LIVERPOOL, U.K. – Laughing in the face of inclement winter weather, Adlib supplied lighting and sound for comedian Russell Howard's recent 10-date arena tour throughout the U.K. Howard is the star of Mock The Week and Russell Howard's Good News. The lighting design was conceived by Adlib's Peter Abraham. They were working with a 60-foot-wide stage and no set, so Abraham's main objective was to create an ambience and a feel for the show, to ensure that Howard didn't look like he was standing alone in a massive black void and also to provide a visually interesting backdrop behind him, for the full stage view and also the I-Mag camera shots that were projected onto two side screens.
He introduced a basic architecture to the space with four 40-foot upstage/downstage orientated trusses fanned out from the back, flown about a foot off the ground on the upstage edge and at normal trim height at the front. This effectively became a very simple set, with clean, well-defined lines.
On each of the trusses were five Martin Professional MAC 250 Washes used to color the stage floor and for beam-work. Abraham called the fixtures "outstanding" in terms of brightness for their compact size. Also on each truss were two PixelPARs, used for toning, and a 4-lite Mole for audience warming.
In the stage wings, four Studio Due CityColor 2.5Ks were positioned, two per side, for strong low level cross light washing and strong colouration. Across the back on the floor were six MAC 2000 Profiles for additional beam effects.
For spotlighting, Adlib supplied two Robert Juliat 2.5Ks, along with two DF50 hazers to discreetly enhance the MAC 250 beams.
It was not a busy show in terms of lights moving and color changing, but required very accurate and subtle cueing, an operation undertaken by Tim Spilman using a WholeHog 3 console – his desk of choice for this style of show. A good coverage of lighting across the full stage was also essential to keep pace with Howard's highly animated style of performance and delivery, in which he's constantly on the move.
Spilman was joined on the lighting crew by Andy Rowe and Chris Neary.
"Ten arena shows in ten days is a big ask, to which Adlib responded with a top class audio and lighting package," said production manager Andy Grey.
"The professional approach of Adlib's team, from the initial design stage and equipment preparation to the attention to detail in all aspects of technical production, ensured that the tour ran completely smoothly.
"The quality of the hardware supplied by Adlib is one thing, but their greatest asset has to be their crew, who's experience and knowledge combined with their hardworking and friendly approach helped to make the tour such a great success," Grey added.
Russell Howard was the latest in a long list of comedy tours serviced by Adlib throughout 2009, a trend that looks set to continue for 2010.
For more information, please visit www.adlibsolutions.co.uk.
