BLACKBURN, UK – Blackburn based lighting and visuals specialist HSL supplied lighting, LED screen, a Kinesys automation system and crew to the UK and European arena legs of international vocal group Il Divo’s ‘Greatest hits’ tour, following on from their successful collaboration last year.
More details from HSL (www.hslgroup.com):
Lighting designer was Dave Davey. The TV LD’s work includes high profile shows such as The X Factor, which is where he originally met Il Divo’s creative director, Brian Burke.
The tour visuals featured crossover lighting styles from both TV and live disciplines. For the tour, Tom Sutherland was brought in as touring lighting director, and together they visualized the show. Burke’s brief for this tour differed from 2012’s ‘Wicked Game,’ which featured large and prominent moving curved video screens. For this one, the lighting was to provide the set element and ‘stage architecture,’ with video in a supporting role. He wanted the lighting to ‘breathe’ with the music.
HSL’s Mike Oates project managed. “It was great to see Dave’s magic being worked in a different environment. The show was elegant and beautifully crafted, and he and Tom with their televisual backgrounds brought a completely different dimension to the visual equation,” he says.
Starting far upstage, there was a starcloth right at the back and in front of that, eight vertical trusses, all pre-rigged sections loaded with a mix of 32 Vari-Lite VL500s, 48 x 2-lite Moles, 48 Clay Paky Sharpys and with a Martin MAC III Profile at the bottom of each section.
Downstage of these was a back truss rigged with MAC III Profiles and VL3500s, and in front of that, four ‘finger’ trusses running upstage to downstage with a mix of VL3000 Spots and Sharpys, complete with a 4-lite on the audience end of each truss for crowd illumination.
On the floor, there were simply eight Sharpys raking upstage and three MAC IIIs in the entrance-way at the back used for silhouette moments These were mounted on custom HSL wheel bases to facilitate easy manual movement on and off their marks.
Simon Chalk, conductor of the Heart of England Philharmonic orchestra, was highlighted with a single Robe LEDWash 600 ‘special.’
Lighting was controlled via a Compulite Green console, Sutherland’s choice. Another Green was run in tracking backup, and the show contained more than 600 cues.
HSL supplied six Robert Juliat Lancelot follow spots – four to cover Il Divo and two for Katherine Jenkins, a Welsh soprano who joined the tour.
Creating a haze that was acceptable to the band, and with enough staying power proved a challenge. They finally hit a chord with Cirro Lite Strata CS6s.
“We spent a lot of time programming detailed and complex movement and color cues that emphasize the lifts and falls in the music and the tone and emotion of the different pieces, all of which required split-second spot-on precision timing,” Sutherland explains.
Video
In the roof three pods were made up of Martin EC10 screen and each rigged on four Kinesys motors. They flew into different shapes and positions throughout the show adding an extra dynamic and also helping to ‘close down’ the stage for the more intimate numbers.
Filling in the stage at the back, upstage of the orchestra, were three sections of Martin LC series screen with fold-back edges, staggered to form entrance/exit ways. HSL supplied all the LED screens, fed with content stored and played back from a Catalyst media server run by Stuart Merser.
Also on HSL’s crew were Dan Tiley (Chief), Stuart ‘Wales’ Picton, Jason Dixon, James Sutch, Stephen Major, Kinesys operator Andy ‘Paris’ Hilton and followspot tech Dom Crookes.
“They were all fantastic!” says Sutherland. “HSL is a really excellent supplier – great support in every way and very well prepped kit!”
