In late November last year, Robbie Williams, one of music’s greatest entertainers, embarked on a nine-show tour across the country, starting in Sydney. It rained at every single show.
“Fortunately, most lighting fixtures had been switched to IP-rated fixtures!” commented Lighting Director Glen Johnson, who works closely with Production Designer Paul Normandale.
“Whilst I may do it all through Paul, it’s Paul’s show, it’s whatever he says goes,” he added. “It’s always been that way with me and Paul anyway. I may put some lights on the plot, I’ll programme most of it and then he’ll just do his bit over the top and create it how he wants it to be. But after nearly 25 years, I know what Paul wants without having to ask him.
“Paul designed all the content, the creative and the overall picture of where it’s supposed to be, where we’re supposed to be for a song. It just gives me a base and then I know his style. His style is less is more, it’s more spread out than other lighting designs.”
This is the first time Paul and Glen have worked with Robbie and they were keen to ‘lose the gags’ that get added in many shows just for the sake of it. The overall brief was to keep it simple and let Robbie stand out and come forward on his own.
“I think the last tour was 25 trucks and we reduced it to 12 trucks in Europe,” said Glen. “The layout of the show was designed in a way that, if we didn’t take a rolling stage with us, the rig would sit perfectly above the stage. Also, as it’s about Robbie and getting him to connect to the audience, we wanted a thrust and a dance stage plus easy access to the barriers.”
The stage layout comprises a 22m x 8m back screen, two 9m x 12m iMAG screens and header screens used sparingly.
“The header screens are all Glux BAtn 10 so they’re transparent meaning we can use them to hide or reveal Robbie, that sort of thing,” said Glen. “We also fire lasers through them.”
The iMAGs are flanked by IP-rated Arena COB4 FC with Glen explaining that he didn’t want to use TMB Flares in that position as he’d have to trim their brightness too much so they did not compete with the iMAG.
“We trim the iMAGs low, we trim everything so your line of sight is concentrated on Robbie,” he elaborated. “That’s why the header screens move a lot of the time and they come in low to get the big picture of everything around Robbie. And it’s an interesting back shot as well for the camera, I spend most of my time just balancing the show rather than running the lighting because it’s all time coded.”
Underneath each iMAG are six Robe MegaPointes, a fixture that Glen says is the main workhorse of the show, with thirteen more MegaPointes flown at the back of the stage interspersed with Martin MAC Aura XBs.
“The MegaPointes at the back do most of the work because they’re fighting against the widescreen, which is 8 metres high,” added Glen. “You need something that’s going to punch through. We chose them because we liked what we could get out of them. We didn’t need fat beams, we wanted a tight beam to push through everything. If we’d gone wide or with gobos, we may have lost the light level with the brightness of the screen. Also, the riser layout is all video, the header screen is video, there’s a lot of video product to get the lighting through.”
The two zig-zagging trusses that hold the Glux screens are dressed with GLP impression X4 Bar 20s for ‘glitter and tinsel work’, TMB Flares and Arena COB4 FC.
“Again, we have so much screen, I have to generate some movement and motion of the music throughout,” said Glen. “The larger zigzag truss also has twelve Martin MAC Viper AirFX whilst both trusses house a total of 21 x Ayrton Perseo Profiles.”
Each of the four truss ends is tipped with a Robe Forte, controlled by RoboSpot, which is doing all the colour spot on Robbie. Out front are three 3K followspots.
Two wide and slightly higher-up trusses are hung at an angle to the stage. Each holds three MAC Viper AirFX, two TMB Flares and four Ayrton Argo 6 FX.
“The Argo 6 FX are mainly to light the dancers,” explained Glen. “They used to be Martin MAC Quantums but they weren’t IP-rated. They’re very bright and very good. However, I must admit I’m running them in basic mode because they are replicating what the Quantums did. I would like to use them on another tour where I get to use them a little bit more. Their colour temperature for cameras is brilliant.”
Robert Juliat Dalis 862 foot lights are the main workhorse for the dancers so Glen does not have to flood the stage all the time. Also on the floor are Colorado PXL Bars mainly chosen for their IP-rating with Glen commenting that they’re working nicely and that they are very bright.
Control was all MA Lighting with a grandMA3 full-size plus back-up, a grandMA3 light tech desk on stage, five MA3 NPU and two MA3 8port Node. However, Glen was running the MA2 software.
“I’m another one of those LDs who will wait another year,” he admitted. “I love the hardware, the hardware’s fantastic. I like the feel of the desk, I’m very happy with everything. But because of the size of the shows I do and the limited time I often get in rehearsals and production, I don’t have much time to waste. I need it to go in, program, do it, and I’m out on tour very rapidly. I think the software will be there within a year, but I just think it needs a little bit longer just to get all settled.”
ER Productions provided all the special effects with the equipment supplied equally by the tour and the Australian Office. This included 20 x Stadium Shots, 6 x AT30s, 16 x BB4s, 8 x Viper Deluxe and an ER FOH rack.
Photos: Jess Gleeson
