In support of will.i.am’s re-released '#willpower', his fourth studio album, complete with new songs and a host of remixes, the singer undertook a European arena tour taking in 11 shows in 15 days through France, England, Germany and the Netherlands.

Knight of Illumination Award-winner and lighting designer Cate Carter has harnessed the precise and powerful beam control of Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX luminaires to create a beautifully focused, and surprisingly intimate, show for Elbow at London's 20,000-capacity O2 Arena, provided by Lite Alternative.

UK - As boy band sensations One Direction (1D) embarked on the much anticipated 117 date Take Me Home world tour, the tried and trusted production team of Production North, Lite Alternative and Wigwam were brought in to turn the cityscape arena concept of creative designer, Elizabeth Honan, into reality.

Depeche Mode are touring the world again, unveiling a new stage design from Anton Corbijn and LD Paul Normandale for the Delta Machine shows. Normandale and moving light programmer Graham Feast picked two new High End Systems Hog 4 consoles to program and operate the show.

This summer's packed touring schedule has seen Kings of Leon visit a varied selection of venues. Whether performing at an outdoor festival in Denmark or a UK arena, the latest production had to be adaptable, whilst maintaining all the visual and sonic impact.

People love telling secrets and spoiling surprises. We know it, and certainly trio The xx know it - which is why they've gone to so much effort to disguise the location of their MIF residency.

English indie rock band Bloc Party are currently in the midst of their biggest, most ambitious tour to date. LD and set designer Rob Sinclair is using Clay Paky products through Clay Paky suppliers, Ambersphere, a relationship which goes back through the years.

For Manchester band Elbow, show designer Cate Carter needed to design a short, six-date tour of UK arenas, with no production rehearsal. Carter chose this moment to migrate to a new operating system, a grandMA 2. She also tried out a new LED wash light, the Clay Paky A.Leda.

Lighting designer Paul Normandale has field tested Martin Professional's new 1500-watt MAC III AirFX moving head on Jason Mraz's current "Tour Is A Four Letter Word" world tour and found the luminaire to be a highly versatile lighting fixture.

The stakes are always high when a band of Coldplay's stature hits the road and creating something visually new and exciting is a constant challenge, but it is one that production designer Paul Normandale is more than equal to. With the band's 2012 tour taking in both arenas and stadiums, Paul has once again chosen an array of Martin Professional fixtures, including the new 1000 W MAC Viper Profile™, to add to his lighting arsenal, which enables him to create a fresh, dynamic look and feel that is a real crowd pleaser.

In one of the biggest comebacks of recent times, the Stone Roses chose to work with lighting designer Paul Normandale to design a light and video show to complement their highly anticipated reunion tour this summer.

Coldplay LD Paul Normandale is using the Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX units to create a lighting experience to complement the band’s ultraviolet spectacular in Europe. At each gig, fans are being asked to wear a radio-controlled lighting device wristband that omit either blue, white, pink or yellow on cue to music, turning the entire stadium into a sea of dancing orbs.

Lighting Designer Paul Normandale is using a Martin MAC rig of MAC Auras™, MAC TW1™ tungsten wash lights, and MAC 700 Profiles™ to light Norah Jones' current world tour.

Twenty-two years after their groundbreaking gig at Spike Island in Warrington, the Stone Roses are back, and now in the midst of an extensive reunion tour. Most significant of all, perhaps, were the three mind-blowing shows held at Heaton Park in their hometown of Manchester, where the band proved to 75,000 people each night that their ‘third coming’ is set to be nothing short of phenomenal. Paul Watson reported for this TPi exclusive.

Martin Professional's new 1000 W MAC Viper Profile successfully debuted on the first European stadium leg of Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto world tour with lighting / production designer Paul Normandale reporting: "I've found my 1200W replacement and what's more - I can lift it!"

When Coldplay first graduated to stadiums in 2005, I thought they were too drab to command the space. They had big songs but little charisma, four earnest men dressed in black in front of a black back drop. No one could   accuse them of being colourless anymore. Quite the opposite, in fact, they may be the most colourful band on the planet, with a palette that could make a children's TV set designer queasy.

For a one-off performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Museum of Modern Art commissioned Swanlights from Antony and the Johnsons. Led by Antony Hegarty, this production expanded on The Crying Light, which was performed at the Manchester International Festival in 2009.

On James Blunt's current "Some Kind of Trouble" world tour lighting designer Paul Normandale is using 50 Martin MAC 101 wash lights along with 12 of Martin Professional's new MAC 101 CT units, a versatile white light variant of the ultra-compact fixture.

grandMA2 light was chosen by lighting designer Paul Normandale and lighting director Glen Johnson for James Blunt's "Some Kind of Trouble" 2011/12 world tour which has just kicked off in Europe. 2 x grandMA2 lights are on the tour, running in full tracking back up, with networking provided via 2 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit).

Paul Normandale needed a cost effective LED light, something simple but bright, for the 2011 Chemical Brothers tour and Martin Professional's tiny yet powerful MAC 101 LED moving head fit the bill.

How many men can claim to have been sought after by Colombian music and dance sensation Shakira?

Such is the case with lighting designer Paul Normandale.

The current Kings of Leon world tour features another innovative design by LD Paul Normandale with all lighting controlled by a grandMA full-size console. Normandale specified the grandMA - as he does on many of his shows - for its stability and reliability. The lighting is being operated and looked after on the road by director Ali Bale - using a grandMA for the first time. Another grandMA light is being supplied by XL Video to run the Catalyst media server playing back video content.

Normandale has worked with the band since 2004, each time coming up with a fresh and distinctive visual treatment for the stage, and this - which was nominated for a 2010 Parnelli Award - is no exception. The conceptual look of the show features a large and battered, messed-up looking back wall made up of 640 PAR, nook and raylite fixtures, an idea that came to Normandale because the band like fast cars, so the wall of lights resembles a giant metallic wall of retro headlights in a tribute to American muscle car culture. He also wanted to have a complete departure from a large or dominant video screen or wall at the back.

The 640 'headlights' are pixel mapped through the grandMA, and this was another reason why the console was chosen - because this function is so very quick and easy. "It's a wonderful time-saving device," Normandale states, explaining that it only took about 20 minutes to do the mapping plus a further hour of programming, and then they had their main effects on the wall.

There is no lighting downstage of the wall, and the band are highlighted by left and right truss spots mounted on the side trusses, and 16 wash lights also from the sides. Ali Bale is based in Australia, so he did his MA training before the tour started in the US, which was followed by pre-programming at Upstaging in Chicago, before production rehearsals. All reports are that he really likes working with the grandMA.

The grandMA and other lighting control elements are being supplied worldwide by Blackburn-based Lite Alternative, which is also providing all lighting equipment for the European sections of the tour. Upstaging is the lighting contractor for the US.

Lite Alternative is currently supplying grandMA2 consoles to The Scissor Sisters tour with lighting director Glen Johnson, which will then go on to James Blunt with him in February, and The Chemical Brothers start up in January also using a grandMA full-size

Photo – Copyright: Steve Jennings

UK based lighting designer Paul Normandale specified a grandMA2 light console to run lighting for the Scissor Sisters current "Nightworks" world tour. Normandale likes the feel of the console, and used one with Glen Johnson (Scissor Sisters Lighting Director) on the Courteeners earlier in the year. Johnson has been using the grandMA2 ever since it became available with great success and enthusiasm.

Instrumental to them choosing it this time around was the new Universal Effects and Universal Presets, features implemented with the latest software upgrade. This means that if a colour is programmed in CMY it can be applied to all fixtures using a CMY effect, dispensing with the need for separate palates for fixtures. If two dimmer channels are used to create a dimmer effect (i.e. a chase) then stored as a Universal Effect, any fixture with a dimmer can be selected and this applied to it instantly. It is an exceptionally quick and useful tool.

There are 2 x grandMA2 lights on the road - the show console and a backup, complete with an MA NPU (Network Processing Unit). The desk is also triggering a media server running 10 layers of video direct via Art-Net from the console, which feeds Pixled F-7 screens upstage for the arena shows.

Normandale is enjoying his first work with the band, known for their own visual daring, huge energy, funky costumes and steamy molten mix of clubby pop, electro, rock and unashamed disco. 'Visuality' has always played a key role in the entertainment value of their live performances, and this is no exception, with stunning, intense, physical Robert Mapplethorpe images projected onto upstage screens for the arena shows.

The monochrome texture of the arresting images gave Normandale one of many creative starting points for his lighting design, stark and edgy, reflecting the nervous voyeurism of people-watching-people at night, glimpses of nightlife, night workers, etc.,  and this is what prompted the idea of the louvers ... revealing only passing snippets and slices of info.
These louvers - built by Specialz - are also controlled by the grandMA2 light via a custom file written by Johnson. They have seven effects - black, open, silver mirrors, 45 degree black, 45 degree silver, rotate clock + speed, rotate anti + speed. 

The tour is currently in the US and is scheduled to run until September 2011, with lighting equipment and consoles being supplied in the US and Europe by Lite Alternative.

Photos – Copyright: Jessica Gilbert

Martin Professional's new MAC 350 Entour LED lighting fixture is being test driven on Crowded House's current world tour by lighting designer Paul Normandale.

"It's a very neat unit and very, very bright for its size," says Normandale, one of the first lighting professionals to get his hands on the new LED profile. Lighting operator/director on the tour is Dave Harding with Normandale's lighting production company Lite Alternative serving as UK lighting vendor with Upstaging handling the US leg.

The Crowded House tour is one of a handful of field test outings for the powerful and energy-efficient LED-based profile moving head which delivers 8,000 lumens of output, the MAC 350 Entour marks a radical advancement in light output compared to other compact LED profiles on the market.

"I was looking for a small, bright profile to suit a range of venue sizes and the 350 Entour seemed ideal, which indeed it was," Normandale states. "Also, as energy concerns are becoming an ever important factor and feature more and more on artists' wish lists, the 350's energy efficiency was very appealing."

The MAC 350 Entour saves on energy by using very little power when the LED sources are not in use. Greater reliability and less maintenance (the LED light sources have a rated life of 25,000 hours) add to the savings, says the company.

Used initially as key lights for band members, in the course of rehearsals Normandale switched to a front truss position after being impressed with the 350 Entour's output and gobos. Along with eight interchangeable dichroic colours the fixture houses six rotating and indexable gobos, all new designs that are easy to change.

Accompanying the 350 Entours in the Crowded House rig are Martin MAC 250 Washes, MAC 700 Profiles and Atomic 3000 strobes.

GLP’s powerful new impression XL has made its high-profile touring debut at the start of the Scissor Sisters world tour, which includes an appearance at Glastonbury and arena shows later in the year.

Lite Alternative’s Paul Normandale has designed the six floor-mounted impression XL LED heads into an elaborate motion controlled set. His company also fielded a further nine impression 120RZ Zooms from their inventory — adding to the fixtures they first incorporated into the set design for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs earlier in the year. Like the XL’s these were mounted at the back of the stage, and blasted their light through four 8 x 8 sections of spinning aluminum louvre shutters, lifted on a Kinesys K2 motion control section. After a three-year break, the New York-based Scissor Sisters were clearly seeking something more sophisticated than a disco lighting set — but GLP’s LED wash lights still had to keep company with a pair of 13W laser, confetti machines and conventional automated spots and washes in this riotous spectacular.

Tasked with animating Paul Normandale’s creative set — incorporating raunchy Mapplethorpe photos within the backdrop screens — was experienced lighting director Glen Johnson, who has worked with many of the world’s leading touring acts (and automated lighting fixtures).

He immediately noticed not only the brightness of the GLP XL — with 240 Luxeon LEDs it is almost three times as bright as the smaller impression — but the speed of response and a smoothness of flicker-free dimming quite unlike the ‘stepped’ effect of other LED lights he had used. The cold and warm white capabilities (variable between 3200K and 7200K) was another feature he was able to exploit via the colour temperature channel in the fixture control facilities as well as white and CTO on the colour wheel. “We find we can get most of what we need from the colour temperature channel,” he said.

Paul Normandale observed that the impression XL can genuinely be considered as a powerful beam light although his ambitious design had called for a high-powered washlight. “This seemed a good opportunity to monitor their temperature and durability.” Performance wise, he was in no doubt. “There is not a great deal of space behind the louvres, but depth wise these are tiny.” Although the combination of XL’s and 120RZ’s dominate the back lighting they are keeping company with conventional automated overheads, some key lights and four double i-Pix BB4 wash lights (fitted with barn doors) — not to mention the lasers, which were supplied by SFX of Chicago and operated by David Kennedy.

This is Paul Normandale’s first time out with the Scissor Sisters though he has designed for Coldplay, stable mates in the Dave Holmes management roster, which created the introduction. “This time they wanted to get away from ‘disco’ and wanted a darker look … something more structured. It’s quite a flamboyant show but the premise is like a ‘peek-a-boo’ set.” At Brixton Academy’s warm-up dates the six floor-mounted XL’s acted as cyc lights (with the louvers down) and then backlit the five piece band fronted by Ana Matronik and Jake Shears once the Kinesys system had raised the louvered sections, mounted on a sub truss, and ‘parked’ at variable heights (over a full travel distance of 27ft).

Glen Johnson is not the first to remark that the impressions remind him a lot of the old fast mirror scanning effects, and that the power generated enables it to produce an excellent strobing effect. “It’s an extremely fast head, really small and light so your marking times are zero and you can do things Conventional moving heads cannot, they are extremely responsive — and the dimmer is pretty damn good as are the colours. “Three colours …and it becomes a disco!” is Normandale’s philosophy. Thus each Scissor Sisters number is single-colour specific, for example Johnson will work on a CTO look on one song, CTB quarter strength on another … and then a red range.

