LONDON – London-based rental company Entec Sound & Light supplied lighting, rigging and crew for Paloma Faith’s recent high profile one-off show at London’s O2 Arena, preceded by warm ups at Liverpool Empire and Bournemouth BIC. Entec again worked with LD Tony Austin and the production team led by Tour Manager Neil Brighouse. Entec’s Noreen O’Riordan and Adam Stevenson project managed the one-off.
More details from Entec Sound & Light (www.entec-soundandlight.com):
Austin brought many touches of theatrical magic to the equation, while Entec’s crew ensured that the rig went up smoothly and efficiently so he could maximize any available time for programming and tweaking.
O’Riordan comments, “Tony’s show was a fantastic blend of theatrical magic, drama and quirkiness and a perfect complement to Paloma’s offbeat, interesting and very dynamic style of performance.”
The O2 show required a completely new lighting design with versatility and flexibility at the core of the concept. The warm up shows used a smaller lighting rig, so only at the O2 did Austin have his full rig for the first time, adding extra pressures to the day.
An expanded version of Josh Grace’s striking mirrored and gold palm leaf encrusted art deco style stage set was created for the O2 show; however, Faith started the set with a completely bare stage, singing an acoustic number in front of a mid-stage curtain.
As the show continued, she was joined onstage by her band and then by a full string and brass section which were also added especially for the O2. Initially they were all still downstage of the curtain. Not until half way through the performance was the stage set revealed, building up to a visual crescendo for the finale.
Lighting wise, at the O2 the three straight trusses which had been used on the warm ups were used, together with a new circular truss downstage center – used for extra set foliage and decoration as well as lighting. The circle truss rigged on double braked motors came in during the big final reveal. Austin also added four flown side booms to facilitate high level front cross stage lighting.
The front truss was rigged with eight Clay Paky Sharpy Washes, six 8-lite Moles, eight Vari*Lite V*L 3000 spots, eight Robe LEDWash 600s and 13 ETC Source Fours. Two 2K fresnels were added to wash the orchestra.
On the mid truss were six V*L3000 spots, four Sharpy Washes and a single Source Four used for rear key lighting on Faith.
The back truss featured six Atomic strobes, six Sharpy Washes and six V*L3000 spots.
On the upstage side boom there were two more V*L3000 spots, two Sharpy Washes and an Atomic, while on the downstage one each side were another two V*L3000s, a single Sharpy Wash and one Atomic. These proved invaluable positions tor Austin to have at his disposal with a lot of performers onstage to cover.
On the deck were six Martin by Harman MAC Viper profiles, positioned downstage left and right both sides. He’d also appreciated these a lot on the tour, used for lighting the set and to establish a basic stage ambience with color and texturing. Six floor-based Sharpy beams were used for picking out assorted set elements.
Along the front of the stage in the footlights position were another six Robe LEDWash 600s. Another eight ran along the back of stage primarily pointing up the Austrian curtains at the back of stage.
On the circular truss – which flew in for the end of the set – were six more Sharpy beams.
Andy Emmerson and Austin ran the lightshow simultaneously from two consoles – a grandMA full size and a grandMA light – with Emmerson controlling the moving lights and Austin calling the spots and working the key lights and general stage washes.
“Entec and all their crew have been amazing,” says Austin. “I could not have asked for a better company in every aspect of the project – from the organization and logistics through to the kit itself and personalities of the crew – nothing I wanted or needed to do was a problem!”
