Lighting for this Greatest Hits show was designed by Peter Barnes with whom Bandit has worked on many other projects including Westlife, McFly and the X-Factor. Lighting is being directed and operated on tour by Andy Hurst.
"It's great to be working with Iain Whitehead (production manager and set designer) and Production North again," says Bandit UK chief executive, Lester Cobrin. "We all work really seamlessly together, and once again Pete has put together another excellent looking show."
Barnes chose to use Martin Professional MAC 2K washes as the principal moving lights on the design, with 32 of these specified as opposed to just 17 of their profile counterpart. This was primarily because there is a large stage area to cover and - with five Girls, four band members, and eight dancers - a lot of people.
Based on three trusses, there is additional side lighting rigged onto a U-shaped tab-track truss inserted between the front and mid trusses, and the mid truss also has a kabuki drop. Underneath the 80ft back truss are four additional sub-hung trusses, all containing MAC 2K washes and JTE PixelPARs, and on the outside two - a pair of 9-lite Maxi-Brutes for extra punch. These are coupled with an additional pair of Maxi-Brutes behind the central open-tread staircase that blast through from the back.
Either side of the central staircase on the offstage edges of the set are double storey towers, each with its own staircases, which are outlined with a total of 24 PixelLine battens, bolted directly onto the set via a series of threaded plates. Along the set floor are 10 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 fixtures, picked for their fabulous, even dispersion of light over a wide distance. The only 'floor lights' as such are 6 MAC 500s on the wings below the two side IMAG screens.
Also on the rig are five 8-lite Molefeys used for audience illumination and Atomic strobes, used very effectively in the intro when the Girls fly down to stage from a lift in the ceiling, and an 80 x 34ft starcloth that sits at the back, behind the striking Girls Aloud sign made by Specialz.
Hurst is using a WholeHog II console and wing for control, which he and Barnes programmed over four days of production rehearsals prior to the first gig at Newcastle Arena.
The PixelLines are run in 10-channel mode off the desk and he also has control of various set lighting elements including a set of PAR 36s around the edge of a stage lift at the top of the central staircase.
It is the first time that Hurst has worked with Bandit. He comments that it's all gone extremely smoothly from his point of view, much of this due to the careful preplanning by Bandit and the deployment of a top crew including crew chief, Steve Rusling, and lighting technicians, Martin Garnish and Joe Simpson.
The Girls Aloud Greatest Hits tour plays 16 arenas in the UK and Ireland in three weeks, with all tickets sold out. It is their biggest tour to-date, with a total audience count of over 150,000 people.
(Jim Evans)