Lite Alternative have enjoyed a growing relationship with GLP’s impression family since Mark Ravenhill, GLP’s director, Global Key Players, first introduced them to the company when Paul Normandale was designing a show for Antony & The Johnsons. “Everyone was looking for an LED product that was quick and stable — and as soon as Mark arrived it gave GLP a huge presence,” said the designer. “Now you see these impressions being used everywhere.” While this rig remains with the band until July 22, away from Europe production will pick up impressions locally before up scaling for the arena show from October 20 — when more impression XL and 120 RZ Zooms will be added to the set. Summarized Mark Ravenhill, “Lite Alternative have always been a very progressive company, and having a rental house in the north of England with such a wide range of our inventory is very gratifying.”

Glen Johnson, Set and Lighting Designer for the current Will Young's "Greatest Hits" UK and Irish tour, is using 2 x grandMA2 light consoles to run the show's lighting. The two are networked together, with the first used as the main console, and the second running in full tracking backup.

Johnson has used the grandMA2 light on a number of other tours and events this year, including Maximo Park and Tracy Chapman, and didn't think twice about what to choose! He cites the reliability and 'feel' of the console as two principal reasons, plus the "small, compact" working area that it provides, and knowing that it will be the same every day and "not fail on me!"

He likes many features of the grandMA2 light. The screens and faders are a "joy" to use and he reckons they are the best of all the current lighting consoles. He's also impressed by the hardware the build quality and the sheer speed at which it saves.

He's now experienced a few tours and software upgrades with the grandMA2 light, and with the latest one, is very happy enjoying the power of the new effects engine within his sequence stacks, and watching them slow-fade in and out as required. "The speed in which I can create custom effects using palettes as reference points is perfect," he states, adding that now being able to use WYSIWYG direct via Ethernet in grandMA2 mode was really helpful in the set up process.

Command line triggering is also something very useful, with snap black outs at the end of songs and a simple 'go' command that can trigger all his individual key light faders to 0%. "No more half leaning across the desk to swipe all the faders down".

The grandMA2 light is controlling a rig of Martin moving lights as well as 35 x i-Pix Satellite and 10 x 48-way CK ColorBlaze LED border lights.

Johnson's creative starting point for the design was a meeting with Will Young, where the star - the UK's original Pop Idol who's gone on to enjoy a hugely successful career - indicated that he wanted a clean TV studio look with an all-white floor and everything in the air above black and concealed until towards the end of the show. He wanted some solid white columns around the stage, which Johnson changed to the 7 x white Perspex curved sections measuring 8 ft high and 6 ft wide.

Working with Sam Booker at drapes specialist Hangman, they designed the white smoked Pespex sections with no internal frames, so the i-Pix Satellites could be installed to give blocks of light with no ridges. The reflective surface of these also offers the chance to throw the footlights back at the audience. To meet the request to light behind and through black silks and voiles, he is using 10 motorised gauze drops - 5 for black silks and 5 for black voiles.

The consoles, lighting equipment and soft goods have all been supplied to the tour by Lite Alternative, project managed for them by Jon Greaves.

Photos: Copyright - Louise Stickland

Thirty years in and Depeche Mode are still delivering intelligently crafted visuals and groundbreaking production, as Rachel Esson & Louise Stickland discovered at Geneva’s Palexpo Arena on the tour of the universe ...

If there were to be a TPi Award for ‘Friendliest Tour’, then there’s no doubt that Depeche Mode would win it hands down. They say that a good vibe comes from the top down, and on this tour it rippled from the good spirit of the band and key production staff, led by Tony Gittins and Helen ‘Hels Bells’ Smith — from the pink and fluffy production office which light-heartedly disguised their incredible organisational and logistical skills.

Gittins commented: “Hels Bells and I did the 2006/07 tour and it was a great experience so we were really looking forward to doing this one, they are probably the best band we’ve worked with — very grounded and great performers.”

“Depeche Mode are a really nice bunch of guys,” added FOH sound engineer Antony King. “They sit in catering with us and are very down to earth, which is good considering they’ve been doing it for so long.” 

Our trip to Geneva’s Palexpo Arena on November 10 proved that Depeche Mode’s phenomenal 30-year live performance career shows no sign of waning. In fact, the Tour Of The Universe, so named after their 12th studio album, Sounds Of The Universe, raised the bar once again with an innovative set design underpinned by a sophisticated application of LED visuals and technology.

Rehearsals kicked off in April in New York and the tour, orchestrated by tour manager Tim Lougee, began with a European leg of stadium gigs launching in Luxembourg on May 6, which required eight trucks from Stagetruck and four buses from Beat The Street. Rock-It Cargo handles freight, Music By Appointment manages travel and Eat Your Hearts Out provides catering.

Production rehearsals in Luxembourg were attended by Simon James, a director of The Event Safety Shop (TESS) who trained the crew for the SPA’s Safety Passport and carried out an audit of technical and other risks, after the company was approached by Gittins and advance site co-ordinator Chrissy Uerlings to develop safety management system for the tour. James commented: “This was part of an overall plan from Tony and Chrissy to nurture a positive and proactive safety culture on the tour. What this means is that touring crews adopt safe working, look out for each other and try to spot risks before they become accidents.”

Back in the TESS office Tim Roberts was busy developing a range of documents to help the tour navigate the requirements of various countries, venues and enforcing agencies. “Chrissy and Tony had a really clear idea of what they wanted to achieve with various briefing sheets and sign-offs,” added James. “For a tour where a lot of the production is sourced locally (including stages, roofs and electrics), it is critical for the tour to be able to explain clearly the technical standards and crew competence they require of suppliers, and that the tour has done everything it reasonably can to ensure the whole set-up is safe and secure.”

Although gigs had to be cancelled between May 12 and June 7 due to lead vocalist Dave Gahan’s bout of gastroenteritis and a leg injury, it pushed on and headed for the U.S. in July for more stadium gigs. We caught the show shortly after it arrived back in Europe for the latter stint of arena dates that will finish in February 2010.

Gittins said the main challenge, besides the logistics of doing nine stadium shows in 17 days in South America, was the practicalities of building a stadium show that could easily be cut down, but create the same effect, for the arenas. To achieve this they designed the show to fit arenas and used scaled down arena stages supplied locally, then added side screens and some synchrolites for the stadium shows, for which they also used local stages, with many supplied by Stageco.

The only other elements of the set they toured with were Total Fabrications’ bespoke designed risers and the large demisphere of MiTrix LED from XL Video. For arenas, the number of trucks was reduced from 10 to eight.

It must be hard work to make a big barn like Geneva’s Palexpo feel intimate and personal, but for Dave Gahan, it seemed an effortless challenge as he strutted his stuff, paraded his spectacular body art and belted out hit after intricately-worded hit.

Depeche Mode’s visuals have always been edgy and innovative, with much of it down to the fertile imagination of their long time creative director, photographer and film maker Anton Corbijn. They were one of the first bands to tour a large scale video set up on 1993’s notorious Devotional tour, which is sadly more remembered by most mainstream sources for nearly ending in shreds of mental instability than as an aesthetic and technical masterpiece.

Moving image has been at the essence of their live presentation ever since and few do it better than Anton Corbijn.

Corbijn evolves the video for each tour in an imaginatively cerebral fusion of expression and ideas, always avoiding the latest technological clichés and using it as another spatial thread of the show in which the audience can engage. Tour Of The Universe has continued in that same understated, thought-through style, starting with eight short movies produced by Corbijn presenting intelligent visuals, neither over-used or over exposed.

Corbijn also designed the minimalist stage set consisting of low level risers and instrument stands, a large upstage MiTrix screen, with a 3m x 3m MiTrix sphere flown just in front of it. The main screen literally disappears when the back lighting behind it kicks in, transforming the nature and feel of the performance area.

Joining Corbijn’s visual dream team is lighting designer Paul Normandale, video director John Shrimpton and lighting director Graham Feast who is out operating the tour. Normandale and Corbijn have worked together — on DM and other projects — for over 10 years, so they enjoy a very fluid creative dialogue and chemistry.

LIGHTING

Corbijn already had a few ideas and a very clear vision on the table for the tour when the initial design meetings between him and Normandale took place. He wanted to have the spherical “communicator” — an idea that was initiated on the Fallen Angel tour three years ago — and strong, simple aesthetics to define the space.

In pursuance of the “sparse” look, it was essential that lighting didn’t interfere with video, specifically the playback movies, but could add impact, dimension and hold its own as required. An original Corbijn and Normandale visual concept was to change the shape and perspective of the stage with both lighting and video mediums, and this was one of many memorable impressions taken away from the show, with different areas of the screen utilised throughout, together with lighting from different areas of the rig.

Normandale’s design mixes a heterogeneity of instruments, some contemporary, like i-Pix BB4s, and also some classics like Mole Richardson Molebeams, six of which sit upstage of the band — chosen for their antique filmic appearance and “wonderful” organic beams, which are pretty pokey from the 2.5kW light source.

Graham Feast and Normandale programmed the lighting during the initial production rehearsals in Luxembourg before the start of the tour back in May, cross referencing each song meticulously with Corbijn’s screen visuals.

Overhead were four upstage/downstage trusses sub-hung with bespoke curved ladder beams constructed by Total Fabrications. Each one of these was suspended in a Liftket motor and four points of Kinesys automation (operated by Dave Jolly). These glided in and out during the show, very effectively shutting down the space. The four curves were rigged with Martin Professional MAC 700 Profile moving lights.

Two side trusses (left and right) were trimmed at 11’ off the stage, each loaded with five MAC 700 Washes, used for slicing across the stage and very effective low level washing. Up in the roof on the trussing ‘mother’ grid were 10 Atomic strobes with scrollers.

Upstage of the 60’ wide by 30’ high MiTrix screen was a bespoke framework arrangement made from standard Lite Alternative one metre wide interlocking frames, totalling six high and six wide. This was rigged with a combination of 24 MAC 2000 XB Washes, 24 i-Pix BB4s and strobes. These blasted through with massive impact and disappeared back into oblivion when the MiTrix kicked back in.

The floor had been kept clear of lighting for previously stated reasons, apart from eight MAC 2000 XB Profiles behind the band. The low level risers were all fitted with custom LED skirts, and 12 i-Pix satellites were scattered around the risers and used for coloured up-lighting on the band.

No Normandale artwork would be complete without some signature Omni floods on sticks, of which there were 12, scattered around the outskirts of the stage, and then there were the six Molebeams along the back.

There was also a plethora of 4-lite moles dotted all over the various trusses. These were for audience “moments”, but had been carefully positioned to avoid the usual stereotypical blinder looks.

Feast ran the show from a Hog III console, picked primarily because that’s what lighting and Kinesys system suppliers Lite Alternative had in stock at the time. He commented that it had been hugely interesting working with Corbijn and Normandale, observing their creative insouciance and the resulting amalgamation of video and visuals.

It is also one of the best tours he’s ever done in terms of a great atmosphere and fantastic people to work alongside. “It’s a real testament to Tony that it feels like we’ve been on the road for days rather than months,” said Feast with a large grin

Full Report Here

The opportunity to revisit a tour, especially when there are new surprises and many friendly faces on hand, is always a great experience. Louise Stickland visited Dusseldorf's Esprit Arena to catch Coldplay's Viva La Vida production as it entered its 17-date European stadium leg...

It's not often a legendary lighting/scenic/production designer steps into the breach to organise your interview schedule, arrange photography positions and the other ensuing journalistic bureaucracy when on-site with a large crew and a hectic schedule!

However, in his characteristic low-key fashion, Paul Normandale - who I know would visibly cringe at being tagged ‘legendary' even though he's one of the great innovators of the genre - made my day a very smooth and efficient one.

The balmy evening was as memorable as the incredibly animated audience. Even given Chris Martin's enthusiasm and mastery of crowd participation, it could've been a hippy dippy rave, replete with thousands of excited clubbers anticipating coming up on some amazing collective wave of euphoria and togetherness, rather than a stadium in one of northern Europe's key industrial zones.

This story - just like the design process - started with Normandale, who is always friendly but never one to blow his own trumpet to the media... nor indeed pose for the camera.

Normandale's creative finesse faced the challenge of introducing some stadium level ‘wow' factors that weren't LED clichés or a distraction to the carefully-crafted blend of performance and production that was already up and running. The basic principals remained the same, he just needed to add some appropriate large scale imagineering.

He decided to change the shape of the performance space into a gentle arch or ‘eye' shape with a large medium resolution LED screen at the back, echoed at the front by an arched stage header, crowned with a ring of 4-lites and i-Pix BB4s.

Although one of the initial Viva La Vida briefs had been to avoid large quantities of LED onstage, with the stadium shows often starting in daylight, Normandale knew he could come up with something inventive and different without compromising the essence of the design.

The 54m wide by 12m high PixLED F30 screen was comprised from 502 panels and also had a 3.5° lateral curve, cyc style. It was chosen after careful deliberation with the team from the tour's video supplier, XL Video, led by project manager Des Fallon. The impressive looking structure was flown on 29 points.

This whole screen ‘eye' concept and the way it would be worked into the show was evolved between Normandale, video director Andy Bramley and Phil Harvey, the band's artistic director and fifth member - a vital communication conduit between Chris Martin and the production team.

