The lighting and set had to fit into a wide range of venues, from Bridlington Spa Theatre to Manchester Apollo, Shepherd's Bush Empire, etc. Taking the new albums artwork featuring 1950's male bodybuilders as his creative starting point, Byars decided to give the stage an atmospheric retro-cinematic look. This was achieved by defining the space with three trussing arches - a main flown one at the rear, flanked by two smaller floor-supported arches. All three were dressed with rich, red velour borders, effectively lit by forty-eight MR16 fixtures.
The arches were filled, top-to-bottom by a set of pale grey cyclorama cloth, arranged in gentle folds, again emphasizing the 50's movie-house feel. These were lit in traditional cyc style, with seven James Thomas Pixelline LED battens. Lighting the arch borders was an interesting daily rigging challenge undertaken by Dave and his team, Phil Turner, Dave "Gibbo" Gibbon and Phil White. The task became much easier after crew chief Gibbo - in a flash of inspiration at production rehearsals - suggested using Velcro straps to attach the MR16's to the truss. This method is quick, easy, simple and safe. The MR16s are gelled in a mix of 106 (primary red) and 113 (magenta).
Other kit includes six Vari*Lite 2000 wash units plus six 2000 Spots on the rear truss and four six-lamp bars. Three V*L 2000 Spots rigged on the front are fitted with three custom gobos featuring the Mr Universe style bodybuilding icons from the album. There are also eight Martin MAC 250s on the top of the side arches. Five floor Pars and four V*L2000 Wash fixtures round off the onstage fixture picture, whilst FOH they utilized three Pani spotlights. The whole rig was controlled from an Avolites Diamond 3 console, operated by Byars himself. Dimming was also Avolites - an ART 2000 48-way.
Although minimal in terms of lights, a master of the 'less is more' philosophy, Byars coaxed a huge range of dynamics from the rig. He runs his shows with a distinctive 'live' style, which translates into fluid, colourful and dramatic punctuation of the show - and he always has a steady stream of visual surprises up his sleeve! Byars commented: "It's been a pleasure working with Entec, and particularly Noreen O'Riordan, who did a lot of pre-production work on the tour whilst I was busy working with Blur.
Entec is also servicing the Blur tour, which runs concurrently with some of the Beautiful South itinerary. This has resulted in some creative logistical leap-frogging by Byars between bands, venues and countries! Other suppliers to the Beautiful South include Wigwam (sound) and Popcorn (catering). Ray Furze is mixing FOH, and monitor engineer is Eddie Mulrainey.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
