The invited audience was housed in a portable venue, provided by ESS, enjoying entertainment from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying a 200-voice choir, with soloists Lesley Garrett and Heather Small. The show was mixed by Richard Sharratt (both FOH and monitors) on Britannia Row's Electro-Voice X-Line system, using eight Xls cabinets left and right of the stage, and a centre cluster of four EV XLC compact line array boxes, powered by EV's Precision Series remote-controlled amplifiers. Underneath the stage were eight EV X-Line subs and four EV1152s for infill.
The star of the show was undoubtedly the Queen Mary 2 herself. "The curtain behind the stage dropped," said Britannia Row's Bryan Grant, "and there, immediately in front of us, was the biggest ship ever built - all 23 storeys of it. It was one of the most dramatic reveals I've ever seen."
Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout provided a six-person team, headed by MD Steve Tuck, collaborating with Robbie Williams Productions (RWP) and show designers Studio Mark Fisher. Blackout designed and supplied a sophisticated 55m x 15m three-sided Kabuki Drape system, comprising a massive quantity of grey silky fabric and all the necessary truss and motors. The drape was hung upstage concealing the structure's clear PVC wall, which looked out onto the QM2's gargantuan bows. During Heather Small's rendition of 'Proud', the grey silky cloth, designed with 50% added fullness, cascaded away to reveal the QM2's name to the 2,000 invited guests inside.
Blackout also dressed the rest of the interior of the ESS structure, and designed and supplied a 60m x 10m truss structure in Shed 41, used to suspend masses of black wool serge 'blackout' drapes. Shed 41 was used for production offices, dressings rooms, crew catering and a Green Room.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