Not many would have the audacity to light a stadium show with about 130 moving lights, but that didn't faze Normandale. The basic arena rig of 88 Martin Pro moving lights that had toured for the rest of the year was retained along with all the other lighting components, the quirky architecture of the ‘wave' trusses over-stage and the theatrical elements like the kabuki drops.

The ‘organic' essence of the visuals was added to with the bold high-impact statements congruous with "a real desire" to keep it intimate, embracing all of the audience and not just those at the front, and encouraging a real sense of involvement all around the venue with the B and C stages.

Apart from the overall shape shift of the stage, other additions in the visual department included four extra wave trusses, rigged in the stadium wing areas, joining the four over-stage ones already on the tour. These elegant curved constructions were made by Total Fabrications. The original four waves were rigged on Kinesys motors and tactically glided in and out.

Normandale took the opportunity of trying out eight of the new Martin MAC 250 Beams with the Micro fresnel lenses in the wings, which he likes for their "almost" single ACL beam effects. The other Martin fixtures were 52 MAC 2000 Wash XBs, 44 MAC 700 Profiles, nine MAC 700 Washes, 32 Atomic 3000 strobes and 14 MAC 250 Washes.

The powerful Novalight Nova-Flower fixtures running along the back line of the stage were increased from six to 10 for the stadiums, used sparingly and with spectacular effect. The i-Pix BB4 count was increased to 36 - 24 along the stage crown and 12 on the delay towers - and there were also six strings of digital festoon on each delay tower.

With audience inclusion to the fore, the auditorium lighting was boosted with an eclectic range of fixtures including eight Airstar balloons dotted around, rigged to the stadium stand roof beams wherever they could be fitted.

Sixteen Syncrolite 7kWs were strategically positioned around the venue, in the delay towers enclosures, around the stage walkways and behind the stage.

The conventional 4-lite count was also increased with 24 joining the i-Pix BB4s on the crown and the rest scattered on the delays, utilised for some serious audience blasting.

Back on stage, the lamp count included Mole Beams, 8-Lites, 11 Lowell Omni photo floods, and eight sticks each with nine ‘clip lights' fitted with domestic bulbs for some "twinklies".

All this and not forgetting the 10 follow spots was indeed expedient for a stadium show, but big for a Normandale design! However, as we all know, it's not about having the biggest of this or the most of that! Ideas, intelligence, application and appropriate technology for the end goal of enhancing an emotional experience for all to enjoy is definitely where Viva La Vida was at.

Fraser Elisha, a long-time collaborator of Normandale's, worked as lighting director and the pair collaborated closely on evolving the show right from the start. Elisha ran it using a WholeHog III set up.

The Kinesys system was supplied by Blackburn-based lighting contractor Lite Alternative and operated by Tommy Green one of a universal lighting crew of five from Upstaging, the US lighting rental vendor, headed by crew chief Dave Favorita. The other seven lighting crew for Europe were all supplied by Lite Alternative.

Lighting and video designer Derek Jones specified a Jands Vista S3 console to provide lighting, I-Mag and video control for the 2009 / 2010 Cliff Richard & The Shadows international tour. The sold-out tour recently completed shows at major UK and European arenas, and re-commences in February for a series of dates in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

When Derek discussed the choice of control console with UK and European tour lighting supplier, Lite Alternative, they suggested the Jands Vista S3. Having jumped between using many other consoles, Derek thought it would be a good opportunity to experience for himself the Vista’s graphical based approach to programming. On the strength of trying the free Vista demo software and then using the S3 for a one-off corporate show, he purchased a console to use for the tour.

Derek commented: “I felt very comfortable using the console, particularly the timeline editing function, which appealed to me having used timeline based editing for video editing. I was a bit nervous about the idea of using an unfamiliar console on such a major tour for the first time, but after trying the desk with success on a corporate show and a few hours of the tour rehearsals, I felt completely at home with the Vista.”

Having worked separately for both Cliff Richard and The Shadows over the past ten years, Derek was keen to design a show which suited both acts’ visual style, so he incorporated a mixture of traditional and high-tech show elements.

Derek wanted a multi-functional scenic / I-Mag backdrop to save on truck space and provide a dynamic above-stage show replay system which would give the audience a central view of the I-Mag. He specified a 13.5m wide by 4.5m high PixLED screen, supplied by XL Video UK.

For the lighting, he opted for a goalpost truss surrounding the screen featuring MAC700 spots and MAC2000 washes, 19° ETC Source Four fixtures and additional floor-mounted MAC700 units. Video came from a Catalyst media server. The lighting, video and live camera feeds were all triggered from the S3 console.

Summarising his experience of the Vista, Derek commented: “The Vista has served its purpose very well. I feel very much at home with it. Because Vista is very software based, I can use any of the hardware options that Jands have to offer and still feel that I’ve got a full console in front of me.”

GLP's new Impression 120 RZ Zoom has made its touring debut this month on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' high profile UK theatre tour.

The first 10 fixtures (each combining 120 RGB LED's) were supplied to Lite Alternative by GLP dealers, AC Entertainment Technology. And with LD Matt Arthur inheriting the pre-existing American stage set (which included the original GLP Impressions on the technical rider) he took the opportunity to upgrade to the automated optical zoom function, with 10° - 26° light distribution angle, principally to accent the set design's unusual eyeball feature with minimum spillage of light.

Each show featured six Impression Zooms, suspended from the mid truss for maximum stage versatility, with a further two used selectively as ground effects.

Jon Greaves, hire director of the Lancashire-based rental company, said that GLP's Mark Ravenhill had been instrumental in them making the investment decision. "We respect Mark a lot and his arrival at GLP helped raise our awareness of the product."

Ravenhill offered Jon's partner, lighting designer Paul Normandale, the opportunity to evaluate the range at an arts event with Antony & The Johnsons at the Manchester Opera House.

"This gave us a chance to get hands-on with the products for a week," said Jon Greaves. "We liked the Impressions but we liked the Impression Zooms more. And since there were standard Impressions already on the Yeah Yeah Yeah's technical rider we saw the opportunity to supersize it."

He acknowledges that the fixture takes the use and application of LED to another level. "We were delighted to have the first batch of ten into the UK and to find that we can fit five units into each of our Lite Alt custom flight cases."

(Jim Evans)

(8 December 2009)

Pixies’ Powerful Doolittle Tour Blends Surreal Sonics, Visuals
By Scott Thill 

HOLLYWOOD — After celebrating the 20th anniversary of its pop-punk classic Doolittle with thankful fans across the pond, the legendary Pixies has returned to America to share its noisy love of surreal sonics and eye-candy visuals. That deafening blast you hear is thousands of Pixies monkeys gone to heaven.

Not that the quartet is being met only by longtime fans. After fracturing in the early ’90s upon the release of blistering full-lengths like Doolittle and Surfer Rosa, the Pixies — guitarist and shrieker Black Francis, bassist and vocalist Kim Deal, guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering — are more popular than ever. And judging by the joyous crowd that sold out Wednesday night’s rowdy set at the Hollywood Palladium, the first stop on the U.S. leg of the Pixies’ Doolittle tour that wraps Dec. 1, die-hard fans and new adopters alike have spent time since the band’s 2004 reunion memorizing its brilliant songs and esoteric B-sides.

Doolittle was always the artiest of the band’s releases, from the biblical estrangement of the record’s lyricism to the dark and suggestive sleeve art from graphic designer Vaughan Oliver and photographer Simon Larbalestier (exhaustively collected in the Pixies’ recently released mega-box Minotaur).

That spirit was celebrated before the concert with a screening of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali’s infamous 1928 surrealist short Un Chien Andalou (mashed at right with the Pixies’ “Debaser”). The film was met with cheers that escalated into howls once its ending bled into the groovy boogie of the B-side “Dancing the Manta Ray.”

By the time the Pixies had galloped through rarely performed B-sides like the sinister “Bailey’s Walk” and the spastic “Weird at My School,” the crowd was ready for the A-list.

Francis and crew didn’t disappoint, quickly blazing through Doolittle’s abrasive opener “Debaser,” whose Andalou-inspired surrealist lyrics about “slicing up eyeballs” matched perfectly with the banned silent-film clips of the 1920s compilation Forbidden Images, which was projected on a massive screen behind them. The synesthetic merge brought a measure of high-end live production the band never received in its earlier, less appreciated life. Spearheaded by the Pixies’ trusty lighting designer Myles Mangino and Paul Normandale, and complemented by 11 new films from Judy Jacob, Tom Winkler, Brent Felix and Melinda Tupling, the viz added eye-candy dimension to Doolittle’s deranged sonics.

The hybrid hits kept on coming. The screen bled red to the Pixies’ jagged dirge “I Bleed”. During the twisted love song “Hey,” key phrases came to life in Tom Winkler’s hand-drawn animations. A rousing rendition of “Monkey Gone to Heaven” mashed Oliver and Larbalestier’s photography into the song’s performance, drawing hoots and screams from an ignited audience shouting “God is 7!” at the top of its lungs.

Things turned stranger during the split-screen video accompanying the band’s hit single “Here Comes Your Man,” where four digital Pixies bobbed happily behind their real-time counterparts on the stage (pictured at top). The goofy reel was an odd backdrop for a song the Pixies once seriously disliked, and hardly ever played live back when they were tearing into each other during the late ’80s. But the cognitive dissonance did nothing to erase the show’s momentum.

In fact, by the time the band landed on Doolittle’s galvanized closer “Gouge Away,” the audience’s love had amplified to the breaking point. Its unrelenting applause and shouts brought the Pixies out for two encores, to play remaining Doolittle-era B-sides like the hypnotic “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)” and epic “Into the White,” as well as Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa winners like “Isla de Encanta” and “Gigantic.”

The four Pixies and their digital counterparts play nice on the surreal tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Doolittle.
Images courtesy Myles Mangino
When it was over, the Pixies gathered into a group at the front of the stage, while its digital doppelgangers did the same on the massive video screen. The humorous doubling injected a hefty amount of camaraderie into a band once better known for its members’ seething dislike of each other than for its towering musical influence.

But time, and a much-deserved payday, heals all wounds. Throughout this thoroughly rewarding Doolittle tour, Francis and Deal may stand on opposite sides of the stage from each other. But they’re wise enough to know a goldmine of good music and goodwill when they’re sitting on one. And judging from the hysteria of the Pixies’ Hollywood stand, so does its ecstatic audience.

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/pixies-anniversary-doolittle-tour-bleeds-surreal-sonics-viz/

Lighting Company Lite Alternative have been around for almost twenty years and use The Wholehog lighting consoles for all their main concerts.

The Coldplay Viva la Vida World Tour was no exception to that. As the band required no LED walls on stage, lighting was used to create a feeling of intimacy between the band and the audience. Lighting designer Paul Normandale designed a visually stunning show, fully controlled by the industry leading Wholehog 3 console.

Lite Alternative are nearly twenty years in the lighting business and have built and impressive customer and reference list in that time. Jon Greaves, hire director, says, "Over the years, we have built a solid client base and we want to keep on providing good services to our accounts by offering reliable and robust equipment; one of our favourites is the Wholehog 3." Underlining this long-time trust, the company converted from Wholehog 2 to 3 in the past three years. For the Coldplay Viva la Vida World Tour they supplied all lighting equipment, including the Wholehog 3.

Focus on lighting When Coldplay started with their third concert tour, they specifically desired that no LED was used on stage for a more intimate feeling with the audience. Lighting designer Paul Normandale took on the challenge to integrate the visual elements to create the closeness the band wanted. He explains, "Coldplay specifically wanted a design that penetrated the playing space at all levels, like walkways into the crowd. Plus, they wanted to get away from the normal staples of arena and stadium tour- ing." Focal points in the visual design were the plays created by Pufferfish in association with XL Video. The five two meter sphere screens contained a Barco CLM R10+ pro-

Powered by Wholehog 3

The entire lighting rig was controlled by Wholehog 3. The console proved to be the best choice for this tour as Paul Normandale explains, "The Coldplay setup involved very elaborate cueing, which the Wholehog 3 does very well. In addition, the extension wings add a degree of flexibility that is always required in a live situation." Lighting operator Mark Risk who was involved in the first leg of the tour, adds, "I want to convey how happy I have been with the Wholehog 3 console - it has behaved impeccably throughout the tour and any of the fears/doubts that I may have had at the outset have been completely laid to rest. After such an extended period of programming, whilst I would in no way consider myself to be 100% proficient, I have found it to be extremely intuitive and am now very comfortable using it. I shall have no qualms about using this desk again in the future." Currently the show is run by Fraser Elisha.

Benefits for worldwide touring

The Wholehog 3 represents the contemporary evolution of a world-renowned lighting console legacy that has been around since the early nineties. Having an industry-leading console on tour offers many benefits. Jon Greaves comments, "Wholehog has become our number one package for more serious jobs. We have been using it for so long and are truly confident with it. They can easily be used for worldwide shows, as they are an industry standard. We want to use a product that everyone in the world knows and where there is a worldwide level of support available." On 16 June 2008, Coldplay kicked of their third concert tour in the Brixton Academy in London. The stage setup consisted of an almost stripped down main stage. As there was no LED involved on stage, lighting was the key element in the design.

Depeche Mode are one of the most successful, influential, longest-lived bands that have emerged from the early 80's. In October 2008, they announced their 15th tour: Tour of the Universe.

