It’s Not Unusual to See Gavin Tempany with an SSL Live

Oxford, UK (March 13, 2025)—Sixty years into his career, Sir Tom Jones is still going strong, recently wrapping a 74-show tour of the U.K., Europe and North America with Gavin Tempany at FOH on an SSL Live console.

Tempany, whose credits include stints with Tame Impala, Genesis, Mark Knopfler, Kylie Minogue, Hans Zimmer and David Gilmour at FOH or on monitors, has been on the Ages & Stages Tour since December 2023. Speaking during the European leg, he explains, “With the routing of this tour, we have to have two sets of equipment. On the A rig, I have an L550 Plus, which offers 38 faders as standard. On the B rig, I’m using an L100 Plus with an external Fader Tile, providing a total of 26 faders—14 on the console itself and 12 more with the remote Fader Tile.

Despite the different-sized desks, Tempany can use the same showfile, he notes: “You don’t need any conversion software to make it work. If you don’t have enough DSP or channels available, then the board goes into compatibility mode. When you’re on a smaller console, you can choose which channels are active. The next time you take that showfile to a bigger console, the other channels just reappear.”

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​When he programmed the SSL Live showfile at the warehouse, Tempany worked with a multitrack from an earlier leg of the tour that was recorded through the previous console. “I could listen to my mix, and with one button, I could flick over to the recorded mix, and the difference was staggering.​ The SSL mix was clearer, wider and deeper,” he reports. ​

The only outboard effect on this tour is a Bricasti reverb, Tempany says. “Everything else is on the console. I’m using the Blitzer, which is like a Distressor, a couple of plate reverbs and a chamber reverb.”