Video has been crucial to all these tours - emphasising the seminal role of the medium in the genre of live pop. With a largely young audience, moving images and camera relay are vital ingredients. Live show IMAG ensures that everyone has a good view of the artists, and on the creative front, video adds a dramatic and effective visual dimension to any show.
Westlife’s action packed, up tempo ‘Unbreakable’ tour is produced by Will Baker and Alan Macdonald, who conceived the eye-catching video visuals, based on multiples of five. The stage look is dominated by five moving LED screens, two side screens and a five-camera live shoot directed by Gary Tepper. The show is divided into five distinct sections, all based on different concepts of ‘heroes’, from bold, colourful Lichtenstein-styled visuals to glitzy fast-forwarding Las Vegas montages, from pop heroes to action superheroes. The video insert material is produced by Blink TV and plays onscreen for three of the five sections.
The acoustic section takes the pace down and utilises just the centre three screens for IMAG, evoking a more intimate, enclosed and jazzy feel, For the high energy ‘flown’ section, the IMAG explodes across all seven screens producing a fabulous wide-screen live collage of the band all around the arena. The ‘Unbreakable’ video ‘look’ is highly flexible with the on-stage screens moving into different configurations for each section. Tepper, working alongside an XL crew of seven, is mixing using a GVG 4000 mixer/switcher and a 8-channel Magic DVE video effects projector. The play-ins, stored on Doremi hard drive, are controlled via Dataton, triggered by the band’s MD Freddie Thompson.
For Ronan Keating’s ‘Destination’ tour, which culminated in a final UK arena leg last month, XL supplied a video look with a difference. The initial stage setting was a collaboration between LD Peter Barnes and Production North’s Iain Whitehead. It consisted of five vertical upstage panels of Westerhagen low resolution LED screen (this screen was originally custom manufactured by XL in Belgium for the eponymous German singer), used as an elegant architectural framing for the performance area. The ‘broken up’ LED look also allowed another layer of visuals to exist behind the screens - in the form of a starcloth.
Live video was directed by Ruary MacPhie, one of the most imaginative of the new wave of video directors, who’s worked with Keating since the launch of his solo career. MacPhie utilised three cameras (2 in the pit, one FOH) and a Telemetric remote head onstage which effectively replaced two static remote cams. He used a Magic DVE to produce simple but effective moments like dropping the IMAG into black and white for the moodier numbers.
The Fame Academy tour was production managed by Sarah Hollis, working with live show producer Louise Doyle and live video director Chris Keating. Video-wise, they stuck with the established formula of LED panels centre-stage and soft-screens outside for IMAG, with a three camera live relay. The play-in footage, stored on Doremi hard drive and activated by a MIDI-triggered Dataton system, was produced by Doyle, and Keating liased between her and XL to ensure all visual elements flowed together.
Live, Keating mixed the extremely busy camera show using a GVG1200 mixer/switcher. XL Video also ran the two computers dealing with the show’s live interactive text-in. This proved a very popular gimmick -forty five minutes in to the show, the audience was invited to text in their favourite song requests - to be performed in the second half - to a website. The site
