Watkins Redux

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After I'd written Friday's post about my stupidly abandoned Watkins guitar amplifier, I re-read a Sound On Sound magazine article from some time ago about Charlie Watkins - the founder of Watkins Electric Music Ltd, later WEM. This is the guy who pretty much invented the modern PA system and whose company powered the sound of so many musicians in the late sixties and early seventies. Through trial, error and happenstance he produced the first genuine, modular vocal reinforcement and onstage monitoring and mixing kit, used by the likes of The Who and Pink Floyd.

July 18th, 1970; Hyde Park, London - Floyd in the park. A bunch of us from school went down from Birmingham on the train to join another 100,000 or so individuals for a day's music in the summer sunshine. The gig was headlined by Pink Floyd who debuted their then latest album 'Atom Heart Mother', but also performed their long-time live staples of 'Astronomy Domine' and 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene'. All in all, a fine time was had by indeed all.

One feature of the WEM PA system being used on the day, seen on a similar rig in the battered old pic above, is one of the two parabolic reflector speakers used which Charlie [pictured] had invented to project a narrow band of 1-3 KHz frequencies to the back of a large crowd. These, with the right atmospheric conditions could be heard clearly five miles away, even though each unit had only a single ten-watt speaker: less than most home smart speakers these days.

Having noticed these strange devices early on in the day of the concert, at some point I decided to go for a wander to the back of the crowd for a listen - and work they really did, making up for the deficiencies inherent in the nascent PA technology in use: Charlie and WEM really were making it up as they went along in those days. Over the next few years, their PA systems were pretty much ubiquitous at concerts and festivals throughout the world. Not bad for a bloke who really didn't like rock music anyway!

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