The lighting design by Peter Barnes, directed / operated out on the road by Neil Trenell of Fix8, proved that imaginative and intelligent use of lighting and effects can bring serious layers of magic to a high-impact show.
The tour was project managed for HSL by Mike Oates who comments, "Production North under the technical direction of Iain Whitehead co-ordinated another superb looking and highly entertaining show, and we were really pleased to be involved."
Barnes and Trenell worked closely with creative directors Fatima Robinson and Beth Honan, who commissioned the set design from Bruce Rogers. They also initiated the video and visuals concepts, bringing a lively mix of footage to the picture, played back across an upstage pyramid shaped set clad with LED panels and a set of stairs immediately in front of it.
The lighting which matched and contrasted this as Cheryl's fast paced, slickly choreographed show unfolded was based around three trusses. The front one was split into two sections to maximise coverage of a catwalk extending from the middle of the stage out into the audience.
The back truss was rigged with 14 Clay Paky Sharpies on drop-bars, emulating the shape of the LED screen plus eight Martin MAC 2K XB Washes and ten Martin Atomic strobes.
The mid truss was 60ft wide and contained five MAC 2K XB Washes and six MAC3Ks, while the front truss had 16 MAC 2K XB Washes and six MAC 3 Profiles in total.
On the floor were ten Sharpies stationed on the stairs which mimicked the pyramid shape of the main upstage LED screen.
Above the B-Stage just in front of the FOH mixer position, a box truss was flown to provide positions for ten Sharpies and ten MAC 2K XB Washes.
HSL supplied two Robert Juliat Lancelyn FOH follow spots, and Trenell operated the show using two grandMA Lites and two NPUs, with two Green Hippo HD i7 media servers supplied by Fix8. These stored and ran all the show's video playback, triggered from the grandMA2.
Trenell worked alongside an HSL crew of three - Johnny Harper, Jon Trincas and Chris Roper. He adds, "As always, working with HSL was a complete pleasure, everything was spot-on."
IMAG video was directed by Ruary MacPhie with the camera package, PPU and side screen projection system delivered by XL Video, the LED screens sourced from VER and audio from Wigwam.
(Jim Evans)
