Stageco's project director Dirk de Decker planned the custom built stage in consultation with the tour production manager Chris Vaughan, show designer Es Devlin and technical designer Malcolm Birkett.
Initial sketches for the stage were designed in October 2010 and final sign-off was only given in January, which left a very short time scale to create the materials for a show of this size. While Stageco's designs barely changed, the technical production and scenic elements continued to evolve and final information regarding weight loadings was provided with a short timescale, so Stageco created a structure with plenty of headroom in regards to its tolerances.
The main stage system was framed by a giant 'Big Man', who appeared to have his arms around the entire performance area. Stageco created a 28m high central tower to carry the 'Big Man's' head and two side towers for his hands as well as PA and video systems. In addition to this, Stageco designed the curve of towers framing the back of the stage to carry the 'Big Man's' elbows, rear video walls and a convex supporting bridge. To hold the impressive curved bridge that weighed in at 20 tons, Stageco's engineers incorporated 5m long custom built headers into the stage, which along with the side towers also supported further weight from video screens, lighting, performers and water effects within the show.
Stageco's CAD department were characteristically careful throughout the design process, engineering a stage to carry multiple components continuously in motion during the show, and allowing for the weight and wind loading issues arising from cladding on the 'Big Man'. Over 35 tonnes of balance was required with a series of 4tonne steel plates added to support the head and body of this enormous structure.
Dirk De Decker, International project manager from Stageco, reports, "The first time all suppliers working on this tour combined their own elements was on 21April, less than a month before the tour began, so advance communications were essential in ensuring each companies input came together properly. We worked with multiple stakeholders to make the entire production run smoothly, liaising particularly closely with Total Fabrications to ensure the 'Big Man' aluminium frame bonded correctly to our steel, with Tait Technologies to engineer the aluminium bridge fixing points, Xl Video for video screens and tour rigger Phil Broad for all rigging."
With 33 live shows in 12 cities across the UK and Europe, Stageco created two stage systems for the Progress tour, each requiring 14 trucks to transport the 300 tonnes of steel. Wies Baaten and Antonio Duarte Da Cruz managed the two crews comprised of 15 Stageco staging professionals, augmented by local engineers, using three cranes over the complex three-day build.
Measurement and marking out of the stage foundations at each venue was critical to the build success, needing to be accurate to the millimetre to ensure the coming together of the moving scenic elements within the show. To achieve total accuracy meant fixing 33 different reference points, so Stageco crews were particularly attentive when marking out using a theodolite.
For more on Take That's current tour, see the July issue of L&Si magazine. Out soon.
(Jim Evans)
