(guitar rock music)
- I'm Bill Hanley,
born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1937.
(upbeat electronica music)
Hanley sound is a sound company
started in the early 1950s.
There was no marketplace, it was just starting.
- What I believe Hanley Sound did
was to turn what was P.A. for the most part,
into concert sound.
I started working for Hanley Sound in 1966.
At that point, I was learning.
- The quality was picking up and these sound systems
were in the theaters,
that's where I got all the good equipment
to really do stuff on the run.
(upbeat electronica music)
Stan Goldstein called me up,
asked me about doin' the sound for this big event,
then there was buzz in the industry about it
and I went, heard about Michel Lang
and went to his office on Avenue of Americas in New York.
He wouldn't give me enough money to do it
the way I wanted to do it.
I had to do what I could afford to do it
and make it happen well.
(helicopter rumbling)
It was a mad scramble to get everything
together on time.
We went out to look at the new site at Max's farm.
(light guitar music)
I walked the field and studied the whole area
and then went back and designed the sound system.
The only problem with it was that there were pockets,
that were dug out in the hill,
and I had to get high enough to get sound into them.
I treat sound like light.
If you can't see, the light, then it's not there.
(heavy drumming)
The sound system was stage left, stage right,
probably 50, 60 feet off of the stage.
(electronica rock music)
I laid those two very tall towers up
and then went back and built special speakers systems,
to get enough energy to the top of the hill.
(electronica rock music)
The upper level thing was special,
the lower level stuff was the stuff
we were using at Newport in that design.
The sound system at Woodstock
was somewhere around 10 to 12,000 watts.
(upbeat rock music)
I mean I set up for 100,000 people,
not 600,000.
(upbeat rock music)
(crowd cheering)
- The morning before they actually started,
I was putting things together in Medford,
Bill called and said, I know I'm gonna need X, Y and Z.
They had a plane for me, I left Hanscom Field
at approximately two o'clock in the morning
on a private plane.
I arrived approximately at five o'clock in the morning
on Friday.
One of the guys came out on a motorcycle
and the key pieces that I had
were strapped on his back and strapped on the motorcycle,
and that went in.
Now I'm still sitting at the airport.
They were bringing acts in
with the helicopters that were there,
but I wasn't considered important
so therefore they couldn't get me in.
It's a news crew that I had worked with before
out of New York, had a helicopter.
They saw me and I told them, I said,
is that your helicopter?
(gentle guitar music)
Then I had a vantage point that probably no other person,
certainly on the sound crew had.
(crowd cheering)
Concert was underway
and I could see what was going on down below.
(gentle rock music)
For me to watch it was so breathtaking,
I never saw anything that big.
(light rock music)
(crowd cheering)
- [Bill] It was so big it was special.
And the kids were so well-behaved,
it was a very wonderful happening to me.
Everybody was getting along.
(crowd cheering)
- [Harold] We were always prepared for rain,
and there was always tarps, and coverings,
and things of that nature.
- It looks like we're gonna get a little bit of rain
so you better cover up.
- We would spray the audio connectors
with a CRC formula which is very similar to WD-40 today
and that would displace water.
So consequently, the connectors didn't get wet
and we didn't have buzz problems, or if we did,
then we could go back
and we could do whatever was necessary,
in order to eliminate that.
(rain blowing)
The recordings were done in one of the vans
right next to the stage.
- [Bill] I did the whole,
recorded the whole thing in 8-track.
And we were using Unidyne microphones,
we kept it very tight to the instruments
that were being picked up.
(gentle guitar music)
- After doing sound at Woodstock,
I couldn't think of anything
that I really wanted to do, after that.
Where do you go?
The largest sound system, the largest crowd in history.
What do you do?
The biggest names in the industry.
I stayed with the company until approximately 1972.
(gentle rock music)
- [Bill] The sound
was the thing that held the show together.
And then the recording held it for the aftermath.
(crowd cheering)
- [Harold] There's now a plaque where the home office was.
Now it's a Dunkin' Donuts.
(electronica rock music)