Dedicated to the Business of Contemporary Live Music
AVOIDING AUDIO reflections and keeping the system away from the acrobats’ flying infrastructure were the key challenges facing Britannia Row for Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia show at London’s Royal Albert Hall (RAH, cap. 5,300). The show, set to live music, usually tours using Cirque’s big top and its system required…
Read moreCANADIAN SINGER-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen briefed her production team to create an elegant and theatrical design which was adaptable for touring different-sized venues and festivals. Production manager Zach Snyder invited Liverpool-based Adlib to provide audio and lighting for the European leg of her Dedicated tour, which played venues such as…
Read moreKNOWN FOR their raw sound and multiple effects, Primal Scream required a widely available and easy-to-use desk with plenty of channels, according to front-of-house engineer Chris Martin. He and monitor engineer Gerry Colclough opted for DiGiCo SD12 consoles for a tour which visited venues including Brighton Dome (cap. 1,700), Nottingham’s…
Read moreWORKING WITH an “intricate and esoteric” set design by Chiara Stephenson, the video and lighting team for Björk’s Cornucopia Tour needed an organic and fluid look, according to Richard White, the artiste’s programmer and lighting director. Working alongside theatre lighting specialist Bruno Poet, he invited Southampton-based Liteup to provide lights,…
Read moreTHE NEED to control the band’s volumes, combined with coverage of the highly-reflective surfaces of one of the venues, London’s 10,300-capacity Alexandra Palace, were key factors in choosing the PA for Idles, says front-of-house (FOH) engineer Chris Fullard. His experience with Martin Audio’s MLA system at festivals, convinced him this…
Read moreLIGHTING DIRECTOR and set designer Neil Holloway needed a “super slick” look which would fit into a single van for a tour by The Overtones. After a discussion with the artistes, he chose a big band look using the act’s LED logo as a backdrop, rather than video. Working with…
Read morePLAYING A flagship show at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town (cap. 2,300), Little Simz decided to use video for the first time. Production manager Eric Wade of EZ Services says he not only wanted to enhance the visual impact of the show, but also capture quality footage, for promotional use….
Read moreMANCHESTER-BASED audio specialist STS Touring Productions, whose clients include Anthrax, Midge Ure and Jack & Jack , plans further expansion over the next 12 months, having already opened an office in Germany. The company, which works with manufacturers such as L-Acoustics and DiGiCo, says he is seeing an increase in…
Read moreKNOWN FOR their multi-layered, “spacey” sound, Hawkwind presented a range of challenges to audio engineer, Rik Elliss, not least the need to accommodate Eric Clapton and Motörhead’s Phil Campbell, who join the band on stage at certain shows. The front-of-house (FOH) engineer opted for an S5000 dLive surface by Allen…
Read moreTHE WIDE range of Tom Walker’s vocal demands an audio console capable of handling a “big, bold” show, according to his front-of-house (FOH) engineer Mike Platt. Touring venues including London’s O2 Academy Brixton (4,900), O2 Victoria Warehouse (10,000) in Manchester and the Corn Exchange (3,000) in Edinburgh, the production used…
Read moreHIGH WYCOMBE-BASED audio interface specialist Focusrite plc has acquired professional live sound manufacturer Martin Audio, also based in the town, which developed the MLA system and works for clients including BST Hyde Park (cap. 65,000), SW4 (20,000) and Fat Boy Slim. Focusrite owns the ADAM Audio, Novation and Ampify Music…
Read moreWHEN CRAIG David performed both as a singer and a DJ at London’s Central Hall (cap. 2,500) in Westminster on New Year’s Eve, lighting designer Steve Abbis worked with in-house technical production company White Light (WL) to create different visuals before and after the midnight fireworks on the nearby River…
Read moreSHOW PRODUCER Adrian Grant aimed to create “big sumptuous” looks for the latest leg of Respect: The Aretha Franklin Songbook, which features singers Stacy Francis, Tanya Edwards and Cleo Stewa performing the music of the “Queen of Soul”. Production manager Aaron Booth invited London-based Colour Sound Experiment, the show’s provider…
Read moreTHE HUNTING High and Low Live tour by A-ha took the unusual step of introducing the 10-bit video to their visual display, featuring a video by animator Knut Helgeland. The format allows content creators the use of one billion colours, compared to roughly 16 million colours afforded by the conventional…
Read moreFOLLOWING THE acquisition of SSE Audio Group by Canada’s Group Solotech in November last year, the company is to realign into a unified British structure. SSE and its subsidiaries, Wigwam, Capital Sound and BCS Audio will be known as Solotech UK as of 1 January 2020, under the new joint…
Read moreSEEKING A sound for her Cornucopia tour that drew audiences into “another world”, Björk has scaled up a production developed at The Shed (cap. 2,700) in New York, on her latest visit to the UK. Playing venues including London’s The O2 (21,000) and Glasgow’s The SSE Hydro (13,000), she needed…
Read moreTHE LIGHTING designer for Kodaline’s UK tour, D Reilly, adopted the band’s diamond-shaped logo using three large diamond-shaped trusses as the visual core of the show. With one flown over mid-stage and the other two mounted stage left and right on two truss columns each, the geometric patterns were designed…
Read moreTHE AUDIO system used by John Legend and his 11-piece band for a performance at The O2 (cap. 21,000) in London, as part of the multi-artiste BluesFest event, needed to adapt to the acoustics of a reduced auditorium, with the “horse-shoe” seats on the rear of Level 4 excluded from…
Read moreUS-BASED TAIT, the staging and production specialist behind tours by Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Elton John, has acquired Wakefield-based Brilliant Topco Ltd, better known as Brilliant Stages, fabricator of structures for the Rolling Stones, Take That and Beyonce and Jay Z. The acquisition brings together two businesses with four…
Read moreTHE AUDIO requirements for Vampire Weekend have grown significantly since front-of-house (FOH) engineer Neil Heal first worked with the band over 10 years ago. Following the group’s expansion from a four to a seven-piece, it now uses 120 inputs compared to the 24 it used in earlier times, he says….
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