Citation:
19. What effects does Brian May use to play Brigthon Rock Solo live?
Okay, in order, from 'Return of the Champions DVD With timings in brackets, for all the anoraks.... sorry experts.
Brian goes from Loop one (CHORUS) on pedal board to loop two (DELAY)
(1.04.24) Delay, from a Rocktron Intellifex XL, 1st repeat 800ms, 2nd repeat 1600ms. Clean signal to middle amp routed straight through the set up, un-effected, via Mike Hill custom switcher. Brian then hits loop number five on his pedal board, marked, strangely enough as 'PITCH'
(1.08.22) 3 part harmony, using the pitch shift section of a TC Electronics G-force. There are 5 different harmony settings for this part of the solo , each programmed on a different pre-set, with one pitch going to the left amp and the other pitch to the right. You can hear the pitch's changing at (1.09.02).
This is switched by Brian, when ever he feels like it, (sometimes on the tour he didn't use this on the solo) via an on-stage Korg midi foot controller. The middle amp is again 'straight through'.
(1.09.52) Back to loop two for end ' Top of the Palace' section.
(1.11.56) I switch Brian to loop one, from a remote off-stage pedal board. I have to be on the ball here, because sometimes I have to guess when the first note of 'Last Horizon' is coming, depending on whether or not I get a nod from the Boss. It doesn't look like I did get a prompt at Sheffield, so in this case, I was brilliant. (Unless I was rubbish, and it was fixed in the mixing stage at the studio)
It's really strange that I had to watch the DVD to remember what went on here. I guess I was in 'Gig mode' at the time, kind of an auto pilot thing, where the laughing and mucking about stop, and responses are so automatic and rehearsed, that you don't actually think about what you are doing.
[Pete Malandrone]