Andy - the cheques in the post! Or did you mean you learnt how not to do it!! ;-)

Seriously, your comment has put a smile on my face - as an ex-IT consultant who initially learned the ropes the hard way. There's at least one pub venue we wouldn't be able to go back to thanks to my c*ck ups in the early days - luckily we're not doing pub gigs anymore but I have to say the experience of setting up a LOUD PA - to overcome LOUD audiences - in shoebox sized venues with all the resultant feedback problems taught me a huge amount. Setting up in a concert club like folkmob's or in a theatre is easy in comparison - but even easier when you have the experience from the more problematic venues.

I couldn't find a live sound training course when I started, but I did find a studio recording course which was invaluable. I'd recommend this if you can't find a live sound course (or maybe even in addition to a live sound course). There is cross over between the skill sets, although they are different skills sets.

The Paul White books are excellent. I still re-read them from time to time - we never stop learning and I am still on the lower slopes - they are currently in the reading pile next to the bed - often the last thing I read at night before drifting off to sleep. Frequency specific compression is my latest hot topic.

The "live sound" book reference is:

Basic Live Sound
Sanctuary Publishing
ISBN 1-86074-271-8

The whole series includes titles like "Basic Effects and Processors", "Basic Mixing Techniques" etc. There is cross over and duplication between books but it's worth considering some of the other titles.

We've been doing a national tour of Borders stores promoting 'Acoustic' magazine and I've noticed a good selection of sound engineering books on their shelves, so it might be worth a look in your local Borders bookshop. Other than that, Sound on Sound is a good source (as mentioned above) and their website has a useful archive of articles.

Another option might be to volunteer for a local arts centre - maybe they'd welcome the extra manpower on tech jobs and you'd pick up a lot of info and techniques there.

Hope all this helps.

Best regards
John Robinson