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Britannia Row supports Jade Thirlwall’s first solo tour

Britannia Row has supplied a compact control package to singer Jade Thirlwall (Little Mix) on her first UK solo headline tour. Working with FOH mixer Olly Nendick (pictured) and monitor engineer Meghan MacAskill, account executive Jonathan “Jono” Dunlop provided a small footprint touring system to transition from festival season into theatre-size venues.

“Since the start of her career, Jade had only toured in arenas, going from the ‘X Factor’ and straight into huge gigs with an army of fans”, says Nendick. “We knew it could be more of a challenge for her to play in intimate venues as a solo performer with factors such as being closer to the PA and hearing audience noise close up, but she absolutely always delivers.”

Both Nendick and MacAskill chose the Allen & Heath dLive S5000 control surface to fit into small areas while needing to generate a big pop sound through in-house PA systems. “FOH-wise, there’s not too much for me to deal with”, continues Nendick. “There’s some distorted effects in a couple of her songs, which can be a little bit tricky with potential feedback, but I just like to use the console as it is. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.”

Despite this being a small venue campaign, the tour has some industry veterans overseeing its success, namely tour director Ant Carr and production manager Karen Ringland. “They’re the nicest bunch of people to tour with, and Jade herself is lovely”, says Nendick. “She’s made a varied album that we’ve all been excited by. It’s great to mix live too; it’s a proper musical journey. It’s mainly a track-based show but we have live drums, live guitar, live keys and a couple of saxophones. My only real challenge was that the audience knows every word of every song, and they scream them very loudly.”

At the monitor station, MacAskill agrees: “She does have impressively loud crowds which is picked up through her mic. We’ve used processes to eliminate that noise so that she feels comfortable on stage, but she’s had to adapt to the spaces quickly and navigate her way through a much more intimate crowd dynamic.”

MacAskill’s only outboard is a Bricasti Design M7 reverb unit, and to ensure as much familiarity as possible, Thirlwall, who uses Shure PSM1000 IEMs, likes to hear her vocal very present in the mix, with the tracks and band underneath, and some click. “She likes a full mix for pitching and to cue to”, MacAskill furthers. “We do have a lot of choreography and big theatrical moments in the show, so to achieve as much clarity as possible for the vocals and cues is one of the main goals.”

One of the big moments comes when Thirlwall sings from within the audience and in front of the PA. “With the delay between the ears mix and the PA, it can be very off putting and hard to keep in time”, MacAskill explains. “We always run through this moment in soundcheck as the position changes in every venue. During the show, we made up some signals so that if there’s anything she needs, she’ll just give me a sign, and I can adapt instantly without her losing concentration.”

Following the 13-date UK run, fans in North America and mainland Europe will see the show in February and March 2026.

(Photo: Britannia Row)

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