Two British Artists (and LDs) Meld Ideas to Create One Unique Show
This summer, two talented English legends joined forces (and bands) to unite on stage for one big show. Proclaiming the tour as Rock Paper Scissors made a lot of sense, as each artist played and sang on the other’s songs as band members effortlessly formed different ensembles to play a multitude of both artists’ hits. What made this production even more interesting was the collaboration of two popular English lighting designers, Rob Sinclair and Danny Nolan, who looked after their respective artists’ looks. They melded ideas, then networked two different lighting consoles together to run a dynamic looking show for a six week run of dates in America.
PLSN: How did this touring collaboration come together?
Danny Nolan: From my understanding, this is something both musicians had spoken about doing for some time. Last year, Sting had done a co-headline tour with Paul Simon, and it went well. I think Live Nation were up for another collaboration of some sort.
Rob Sinclair: I first caught wind of the idea last September. Danny and I started talking on email and by the end of the year I had originated some pictures of the production. We kept talking for six months until we finally met up in Columbus, Ohio for rehearsals.
Danny: I would call Rob the production designer on this one, as he was the one who constantly dealt with the artist and changes to the plots.
PLSN: Have you fellows ever worked together before?
Danny: No, we met by talking on the phone and emails primarily.
Rob: Actually we might have met about 20 years ago. But Danny was terribly important back them and I was sweeping the floor.
Danny: I just had a head start on Rob. Mind you, I have been living in Brazil for 26 years now, so chance meetings at gigs would have been rare.
PLSN: What’s different between this show and the one Sting did with Paul Simon last year?
Danny: It was really different from this show. That tour consisted of two separate bands playing their own songs, coming together to do a few together. This show is quite different.
Rob: [Here], each artist is out on stage for the whole show. They sing and play on each other’s songs. They trade off on singing verses on the same songs at times. Band members come on and off stage as needed. It’s great, as some of Peter’s songs require three drummers!
Danny: Sting explains it on stage. They walked into rehearsals last winter and each just started playing a song that they wanted to include, and they just alternated songs as they went along.
Rob: We play a Peter song followed by a Sting song. I don’t think we ever play two consecutive numbers by either artist.
Danny: The beauty is that Sting doesn’t have to play the bass all the time. At times, he’s just singing backing vocals on his own song.
PLSN: So how are you guys running the lighting on this show? Rob is used to working on a Jands Vista console while Danny runs with the grandMA2. Is that still the case?
Rob: I had no time to learn another desk, so I kept with what works best for me. But Upstaging showed us a way to network the consoles in a way where we each can control the rig. Control wise, I’m sending DMX values via the Art-Net merge function on his grandMA, and it’s working beautifully. I have a button on my console that I hit, and it transfers control to Danny.
Danny: The two consoles basically merge art-net. As long as every value on Rob’s console is set to zero, I have priority and control of the entire rig, and vice-versa. On top of this, Rob uses the DMX-in capabilities of my console to operate some faders I have designated for key lights and transitions between songs.
Rob: As far as fixture control, we figured we would each program and run the songs that our respective artists wrote, for the most part. At some point, I will be lighting a song that Sting is singing, but Peter wrote and performed it originally. It keeps things interesting.
An Overview
Upstaging has been the preferred lighting vendor of Sting dating back to his days with the Police in the early 80’s. They have also looked after the lighting needs for many of Sinclair’s projects such as Peter Gabriel, for years. Once again they are in the mix providing the lighting. The lighting rig is not complicated, consisting of some straight trusses subtly hidden behind a large video header downstage. There are 15 musicians on stage at time, assembled on some tiered risers. They are lit from the side with wash fixtures and the overhead lights backlighting the band are Martin MAC Viper AirFX.
PLSN: I notice you have a half dozen vertical floor pipes either side of stage with an LED wash fixture that looks a little strange on them.
Rob Sinclair: Those would be the [Martin] MAC Auras with top hats on them. I have long been a fan of using these fixtures. The top hats cut down on the halation of the light output. Peter didn’t want to see any lights. He’d prefer to not see the source of the light whenever possible. Hence, the front truss is tucked up high and behind the video header. It’s hidden, as well as the other trusses, from the majority of the audience.
PLSN: What are you using to front light the band from that truss?
Danny Nolan: We have 15 [Martin] MAC Viper AirFX for key lights on each band member with another eight Auras for fill.
Rob Sinclair: We also have a couple of side trusses that have underhung truss spots on them for picking out key solos and performers. I like the weird obscure lighting angles I get from this configuration. We have front of house spots as well.
PLSN: I notice you have 14 separated LED panels up there with an additional MAC Viper hung under each segment.
