Bryan Ferry is performing songs from his new Dylanesque album, plus a few carefully selected classic Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music blockbusters. Ferry, a former fine art student, has some very clear ideas on visuals himself and is good at communicating these. Together, Ferry and Feast decided to make the show look totally different from a Roxy Music gig, keeping it moody, mysterious and with a definite 'sense of the unknown'.
On the first UK leg of the tour, they are playing concert halls and theatres. With no production rehearsals, just a setup the day before the first show in Carlisle, Feast made great use of Bandit's Martin Show Designer visualisation and pre-programming suite at the Bedford HQ. After two days there, he was able to go into the first show with a sizeable chunk of the show programmed.
Feast, who has worked with Ferry since 2003, is using a rig based around three straight trusses, with all the instruments having to work hard. Moving lights include 14 MAC 2K Spots (five on the back truss, four on the mid and five on the floor). The washlights are MAC 600s (five on the back truss, four on the mid, eight on the front and four on the floor).
Far upstage is an LED starcloth and in front of that is a painted sharks-tooth gauze backdrop, with an interesting abstract fairground image. The artwork for this was sourced by Ferry and the drape was manufactured by Hangman. Continuing on the fairground theme, there are six strings of multicoloured festoon, swagged between the back and mid trusses.
Bandit is also supplying two Lycian 2k followspots and a two-man crew - Mick Freer and Richie Flannagan. Feast is running the show using a WholeHog II console.
(Jim Evans)
