“To us, a mixing desk is a flat, rectangular box covered by an incomprehensible confusion of knobs, sliders and buttons; to Bevan Noble it’s a delicate instrument.” DAVID TURNBULL continues his series of stories of remarkable Canberrans.

Bevan Noble is into sound. Technically, he’s what you call a sound engineer, but musicians generally call him “the sound guy”.

He works at Smith’s Alternative in Civic, and if you’ve ever been there for a musical performance, he’s the person who set the sound system up to ensure the artist’s talents were on show for all to hear.

To us, a mixing desk is a flat, rectangular box covered by an incomprehensible confusion of knobs, sliders and buttons; to Bevan it’s a delicate instrument.

As a child, he says, he was always fascinated by recording equipment and amplifiers.

“To me it was magic,” he says. “The way you could press a button and hear something back.

“I started playing with my dad’s reel-to-reel tape recorder when I was in primary school.

“My brother and I used to record ourselves reciting nursery rhymes and play it back. Sometimes we’d hold the microphone in front of the speaker to make it squeal – so I learnt very early what causes feedback.”

Bevan wasn’t in the inner-city where he could go into shops and see the latest technology.

He grew up on a dairy farm near a little village called Eureka, in the Northern Rivers, about 30 kilometres from Lismore in a conservative Methodist family that went to church on Sundays. His older brother and two younger sisters were all expected to work on the farm.

“My brother and I rode horses to a one-teacher school where almost all the students were off dairy farms,” Bevan says.

“When we got home, we’d help finish in the dairy, feed the pigs and wash up for dinner.

“It was a small world where kids made their own fun. My great, great grandfather was one of the original guys who cleared the land and lots of the people around us were relatives.”

And music was everywhere he went.

“We always had music on the radio, including in the dairy. It was just a part of our routine.”

‘All sorts of music interested me. I just loved it’

Bevan’s mother played piano, and his father was an excellent bass/baritone singer. They performed at church and community halls, and his father won numerous trophies at the Lismore Eisteddfod.

Following in their footsteps, Bevan learnt classical piano, then played clarinet in the Richmond River High School orchestra, and later taught himself to play guitar.

“All sorts of music interested me. I just loved it.”

But while his enthusiasm for audio technology hadn’t waned, his chance to learn more about it was limited to running the school public address system.

When he left school, he wanted to pursue audio engineering as a career, but simply didn’t know how to go about it.

“The dream job for me would have been an audio cadetship with the ABC, I just didn’t think it could happen to a kid like me from the country, so I enrolled at university to do psychology.”

After doing psychology for a year, he changed to social work.

He met his wife Karen at a church youth group and they had two daughters.

Out of university, his first job involved helping adults with a disability to gain more independence, but with a young family to support he joined the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service and eventually became a regional manager.

In 1993, he was offered a position in the head office that brought him to Canberra where he started to get involved with IT work with CRS and the broader department.

For the next 20 years, Bevan was focused on raising his girls and paying the mortgage.

“All my life I had been going to concerts wondering how you get to be the person behind the mixing desk. I never thought it would happen.

“Then a series of random events opened the door.”

Random Event # 1

While picking up his daughter from a birthday party he met a parent who’d transitioned from working in the Tax Office to being the audio engineer at Tilley’s.

“This ignited a spark in me that it might still be possible,” he says.

Random Event # 2

In conversation with a colleague about the movie Singin’ in the Rain, he learnt the Queanbeyan Players had just done a “live” performance of the show, and they needed a sound guy for an upcoming production of The Music Man.

Random Event #3

While working on a sound desk at the 2009 multicultural festival, someone called in sick, and the replacement happened to work at the Tuggeranong Arts centre and asked whether Bevan would be able to do some sound for them.

 He grabbed it with both hands, of course. 

Random Event #4

The director of the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Dominic Mico, bought Smith’s Alternative Bookshop and turned it into a café, bar and performance venue. The first thing he did was hire Bevan.

In March 2014, less than 11 years after his first night as a volunteer behind the sound desk for Queanbeyan Players, Bevan “retired” from the public service and has listed “sound engineer” as his occupation ever since.

“One of the things I say semi-jokingly is: ‘When you get the chance to do the thing you’ve always wanted to – it’s an enormous relief to find out that you don’t suck at it’.”

Today, he’s done countless gigs for performers from all over the world, but one stands out.

“One of the first memorable gigs was Ross Ryan doing a gig to mark the 40th anniversary of Pegasus,” Bevan says. 

“Ross had been one of the artists I had heard on the radio in the dairy while helping with the milking after school and I would never have dreamed that one day I would get to work with him.

“I am also lucky enough to have worked with Keith Potger from The Seekers, and the fabulous Mike McLelland.

“It might sound corny, but I’ve really got to thank Nigel and Beth (the proprietors at Smith’s) for increasing the variety of performances at Smith’s.

“To me, every gig – for pros or amateurs, is a learning opportunity.

“I love it.”

Journalist David Turnbull is writing a series of profiles about interesting Canberrans. Do you know someone who deserves a moment in the spotlight? Share the name in an email to David via editor@citynews.com.au

News all day, every day at CityNewsQBN.com.au.