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Madness Go Crazy with Avolites D4
Pete Hosier of Big Ant Productions recently completed a suitably insane UK tour with Madness while operating an Avolites D4 Vision. The tour lasted a two-month stretch over the winter season, bringing an end to a year which marked the bands incredible 30th anniversary. The tour took place at a mixture of arenas throughout the UK and Ireland, culminating in Edinburgh on New Years Eve.
With no single two arenas the same, lighting designer Pete Hosier explained how the design changed daily, while crew aimed to keep a consistent look: "We put virtually the same rig in Southend Cliffs Pavilion as we did the o2 in London, That kind of sums up our daily challenges." The versatile Diamond 4 Vision allowed Hosier to compensate for the shifting venues and changing configurations of each rig.
The show consisted of five main elements; the lighting rig, video screens, LED backdrop and, of course, the backline and artists. Pete commented that this meant it was a daily battle to figure out the best possible configuration to maintain the show's finely tuned performance. However, advanced forward planning from the crew meant all the logistics were almost effortlessly pulled together.
The video screens from XL Video were one of the main elements given as a brief. Made up of F30 panels in various shapes and sizes, it was clear that the screen was hugely important to the artist. Therefore, the design had to incorporate this and complement, rather than detract, from the act.
Truss numbers, loads and trims were different on most days. Lights, supplied by Neg Earth, were normally rigged to consist of three 50' trusses. The upstage was very bare with just six Robe 1200s, and the downstage truss held the wash lights, key lights and crowd blinders. It was all very clean in the air so the main look was all on the floor where there were eight Manfrottos with two BB7s on each and a Sunstrip as well . These all sat upstage behind the screen. With various floor specials underneath the perspex risers - Atomics, mirror balls and dry ice all added to the fun.
Photos: Pete Hosier, Mark Scarratt and Charlie Day.
10th March 2010
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