MDG is theONE for Adele and Phil Collins
- Details
Stellar artists Adele and Phil Collins both engaged the design services of Patrick Woodroffe who, in collaboration with Roland Greil, both from design practice, Woodroffe Bassett Design, produced some stunning shows for their latest tours. On each production, Greil took on the mantle of associate lighting designer, lighting director and operator so has a unique perspective on the role and delivery of haze and fog across a wide spectrum of environments and venues.
Woodroffe and Greil specified two different types of MDG machines across three tours in all: Adele’s LIVE 2016 tour and Phil Collins’ Not Dead Yet tour both employed MDG’s theONE dual fog and haze generator, while Adele’s LIVE 2017 tour made full use of 8 of theONE machines and 2 MDG Atmosphere APS haze generators.
Adele’s LIVE 2017 Stadium tour has been a global progress visiting some of the biggest stadiums in the world. It followed on from the 2016 Adele LIVE Arena tour which featured more indoor venues, and for which three of MDG’s theONE generators were chosen. These were easily able to handle the indoor requirements, showing off to best advantage the symmetry of Woodroffe’s lighting design that worked so well with Es Devlin’s impressive set design.
But for the stadiums visited in 2017, and the challenge of a new 360° show, Greil needed more. Add to the mix an artist who is not the biggest fan of any kind of haze or fog and Greil knew he had to think carefully about which haze and fog generators to use to ensure the best result for lighting and performer, and turned once again to MDG.
“Adele, quite rightly, is always concerned about haze and the possible effect on her voice,” he explains. “There are literally millions of people who want to listen to, and see, the magnificence that is Adele performing at her best - but she accepted the use of haze and we have therefore chosen MDG machines, which are really good machines for producing high volumes of quality haze. Even in an in-the-round stadium show like the 2017 tour, we only needed 10 MDG units: eight MDG theONE dual generators augmented by two Atmosphere APS machines.”
For Phil Collins’ Not Dead Yet tour, Greil once again specified MDG’s theONE. “This atmospheric generator really does it all, creating fog and haze from a single machine and its variable output is a great asset when you are dealing with the vagaries of an outdoor show.”
All MDG theONE and Atmosphere APS generators were supplied for each tour by UK-based Neg Earth Lights, which also supplied four MDG theONE for Robbie Williams’ The Heavy Entertainment Show tour at the specification of show and lighting designer, Mark Cunniffe.
(Jim Evans)
