was really impressed with the clarity of it all and there were only a few bits that sent my eyes funny. Since the disappointment of watching Kung Foo Panda 2 in 2D with grainy film, this might just be the way forward.