Joel Pott, Carey Willetts, Tim Wanstall and Steve Roberts, better known as Athlete, are set for a massive year of touring with concerts around the world and numerous festival gigs. They have also joined the ranks of top acts that have chosen to use Sennheiser evolution mics and in-ear monitoring throughout.

During April Athlete headlined a sell-out 3-week European tour and fitted in a Radio One Big Weekend before commencing a full 22-date US tour in May and June. Festivals this year will include Germany's Hurricane and Southside, T4 on the Beach, Glastonbury, Denmark Roskilde, Belgium Rock Werchter, Ireland Oxygen, Scotland T In The Park, Switzerland Gurten, Australia Splendor in the Grass (followed by an Australia tour), Japan Fuji Rock, Spain Benicassim, Portugal Sudoeste and the Stafford and Chelmsford V Festivals.

FOH engineer, Suneil Pusari, explained the move to Sennheiser, "It seems to me the new range of Sennheiser microphones are the most natural and open sounding range they have produced to date. From their vocal mics, to guitar mics, condensers and bass drum mics they all possess the same characteristics - a very smooth and true frequency response with a slightly sparkly high-end response. This helps me bring clarity, detail and space to any recording or mix".

Suneil continues, "I was always a huge fan of the old Sennheiser 409 and 509, with hand wound coils these made for excellent guitar mics, but those microphones are getting very hard to find these days. I was extremely happy when Sennheiser released the e606. Tonally, this microphone equals the 409 and 509's with a high standard of detail and depth and a warm powerful midrange with great high-end response. It is an excellent, versatile mic, brilliant for brass, toms and again, very natural and true on guitar cabinets. With Athlete I have been using the e935 on Joel and Carey?s vocals. The e935s have a smooth, natural low and midrange with an open bright high end. This allows for clarity and space, whilst allowing the audience to hear such detail and breathiness as to feel the vocals are very personal and intimate. And as a bonus, the e935 has great feedback rejection, which keeps me out of trouble with our monitor engineer".

Monitor Engineer, Rabbit (Pete), was equally enthusiastic about the Sennheiser evolution 300 G2 IEM, "Athlete have been using in-ear monitoring since early in their career. Introducing them to the Sennheiser e300 G2?s has vastly improved their on stage experience. The radio performance, and specifically the new scan function, ensures that any interference issues can be quickly, and effectively dealt with.  The sound from the units is excellent, with a clear stereo image and plenty of vocal presence. Added to this the units are physically small, light and unobtrusive which keeps everyone using them comfortable on stage. Overall the system provides excellent performance on a day-to-day basis, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who relies on IEM as part of their production".