Bandit Lites UK Chief Executive, Lester Cobrin comments, "It has been a pleasure to watch Westlife mature into an extremely talented group of performers over the last 10 years. It continues to be an honour to be part of their production team."
The 2008 show was designed and directed by William Baker, who also designed the set, with the lighting design created by Baz Halpin.
Halpin went for a very theatrical look with all the structures concealed, apart from a centre stage 'W' shaped truss. Lighting fixtures were all positioned on a series of angled trussing sections, some of which moved.
Starting upstage, there were six moving trusses, all suspended on two points each. Running on Bandit's own fully programmable Motor Data control system, which was operated by crew member, Rob Starksfield, each truss contained three Martin Professional MAC 2K luminaires.
Two diagonally running side trusses each contained eight Martin MAC 2K Washes (and two moving video screens below). To the front edge of these was the 'W' shaped truss, which apart from fulfilling a scenic function and continuing the 'W' theme of the stage set, was rigged with 16 Martin MAC 2000 Spots. During the acoustic section of the set, the 'W' truss was dropped in, and sat a couple of feet off the floor, providing an intimate backdrop to the band. This was on an IBEX Motor system controlled by tour rigger Mark Wade.
At the front of stage was a 50ft curved truss with 13 Martin MAC 2K Spots, and then three smaller downstage trusses, each with three 2K washes. A rear spot truss contained four Lycian 1.2K spots with long throw lenses.
The lamp count was rounded off with 16 Martin MAC 300s, which sat on the floor lighting the set and doing aerial effects, two Studio Due Space Flowers on the floor either side of stage, six bars of ACLs and six Coemar SuperCycs to light up the far upstage backdrop. Lighting director, Dave Lee operated the show using a WholeHog II console.
Westlife continues touring in May, culminating in a massive show at Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, before taking a break for a year.
(Jim Evans)