Depeche Mode's first-ever stadium tour kicked off in Luxembourg in May 2009, following the release of their twelfth studio album the month before. The stage is a visual feast, designed by Paul Normandale and Anton Corbijn, with lighting controlled by Wholehog 3 consoles and a striking MiTRIX video wall.

Lite Alternative was founded in 1990 by Jon Greaves and Paul Normandale, and over the years, they have arranged lighting for numerous bands, including Coldplay, Pixies, Björk and Kings of Leon. This year, the company was asked for the third time to support Depeche Mode. The Tour of the Universe is Depeche Mode's first ever stadium tour, with dates in Europe, Asia, North America and South America. Lighting designer Paul Normandale worked closely together with Anton Corbijn, the band's longtime creative director, to create a visually overwhelming stage, powerful enough for the outdoor stadiums. Their setup features a number of Barco products, in both video and lighting.

Eye-catching video wall

The set and stage concept by Anton Corbijn is primarily dominated by a huge MiTRIX video wall, provided by XL Video, covering the entire width of the stage. The wall is 28 panels high and features a three by three meter MiTRIX ball in the middle. The entire video wall is used for playback and video animation with the ball giving an ex- tra dimension, like magnifying effects, to the images projected.

Challenges in lighting

When asked about the challenges in lighting design, Paul Normandale comments, "The Depeche Mode tour is an outdoor stadium tour, so weather and sheer power have to be taken into account when designing. In addition, the lighting had to be impressive enough for big stadiums with room for 60,000 to 80,000 fans each time.  This adds a different dimension to lighting, compared with working for smaller venue tours."

Field-proven Wholehog technology to control all lighting equipment, Lite Alternative has again chosen Wholehog 3. Jon Greaves, hire director, Lite Alternative explains, "We use the Wholehog consoles for all our main concerts and Depeche Mode is no exception to that. We have been working with these consoles for about six years now and have always had successful tours with them. The extra wings make it a very powerful and robust system that comes together in a neat FOH package, perfect for live shows."

The comprehensive feature set included within Wholehog software gives designers and programmers all the tools needed to get the job done. The intuitive user interface and common key layout provides quick and familiar access to both programming and playback routines. Paul Normandale adds, "Programming had to be simple and quick and had a strong reinforcement of the large MiTRIX video wall. The setup included very sophisticated cueing, which works extremely well with the Wholehog 3. The combination of all these features makes the Wholehog the perfect choice for running the Tour of the Universe."

The current Tracy Chapman tour lightshow has been re-programmed on to the new grandMA2 platform for its European and US legs.

The show - which has been out since last year and is reaching its final stages - is designed by UK-based Paul Normandale. It was originally programmed onto a grandMA full-size by Canadian Lighting Director/Operator Graeme Nichol. Due to other commitments, he couldn't work the final sections, so the role of lighting director was assumed by Glen Johnson from the UK.

Johnson had just been using a grandMA2 light on the Maximo Park tour, and was very happy running the version 2 software, while rental company Lite Alternative has also just invested in grandMA2 consoles. So he and Normandale made a joint decision to re-programme the Chapman tour onto grandMA 2.

Johnson did this using a grandMA2 ful-size and a visualiser, which was particularly helpful, and it took only a day. "It's not like you are learning a new console - all the features that everyone loves from the grandMA ‘series 1’ are great on the grandMA2". He then transferred the show onto a grandMA2 light for the European tour, taking another light for backup - supplied, together with all the lighting hardware by Lite Alternative. In the US, Chicago-based Upstaging is supplying two grandMA2 full size consoles.

Johnson is a great fan of the grandMA2 system, and there have been two software updates since the Maximo Park tour which have added yet more features and functionality. He specifically likes the large, tactile touch screens, and the fact that the console is completely user-configurable. "It's hugely flexible and provides you with big, simple building blocks that you can set up exactly as you like". The faders are "gorgeous" he says, adding that he keeps being impressed by the speed and ease of programming. He thinks the light is an ideal "compact and neat" size for small to medium tours and venues ... and of course, above all, "Really reliable".

Normandale's design breaks the mould of traditional cued light shows, and follows a 'passage of time' concept, based on a sunrise and sunset taking place over a 45 minute crossfade, denoting a journey of progression that is independent of any of the songs.

The rig is a mixture of Martin moving lights, 9 x 48-way ColorBlaze LED strips run in multi-cell mode, 12 MR16 birdies, 10 x profiles and 9 x 1000 Watt light bulbs dangling on different length cords over the stage. These are controlled by the artist via a footswitch pedal that fires one of the grandMA2 cue stacks.

The sun is projected by various different fixtures - according to the time of day - onto a white upstage cyc, its movement triggered through the console via 20 cues in the sunrise/sunset stack. It rises on stage right and sets on stage left.

All the cue stacks all have multiple timings applied, which is extremely easy to do with the grandMA2. The console is also triggering 4 layers of video content stored on an Arkaos media server.

Photos: Copyright - Paul Normandale

Lighting rental company Lite Alternative has invested in a new Kinesys K2 automation control system which has gone out on Depeche Mode's Touring The Universe world tour and the stadium leg of the Coldplay Viva La Vida world tour - both with lighting designs by Paul Normandale.

This reflects the growing trend for designers to incorporate movement as another visual dynamic into their shows, requiring accurate and often subtle control to change the nature and feel of the performance space.

The first Lite Alt Kinesys purchase was a fixed speed Elevation system with a Smart 8 8-channel hoist controller and Vector PC-based automation control. This was utilised for Keane's autumn 2008 tour, to facilitate Rob Sinclair's design. It then went straight out on the Kings of Leon, a co-design between Ali Bale and Paul Normandale.

LD Paul Normandale ups fixture quantities including MAC 250 Wash to MAC 250 Beam upgrade

Lighting Designer Paul Normandale has upped the lighting fixture quantities for a series of European stadium shows for rock band Coldplay’s ongoing “Viva La Vida” tour, including a conversion of eight MAC 250 Washes into new MAC 250 Beams. 

Martin Professional’s new MAC 250 Beam upgrade kit converts any standard Martin MAC 250 Wash into a punchy beam fixture that projects powerful variably sized pencil beams.

Normandale, who serves as production designer handling lights, set and video on the tour, chose to use the MAC 250 Beam because of the outdoor set’s 180 ft wide span, which allows the 250 Beams to do aerial work as well as cross light.

Located on the stage floor on side wings, the 250 Beams provide an intense light output and tight beam for a powerful mid air effect. The upgrade kit includes a micro Fresnel lens and set of six beam effect gobos/apertures and only takes five minutes to install. 

Normandale states that he likes “the real power” of the 250 Beam. “We even run one song with 7k Synchrolites and the 250 Beams together!” he says. “Regarding the upgrade process, there were no issues and it was quick. They’ve been great so far.”

The stadium show rig includes 52 MAC 2000 Wash XBs™, 44 MAC 700 Profiles™, 9 MAC 700 Washes™, 32 Atomic 3000™ strobes, 14 MAC 250 Washes™ and 8 MAC 250 Beams.™ Lighting vendor is Lite Alternative.

Board Operator:                 Fraser Elisha

Crew Chief:                       Dave Favorita

Lighting and video designer for Maximo Park's latest sold-out UK tour is Stevie Marr who uses Martin MAC III Profiles, MAC 250 Washes and Atomic 3000 strobes in his design. Lighting supply is by Lite Alternative.

"I needed a quality laser effect without an actual laser because regulations prevent the crowd scanning effect that I really wanted," Marr says of his decision to eventually turn to the MAC III Profile for the look. Glen Johnson, who ran the show, recommended the MAC III for the job. They did that job and more."

Martin's 1500W MAC III Profile is being used extensively throughout the 2009 summer touring season (Elton John, Billy Joel, Beyonce, the Jonas Brothers to name a few).

"I have never used gobos with Maximo Park and have shied away from gobo looks for quite a few years now," explains Marr. "I'd never really seen a light that could do enough with gobos against the LED I've been using. It may just be nostalgia but since the demise of the Icon nothing has really caught my attention. Until now that is."

Marr has the MAC IIIs positioned across the upstage on 3m centres, working through an array of 16 upright LED tubes. "The electronic strobing of the MAC III is particularly effective for the fake laser looks," he states. "The wide zoom coupled with excellent optics help make big pictures out of a limited quantity of lights."

Lite Alternative's Gareth Pritchard and Ivan Ellison reported no trouble regarding any of the lighting equipment. Maximo Park wrapped up a sold out UK tour in late spring and are playing European and North American dates through October.

Antony & the Johnsons Review, Culture Catch
Wed 8th Jul 09 - 10:32

The foyer of Manchester's elderly and ornate Opera House is awash with a sense of polite anticipation. Its audience for this evening's performance is as eclectic a gathering as the event they have arrived for. If you didn't know, it would be hard to guess what unites, albeit briefly, this assemblage of souls. The occasional towering transvestite indicates an alternative twist, but there is no particular age group, and no apparent niche prevails. What has brought them here for this second, and final night? The posters reveal a monochrome shot of an androgynous face, whose right eye is accentuated by a starburst. The visage is Antony Hegarty's, an English-born singer/songwriter now resident in New York. This is the most basic of facts, for he is that curious amalgam, a leftfield eccentric with mass appeal.

i-Pix LED fixtures continue their run on the high profile tours of 2009, with lighting designer Paul Normandale specifying both BB4 LED wash lights and the original i-Pix Satellite 'brick' LED light-sources as part of his Depeche Mode "Sounds of the Universe" design.

Antony & the Johnsons.
Manchester Opera House 4th July 2009

The foyer of Manchester's elderly and ornate Opera House is awash with a sense of polite anticipation. Its audience for this evening's performance is as eclectic a gathering as the event they have arrived for. If you didn't know, it would be hard to guess what unites, albeit briefly, this assemblage of souls. The occasional towering transvestite indicates an alternative twist, but there is no particular age group, and no apparent niche prevails. What has brought them here for this second, and final night? The posters reveal a monochrome shot of an androgynous face, whose right eye is accentuated by a starburst. The visage is Antony Hegarty's, an English-born singer/songwriter now resident in New York. This is the most basic of facts, for he is that curious amalgam, a leftfield eccentric with mass appeal.

The latest Maximo Park tour was the first in the UK to feature one of MA Lighting's new grandMA Series 2 consoles - a grandMA2 light - which was specified and programmed by Glen Johnson  to run the lighting rig which was designed by the band's LD, Stevie Marr.

Johnson operated the show for the first part of the tour while Marr completed his work commitments with Die Toten Hosen, after which he took over running the Maximo tour. All lighting equipment including the grandMA2 light was supplied by Blackburn-based Lite Alternative, having just invested in two of the new Series 2 consoles.

Johnson decided to use the desk after a demo a few weeks previously from the team at MA Lighting UK, and being really impressed - he has used MA consoles before, but not actually spec'd them onto a tour until now. "As soon as I touched the grandMA2 I liked the feel of it" he recalls, "It's neat and compact and the faders are just fantastic. They far surpass any previous motorised faders and in fact, you don't even notice that they are!". He continues, saying that the "Fine, smooth and gentle"  tactility of the faders remind him of the Penny & Giles feel - for many years considered the absolute Rolls Royce brand in the world of faders!

He's also impressed with the touch screens, commenting on their speed, saying "I think MA have really cracked it with Series 2"

Marr's design for the band continued it's characteristic hard edged rawness akin to the band's energetic performance style and music, utilising a lot of LED, white light sources and shadow-play techniques, primarily from floor-mounted fixtures on a series of stands and towers. For the newer songs, he introduced more effects and a slightly softer graphical style of lighting, primarily with effects created by 3 Martin Professional MAC 3K Profiles positioned upstage on the deck.

A further 4 MAC 3Ks were rigged at head-height for laser simulation effects, joined by 34 MAC 250 Washes distributed around the stage and on the front and back trusses, utilised for floor fills, key lights and some tasty silhouetting

Twelve 4-lite Moles, 12 Atomic 3000 strobes and 8 floor PARs behind the band were all triggered each time lead singer Paul Smith stepped onto pressure pads concealed in a light box. He used this frenetically throughout the performance as an interactive stage prop.

For shadow gags and effects, 10 Omni Foto Floods were dotted around the performance space, and a system of 48 high definition VersaTUBES was fed via a Catalyst media server.

The grandMA2 light was run in full tracking backup with another grandMA2 light console.

The rig was versatile and adaptable so it looked good - and could be fitted into - even the smallest venues on the itinerary.

Marr and Johnson programmed the video together and then Johnson used the MA Visualiser to plot the light show to Marr's instructions and style.

Johnson was also really impressed with the MA Visualiser, "I can't believe they give it away for free" he declares, adding that they have also received excellent support from MA UK and from Germany throughout the process that led to Lite Alternative investing in the 2 new consoles.

"It's done everything I've wanted it to do" he enthuses. "It's a great size, fabulous to operate ... and it just works"

It's one of the many quirks of Antony Hegarty's career that, almost four years after his Mercury prize win, things that once seemed extraordinary about him have become strangely normal. Live, you expect there to be an element of makeup-spattered performance art, which there is: one of his old Manhattan cohorts does a dance to In the Hall of the Mountain King.

You expect the concert to be beautifully staged, which it is. You never notice the lighting at rock shows, unless a spotlight falls off the gantry and hospitalises the bass player, but this is quite the most beautifully lit gig you could wish for. The band cast dramatic shadows on the back wall of the stage, and the show begins with Hegarty's voice ringing out from a stygian gloom, which you also somehow expect: it fits with the aura of high seriousness that surrounds his songs. Even the T-shirts on the merchandise stall bear the legend "CRYING".

