TV & RADIO

BBC Radio & Outside Broadcast

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Alongside our television work, for many years we have provided our services to recording sessions for BBC radio stations. 
​Often, though not exclusively, based at the historic Maida Vale Studios complex, you will find our audio and backline packages and techs working on shows such as Radio 1’s Live Lounge, BBC Introducing, BBC Sound of… and other special one-off or multi-studio events for Radio 1, 2 and 6 Music.
​For the past five years we have also taken a major role in providing Production Services for the annual 500 Words final, for Radio 2. Each year, working closely with Radio 2 and BBC Outside Broadcast’s production teams, we have provided audio, backline, staging, lighting, technicians and logistics in a number of different venues, as the show has developed and grown.

Audio

Backline

Production

Jonathan Ross Show

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We have provided the Floor Sound, Monitors, Backline, Staging and technical support since the show’s inception on the BBC in 2001, when it was called “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross”. In 2011 the show relocated to ITV and moved to a Saturday night transmission slot.

Skavlan

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Skavlan is a weekly Norwegian/Swedish chat show. Each year they come to London to shoot a number of shows with musical performances and use our services to provide audio, backline, staging and technicians for the show recordings.

Later...with Jools

Floor Sound

From its debut in October 1992 to the latest series, we have provided the floor sound, monitor systems, backline, technicians and logistical planning for this legendary, award-winning television programme.

Monitoring

Hosted by pianist Jools Holland and a worldwide success, with a format of blending established acts with new arrivals, the show remains one of the few places on UK television where the emphasis has always been on live performance. 

Backline

Now filming back at TV Centre in London after several years at Maidstone Studios, the show has clocked up a record fifty four series.

Glastonbury

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Each year the BBC contract us to provide an audio and backline package for their backstage acoustic performance area at the festival. As well as supplying backline and logistics for various performers on the main stages.

The One Show

Audio

Since its relocation to Broadcasting House in 2014, we have been regularly involved in supplying audio equipment, backline, staging and technical support for the weekly artist appearances on this programme. 

Backline

The performances, which can vary from solo artists to full orchestras, are largely filmed live-to-air in the piazza outside the show’s studio, with occasional, more intimate performances shot inside.

Staging

We work closely with the production team and record labels to facilitate these performances

Ronnie Wood Radio Show

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Made by Somethin’ Else Productions and broadcast on Absolute Radio and broadcast on Sky TV, we provide the backline for this entertaining radio show.​

Global Radio

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Every year we provide backline & DJ Equipment and technicians to the Capital Radio Summertime Ball and Jingle Bell Ball events. We also regularly supply backline for bands doing live sessions in the Global studio for Radio X & Capital and each summer provide an audio, backline and staging package, along with technicians for the company’s Sundowner sessions, held on their rooftop in Leicester Square.

Top of the Pops - Christmas & New Year Specials

Floor Sound

In the eighties and nineties you would see our equipment on the show all the time, but in 2006 TOTP became an annual Christmas special, rather than a weekly music show. In 2008 a New Year special show was added. 

Monitoring

Now, each December you will find us loading up trucks with audio, backline and staging to take to the studio for the shows’ filming. 

Backline

As with Later… with Jools, we provide a full technical team to crew the monitor systems, backline and staging for the productions.

The Graham Norton Show

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We are the primary backline contractors for this weekly chat show.

The Brits

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Every year you’ll find our backline, risers and technicians working at the UK Music Industry’s awards ceremony

​If you are planning a Television or Radio show that requires audio, backline or staging  plus the technical support and assistance in planning get in touch!

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FILM

Still Crazy

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Since our earliest days, John Henry’s have always supplied backline and audio for bands’ promo shoots. However, it was in 1998 when JHL first got seriously involved in the film industry. We were approached to supply period correct musical props, playback audio and technicians for the production of “Still Crazy”, a comedy about a 1970’s rock band, whose members decide to reform. The cast included Juliet Aubrey, Bill Nighy, Timothy Spall, Stephen Rea, Jimmy Nail, Bruce Robinson and Billy Connolly. ​The closing scene of the film is of the band’s triumphant comeback gig and featured a full “live” gig set- up provided by JHL (with Billy Connolly doubling up as backline tech and monitor engineer!).

Bohemian Rhapsody

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Other smaller productions and dry hires for musical props followed down the years, but we fast forward to 2017, when we were asked to be involved in the making of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, once again supplying period equipment and playback audio, but on a much more detailed level, along with full technical support. Working closely with the production’s set dressing team, with photographs provided from the band’s archive and elsewhere, we helped research and source the majority of music and audio props that appeared in the film. A large number of these came from our existing inventory.

