Most of the press surrounding the event focused on the awful travel experiences of many of the thousands of fans who travelled to Knebworth - 375,000 in total across the three shows - ourselves included. And let's face it travel chaos made for good headlines, as did the sheer number of people who were packed into Knebworth Park: this was not an event for anyone with a fear of crowds - 120,000 plus each night - although a large proportion of these stood no chance of actually seeing the star of the show directly.
However, it was the show itself that made the delays, travel headaches, expensive 'pints' of beer and enormous viewing distances worth it - no question. And most of that was down to Williams' charisma, the spectacular stage set, designed by Mark Fisher and built by Brilliant Stages, and the quality of the video, lighting and audio aspects.The tour uses a huge amount of video - and in some pretty complex ways. The main backdrop to the set is a Barco LED screen, supplied by XL Video, via Blink TV, who co-ordinated the video package for the tour. The 448-panel LED screen construction split into columns and tracked downstage to upstage and back again several times throughout the performance, with each column rotating individually through 360°.
Stuart Heaney, onboard as crew chief and working closely with the Blink and XL teams, became involved at an early stage in the design of the 'race track' automation and cable management system (a joint hardware and engineering project between set builders Brilliant Stages and automation experts Kinesys) needed to move the giant onstage LED screen around. Millimetre-precise movement was essential, so Kinesys supplied over 30 axes of motion control with eight Velocity drives moving the columns around the track. 14 of Kinesys's Elevation 1+ variable speed chain hoist controllers provided the pinpoint accuracy and speed control for the lifting and lowering of the columns, whilst the company's motion control software package - Vector - supervised the running of all the axes.
Video 'scientist' Richard Turner was also recruited as consultant video programmer to pixel map the show insert imagery, whilst live video director, Ruary MacPhie, extracted the maximum benefit from this highly flexible set-up, utilizing six of XL's new Sony E10 broadcast cameras, and mixing from XL's OB truck.
If the video elements were of a complexity to match the audience size, so too was the lighting, with Liz Berry's design operating to an equally impressive scale. The rig, supplied by VLPS, included Vari-Lite's new VL3000 in the spec - 32 of them, to be precise. Just under 300 further Vari-Lite fixtures - a combination of VL2416s, VL4s, VL5s and VL6Cs - featured in Berry's design, as did eight Studio Due City Colors, 30 Molefay 8-Lites and several 6-lamp bars. There were also 32 of Wybron's 8-Lite Coloram scrollers, with followspots from Strong and Lycian, and four Pani projectors.
The two Vari*Lite Virtuoso desks controlling the entire rig were synchronized, so that the dimming, data and distro did not have to divide down along the lines of the two desks, creating a more efficient system . . . and possibly a world first.
The audio support for the tour was managed by Britannia Row, utilizing an L-Acoustics V-Dosc line array and Turbosound wedges for monitors. Dave Bracey, Robbie's FOH engineer, specified the 64 box main system arrayed in four hangs complemented by 12 dV-Dosc downfills with 18 ARCS for the central thrust stage. A total of 40 SB218 sub bass cabinets were also employed, with system power throughout from L-Acoustics LA48a amplifiers, controlled by 10 BSS FDS 366 digital controllers. On some shows in the tour additional delay syste