And yet Hegarty is still capable of springing surprises, not least his extensive knowledge of west Sussex: "Anyone from Arundel?" asks the singer, born in Chichester. "What about Midhurst? I went to pre-school in Worthing." Perhaps it's the proximity to his birthplace, or the fact that Brighton is, as he puts it "quite a fruity city", but he seems in an oddly frivolous mood, interrupting For Today I Am a Boy after a few lines with an anecdote about his conception. Bantering with the audience, he is charming and funny, which throws his music into sharp relief.

Hegarty's singing voice sounds unfamiliar and remarkable once more: songs from his latest album, The Crying Light, which seemed a little slender on record, suddenly bulk up on stage. He has an enviable ability to turn the mood around in short order. The audience go from laughing to rapt, never more so than during a spellbinding version of I Fell in Love With a Dead Boy. The song pauses midway through: for what seems like an age, the venue is utterly silent. "They didn't teach me that in Worthing," Hegarty says with a smile as the song ends and the audience erupt.

Article by Alexis Petridis. The Guardian - Saturday 23rd May 2009

Lite Alternative has purchased 4 Novalight Nova Flower fixtures from UK distributor Lightfactor Sales, which are in action on the UK and European legs of Coldplay's acclaimed "Viva La Vida" world tour.

The Nova Flowers - a high powered fully programmable ‘flower effect' with DMX controllable pan, tilt, colour shutter, etc - are positioned upstage of the band, and used sparingly, but for some spectacular back lighting effects and aerial impact.

"I needed a hard edged gobo fixture that would cut over (output wise) a floor-based array of ten 2K moving wash lights, rigged on the same plane as the Nova Flowers" explains Normandale.

He's not used them before, but is impressed with the results and the reliability.

Mark "Sparky" Risk initially lighting directed the first legs of the tour (now taken over by Fraser Elisha), and he comments, "They create nice big aerial beams and because they move and change colour, are proving extremely dynamic" - without the need for accoutrements like shutters or colour scrollers.

Risk likes the colour cross fade on the units, adding that they have a ‘big light' effect with more scope than a traditional power/breakup unit like a Dominator. As they are used very much as moving lights on Coldplay, they also appear very different from the other fixtures to the audience. Rick echoes Normandale's comments about their robustness so far on tour.

In some numbers of the set, the Nova Flowers have their beams shooting down across the stage, closing in the space and making it more intimate for subtle moments.

Coldplay are currently touring the US with lighting provided by Illinois based Upstaging, who have also purchased 4 Nova Flowers. They hit the UK in December.

The Nova Flower is manufactured by Novalight in Italy and uses a 1200W light source, offering CMY mixing, rotating reflector (in both directions), pan/tilt and remote lamp re-strike. Nova Flower is trolley mounted for rapid rigging onto a truss, and can also be used in stand alone mode programmed via the display buttons on its base. It has a weather-resistant IP 43 rating.

“Where do you get your ideas?” The question is trite, perhaps, whether you’re a novelist or a lighting designer, but it gets asked so often because the answer is so mysterious. For lighting designer Paul Normandale, it’s “the most exciting part of what we do” — that outpouring of creativity in the “scribble-CAD-to-fruition” zone.

For Coldplay’s Viva La Vida tour Normandale designed the lighting, Mark “Sparky” Risk served as lighting programmer/director, and Justine Cat-terall worked as part of the video content production crew. Here are a few details on how they achieved the looks for the tour.

Mark “Sparky” Risk:  Paul and I have worked together before, most notably on the Bjork Vespertine Tour. We’ve known each other as friends for a good long while, so it was a pleasure to be working together again. Rehearsals for the tour were held in both London and Los Angeles and so we had plenty of pro-gramming time at our disposal. Everything worked out pretty well. The spheres  didn’t present too much of a problem at all. It would be fair to say that we experi-enced relatively little in the way of technical problems.

Paul Normandale: I flew from Tokyo to London and back in 48 hours to meet the band on two days off. They had many ideas about the shows look which was useful in some ways.  I worked with Mark ‘Sparky’ Risk, who programmed the show and is the lighting director. His patience and my inabilities are the stuff of minor legends.

Normandale: The early thoughts about the design are as you would expect — sketches and half ideas, some of which, upon reflection, amused many. But this scribble-CAD-to-fruition is, I think, by far the most exciting part of what we do. Temporary, transient, lost forever in many ways, the sketches to renders pro-duce an odd period of limbo as you prepare to show the artist, and then indeed the other members of the production, a concept. I used Vectorworks for 2D, Stu-dio 3D for 3D renders and visualization via ESP.

Justine Catterall: “We created material for both the spheres and the stage wide backdrop behind the band.  The material generated included video cre-ated from the bands own artwork and that of Brian Eno (from the 77 Millions Paintings archive).  Matt Whitecross, a previous contact of the band, had generated some material already — a “dancing politicians” piece used as an Internet viral for the first single released from the new album Violet Hill and a library footage-based piece that was previously used as a backdrop for the Lovers In Japan promo. Coldplay is certainly not a band to get complacent!  The show is always subject to change which certainly keeps the road crew on their toes.

Normandale: The band has a total aversion to both LED screens and side IMAG, so it was really an interesting challenge to come up with something new to fulfill the video and IMAG realities for a 320° arena show. The spheres had three and four meter inflatable rear projection surfaces with amazing lenses that allow internal projection for 95 percent of the surface, mapped with spherical software, in all a six month process of testing and trails to produce what I hope is a quite unique solution — always a nice thing.

CREW
Lighting Company (U.S.):  Upstaging Inc. (John “Coach” Bahnick)
Lighting Company (Europe): Lite Alternative (Jon Greaves)
Lighting Designer: Paul Normandale
Lighting Director/Programmer: Mark “Sparky” Risk
Lighting Crew Chief: Dave Favorita
Lighting Techs: Jason Blaylock, Dan Swalec, Wayne Kwiat, Ben Bain, Dave Cox, Dave Jolly, Niall Ogilvy
Motion Control: Tommy Green, Steve Richards
Production Manager: Craig “Fin” Finley
Tour Manager: Andy Franks
Staging: All Access Staging & Production
Video: XL Video (Des Fallon)
Video Director: Andy Bramley
Video Content: Justine Catteral
Catalyst Programmer: Ben Miles
Lasers & Confetti: Strictly FX USA (Ted Macabee), Mike Hartle, Brook 
Blomquist
  
GEAR
Lighting Console: Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 3 and Wing, Catalyst and Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers
    17    Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs
    7    Martin MAC 2000 Wash Fixtures
    32    Martin MAC 700 Spots       

    20    Martin MAC 250 Wash Fixtures
    27    Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes  (10 w/ scrollers)
    4    Nova Flowers
    12    i-Pix BB4s
    10    Omni Wash Lights
    28    Mole Richardson 4-Lite Blinders
    8    Mole Richardson 2K Mole Beams
    4    Custom Clip Light Fixtures
    4    Reel EFX DF 50s
    4    Look Solutions Unique Haze Machines

Two Catalyst digital media servers are being used on the Kings of Leon Only by the Night tour in an integrated visuals show created by live visuals director Phil Haynes, lighting co-designer/director Ali Bale, creative designer and co-lighting designer Paul Normandale and live video director Phil Woodhead.

The Catalysts -- running a pre-release version of the latest V4.2 software which gives 10 submixes on 16 layers -- are outputting the nine-camera IMAG mix and assorted playback content to 1,000 tiles of Barco MiTrix screen and 270 Element Labs VersaTUBE HDs.

The Catalyst units were supplied by U.K. distributor Projected Image Digital (PID) to the tour's U.K. and European lighting contractors Lite Alternative. They are fitted with two Apple MAC 3.2 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon processors, 4GB RAM, an 8800 graphics card, 128GB solid state drives and active silicon HDSDI capture cards.

The MiTrix is used to clad both wings of a chevron shaped front truss which "crowns" the stage. The VersaTUBES are arranged in 10 varying sized pods attached to the front of 10 individual lighting trusses, all of which move into different configurations via a Kinesys automation system during the show. All video equipment for the tour apart from the Catalysts is being supplied by XL Video.

The 10 lighting pods are what initially prompted Haynes to go for the V4.2 software -- because he wanted the facility to mix each pod individually.

He says, "Although content is king, there are some song visuals that are created in Catalyst just using the power of the FX and colour FX to create unique looks. This is achieved using a simple image transformed into a dynamic visual via Catalyst magic."

Playback material is a collage of new and existing footage and includes two authorized black-and-white Hammer Films B movies, which have been re-edited and treated in Catalyst. Approximately 40 songs worth of playback content is programmed into the Catalysts, of which about 22 are chosen for each night's set.

The Catalysts are triggered via a High End Systems Hog iPC console running in Hog II mode; they're used to produce some seriously funky positional and layering effects with the cameras, which enable changing the shape of anything appearing on the MiTrix -- so it can be slanted, horizontal, vertical, layered, tiled, etc.

The outputs of the nine cameras -- one Sony D50 at FOH, four operated Robo cams onstage and four static mini cams, three onstage and one at FOH -- are all sent from Woodhead's GV Kayak switcher to Haynes' Catalysts where they're tweaked for every song -- be it positional, sizing, coloring, graphics, etc.

This gives ultimate versatility and is an extremely interactive way of creating show IMAG visuals that also relies on the spontaneity and improvisational abilities of Haynes and Woodhead alike. Haynes can output these as one single or up to eight different camera shots. "It's a great illustration of Phil's Catalyst skills," says Woodhead, "And it's great for IMAG to be involved in the whole song 'look' equation rather then just doing its own thing."

Haynes, Woodhead, and Ali Bale are all stationed at the front of hour -- breaking the standard mould of the video director cutting the mix from backstage. All three also worked on the last Kings of Leon tour, and realized that it was the only way to maximize their full team creative potential and the synergy that relies on all of them being able to experience the show and develop their work from the audience's perspective.

"It's a big progression from the standard IMAG and abstract playback and band images we were doing on the last tour," says Haynes, adding that it's a hugely enjoyable and democratic way to work. "We can all pool our individual talents to construct that collective big picture."

Neat special effects include the song "My Party," when four interactive audio inputs are sent to Woodhead from sound and live mixed with a waveform video effect via the Kayak and Catalyst. This then appears on the VersaTUBES and MiTrix surfaces so fans can "see" what the band is singing and playing, simultaneously hearing it in real time.

They also have lots of tightly cued tied-in looks, with colors and texturing, which are easily executed via the Catalyst. During "Charmer," when lead singer Caleb Followill screams, a specific effect blips up on the MiTrix.

The tour, which kicked off in July 2008, is proving a success, with Only by the Night hitting the number-one U.K. album slot on its release in September. The band heads next to Australasia, with the tour currently scheduled to run until September 2009.

Martin Professional’s new MAC III Profile™ is getting a thorough run through on one of this year’s most popular and extensive world tours – and needless to say, stage fright has not been a problem.

“I’m impressed,” commented James Blunt LD Paul Normandale, one of the first lighting professionals to get his hands on the new 1500 W profile spot. “The fixtures offer a significantly brighter tier of lighting, a great wide aperture source, a dramatic zoom, real strobing...and finally a real red!”

The James Blunt tour is one of a handful of field test outings for the new profile spot. The tour, which has been playing venues worldwide since early in the year, has embarked on a new leg (Europe and Canada) with a freshly designed lighting rig. The addition of the MAC III Profiles™ along with an LED wall of Martin LC Series™ panels expands the show’s visual impact for the larger venues that Blunt plays on the current leg.

Big trim, bright light 
Normandale, creative director and lighting, set and video designer on the English artist’s prolonged 2008 tour, says he chose the MAC III because he was looking for a bright hard edge fixture for a high 48 ft trim and needed a powerful spot to complement a Martin LC Series™ LED screen.

Capable of punching out over 33,000 lumens of power, Normandale says of the MAC III’s, “Even at extreme zoom it has light to spare from a trim of nearly 50 ft across a video wall.”

Located high in a circle truss arch, the MAC III’s broad front lens projects a unique fat beam that looks great mid-air for a refreshing new look. “The high output is a nice feature and when you combine it with the broad beam it gives a much welcome, very different look,” Normandale says.

The MAC III Profile™ is the first luminaire in Martin’s third generation of MAC moving heads. It features an all new design both inside and out for greater performance and includes new 1500 watt lamp technology, a long list of innovative features and advances in control, handling, service and more.

Glen Johnson, who handles lighting direction and runs the lighting and video on the tour, commented, “So far there have been no failures in the rig, which for a new light is fantastic.”

Normandale of Lite Alternative, the UK based lighting production company that serves as worldwide vendor for the tour (Upstaging & Lite Alternative in Canada), directs a rig of Martin MAC III Profiles™, MAC 700 Profiles™, MAC 250 Washes™ (changes to MAC 700 Washes™ in Canada), MAC TW1s™, Stagebar 54L™ LED bars, and Atomic 3000™ strobes with Atomic Colors™ scrollers.

LC ease 
A checkered wall of LC Series™ LED panels provides a stunning backdrop to the set. Twenty-two LC 2140 panels were chosen because of their 2 x 1 m configuration, Normandale says. “Moving trusses with the panels mounted on them reconfigure through the show, forming a true screen only once for one song. The interlock of the screens was critical and the modular speed of the LC made this possible.” The LC panels use standard Prolyte CCS6 conical truss connectors, so linking the lightweight panels together is simple, and with no external power supplies or drivers, each unit comes with everything it needs built in, which reduces logistical costs and set-up time.

