LONDON FASHION WEEK

Sound Division parties with A-listers at Fashion Week

Sound Division Hire, the rental division of the Sound Division Group, was kept extremely busy at one of the major highlights of the international fashion scene, London Fashion Week. Reputed in the fashion world as hosting the most cutting edge and avant-garde collections from the hottest designers, the capital city was kept buzzing all week with catwalk shows, launches and after-show parties. Sound Division Hire provided sound, lighting and DJ systems for no fewer than five separate events during the week including the über-trendy FrostFrench fashion show at Home House private members' club in Portman Square. Although Sadie Frost's best pal, Kate Moss, was a notable absentee from the FrostFrench show following allegations of drug abuse, designers Sadie Frost and Jemima French were still able to count the likes of Meg Matthews, Jenny Frost and Davinia Taylor amongst their A-list supporters. Sound Division's role was to provide a full black DJ set-up including a Pioneer CDJ1000 CD player, a Pioneer DJM500 mixer and Technics SL1210 turntables and a JBL EON 15 DJ monitor, in addition to a two-room PA and communications system. Sound Division opted for a total of six EV SX300s and two subs plus requisite amplification and processing. According to Sound Division's Chris Baxter, once the show was over, the crew had less than an hour to turn the room around from the fashion show to the after-show party with DJ. "It was tight, but all went very smoothly under the expert supervision of our engineer, John Sullivan." "London Fashion Week is always an interesting week with lots of high profile events, even if it is very busy for us," commented Chris. "We had one event, a fundraising fashion show, that took place in the lobby of the Chelsea and Westminster hospital, which was quite challenging as we had to set up and rig it whist the hospital was in full swing. We had sound and lighting on two floors as part of the show had the models using the escalators between the lobby and first floor, and then follow-spots to track the models on the cat walk. Another event took place at a high profile restaurant in Little Portland St that is still under construction. Here we used a selection of Acclaim zoom profiles to light the catwalk and provided rigging for backdrops and drapes as well as all the sound. The fun bit was the entrance effect for the models who came onto the catwalk through an uplit doorway where we installed a strobe light to simulate the popping of paparazzi flash bulbs and a smoke machine to add atmosphere. It was very effective. James Glanville was our sound and lighting engineer on that occasion."

Sound Division also handled the launch party for the brand new arts and lifestyle magazine, Wonderland, at the exclusive Pearl restaurant in Holborn. Described as an independent publication aimed at both men and women spotlighting contemporary visual culture and fashion, the Wonderland party was packed with London's glamorous and famous. Sound Division provided a full DJ set-up including Technics turntables, Allen & Heath Xone92 mixer, Pioneer CD players and a JBL SRX two-stack PA system.

"I think the key to events like these, and the reason we get asked back so frequently, is discretion and efficiency," concluded Chris. "Our clients know they can rely on us to do a good job from a technical point of view, and go that extra mile when we need to, and at the same time remain discreet and polite, an important factor when dealing with high profile and celebrity clients."