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Seems that every hi-tech part of the tour is backup crazy, but not over here eh?

JW: "Well I do have a bunch of spare pedals if one goes wrong. And there's a backup TC Electronic here. And a backup loop system here! But the worst thing that can happen is that one of sounds goes out without the required distortion effect on it until I can swap in another. The wiring at the back of the rack is pretty complicated but Whirlwind made a connector for me. I can leave everything in this rack connected and the output from the entire guitar system comes out on this patchbay here. And I put in a couple of auxiliary channels too and we're using those for the couple of pedals Martin has on stage."

Where does the effected guitar go next?

JW: 'I've got a stereo feed coming to two amp heads here, then onto the cabs, which are miked and which are all off stage. When I first started working on the tours - back in '93 for the Faith and Devotion tour - it went straight to the desk.

"There were no amps or anything, as that was the first time Martin had toured with guitars. I think he only played on three songs. But he's certainly come on from then!

"Now we've got the two amps and two cabs here, covered up and miked with a Shure SM57 and a Shure KSM32.

"He's got two 2-by-12 cabs with one of each mic on each cab. We need that for the sound. It would sound a bit ropey if we just went direct and they're a very rocky band at the moment."

And this bit doesn't look too hi-tech… [gestures towards a large beaten up workbench, complete with tools, vice and soldering iron]

"I've had that 20 years! This is where I'm tuning: if he breaks a string, if something needs fixing. That said, very little goes wrong here. I think on this tour he's broken one string, and then he just carried on [laughs].

"And touch wood [touches workbench] we've had no disasters. So far!"

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