“Support has been great, as usual,” concludes Glen Johnson, “with thanks to Mark Ravenhill, Matt Cowles and Simon Allan from Martin for allowing us to abuse their new light!”

Blunt’s “All the Lost Souls” tour is truly a world tour having already played in the UK, US, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The current leg has him in Europe before hopping the pond for a string of Canadian dates beginning in mid-November.

Tour Manager: Robert Hayden 
Lighting Designer: Paul Normandale 
Lighting Director: Glen Johnson 
Crew Chief: Mick Stowe

Lighting Equipment: 
7 x Martin MAC III Profile™ 
22 x Martin MAC 700 Profile™ 
19 x Martin MAC 250 Wash™(changes to MAC 700 Washes™ in Canada) 
7 x Martin MAC TW1 
22 x Martin LC Series™ (LC 2140) 
6 X Martin Stagebar 54L™ 
4 x Martin Atomic 3000™ 
4 x Martin Atomic Colors™

LD Paul Normandale espouses powerful 1500 W Fresnel’s “sheer punch,” reliability

One of the most successful alt-rock bands of the past decade, England’s Coldplay, is out on the road with a Martin rig that includes the new extra bright MAC 2000 Wash XB™ luminaire.

Touring Europe and North America in support of their new album, “Viva La Vida,” the show uses no LED screens or crowd imag at the band’s request. Lighting, set, and production designer Paul Normandale makes sure of that, opting for visual impact from video projection and Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs, MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 250 Washes and Atomic 3000 strobes.

“Coldplay are a high impact band that requires dynamic looks with lots of cues,” Paul comments. “The MAC 2000 Wash XB is used primarily as a rear wash light and is so bright it means I can use less than I would with other fixtures. Plus we trim at 48ft so I needed a wash that would reach with cover to spare.”

The MAC 2000 Wash XB is a new 1500 W Fresnel that takes the proven optical and effect qualities of Martin’s MAC 2000 Wash and adds even greater brightness (over 60,000 lumens of power), new efficient fans, ballast, starter and more.

Specific features of the XB that Paul likes include its “sheer punch. They are very, very bright and compact,” he says. “And reliability has been really good.” Paul has them spread across the top sub-grid for washes and as a rear floor light.

“All the fixtures have been excellent,” he continues. “The MAC 250s as cross wash and air shot lights add a scale to the stage. Its 80 ft wide and has two 40 ft plus walkways so I needed a physically small but bright unit.

“The MAC 700s live on moving Kinesy control custom curves and have again cut really well, plus their physical scale and weight was critical.” Lighting operator on the show is Mark Risk who drives the rig via a Wholehog 3 console.

Paul expresses his gratitude to Sparky and “an excellent crew headed by Dave Favorita.”

Coldplay opened their 2008 tour mid-summer in North America and hit Europe starting in September. This fall sees them back in North America before a string of shows in the UK in December. Lighting vendor in Europe is Lite Alternative with Upstaging handling the US leg. Video vendor is XL Video.

Lighting Equipment:
32 x Martin MAC 2000 Wash XB
28 x Martin MAC 700 Profile
24 x Martin MAC 250 Wash
16 x Atomic 3000 
04 x Nova-Flowers
Wholehog 3

Photos by Steve Jennings

It was on again, the colossal music weekend that kicks off the British festival season and features some of the world’s top performers over two packed days. Madonna, Usher, Raconteurs, Kooks and Editors are but a few of the brilliant acts that entertained the tens of thousands of visitors to this year’s Radio One Big Weekend festival in Maidstone, England from May 10-11.

With such an eclectic array of performers, the lighting rig needed to be equally diverse and able to adapt to each unique show.

Flexibility takes the day 
Putting it all together again this year was lighting designer Paul Normandale, who laid out a spectacular rig on the main stages for the various guest LDs who came and lit individual shows. With so many artists and so many LDs in such a short period of time, once again flexibility was the order of the day(s). Paul explains the brief.

“The lighting had to be suitable for a live, multi-band event which has a constant BBC/TV broadcast element. So a balance between the live show of the artists and the needs of the BBC to gain usable footage was key. The event is a Radio 1 event so the branding and overall live appeal is also important.”

A plethora of newest Martin gear 
Lighting-wise both stages featured Martin products; LC Series™ 2140 LED panels, Stagebar 54s™, Maxedia™ media servers, and a host of MAC fixtures including new MAC 2000 Wash XBs™, MAC 575 Kryptons™, MAC 700s™ and MAC 250s™ as well as the flexible MAC TW1™ tungsten wash.

“The acceptance of MAC products as industry standards means that the visiting LDs are happy to see and use their products,” Paul says. He went on to comment about some of the gear in use.

“The TW1 is ideal when band turnarounds are quick, allowing remote positioning as opposed to crew focusing.

“The LC screens were also a real advantage this year with a nine minute changeover when we removed the festival LED wall for the headline artist switch. This would be almost impossible without the 2 x 1 meter modular design and quick fix nature of the units.

“The Stagebars were used between the LC screen and front truss to mimic in some ways the properties of the screen in terms of color and movement. They took content from the Maxedia server along with the LED screen.

“The MAC 575 Kryptons carried corporate logos which covered the stage and tent roof of Stage Two admirably and all day long without issue.”

Providing ample amounts of atmospheric fog for Stage Three, the outdoor dance stage, as well as a haze particulate for the light beams to hold on to, was a Jem Roadie Compact™. Used on R1BW for the second year running, the Roadie Compact is an extremely powerful fog generator capable of casting a variety of effects from a controlled haze to a high-density fog.

The rig was supplied by Lite Alternative with XL Video supplying the LC Series panels.

Options are good 
The key programmer on Stage Two this year was Tupac Martir who brought an edgy feel to the set. He comments, “I had some freedom to play a little more, but at the same time was very careful with the key light. At the end of the day, the show was being shown live in some instances, and if not, was being recorded for later use for broadcast.

“Since we were using a lot of products, it gave me some different options to approach the show while also allowing the visiting LDs to work and let their ideas flow. The TW1s were very helpful since they were my base for the key light. By having them in the front truss, I was able to light the artist while at the same time allowing the other fixtures to create the effects for the songs. This came in especially handy when we had visiting LDs. They only had to worry about their show, while I was on another console worrying about the TV lights.”

MAC 2000 Wash XB 
Tupac had the opportunity to use Martin’s latest MAC arrival, the MAC 2000 Wash XB. “Another fixture that was great for the wide shots was the MAC 2000 Wash XB,” he said. “With two cameras by front of house and a crane on the side of the stage, we knew we would get a lot of open shots. By using the XBs we were able to magnify and especially create depth within the tent. Used above the crowd, they created a great effect.”

The MAC 2000 Wash XB is Martin’s new 1500 W moving head luminaire that kicks out over 60,000 lumens of power. The XB houses a host of new features including new fans, ballast and starter that combine with proven MAC 2000 modularity, optics and effects to produce an extremely advanced wash light.

“In regards to the 700 wash and spot, they are great fixtures. The CMY color mix allowed us to not lose key light when the light was spieled to the crowd, while at the same time create clean cut scenes.

“The lights held out perfectly, especially since they worked for almost 14 straight hours, they had little rest. Since we would have visiting LDs arriving early or in between shows to program, the lights didn't have much time to rest.”

And neither did the revelers or those who worked hard to make sure that the festival remains one of the year’s outdoor highlights.

BRIT and Grammy award winning artist Mark Ronson has recently wrapped up a UK tour before the wave of summer festivals kick in. Alongside his phenomenally successful record label, DJ and producing career, Mark is also a persuasive performer who puts everything into his shows.

As you would expect, someone with Mark’s energy has a serious hands-on approach to lighting his shows. For the tour he sat down with Matt Arthur, who together with Lite Alternative fleshed out a light show which, like his music, uniquely referenced other great performances. Lighting choices for the tour included Martin MAC TW1™, MAC 700 Profile™ and MAC 250 Wash™ fixtures.

Retro look 
Matt explains Mark’s desire for a 60’s look and feel to the show as “a retro ‘bandstand’ look that was away from rock and roll lighting. The show was very brass and soul orientated and this fit together really well with the lighting,” he states.

“I went away from our meeting and researched some of the old bandstand television shows on YouTube and other places for inspiration,” he continues. “From this we ended up with a retro, multi-tiered stage with rises ranging from two to five feet and red drapes everywhere.” The band was arranged in a ‘V’ shape behind Mark.

Minimalist lighting 
“We kept the lighting as minimal as possible with not too much movement,” Matt says, “but also setting a different scene for each song. There were a lot of individual singers who came out to perform with Mark so it had a variety show feel to it with lots of spot work.”

Martin MAC TW1 tungsten washlights were used as both spotlights and washes with 5k Fresnel’s with LED inside and barn doors incorporated for an old school look. MAC 700 Profiles were split over three trusses with MAC 250 Washes on the floor and upstage behind the rises and video screens.

MAC TW1 
“I went for TW1’s to get as much punch down stage as possible,” Matt says. “The warm tungsten was great for skin tones in a minimalist show like this. I knew that I had to have a fair bit of coverage and needed it to be warm yet powerful. I used a wide zoom for washing the whole stage area and drapes, and then spotted them down on performers.”

The MAC TW1 is a powerful, silent tungsten wash light that is regularly specified by LDs in theatre environments and increasingly on touring shows worldwide. It features a clean and even soft-edged beam, motorized zoom, rich CMY color mixing and can be run from either a built-in dimmer or external dimmer.

“The fact that the TW1’s have the ability for an internal or external dimmer source is great,” Matt comments. “Using an internal dimmer with a tungsten light source is unique and gives you a nice flexibility. Having tungsten as the light source also gave the show a distinctive feel.”

Matt, who originally hails from the warmer climes of Australia, concludes, “There were no dramas and they all worked well. They were easy to set up and they’re quite light.” Matt will be working with Mark on some of his upcoming summer shows. Let’s hope this summer reminds him of home.

Millions of people recognize the distinctively sensitive tone of James Blunt’s singing voice, primarily with his mega-hit, “You’re Beautiful.” But most would be surprised to learn that the singer-songwriter, raised as a military brat, got his pilot’s license at age 16. Or that he is an accomplished ski racer. Or that, as captain of a British military unit in 1999, he led the squadron that secured an airport held by Serbian forces in Kosovo, making Blunt the first British officer to enter the Serb-held Kosovan capital of Priština.

The lighting and set designer for Blunt’s latest tour, Paul Normandale of Lite Alternative Design, has a knack for defying expectations as well, with wildly different visuals to accompany different songs. So does Blunt’s lighting director, Glen Johnson of i-Lite Ltd., who is serving as lighting director for Blunt’s current tour, overseeing the lighting design collaboration. Normandale is now working on Jack Johnson’s tour.

Alternative Roots
Paul Normandale has been taking the alternative approach with their lighting collaborations since Lite Alternative Design got its start in 1990, designing and directing the lighting for shows for such independent or alternative artists as The Sugarcubes, The Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Morrissey and PJ Harvey. Lite Alternative’s distaste for the status quo served them well with more “mainstream” artists as well, including Bjork, Crowded House, Sigur Ros, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Arcade Fire, Jack Johnson and Paul McCartney.

Visual Surprises
One example of the unique twists Lite Alternative Design achieves for the James Blunt tour is the way that foreground elements and their shadows appear and disappear against background gradations, creating visual interest and a sense of push-and-pull. “We project through the LED web to give a 3D visual of the images as they stand out via the low res web,” Johnson says, noting that Normandale “likes the high res and low res versions,” and also “likes to change things around in the shape and style of the stage, giving visual surprises and altering the look and feel of the stage over the performance.”

Directing the Show
Lite Alternative provides the control, media systems and LED web for Blunt’s world tour, packed in Lite Alt’s custom-made FOH cases. “Control wise, I’m using a (Flying Pig Systems) Wholehog III console, which is flawless day after day,” Johnson says. “It works perfectly with the Catalyst system and PixelMAD, and with its multiple slots for the video and colors effects, it’s very quick and simple to program. I have two consoles running over the same network along with a separate network for the ArtNet for the PixelMAD system to transfer the 13 DMX universes down to the (Chroma-Q) Color Web. The rest of the show runs over six DMX lines for the lights and media servers. All the networks are run via Luminex switch systems.

A Bigger Canvas 
“The Hog III controls both media servers and all the mini cameras on the show,” Johnson says. “The first media system is the Catalyst V4.0 HD with eight composite camera inputs, which mixes all the cameras and provides media content to the two Barco FLM 18HD projectors via SDI from two Folsom HD Image Pros.” The main projection, he adds, started with a 16-foot-by-9-foot surface to one that now measures 56 feet by 30 feet, using a custom gauze system from Lite Alternative. For different songs, this surface is also covered with 108 meters of Color Web low res LED display, which is driven by the second media server using PixelMAD custom software with SDI in from the Catalyst HD Server.

Live Video
Mini video cameras capture images of Blunt and his band as they perform. “They are placed about the stage in various places, one next to James’ mic, and they are fed to the front of house via eight BNC lines and mixed, then sent back to the front truss via two BNC SDI feeds,” Johnson says. “The video account is via XL Video UK. They are fantastic in their support and helpful direction,” he adds.

