Everything was compiled and organised in an operation lasting just under four weeks. The high profile charity event fused entertainment and awards presentations in celebration of the 80th Birthday of former Russian statesman, Mikhail Gorbachev.
It was hosted by Kevin Spacey and Sharon Stone, featuring live appearances and a fusion of classical and popular music by artists including Dame Shirley Bassey, Bryan Ferry, The Scorpions, Katherine Jenkins, Paul Anka and Melanie C among others, some performing collaborations accompanied by the 92-piece London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) conducted by Valery Gergiev.
The whole event was recorded for broadcast on Russian television via a 17 camera shoot including a remote hot head above the stage. With so many politicians and super VIPS in the house, security was exceptionally tight.
LarMac LIVE was brought onboard by Irina Gulyaeva the event's production director on behalf of The Gorbachev Foundation just a month before the event. This very tight timeframe was the massive challenge, which they accepted with characteristic enthusiasm and determination, working alongside the Russian team.
At that stage, although there had been initial consultations with some key creative and technical suppliers, the only production personnel actually confirmed for the project were lighting designer Al Gurdon and set designer Nina Kobiashvili.
LarMac LIVE discussed the client's technical requirements in detail, established a production budget, met with and confirmed all the creative and technical suppliers and finalized the set design and running order.
The load-in was at midnight on show day and all the technical production had to be rigged, focused, fine tuned and ready to rock for an 11am final rehearsal/step-through, preceding a 5.30 security sweep, doors and a 7.30 kick off for the evening.
An essential five-hour pre-rigging session was shoehorned in after the get-out of the last Teenage Cancer Trust week of shows, 3 days beforehand. This allowed at least some of the required 40 plus of rigging points to be installed in advance.
Lighting was supplied by PRG, and included over 300 moving lights, LED lightsources and conventionals. An L-Acoustics VDOSC sound system was installed by Britannia Row with the orchestra mixed by classical specialist Richard Sharratt and the bands engineered by Tom Howat.
Production video, including a 13m wide by 7.5m curved Pixled F15 screen, rigged with custom brackets came from XL Video, co-ordinated by Chris Saunders. The set was built by Steel Monkey in just over two weeks and the RAH provided a stage extension. The OB units and cameras were provided by Alfacam, with all the cameras operated by a crew of Russians, directed by Andrei Boltenko.
The show was produced by Leonid Shlyahover and directed by Dmitry Feldman with creative direction by Felix Michailov.
(Jim Evans)
