Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Cheap Trick: We didn't lip-sync at Voodoo!
Posted by Kevin Allman on Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 2:32 PM
After reports that Cheap Trick was lip-synching some of the band's performance at the Voodoo Experience on Sunday, we heard from Ben-David Fenwick, the band's publicist, this afternoon, who says any talk of lip-sync shenanigans is "completely untrue."
Fenwick also has statements from the group's sound engineer and manager:
Bill Kozy, Cheap Trick front-of-house sound engineer:
"No pre-recorded vocal tracks, or any musical content whatsoever, were ‘flown-in’ or played back during the Cheap Trick performance at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans on Sunday October 30, 2011 (nor anytime EVER in the nearly ten years I have worked for the band). I use (antiquated?) analog gear to mix the band, and Robin Zander's vocal is not manipulated with any pitch correcting or ‘auto tuning’ devices at all. If anything, a 30 year-old Yamaha effect unit is used for a touch of chorus on the vocal, and I also employ my very analog fingers to tap on a delay-echo foot pedal to do things like repeat the word 'crying' in the song “I Want You To Want Me” or add long delay, and sometimes an 'Elvis' slap repeat to the vocal as the particular song dictates."
Dave Frey, Cheap Trick's manager:
"Cheap Trick's biggest songs were from a LIVE record that sold 6 million units and people are surprised to find the band sound exactly the same at a LIVE concert. And lip-synching can be so challenging. A band would require a very specially trained sound-person to time exactly when to insert ‘...go, get away from the stage!’ just prior to a storm arriving that in part caused a 45-ton stage roof to fall on the band and their crew during their performance in Ottawa this past July."
Both commenters on our original post expressed their belief that Robin Zander was indeed singing live. Here's one of the vids of the band at Voodoo (they seem to be taken off the Web as soon as they're posted) — you can definitely hear that delay-echo pedal in use:
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
Where's the apology for suggesting this to begin with? You publish the statement from CT's team but nowhere is there an apology for making the statements to begin with. It's the journalistic equivalent of shouting 'fire' in a theatre.
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I guess no apology is needed because no one believed the original writer's stupid accusation to begin with. We all laughed at the writer and support our Cheap Trick. Thanks for explaining it, Mr. Frey. Sad that someone would accuse CT of this.
Really embarrassed for Gambit and NOLA that this story was run. Cheap Trick are not phonies, they are a simple rock band whose sound is based on their talent, their instruments and their crew. They don't depend upon twenty dancers and tons of backing tracks to mask their lack of singing ability or musicianship and never have. Thanks for making their NOLA experience less than satisfying. They deserve an apology and another gig, courtesy of Gambit, to make up for this undeserved insult.
I was lucky enough at a recent CHEAP TRICK concert to be standing directly under Robin, who was on a rather low stage, and the man is singing LIVE, folks. I could actually hear his voice... and he does it beautifully. Goosebumps time when he hit "that note" in The Flame.
Rock on, TRICK!!! :)
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