Moving Lights
The moving lights are all Martin, a brand “Paul and I have high regard for,” Johnson says, citing also “support and friendship we have with Mark Ravenhill from Denmark.” Johnson calls the MAC 700 Spots the “work horses” of the rig, “whose reliability is always 100 percent. In fact,” he adds, “there are no generic lights on the arena version as we use Martin’s new Tungsten Wash TW1s for key lighting, and the 250 Wash to cover the floor.”

High Marks for Upstaging 
Lite Alternative’s relationship with Upstaging, Inc. has been a long one. “They were the first vendor I ever used in the U.S., nearly 20 years ago,” Normandale says. “Upstaging’s John Bahnick, along with an array of great crew, great service and support, have looked after me faultlessly, despite my poor designs, and limitations!” Johnson also gives the Upstaging crew high marks. “The service we get from the likes of John is a very important factor, and the equipment is always perfect, never a compromise. If they don’t have it, they buy it for us.”

James Blunt is out on an extensive world tour in support of his second album “All the Lost Souls,” again under the lighting tutelage of Paul Normandale of Lite Alternative Design who is directing a rig of Martin MAC luminaires. Paul is lighting and set designer while Glen Johnson handles lighting direction and programming.

Paul’s typically extraordinary design involves frequent alternations of the look and feel of the stage through lighting with different visuals for each song. At his disposal are Martin MAC 700 series luminaires along with Martin MAC TW1 tungsten wash lights, which Paul has placed across the front truss for key lights, specials and even audience moves.

The MAC TW1 is a silent, 1200 W tungsten wash light that is increasingly being specified on touring shows worldwide. It features a clean and even soft-edged beam, motorized zoom, rich CMY color mixing and can be run from either a built-in dimmer or external dimmer.

Paul chose the MAC TW1s for their reliability, flexibility and the warmth of the tungsten halogen source. “Paul uses them to their full capabilities,” says Glen Johnson. “They are ideal for highlighting skin tones across the range of the band.”

The TW1’s are outfitted with the narrow 14.5-27 degree lens option, which works well for their purpose, says Glen. “They generate a lot of interest from lighting crew and production personnel wherever we travel, even more than all the video and LED we have with us.”

Hard edge projection on the show is delivered by MAC 700 Profiles with MAC 700 Wash units (arena shows) and MAC 250 Washes (theatre venues) laying down the color. “The MAC 700 Wash’s color wheel speed is fantastic,” Glen comments, “and with its soft uniform beam edge this has to be my favorite Martin product at present.” Lighting supply for most of the dates outside the US is from Lite Alternative with Upstaging supplying the US leg. 

Glen acknowledges the support that the tour has had along the way. “As always thanks to Martin’s Mark Ravenhill for his continued support for us around the world. In fact, all the Martin staff wherever we go has given us more than we could ever ask for in help and support and that is why Paul continues to spec them on his designs.”

“All the Lost Souls” is truly a world tour having played in the UK, US and Europe earlier this year before stops in China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and South Africa. European festival dates begin in June, and then it is back to the US through the summer before returning to Europe this fall.

Lighting equipment:
22 x Martin MAC 700 Profile 
19 x Martin MAC 700 Wash (arena’s)
19 x Martin MAC 250 Wash (theatre’s)
6 x Martin MAC TW1 80v 
12 x 48way Colour Blaze
12 x Omni Photo Floods  
6 x 4 Lite Moles
2 x Wholehog III Console

Tour Manager:        Robert Hayden
Lighting Designer:    Paul Normandale
Lighting Director:        Glen Johnson

European Arena's – Lite Alternative Ltd (Worldwide Vendor)
Lighting Tech – Donny McDonald
Lighting Tech – Mike Sheppard
Lighting Tech – Andy Pollard

Support Lighting Vendors:

USA Tour – Upstaging
Lighting Tech – Chris Barclay

Australia – Bytecraft
Lighting Tech – Mick Buric
Lighting Tech – Angus Wimmer 
Lighting Tech – Chris Lawrence

Japan – Big 1 Lighting

New Zealand – Spotlight

Photos: © Allan Toft / Martin Professional; Copenhagen, KB Hall; March 22, 2008

A Catalyst V 4 digital media server is at the core of Paul Normandale’s visual design for the 2008 James Blunt world tour.
It’s the first time Catalyst has been used on James Blunt – replacing a previous digital media server, and is being operated on tour by lighting director Glen Johnson, who is also running lights and overseeing all the design aspects of the show.
Normandale and Johnson have created interesting and meticulously thought-out set of visual content which runs throughout the set, produced from a variety of sources including the Catalyst library, websites and selected and re-cut James Blunt videos, some of which have never been shown in public.
Catalyst is proving a highly flexible option, both for setting the tour up and for its ongoing evolution. “Using Catalyst allows daily onsite editing and scaling, and also the development of images for colour palette and the various media surfaces,” says Normandale. 
The tour was conceived for American arenas and has been scaled accordingly for the European section. The design had a regal theme, using Blunt’s family coat of arms, along with the monkey symbolism of the album and the desire to progress the show in a series of scenes. These involve cyc projection, red stripes and the 108 square metres of 250 mm ColorWeb LED, all of which play a part in a series of reveals, adding depth and dimension to the stage.
In addition to the Catalyst, they have a PixelMAD system also supplied by UK Catalyst dealer Projected Image Digital running as a stand alone machine, which is supplying content – via 13 DMX universes – to the ColorWeb which flies in and out during the show. Being transparent, this is also used for some leftfield 3D effects with video running on the surface and lighting punching through from behind.
Also feeding into the Catalyst at FOH – via two LFG Input cards with 4 composite inputs on each card – are 8 lipstick cameras positioned around the stage focussed on the band members plus one robotic camera, operated by Richard Jewell. All of these are split out into widescreen format and scaled, treated and affected in the Catalyst.
The set changes every 3 or 4 songs, with drapes, screens and LED dropping in or being flown out, revealing different sized projection surfaces. The first projections in the show are run at 16 x 9 ft and by the end, the area has expanded to 56 x 30ft.
The scaling and compression facilities of both Catalyst and PixelMAD have been instrumental in making it possible to run the show in the manner, and images have to be sized and re-sized constantly and consistently through the set. 
The first song has all 8 cameras projected across the screen for a very clean camera mix, using 2 Barco FLM projectors supplied by XL Video. On the 9th layer Johnson uses one feed to overlay Blunt’s head across the whole area.
For “Carry Me Home”, he runs one layer of water effect, with the second layer a camera source shooting into a dark spot of the stage with Blunt in the middle. This is then set to transparent black, letting the water effect flow all around Blunt.
For the final section and the anthemic disco song “1973” the footage is a funky psychedelisation of unseen off-cuts from the promo video which have been solarised and negatived in the Catalyst, with fluorescent retro colours applied.
On the practical side, Johnson comments: “Both Catalyst and PixelMAD are excellent and reliable and have obviously been built for touring.” Johnson is using a WholeHog 3 console for control, and all lighting hardware for the tour is supplied by Lite Alternative. Sound is supplied by Skan.

Canadian indie rockers Arcade Fire’s world tour continues, having just finished its latest US and now hitting the UK again, with lighting, set and video designer Paul Normandale’s striking visuals making the most of 38 i-Pix Satellite LED fixtures.

Normandale is well known for his innovative and original approach to lighting and visual design. For this tour – which started back in March – he decided to have 10 Satellites inbuilt into customised 5k Fresnel fixtures, essentially giving an old lamp a new look and lease of life with its new lightsource.   

These are flown on the rear and mid trusses – or stand-mounted for the festival version of the rig - and used for set looks. Engineered by Normandale’s company Light Alternative, who are also supplying lighting kit to the tour, creating these new and special fixtures appealed to his sense of “the unexpected”.
  

A further two floor-mounted Satellites are used to up-light the organ, and the balance of 24 are mounted under a series of transparent risers including the drum floor, up-lighting anyone standing overhead.
  

Normandale has used Satellites on many previous occasions – in designs for Bjork, Crowded House and Paul McCartney – and likes many elements including their “size, cost, inbuilt power supply, brightness and daisy chaining ability”.
  

The tour is the band’s first major production run, flying high on the back of their acclaimed second album ‘Neon Bible’ and has seen them selling out 25,000 seater venues in the US.
  

The show is operated by John Chiodo using a Hog 3 console, and all lighting equipment is supplied by Lite Alternative.

Crowded House, featuring New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn, have reunited for a world tour in support of the band's new CD, “Time on Earth,” their first new studio effort in 14 years.

Paul Normandale, who handled the lighting/set design in conjunction with the band, as well as lighting programming, has chosen to use the visual warmth of Martin’s MAC TW1 tungsten wash fixture (80v version) in lieu of conventional fixtures. The TW1's incandescent source is ideal for highlighting skin tones and textiles in set pieces.

Paul wanted a tungsten, warm fixture for front key light to cover an array of changing instrument positions and set pieces for a set list that encompasses an amazing back catalogue of 80 plus possible songs. 

The MAC TW1s are located on a front truss with MAC 700 Profiles and Washes on the mid and rear truss for definition and gobo/animation set wash. Paul likes the warmth of color and the balance against the rear MAC 700s. Lighting control is from a WholeHog III.

Lighting direction for the tour is handled by Glen Johnson. “The TW1s have been fault free for the tour,” he says, “and they are so quiet. They’re an exceptional tungsten fixture which everybody, especially the lighting crew, loves because they don’t have to climb anymore.

“The TW1s have already saved us thousands of dollars where a union crew was due to stay on till we focused the rig, but because we have the TW1s we don't need to climb and focus, so production were rather happy.”

Crowded House has just wrapped up a North American tour and is now playing European dates through the end of the year. Lighting supply for the North American leg was by Upstaging (console from Lite Alternative) with Lite Alternative handling the UK leg. Lighting supply in New Zealand will be handled by Spotlight with Bytecraft supplying in Australia. 

Lighting Designer:         Paul Normandale 
Lighting Director:         Glen Johnson 
Production Manager:        Daniel Choi

Equipment:
6 x Martin TW1 80v 
20 x Martin MAC 700 Profile
13 x Martin MAC 700 Wash
2 x Martin AF1 Fan
7 x Colour Blaze 72
12 x Omni Photo Flash Flood
9 x Colour Blast
6 x Thomas 4 Lites (Moles FT
2 x DF50
1 x Wholehog III Lighting Console
1 x Wholehog III Wing
36 Dimmer Channels, 6 Switch Channels

1 x 56ft flop and drop, 20 solenoids
1 x 56ft flop and drop, 20 solenoids
2 x 12ft flop and drop, 8 solenoids
1 x 40ft x 30ft Wallpaper Backdrop
1 x 40ft x 30ft Serpent Gauze/Silk Drop
2 x 12 ft x 30 ft Custom Gause/Silk Drops

2 x Half Mirror Balls
3 x Skyscraper, 1 x Caravan, 1 x Tree
1 x 56 ft truss
1 x 56ft box truss
3 x 20ft scaff poles
6 x 10ft mini beam spreaders
10 x 5ft snap braces
11 x 1 ton loadstars
3 x ¼ ton prostars

Photos: Steve Jennings

The harmonies of Crowded House have reunited in song on a worldwide tour. In control of the show are two Wholehog 3 consoles.

Lighting Designer/Set Designer Paul Normandale and lighting director Glen Johnson have carried Wholehog 3 consoles on a number of tours the past few years.

Says Johnson, "Its Only Natural (referencing a favorite Crowded House song title) that I would choose the Wholehog 3 console again for this tour after my faultless year with it on James Blunt."

Lite Alternative provided the two Wholehog 3 consoles, along with two Playback Wings, a full-size Expansion Wing and 2 DP 2000s. Upstaging is the lighting contractor on the US tour. whilst Lite Alternative will handle the European Arena tour.

"Crowded House have a catalog of 100-plus songs with over 70 programmed in the console," Johnson explains. "While I am given a set list every night of 20 songs, it is very rare for them to keep to the set, and even if a member of the audience asks for a song the guys can play it immediately. They even change their positions of instruments on each song depending on how they feel."

He continues, "The Wholehog 3 allows me to keep to Paul's lighting design and set layouts even though all the band are changing things every second of the show. This allows them to be completely free to do as they wish and keep with the tradition of 'you never know what is going to happen' on a Crowded House show. I use the Position Palettes a lot, with each song stored here also (as well as having its on Master Cue List) so I can overlay into the programmer the effect, color and position live, quickly and simply, depending on where they are in the set changes."

"The first three songs are performed to a mid-stage black silk, but I can still use Paul's concept for the lights, by running most things in the programmer and running with Fade Changes. The timing in the Position Palettes is a godsend."

"We also have a 40-foot wide Serpent which drops in for six songs, a 18-foot long Caravan appearing during the encore, a pop up Tree, custom made half-mirror balls with band names, and finally three 18-foot Skyscrapers which appear from the floor. All of this happens around a set where you never know what is next, which makes this one of the most enjoyable tours I have been on."

Johnson says he uses the Gel Picker completely though programming allowing Paul to pick his color from gel numbers. "Having all the gels laid out for you with more than 70 songs makes for a differnet look for each of the songs," he notes.

"The console's reliability makes me feel completely at home with programming and running stacks all night on the fly. I have had a Wholehog 3 now for over 3 years, and the changes under the bonnet are truly amazing and continue to push the console far past any other I have used. That is the sole reason I specify them all the time."

Johnson will start James Blunt's 2008 tour in January for LD Paul Normandale. With Wholehog 3s again, and Lite Alternative. It's only natural.

