Hi guys, I'm wondering about what Candida puts her various instruments on?
As in, why/how are they at - um - peculiar angles? The keyboard stands I've seen/used* in the past don't seem to have an angle/clamp option...
Reason I'm asking is that my next prospective band project may well involve a lot of technology, & this setup appears to give better access than traditional next-to-eachother or straight-on-top-of-eachother methods. Plus it's always nice to do something a bit Pulp-ish ;)
Also, more out of personal curiosity, anyone have good info (or a link to a technical interview) on what other keyboard/synth gear she & Mark use(d) on stage? (Other than the Farfisa I mean). I assume the "and" was a classic Roland of some sort?
Hope I've explained myself coherently, I've just had two very late & very stressful nites at work!
*Not claiming any keyboard skills. I enjoy sequencing/tweaking etc. at home & started doing it live occasionally. Also, I used to set up my old band's keyboards/synths as the player was my girlfriend at the time lol.
There was an article about Pulp's equipment from the Melody Maker in 1998. It's on the Acrylic afternoon site. I can't direct Link to the article but if you go here http://www.acrylicafternoons.com/pulp.html
Look in the Press section under 1998 and it should be the 2nd article down with a picture of Mark accompanying it.
As far as I can see thanks to google the Farfisa had the 45 degree tilt function built into the stand so that it was more ergonomic to reach the keys whilst the player was standing up.
This is a tecchy article about the making of Common People from a few years ago in Sound on Sound - my husband is a synth nerd so he reads this regularly. It's not about the live setup you asked about, but it might be interesting anyway and does have a list of synths somewhere. My experience of synth players (maybe all musicians, maybe just people??) is they are always looking for excuses to buy new stuff, so when Pulp did their one interview before the reunion with Steve Lamacq, I was very amused when Candida said ever so earnestly that obviously, she needed to update all her synths in preparation.
Maybe, but her arthritis wasn't revealed til the film (didn't Jarvis only know about it?). Strange that the other members wouldn't have questioned it.
I'd've been really surprised if Mark hadn't at least noticed since he and Candida shared the keyboard rig right up to and including Glasto 95. I found out about Candida's condition through her cousin Max, who I went to college with, and that was 20 years ago.
Around about 1992-1994, Candida's core set up was (from bottom to top) Farfisa Compact Professional I (not a 'II' as is stated on the sleeves for Different Class & His N Hers), Korg Trident MkII and Stylophone 350S.
That model of Farfisa has a built in stand and the pretty unique upward tilting feature due to some ingenious engineering - the thing weighs an absolute ton and don't know how it manages to support it! It looks pretty cool, but supposedly is beneficial if you are standing while playing. I've never really found it makes a huge difference to be honest. I think in his book, Russell said they liked the fact the audience could see Candida's fingers moving around the keyboard and showed off the fact they had a "proper musician in the band" ...or words to that effect.
I'm not sure how they came by the Farfisa - I think it might have been acquired during the "It" era and handed down? Sturdy might have covered this in his book too actually. I could be wrong.
Then I think it's a normal X-frame stand for the Korg, and the mighty Stylophone on top, held by some extension arms attached to the back of the X-frame - they are easy to come by and I use these myself. Attached is a (self-indulgent) piccie of me ripping off Candida's set-up - although with a Juno-6 in place of the Korg...
