The band has used live sound specialist Canegreen since its first set of UK dates in 1998, as tour manager Henry McGroggan explained: "The Corrs have grown with Canegreen; tonight we have 80 channels of audio running from the stage and the Canegreen boys can manage it. The technology has moved on significantly over the years and Canegreen keep right up to date in terms of offering us new equipment that will make the band sound better."
The Corrs' long-standing sound engineer, Max Bisgrove, has accommodated the increase in the size of the band accompanying the Corrs on stage for this tour by the use of Canegreen's digital Yamaha PM1D console. He explains: "This has been the first time I've used a PM1D and I've settled down with it very quickly. It has allowed me to incorporate more fine tuning on the band's sound between numbers. At the moment, I'm programming in a little more each time I use it, and I can see how this will make my life easier as we go through this series of dates and the upcoming tours."
Canegreen supplied a combination of its EAW KF760 and KF761 line array cabinets with EAW SB-1000 sub-bass cabinets for the main PA and bleachers, powered by Lab Gruppen amplifiers. The familiar figure of Mike Savage looked after the PA throughout the tour, using an XTA DP226 digital speaker controller to manage the system and ensuring the EAW line array gave good dispersion in every venue.
A key visual element to the band's stage set were the Barco MiPix screens, which McGroggan had spotted at a corporate event. He explained: "The MiPix screen idea was exciting enough for us to blow our initial budgets and make sure the audiences left knowing the Corrs were more focussed than ever on delivering a good live show."
This was supplied by video specialist XL Video, whose brief was to use the MiPix to create something "different"! The result, designed by Chris Saunders, was a "high-impact, random" MiPix screen that took the form of a dramatic stage backdrop. This was built from 91 modules of MiPix, forming a screen which was 74sq.m in total. Variations in pixel density (ranging from 200 pixels per panel to none at all) created a dramatic effect, revealing a depth of texture to the image; some sections would pick out the highest resolution of the image while others reflected just a fraction of the pictorial information.
XL Video also designed customized riser fascias constructed from MiPix. All the screen content was produced by Willie Williams, and was programmed into the show by LD Pete Barnes, who ran the show from a pair of Icon M Boxes, provided by lighting supplier LSD. LSD's director Dave Keighly commented: "The main elements of the lighting rig for this gig were the MAC 2000 washes and MAC 2000 profiles, but the most interesting equipment was the Icon M-Boxes which are incorporated into shows increasingly often to drive the video and image inputs for the screens, two of which were used in this show."
Based on what we saw and heard at this show, it will be well worth checking out the Corrs when they return to the UK, this November as both band and production team seem focussed on delivering a great spectacle.
