It has a taken far longer than anyone could have expected but Ian ICEMAN Pinder’s van was launched to the trade at the C.A.R. magazine show. With some nutty issues along the way – like a multi-kilowatt amp being used just for mids and highs only to discover it was never meant for such tones and wouldn’t pass them – it has been challenging at times but when the curtain came up, he was dancing (as they said in Jerry Maguire.)

Sponsorship at this level is costly in terms of your soul, as the effort and time for a one man band to find was tougher than expected as last year’s trade downturn affected everyone. There were also some huge issues with the insane weight of the vehicle (2.02 tonnes with 1.42 tonnes over the rear axle) requiring some three grand’s worth of serious suspension adding by famous bag-man Ray Vern.

Ian ICEMAN Pinder

Yes, there were a few other power-wagons in the hall, but Ian’s van throbbed the lot to death. I think it was Neil Hunt of CAR who told me he was in a £30k car outside and the sound was being interfered with by a throb from within.

All the way across the hall. All they way across the atrium. Out into the car park – and it still was outrageous!

Deeper and wobblier than all the others, the second day saw Ian being shut down by the council officers in charge of the hall at the end of the day. It was ‘only’ six fifteen inch HCCA Orions with their commensurate HCCA amplifiers (and a stack of awesome Odyssey batteries) but in an Ian Pinder ICEMAN box and with more mids and tweeters than you can imagine. So it was also the characteristic full range mayhem that drew a crowd. Even in a sparsely populated trade-only show, they marvelled. I saw them do it. As you can guess, he’s a mate but yes, I was proud of him and impressed by the Panasonic units that played despite the 150dB-plus, sub-30Hz wobbling it was getting.

You can catch up with this behemoth at shows all the season long and feel for yourself the might of Odyssey, Orion and the ICEMAN.