Why Do I (Still) Do This?

Pat King – Smooth operator and frenetic sound engineer

He’s very personable, is Pat. Though at age 63, time and health issues have taken a toll. “I’m not the soldier I used to be, that’s for sure,” he says from Seaford near the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. He has a van PA and install business called ‘King Production Services’.

Pat is the son of Irish Catholic immigrants and had red hair as a kid. “I got picked on a lot, got kicked out of school and was a bit naughty.” In year 7 and six feet tall; ”I punched out a couple of the school bullies, no trouble after that.”

He was shipped off to boarding school at 15, “I think my parents wanted me away from the local louts, just about the best thing that ever happened to me. I became heavily involved with the school band, which I loved with a passion”.

School lunchtime concerts, strangely common in the 1970s, where a school would hire a band for an appearance. The school band would relish the chance and the accompanying bucks. “I would help out with the band gear, strut around, talk to the girls, and take lots of photographs”.

Local legends in his hometown of Devonport, Tasmania, Bush Turkey were about to set sail for another mainland tour and needed a sound guy. “It was the adventure of a lifetime for a 17-year-old, setting up their PA and mixing the show, touring. I hired them my van as well and made the same in a night as my friends on the dole would make in a week.” His enthusiasm in the telling is awesome.

Pat went on to work with well over 5,000 bands, I’m getting dizzy as he lists them, an encyclopaedic memory of the legendary and the cul-de-sac of names from 1978 until now, many Aussie legends among them, the list is endless.

Today Pat’s client list is mainly tribute bands. Ramble Tamble, Soul Chisel, Aussie DC, Whole Lotta Rosie, Brown Sugar, INXSive, No Exit, Reckless. He lists many more, and I get retro PTSD having mixed some of this sort of band in recent years. (He’s also mixed one of my solo shows – Ed.)

“For a van PA gig, I get there around 2pm, way early to take the pressure off. A couple of great young fellas help with the setup and operate lights. The band finish around 11.30, hour and half to load out, and I’m home by 2am usually”. The current situation has Pat doing venue walk-ins most nights, one or two van PA gigs a week.

The van is a trustworthy Hiace with GIGPIG plates. The PA is 8,000W with a MixWizard, analog rack, JBL subs, RCF mid/highs, “beautiful” 600W wedges and 30 odd LED lights. Nothing heavier than 20kg these days, remembering back when his Perreaux amp racks were 130kgs each.

So why the attraction?

“This is all I’ve ever done, and I just love it. I’ve had no other profession. Life is great now! I’m getting lots of work and having fun”. He does regular house mixes at Scotties Garage – five minutes north, plus other local venues. That introduces new bands, so he gets extra PA work.

Family is very important; he has four adult children and one granddaughter. “My youngest son Connor is about to qualify as an electrician, so I want to get back into AV install work. I landed some absolute whales in the past; I’ve always been good at talkin’ the talk.”

Pat’s parallel pathway veered out of live work with Peter Trojkovik’s Troy Sound Reinforcements, and into sales at Brashs/Allens, while he had a full-time crew handling logistics and often mixed shows after his day job. Live recording became a significant part of the business, including the very first Australian ADAT digital multitrack recording, a live CD for Dutch Tilders at the famous Station Hotel Prahran, the machines having only cleared customs two days prior.

Pat got very sick in 2017. “I had a failing liver for about 18 months, got up one morning and collapsed in the kitchen with blood all around me, then lapsed into a coma for a week. I had hepatitis, unknown to me, possibly from a blood transfusion when I had a serious motorbike accident in 1980. I did enjoy a drink, but I was still driving the truck home, so it wasn’t all grog. My sister who is a non-drinker has liver issues, so I think it was partly genetic”.

“After that I was sick all the time and had a liver transplant in August 2020. I spent almost a year in hospital. Lockdowns made it worse – I was in a room by myself, fully isolated and nearly went nuts. I transferred to a ward and that saved my sanity. A senior guy from Hills was in the next bed, so we could talk AV.” That made all the difference!

“I went in at 98kg and came out at 62kg, hospital food wasn’t much chop and I was virtually chained to the bed, nurses paranoid I was going to fall over. My diet now is a lot smaller. I eat like a snail and I still don’t have much muscle strength, so I can’t lift heavy stuff anymore”.

“I’m just so glad to be back doing gigs and loving it! When you’re told that you are going to die but you don’t, it gives you a whole different perspective on life. I’m very much a people person. Most of the guys are great friends and I have fantastic band room conversations and l love to take the piss. I’m up on current events, history, and of course music, and there’s often a lot more in people than you first see”. That’s what drives Pat; he loves a good chat.

But he’s still out there on the gig circuit. “My brain and ears are good – everyone’s happy with my work. My gigs aren’t high stress anymore. I go in humbly as the lowly worm – everyone knew me in the 80s, that was my time. I was the man then, I’m just the old man now, but I’m totally okay with being a senior citizen, and it’s a different world now”.

The circle is joined. Pat mixes gigs. “My circle of new bands request me at venues”. He’s happy, he gets the job done, and his name is Pat King.