ON THE ROAD: George Michael
Below: The combination of spectacular lighting and video created a real impact on stage; the video team; Stage Manager Rik Benbow; Lighting Director Benoit Richard at his MA Lighting’s grandMA2 console; George Michael performed tracks from his vast back catalogue of hits and covers of his favourite songs; Symphonica was a resounding success with the crowd at Ahoy Arena.
produced by US-based SoundSpectrum’s Aeon programme are displayed for the majority of the performance. “It looks simply stunning and fits in with
George’s desire for everything to be in time with the music,” said Shipman, who has worked with artists such as Take That and Faithless during his 20-year career. Aeon is a recent creation of
SoundSpectrum’s Head Developer Andy O’Meara and Michael Figarelli who have created custom content for world-class artists Aerosmith. “George Michael used one of our software titles in his 25 Live tour and thought of us again when preparing for Symphonica,” said SoundSpectrum’s Paul Brower. “Some visuals have more of a serene and
ambient aesthetic, while others provide a very hard-edged, machine-like look and feel. Because of the variety, we are able to match the wide array of songs George performs, from the slow ballads to the driving rock and pop songs.” In some ways, the show designer of visual
content was Michael himself, explained Brower. Some of the visuals incorporated into the show were customised versions of software visuals SoundSpectrum already provides in the Aeon visualiser, while others were original creations prompted by direct feedback from Michael, who was specific about the type of visual aesthetic he was looking for in each song from the beginning. “While a certain amount of trust and leeway is given to us, George is very familiar with our software at this point and, together with the lighting designer, we have all worked together to create a unified and exciting concert experience,” said Brower.
Given the size of the video screen and the
fact the visuals respond with movement and colour, Bower and Figarelli tried to stay away from visuals that move too quickly across the screen and colours that were too bright. Brower added: “Our job is to complement George and the orchestra’s performance, and although some of our visuals are very complex and sometimes futuristic-looking, the effect must be balanced so as not to distract from the music and musicians on stage. That being said, this tour provides a very unique marriage between a more classical approach with the use and spread of the orchestra members and a more modern aesthetic with our visuals and the lighting design.” Continued Brower: “With any live
performance like this one, the look and feel of the stage, lighting and video play almost an equal role to the music that is being performed. Some performers stick with the more traditional method of using broad lighting rigs without the use of video content. In this case, there is interplay between our video content and the overall lighting design, and both are choreographed to the music being performed.”
ADAPTING THE SHOW DESIGN TO THE VENUE Freelance Head Rigger Steve Walsh, who had previously worked with Watts on Jamiroquai’s last tour, began preparing the stage plans for Symphonica in March. “We have just shy of 100 points for video, lighting and sound and going into both large arenas and small opera houses has made it interesting for a show this size because we have to rescale it to fit into each
venue,” said Walsh. On all dates of the tour, Walsh and Rigger
Jules Grommers, use riggers that are local to the area and are familiar with the venue, normally working with 10 riggers in the air and six on the floor. “This venue is very easy, ever since they put the new roof on when Ahoy reopened last September. The old space frame roof it had before made rigging quite complicated and it wasn’t very high. “The new roof is about six metres higher and
the beams were designed in conjunction with the local rigging company. It’s all been designed for ease and speed of rigging and weight capacity because all the shows are getting heavier,” said Walsh. Although venues such as Ahoy are a joy to
work in for Walsh, Symphonica is different to previous shows he has been part of because there is not a straight piece of truss in the rig. Said Walsh: “It’s all curves and it all has to
fit in with everything else. On most tours you get a reasonable amount of movement and if you can’t get a point where you need it, you can shuffle it and it doesn’t have an effect on the show. On this tour there are lots of trusses very close together and not a lot of movement because of the corners in the truss. You can’t move the points very far and it has to be quite precise, making it tricky in certain venues.” Stage Manager Rik Benbow is accustomed
to working on productions of every scale at all types of venue; having toured with artists such a Take That, Coldplay and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The main priority on Symphonica, explained Benbow, is keeping clean lines with the physical shape of the stage.
TPi NOVEMBER 2011 • 49
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92