The Paris dates were part of the current Rester Vivant (Staying Alive) tour, to which top French lighting designer Dimitri Vassiliu has brought his huge experience, fertile imagination and talent for lateral thinking to create a vibrant and powerful 'big rock show'.
The design features 36 x Robe BMFL Spot moving lights on the rig which are integral to the show, and are being supplied by lighting contractor Dushow which has invested heavily in Robe this year. For the AccorHotels Arena performances, an additional 20 x BMFL Spots were added to the rig to light the audience.
With nearly 200 tours, 18 platinum albums, worldwide record sales of over £80m and a formidable reputation for spectacular live shows under his belt, Johnny Hallyday is arguably France's most iconic music star.
This is the first time that Dimitri has worked on a Johnny Hallyday tour, asked on-board by the star's management team to bring fresh creative perspective to the maverick stage show.
Dimitri in turn assembled a creative team which includes scenographer Emma Favre and video content producer Peggy M, who added their own ideas to the multi-layered visual equation, which involves moving video screens, scenic elements and plenty of drama and excitement. He was also very involved in commissioning of the video content.
The BMFL Spots are positioned on the front and over-audience trusses for lighting the audience and the B-stage in the middle of the room. There is also a ring of them around the deck of the main stage, where they are mounted on different level plinths and used for aerial effects and for skimming low across the audience, involving them in the show.
Their intense brightness ensures that they really catch the eye every time they are used.
BMFL Spots were a new light for Dimitri, so after initially seeing a demo at Dushow, he then used 10 on one of Hallyday's summer festival performance to make absolutely sure that they would do the business on the tour.
Lighting and video is run across three consoles - a Hog 4 operated by Dimitri together with another one run by Stéphane Chiron, and a grandMA2 light operated by Philippe Marty triggers a Catalyst media server running playback video to the six moving screens and a digital pros arch that surrounds the stage.
(Jim Evans)
