AUGSBURG, Germany – European singer/songwriter Chris de Burgh is touring Europe with a design created by LD Chris Schatz. The LD, from Klinkertor Studios/Schattenwerk, has chosen 20 Clay Paky Sharpys and a large number of MA Lighting products for the tour. Augusta, GA-based Gruppe 20 has provided the lighting, rigging, audio and transportation for the two-trailer run.
More details from Clay Paky (www.claypaky.it):
Schatz says, “Clay Paky Sharpys are really fantastic lights! For one song, I achieved a striking effect using four simple cylindrical mirrors. The reflected rays produced an incredible moving light effect.”
“I have dealt with Chris de Burgh’s lighting and set design for 10 years now and every year I have to come up with something new,” said Schatz. “It is important for the artist to have an extremely varied lighting concept in his shows. This year, however, there was also the problem that the tour is not based on a motto, album or similar concept, which I could take for inspiration. So I had to think up something entirely new.
“The idea for the set design came to me when I was looking at silicon. Its structure was the starting point for the set coverings, the backdrop and the roller blinds, which are raised and lowered in front of the truss towers. I built a floor on which the structure is drawn out. I attached mirror films to the floor and hit them with the Sharpys during the songs. I bombarded them with light and got special reflections.”
The general tour lighting, rigging, video and sound equipment travels in two trailers. “To achieve this, we and Gruppe 20 have invested a lot in the design and development of special transport trolleys,” Schatz said. “This was the only way of ‘packing’ a rather impressive-looking superb production into only two trailers.”
Florian Partzsch designed the video. Kay Möller is the video operator and Jo Greger, the C1 operator. The lighting design, rigging design, static calculations and video design were provided by Klinkertor Studios in Augsburg, Germany.
