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HSL Rocks Well for Nordoff-Robbins at the O2
HSL supplied all lighting and necessary rigging for the recent Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy ‘Rockwell' fund-raising event at London's O2 arena. Technical production was co-ordinated by Production North and the lighting design was by Peter Barnes.
The show united a galaxy of stars - including Tom Jones, Joss Stone, Robert Plant, Lulu, Hot Rats, Razorlight, David Gray, Ronan Keating, Gabriella Cilmi, Dan Gillespie Sells and others. It featured some amazing performances and unique collaborations that made it a very memorable and special evening.
Barnes' rig consisted of four trusses - a straight one upstage and three chevron-shaped over-stage, staggered in length at 32, 20 and 12 ft a side, and raked at slightly different heights. This created an architecture for the space and a visually interesting view of the stage as well as increasing the scope and depth of the moving lights hung on the trusses, allowing them a really dynamic focus range.
It was a charity event, so the principal goal was to deliver a design that was cost effective and highly flexible, with enough latitude to allow a spectacular light-show for all the artists appearing in the two and a half hour performance.
The moving lights were a selection of Robe ColorWash 2500E ATs and Vari*Lite 3000 spots - 43 in total. The trusses were highlighted with 19 i-Pix Satellite LED bricks, and there was also a selection of PARs and 2- and 8-lite Moles scattered around the trusses.
The floor was kept completely clear of lighting because of the space needed to complete the quick changeovers between bands - with Tom Jones' band acting as the 'house' band. That was apart from four A&O Falcon 6kW searchlights, which Barnes used at selected moments for some high-impact low level beam-work.
Barnes programmed and ran the show using a Hog 3 console and a Wing.
HSL sent their own collection of stars to crew the event, led by Simon "Piggy" Lynch. They prepped everything rigorously in the yard in Blackburn beforehand, and consequently, the lights just "flew in" to the O2 when they got-in on Thursday for Friday night's show. "It all went like clockwork," reports Lynch.
Rockwell was project managed for HSL by Mike Oates, who says, "It was a great honour to be asked onboard an event of this profile and importance, and of course it was also good to be working with the team from Production North again."
The production manager was Sarah Hollis. Sound was supplied by Wigwam and video by XL Video UK
2nd October 2009
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