Joel and Victoria Osteen, pastors of the largest and fastest growing church in the US, kicked off the UK leg of their international tour at the Odyssey Arena Belfast in Northern Ireland, headed onto Wembley and closed in the NEC Arena in Birmingham, in July.

‘A Night of Hope’ featured praise, worship and prayer with electrifying music from Dove, Award-winning Cindy Cruse Ratcliff and the Lakewood band and ensemble. Lakewood Church of Houston, Texas, is the largest and fastest growing church in the US with nearly 40,000 attendees.

According to Nielsen Media Research, Joel Osteen is the most watched minister in the US and reaches 95 per cent of all US television households. Joel Osteen has been named the “Most Influential Christian in America of 2006” by the readers of The Church Report magazine.

Lite Alternative supplied the lighting for the UK tour, which included MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 2000 Profiles, and a Grand MA full lighting console for control.

Tom Stanziano, Lighting Director for the tour explains the brief, “The lighting was used to enhance the 5 video screens. 3 screens as a background used for video content and 2 screens wide for Image, the MAC 700 Profiles for backlight and the MAC 2Ks for background vocals and band wash.”

Tom goes on to explain his choice of lighting, “I choose the Martin MAC 700 and MAC 2K's because I am using the 2K’s on our US shows and they hold up great, have great colour saturation and the lamp source looks great on camera with little colour correction.”

“I chose the MAC 700s because I have rented them several times and they are extremely bright and that was the biggest advantage.” Colours and dependability were also reasons why Tom chose the MAC 700s. When asked how they held up for the tour, he was happy to reply, “Great, as I expected!”

The guys at Lite Alternative were “amazing” according to Tom who has been Lakewood Church’s lighting designer for 5 years, “and thanks go out to Jon Greaves, Paul Burke, Danny Spratt and Chris Cooper, without them the shows wouldn't have gone as smoothly as they did.”

Lakewood's weekly television program can now be seen in nearly 200 million households in the US and in over 100 nations around the world including major network coverage in Canada, Australia, India, Korea, Africa and throughout Europe.

Photograph courtesy of Tom Stanziano.

When thousands of people sing out loud the name of the German town “Bochum” you know, that you’re at a Herbert Grönemeyer concert. With legendary songs like “Bochum” and “Männer” (Men) as well as many titles of his new album “Zwölf” (Twelve) the German star is touring Germany – from May to June, from Leipzig to Bern, 23 concerts, 18 towns. Grönemeyer easily fills even the largest arenas. Two million people saw his last tour. The lighting of the open-air concerts was done by Günter Jaeckle and Paul Normandale, who both used products of MA Lighting for the show.

Grönemeyer is the third artist which Günter Jaeckle has accompanied on his tour during the last six month. After PUR and Peter Maffay he has again relied upon the grandMA family. “With the grandMA I have a tool, that works perfectly.” Jäckle again used the preprogramming software grandMA 3D. “We attended the rehearsals with our consoles as well as during the preprogramming for Peter Maffay. But this time it was a bit more complex - all in all we have 150 moving lights attached. Furthermore a Grönemeyer concert is hugely influenced by the spontaneity of the artist. Mostly you are occupied by watching his actions and react to them. Flexibility is very important.”

The stage is dominated by a high-res Mitsubishi LED video screen. With 25 metres width, nine metres height and 27 tons, it is the main part of the show. “The photographer Anton Corbijn created the picture and video contents, my design is based on this – for example the colours are selected to harmonize with the videos,” explains Jäckle. But the video wall was also another challenge. “Because of the video wall and the daylight we have to use fixtures with a high light output. Besides the Biglites we used for this reason VL5 Arc. Thanks to their luminosity we could create interesting effects even in daylight.”

“A reason for selecting the VL6 spot was their low weight and their slim shape. Because the stage is already heavily loaded by the video wall we had to save weight. It delivers a brilliant light also,” relates Jäckle watching the rig. This contains more interesting details. During the second half of the show, two truss circles move in front of the video screen. “By doing this we had another show element besides video.” As the circles interact they are illuminated by their moving lights. Furthermore another five truss elements which resemble aeroplanes could be moved. The “propellers” are formed by 8-lite blinders, the “cockpit is dominated by a follow spot, under the “wings” are Vari-Lites and Atomic Strobes dangling. During the concert these five “pods” are moved overhead and in front of the screen.

Peter Oberhofer, crewchief lights, looks relaxed on the upcoming concerts: “Until now everything worked out great. By using a grandMA remote we could do a rig check during the build-up and rely one hundred percent on this stable technology. After we checked with the remote we put a grandMA light on stage to finish the presets. The moment the FOH consoles are plugged in, all settings are finished.” Moving light operator André Bress is very content too: “Everything functions faultless.” The network signal distribution is done via two 2Port Nodes attached in the FOH and four MA NSPs. Günter Jäckle, André Bress and Micha Fischer have divided the control of the fixtures. “As I’m controlling most of the moving lights, Günter controls the blinders, LEDs and Biglites and Micha the LEDs and VL3000,” explains Bress. Fischer adds: “We haven’t programmed anything to an end so we could be very flexible if there are any changes to the songlist or if the artist improvises. The grandMA gives you the best options for that. I could setup the console the way I like to work.”

Herbert Grönemeyer more than once demonstrated during his concert that this flexibility is really necessary. All the time he reacts to his audience, plays with it and varies his songs. Günter Jäckle and his team were very relaxed behind their grandMAs.

Procon Rental & Project GmbH and the VLD GmbH delivered the lighting equipment. Tobias Kühnel works as production manager, Olaf Schröter is the production chief. The management is done by Büro Klaus Ulrich, the tour management is done by the Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur together with the Dirk Becker Entertainment GmbH.

Lighting Designer Paul Normandale used 120 square metres of Chroma-Q Color Web 250 to provide a low res visual effects backdrop for the Main Stage at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend event in Preston.
The two-day concert is the biggest free ticketed event in Europe and the first British music festival of the year, attracting a host of big-name UK and worldwide artists across three stages. The concert also received extensive nationwide coverage on BBC TV and radio.

Major artists featured on the Main Stage included Scissor Sisters, Razorlight, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs, Stereophonics, Natasha Bedingfield, The View, The Fratellis, The Fray, The Twang, Jamie T and Mika.

Lite Alternative’s Paul Normandale provided the Creative Direction for all three stages at this year’s event for SJM, assisted on the Main Stage by lighting director Glen Johnson. The brief was to create a dynamic, encompassing visual range which as well as achieving a big look for the live stage audience, would translate well on camera for the TV audience.

Paul chose Chroma-Q Color Web for the Main Stage because he knew its modular, semi-transparent design made it very easy and lightweight to rig, and it would provide a very strong visual effects backdrop against which to contrast with an array of other LED elements featuring in his lighting scheme. The back wall of the stage featured a 19m wide by 6m high drop of Color Web 250, with further panels turning the stage corners to provide interest in the cross shots.

Control was provided by a Catalyst PixelMAD media server running on an Apple G5 system, with five Eytherlynx Art-Net nodes to distribute the DMX on 13 DMX lines. Luminex Ethernet 8 Giga-switches were also used throughout the system. The media server was triggered from a High End Systems Whole Hog 3 lighting console also providing control for the main key lighting and audience lighting.

The same video content was run across all LED fixtures to provide real diversity in the look on stage due to the surfaces’ different pixel resolutions. Content was a mixture of PixelMAD library images and custom content provided by the BBC, such as the Radio One logo.
Lite Alternative supplied the Color Web, media server and all associated equipment for the festival.

Lighting director Glen Johnson commented: “I’ve worked with the Color Web before on other designs of Paul’s and it’s always been fantastic. We had 100% reliability for this weekend and it was very quick and easy to configure around the shape of the stage. It’s the ideal cross-over between lighting and video for filling in large areas, and provides a really effective end result for the cost. I wish I had thought of it!”

Aside from the heavy use of LEDs in Paul’s design, the Main Stage was also packed with Martin fixtures, including MAC 2000s, 700s and 250s, and the recently released MAC TW1 tungsten wash. Glen got a chance to work the TW1s for the first time. He commented: “The MAC TW1s were fantastic, I really enjoyed using them. I’ve waited a long time for a tungsten moving light. The colours were great, and I was able to match the TW1 with any color in the rig.”

The Chroma-Q Color Web is designed and manufactured by Artistic Licence and distributed worldwide by A.C. Lighting.

With over thirty acts across three stages, the music and festivities go on for two packed days that push LDs, operators and their equipment to the limit. So it’s lucky One Big Weekend (Moor Park, Preston, 19-20 May) featured some of the best known names in the business. Not just on stage, but behind the lighting desks, too.

Lighting designer Paul Normandale and Lite Alternative took the helm this year, controlling an impressive ship. Scissor Sisters, Groove Armada and Razorlight were just a few of the great acts to take to the stage. And hanging above them were some equally impressive performers, including some of Martin’s latest and greatest such as the MAC TW1 and two new LED fixtures; Stagebar 54 and the light curtain, LC 2140.

An exercise in balance 
Paul Normandale was the lighting designer for the entire event and put together a striking design for the three stages. His major challenge was to create a design that would look fantastic live, but would also be clean enough for broadcast as the whole weekend was televised in HD quality. It was an exercise in balance, and whether in the mosh pit or lounge room, spectators can tell you it was an exercise handsomely accomplished.

Another challenge for Paul was ensuring the stage design was flexible enough for the many guest LDs to create their own diverse look and feel. Over the course of the weekend, an array of LDs stamped their mark on the musical merriment by lighting different acts with their own unique signatures. It’s not an easy task when you’re talking about six or seven different designers per rig, but it helps if the rig is packed with Martin fixtures.

LC 2140 / Stagebar 54 
Matt Arthur was the main operator on stage two, which featured Martin’s new LED fixtures; LC 2140 and the Stagebar 54. “The LC units are incredibly lightweight and bright – overpowering the moving heads at times. Even during the middle of the day the screens were really bright. I had to back it off by the end of the day because my retinas were hurting.

“I was happy with their performance. There’s a lot of flexibility in the depth and breadth of field, and the colors were all there – we could match any of the other colors on the rig.” The LC series is a semi-transparent, modular system of light weight LED panels.

The Stagebar 54s were placed upstage just above and below the LC panels. The Stagebar 54 is a bright, high efficiency LED pixel bar with RGB, Amber and White color mixing for a broader color spectrum. “The Stagebars were also a great unit,” Matt stated. “Very bright, but compact and robust.”

There was also a strong branded presence for the BBC this year. During breaks, customized gobos in the MAC 700’s and 2000s filled the space with various logos, while the Maxedia also seamlessly pixel mapped and scrolled images and logos through the Stagebars.

MAC might 
The main stage was especially endowed with Martin might - packed with MAC 2000s, 700s and 250s, it also included the recently released tungsten wash, the MAC TW1.

Glen Johnson from Lite Alternative, who was the main lighting designer on stage one, got a chance to work the TW1s for the first time. “The MAC TW1s were fantastic, I really enjoyed using them. I’ve waited a long time for a tungsten moving light. The colors were great, and I was able to match the TW1 with any color in the rig.

“The MAC 700s were also brilliant. We had 12 on the main stage which worked faultlessly. They really got kicked the hell out of – they were the main light all day and night, with a lot of different hands on them - but we didn’t have a single problem. That’s really amazing.”

Jem of a show 
And it wasn’t just the lights getting a thorough workout. While Maxedia controlled the digital media, Jem was present on all stages and kept the show full of atmosphere. “We used the Jem 33 Hi-Mass and they were just great. We kept them running all day over the weekend and there were no problems.”

When one LD thought they would give the new Jem Roadie Compact full throttle on stage three, he quickly realized that the only thing compact about it was its size. The stage and stadium virtually disappeared for a while, much to the amusement of everyone.

Backing it all up was Martin UK.

Sir Paul McCartney played the Electric Ballroom in London's Camden Town on June 7th, the first of few low key gigs in London, New York and Los Angeles.

 At just a week's notice, Lite Alternative stepped up to supply the lighting for the show with Paul Normandale designing and operating, and Fraser Elsiha as crew technician.

Normandale, who described the event as "a unique experience", specified a rig containing six Martin MAC 250 Entours, 10 i-Pix LED RGB blocks, 10 ETC Source Four profiles and a Unique Hazer, all controlled form an Avolites Pearl 2004 Console.

Flying Pig Systems' Wholehog consoles were at the control for all performances during the Radio 1's Big Weekend. The two-day festival featured three stages of acts, broadcast live on radio and TV 19-20 May from Moor Park, Preston, UK.

LD Paul Normandale designed the entire production, specifying a Wholehog 3 with Expansion Wing for the main stage 1 (with lighting director Glen Johnson), Hog iPC with Wing for Stage 2 (lighting director Matt Arthur) and Hog iPC for Stage 3 (lighting director Alex Johnson).

Lighting director Glen Johnson, who handled the main stage with Normandale, says the Wholehog products were "absolutely brilliant. The consoles ran nine hours a day doing live broadcasts and were 100 percent reliable. The Wholehog 3 Expansion Wing is rocking. I love how you could see the cue list clearly, compared to the old Wholehog 2 Expansion Wing. In fact, we're looking at buying two Expansion Wings now."

Lite Alternative UK provided all the production. Acts included Kaiser Chiefs, Stereophonics, Razorlight, Scissor Sisters, Bloc Party, The Fray, Kasabian, The View and many more. Lite Alternative is currently providing Wholehog products on tours with Bjork, Crowded House, Nine Inch Nails and Arcade Fire, all designed by Paul Normandale.