Around 15,000 Maltese fans crammed into Floriana’s Fosos (Granaries) outside Valletta recently for a rare appearance by Sir Elton John.

Malta’s concert formed part of the Elton John Solo European tour, and London-based Capital Sound Hire won the contract to provide a Martin Audio W8L Line Array PA system, as Elton’s regular touring company Clair Bros leapfrogged onto the next venue.

Elton John’s tour manager and keyboard technician, Dale Sticha, had visited Malta last March to confirm the location and all other details, such as sound and lighting.

As it happened, Dale’s own PA company, Sticha Brothers, runs a Martin Audio W8C system in its inventory back in the US — and soon Capital Sound had received a speculative inquiry from Anton Attard, on behalf of the promoters, who had picked up their name on the internet.

The PA company’s Martin Connolly takes up the story. “Dale was asked what he thought of the Martin Audio system, and once he had given the green light, Anton was in touch with us.” The Line Array system was duly freighted over to the Mediterranean island by Fly By Nite.

This was the first rock concert in the Floriana Granaries for ten years (Tina Turner being the last artiste to appear there), and Martin described the scene. “The site was rectangular — 160 metres wide but only 70 metres deep — with the stage on one of the long sides.

“There was bleacher seating towards the back, behind which was a 4-metre high, 10-metres deep flat-decked platform, flanked either side by some grandstand seating.”

Capital Sound had several conversations with the promoters, regarding sight lines, local housing and sound coverage (due to the stage being positioned off centre). And since there were no crash barriers, seating coverage had to start within two metres of the stage. Elton’s PM, Henry Crallan, suggested using the eight Clair i4 cabinets as left/right outfills and these were deployed on the end of the PA wings to complement the main system. This comprised of 12 x W8L enclosures per side with four W8LC Compact Line Arrays to maximise coverage right up to the stage.

With just Elton and his piano onstage, Capital Sound were only required to handle a left and right mix from Clive Franks’ PM4000, which was zoned for L/R main hangs, L/R underhangs, L/R outfills and centrefills. “The system wasn’t driven very hard but it was an incredibly full sound that was really impressive,” said Martin Connolly.

Much of this was due to the processing — using XTA DP-226 digital devices, with an Audiocore software package programmed by Capital Sound’s Line Array tech, Ian Colville, who was on duty in Floriana with system tech, Finbar Neenan.
Organised by Jonastin Zammit’s NnG Promotions, the event was supported by the government and by some of Malta’s top companies. Local artists Karen Polidano, Corkskrew, Winter Moods and Ira Losco all supported Elton John.
The promoters were so impressed with the Martin Audio Line Array that they wanted to extend the lease on the system — but Capital Sound already had it detailed elsewhere.

Left to right: Martin Connolly, Ian Colville and Finbar Neenan