​The first of many set ups was the recreation of the Queen’s legendary performance at Live Aid in 1985. Not only were we asked to provide all the items that you see on screen, but we also provided a working monitor system for the stage so that the actors could get the proper feel of a live show, as well as a discreetly hidden FOH PA system to relay the sound to the audience of extras. The film went on to win four Oscars in 2019!

Yesterday

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As filming wrapped on Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018, we were asked if we could provide a similar package for a forthcoming film project for the Working Title Company, shooting that summer. The production, a (mostly) contemporary rom com about a musician with a script by Richard Curtis, became “Yesterday”, directed by Danny Boyle, starring Himesh Patel, Lily James and featuring a cameo performance by Ed Sheeran.

​Once again, we provided various backline and audio packages, along with technicians for a number of key scenes, two of which included overnight shoots on the stage of Ed Sheeran’s touring show in Cardiff and London and a rooftop gig on the seafront at Gorleston-On-Sea in Norfolk, which broke the record for the highest number of extras on a film set in the UK.

Rocketman

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 Following the completion of the Yesterday shoot, our services were called on to once again provide period correct backline & audio equipment for “Rocketman”, the Elton John biopic. Researching archive photos and footage of Elton and his band, we helped recreate key musical performances, such as his debut performance at the Los Angeles Troubadour Club and the legendary 1975 show in Dodger Stadium, as seen here

Eurovision Song Contest: The story of Fire Saga

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You will also see our backline and audio equipment in the recently released Will Ferrell comedy “Eurovision Song Contest: The story of Firestarter” on Netflix.
Working audio props included Sennheiser radio mics (as regularly used in the real Eurovision Song Contest). Among the backline items supplied – and making yet another film appearance, is one of our Yamaha CP80 pianos – the same one that graced the Live Aid stage in 1985 -and the recreation of Queen’s legendary performance in “Bohemian Rhapsody”:

If you are planning a film that requires period or contemporary music and audio equipment, plus the technical support and assistance in planning, be it location scouting or research,  get in touch!

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FESTIVALS

In any given year (well – perhaps with the exception of 2020….!), you’ll find our backline, audio and risers at many a festival site.
Our festival season commences earlier than most, with Country to Country in March. Based around a three day event at the O2 London, the SSE Hydro in Glasgow and the 3 Arena in Dublin, over the last few years this festival has grown to include shows in Amsterdam and Berlin. As one of the primary contractors for this event, John Henry’s provide backline and audio RF & control packages for many of the headliners, as well as the rolling risers at the O2 London and a large backline package for the satellite stages on the O2 London campus.

As we head into spring you will find our backline and instrument RF at Desertfest in Camden, London in early May, at the Great Escape festival in Brighton, Sussex and our backline and rolling risers at Radio 1’s Big Weekend rounding out that month.

The start of June sees our backline and DJ equipment at Wembley for the Capital Radio Summertime Ball extravaganza and backline and audio in action at Meltdown, held at the Southbank, London, as well as backline and instrument RF at Lovebox in Gunnersbury Park, London. More recently we have also started providing backline and risers for Stonefree, a two day rock festival at the O2 London. We supply a number of clients with rental packages for the Isle of Wight festival. Finally, at Glastonbury, the BBC takes an audio and backline package from us for their “backstage “ performances each year, and many of our clients also take rental packages from us to the festival, often including a full audio/RF control package for their performance.

The UK festival scene heats up in July as we provide the rolling risers and backline packages to British Summertime in Hyde Park and as the primary contractors of backline, DJ equipment and rolling risers for Latitude in Henham Park, Suffolk. You will also find us supplying equipment grand pianos and backline for clients at the Love Supreme jazz festival in Sussex and backline, DJ & RF equipment with artists at the Wireless and Field Day festivals that month.

The first week of August gives us a chance to regroup before gearing up to supply a number of events that month. For many years we provided the rolling risers and a backstage Pro Shop / hospitality area for the V Festival and its successor the Rize Festival in Chelmsford, Essex (we understand that the event will be rebranded for 2021). The Rewind (South) festival takes place at Henley on Thames, using our rolling risers and backline and the month concludes with our largest festival event of the year as primary backline, DJ equipment and rolling riser providers for the Reading and Leeds festivals. Also, on the same bank holiday weekend we often supply clients at SW4 on Clapham Common and Carnival at Notting Hill.

September - and late summer will see us in action with rolling risers, backline and instrument RF in Hyde Park as primary contractors for Proms in the Park and BBC Radio 2 Live.
Whilst autumn might see the end of outdoor events for the year, we have two more festivals to finish off the year:

The London Jazz Festival is held in a myriad of venues across the capital in November each year and John Henry’s are the primary backline providers for this international event.

And finally, Capital Radio’s annual Jingle Bell Ball, held at the O2 London in early December and using our backline, instrument RF and DJ equipment completes our “festival season”.

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