"With a single show at the Blackpool Empress Ballroom as a warm up, the O2 presented me with all sorts of questions. This was the first time I'd done a show on this scale, certainly with video, and it was nice to have someone to turn to and say, what do you think about doing this?" Squib is nothing if not modest about his own abilities, the mentor to whom he refers, Alex Leinster of Chaos Visual UK, had only been introduced to him a few days before. "It was obvious to me straight away that Squib had some fresh and interesting ideas," said Leinster. "Fully formed, it only required us to marshal the resources necessary to realise Squib's ambition."
Squib's design drew on two main elements of video, a simple low-res screen above the lighting system rigged landscape, and in a more scenic vein, three concentric curved trusses hung with pendant strips of Barco OLite. "The OLite strips presented to the audience in diminishing numbers," explained Squib. "Top truss had eight, next seven, then six, with finally five strips on the floor. Chaos built all the OLite frames for us and they were perfect.
"We'd done something similar with Mi-strip at the beginning of this album cycle, but the OLite gave us something wider, more physical; at approximately six and half feet tall, much more of a presence. That said, the intention was they be used as a lighting effect. Yes, I did stream content through them, but this was just for ease of operation. The resultant imagery was about patterns, colours and shapes though we did have one sequence of text."
But what of that low-res screen above? "When we came to step up to the big arena show I was anxious to avoid the cliché look. Yes, we needed side screens for IMAG, that's only right and proper for an arena audience, but I placed the low-res landscape screen above the main rig to keep attention focussed on the stage." Chaos, in collusion with the band's tour manager Pete Gunn, engaged the services of veteran live video director Paul 'Eggy' Eggerton to attend the needs of IMAG. "The low-res screen was split into three," Eggerton explained. "The central portion copied what I cut for the two IMAG screens flanking the stage, the two outer sections could either follow tx cut, or have a separate cut from me. Squib had control over these from front of house as well as the content streamed through the OLite strips.
"This was my first time with Chaos and it all went very well. I had Chaos's own PPU with a 2 ME Kayak and a nice camera package; three manual cameras and four fixed Bradleys with remote zoom; they even offered me a track and dolly for the pit, but space simply didn't allow. For a one off special it was a great experience and I can't thank Chaos enough."
(Jim Evans)