Rob: This was Danny’s call to figure out a way to mount them there, as these walls move into various configurations. It turned out to be a fantastic idea.
Danny: It’s all pretty simple as far as the rig goes. There are only four fixture types. We have the Vipers and Auras from Martin as our predominant light sources for the musicians. But we have 34 Solaris Flares we use as well. Some mount to the front to light the audience, others are on the floor giving a wall of up light behind the band.
Rob: We did grab some Ayrton MagicDots and placed two on top of each moving video wall.
PLSN: Is that a plain white cyc behind the video panels? What is lighting it?
Rob: We have a straight row of 32 Auras lighting the backdrop. We needed some sense of depth behind the video panels other than a black hole. So we opted for the simple solution.
Video and Automation
There are two straight trusses that are used to hang individual portrait style LED walls made of WinVision 9mm AIR tiles. The 14 individual panels are lifted into several different configurations ranging from a straight wall to staggered heights with various mapping of video content happening seamlessly. The panels change height via a Kinesys Vector automated hoist system using 28 Tour Lift chain hoists (distributed by Show Technologies out of Quebec City, Canada) and run by automation technician Kile McClure. The video header was made from WinVision 9mm. The system was designed by Nev Bull, who also watched over the content that was played back via a Catalyst 5 media server. The system was able to mix content and control up to 16 live cameras through a Ross Carbonite switcher. Side rear projection screens were used with 20K projectors for I-Mag. VER provided the video elements.
PLSN: There are times when the moving video panels look more like a lit textured set piece than a video element. What are you doing here?
Danny: We didn’t want to use the video all of the time, so we just have a textured sort of set as the backdrop. We covered each of the vertical walls with a metal mesh. Crushed up bug screen, if you will.
Rob Sinclair: We have additional Auras in place on top of each wall to light and throw color on the video panels.
Danny: You may notice a few creases at times, but the mesh has very little effect on the video content when it’s playing.
PLSN: How long were you guys in rehearsals before the show went on the road?
Danny: We were in Columbus, Ohio for ten days. I had a head start on Rob as I went to Upstaging the week before this loaded in. That enabled me to hang with Junior (Ken Burns- lighting crew chief who’s looked after the lighting rigs on Sting tours for 20-plus years) while his crew built and hung the show. That’s the beauty of the Upstaging facility. I had five days of a head start programming on one of their visualizer systems, then looking out the control room window at the rig hanging in the warehouse to check my cues. I came in a little more advanced than Rob, so I was able to step back and give him the programming time he needed.
Rob: This was incredibly kind of Danny. I had been doing Queen shows just prior to this and had no time to preprogram any of my show.
PLSN: There are additional side screens for I-Mag. The front curved video header was used for I-Mag at times, but there were times when you put the images through some treatments and layered them on the onstage panels as well.
Danny: Blue Leach is the video director for the tour. We have both worked with Blue before, he is very creative and plays a big part visually. Together with Nev Bull, they really come up with some amazing looks. But I didn’t want a lot of I-mag on those moving surfaces.
We should talk a little about where the video content came from, that’s unique. Other than one song (Invisible Sun) that I did with some old jpegs of faces from original content made by Bobby Sager, we each got brand new media for eight of our songs (16 total) from students at the Royal College of Art in London.
PLSN: Who’s idea was this?
Rob: That was all Peter Gabriel’s concept. He asked the students and a couple of their professors to help out with the content. We had a band of talented art students make it, and they did a great job.
Danny: We gave them some starting ideas of what we were looking for on each song and, quite honestly, we were both a bit worried. We knew they were talented people, but we were looking at a big content budget with not a lot of time to do the work. Production schedules and timelines were very real concerns, but they came through.
Rob: Peter and I went down to the college to talk to the students and check on progress a couple of times. I think Sting’s stuff came along a lot quicker than Peter’s. Just because my artist was slightly into making more changes.
PLSN: How long does this tour run for?
Rob: It’s short and sweet. We just have a six-week run of dates in the states this go-round that terminate the end of July.
Danny: Don’t quote me on this [Sorry —
editor quoting here] but the artists are very happy right now. The collaboration turned into a real good time, as is evident by the fans as well as the band. I think a lot of people would like to see this show tour Europe.
PLSN: It does appear that both stars are always smiling and having a blast on stage. It’s as if a burden has been lifted and they don’t have to be the solo star of the show. True?
Danny: It’s as if they each want to give the other center stage. At times, one might think that they seem to be competing with each other as they play their own hits, but in reality, they’re always ready to tip their hat to the other guy, if you know what I mean.
More phtotos by Todd Kaplan of the Rock Paper Scissors tour featuring Peter Gabriel and Sting:
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