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Bill Hanley |
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The Father of Festival Sound |
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Woodstock / Powder Ridge! - Newport - Fillmore E. - The Bitter End - Vietnam Protests - South Afrika
August 13:
Hanley Speaks on Woodstock '69
at Arlington's
Regent Theater
Sound Engineering Pioneer Bill Hanley, a recipient of the Parnelli Award for Audio Innovation, will speak on a panel, answering questions about the Woodstock experience, from his choice of the Festival site to planning, building and operating the custom-built sound system designed for 200,000.
August 2009 |
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Woodstock 40th Anniversary |
George Wein's "Folk Festival
50" |
| Bill Hanley designed, built and operated the Woodstock sound system. Here's the story... | Bill Hanley began mixing sound for the Newport Connecticut Folk and Jazz Festivals In 1957 (...more) |
As Chief Sound Engineer for George Wein's Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, The Fillmore East, Woodstock, and The Bitter End, and in his innumerable other projects, Bill Hanley has always been committed to making a better world through sound. In an era when concert promoters didn't care about sonic fidelity, Bill revolutionized live sound. He's credited with many innovations, particularly in the outdoor "festival" sound industry. These include the modern wedge monitor and the multicore "snake" connecting stages to consoles. He continues to work in the sound and stage industry with his brother Terry and son Joe. Bill lives in Massachusetts with his wife, Rhoda.
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ArtistsThe Band, Joan Baez, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Blood, Sweat & Tears, James Brown, Buffalo Springfield, Joe Cocker, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Connie Francis, Country Joe MacDonald, Taj Mahal, Dizzie Gillespie The Grateful Dead, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin , Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Peter. Paul, & Mary, Andy Pratt, Rolling Stones, Melanie, Andy Pratt, Ravi Shankar, John Sebastian, Santana, Barbra Streisand, Lawrence Welk, The Who, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Neil Young . . . |
Bill at the Audio
Engineering Society's 125th convention in New York, 2008 |
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- Woodstock / Powder Ridge - Newport - Fillmore E. - The Bitter End - Vietnam Protests - South Afrika -
Looking for Terry Hanley Audio Systems ?
Elmore Magazine Interview: Bill Hanley
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When you’re starting
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June 1965, Shea Stadium, NY
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Joe Hanley
Joe Hanley prepares one of Hanley Audio's forty foot tall trailer-mounted hydraulic speaker towers for transit to a half-million dollar fund-raising festival. New Yorkers might recognize these from their role in the Metropolitan Opera's acoustic arsenal. You can see them in place on the job here. |
Bill's son Joe Hanley is a pro sound engineer and a certified crane operator. He runs his own small business and works with his father and his uncle Terry Hanley, providing sound and stage services in New England. |
Letters
From South Africa
I'm a Woodstock Sound Crew Veteran. I would like to let BILL HANLEY know how much this country really owes him. There is something I would love to tell Bill & all the crew from Hanley Sound, (Billy, Scott, Sam, David, John etc. and Chip Monck.
You all had an unintentional subliminal hand in the struggle against apartheid - you also started the 'sound and music PA industry' in Africa...see how the Woodstock Philosophy lives on in our President Nelson Mandela - despite the disasters in this country "people are feeding each other..." is this "heaven man!!...?" Not quite!... we're still trying.
I am still actively involved (at 53) producing music and festivals in South Africa, partly due to my Woodstock experience. I am currently producing a series of re-issue tapes & records and a book project through my company 3rd Ear Music (est 1969) titled: THE HIDDEN YEARS.
I also want to contact JOHN BRODIE. (He's got my Woodstock negatives.) and DAVE FREEZE. (I used his camera.)
-DAVID MARKS Durban. kwaZuluNatal, Rep of South Africa. (letter edited)
Woodstock Sound Team Member David Marks, with photographer Tony Campbell, devised the Free People's concerts that became regular festivals on South African campuses in the 1970s. The first Free People's concert was on the beach in Durban and they had to find ways of circumventing the laws against mixed bands. "This was a Nusas/Third Ear Music concert. I remember seeing a newspaper banner with the headline: 'white boy leads Zulu warriors', which referred to Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu's band and dance group, WaMadlebe."
It was a time when many musicians were hounded by the security establishment and Marks says they tended to target white English-singing musicians more than Afrikaners, while large numbers of talented black musicians, at that time, including Hugh Masekela (Grazin' in the Grass,) went into exile.
Where's Bill?
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Bill continues to work in the sound and stage industry. He can be found working in his own metal shop improving his hydraulic stage and roof system. |
