Designer Insights

Roger Waters, the co-founder of Pink Floyd, is out on his “Us + Them” tour in support of his new solo album, Is This the Life We Really Want? His live set included five cuts from the new album, with topics ranging from President Trump, climate change and racism. Those things are magnified with the tour’s production visuals — which includes a massive video wall and a truss that lowers down from the rafters in the center of the arena to reveal a replica of the Battersea Power Station from Pink Floyd’s Animals record cover (including smoke chimneys).

Singer, songwriter and record producer The Weeknd (Abel Makkonen Tesfaye), is back out on the road, along with a massive set design by stage designer Es Devlin (Beyoncé, Adele, U2), who’s illustrious background includes design in theatre, dance, pop music, film and TV. Solotech provided all of the lighting and video elements in use. We spoke with two key individuals who worked with Devlin on the tour currently out on a North American leg, lighting designer Sooner Routhier (The Lumineers, Mötley Crüe, G-Eazy), and lighting director/programmer Darien Koop (Pentatonix, Sara Bareilles, Mutemath).

Dave Maxwell’s Production Design Supports a Legendary Guitarist

Eric Clapton has enjoyed a long career of live performances all over the globe. A little while back he turned 70 and announced his retirement from the touring circuit. But not from performing entirely. He just wanted to do it on his own terms. For the past 22 years, Dave Maxwell has looked after keeping the artist illuminated amongst other things as they traveled.

PLSN caught up with Bon Jovi’s longtime designer Doug “Spike” Brant of Nimblist, the company he runs with Justin Collie based out of Lancaster, PA. Together the two designers and their team put on various immersive entertainment projects, live sports, broadcast specials, festivals and special events and most notably concert tours with the likes of Lady Gaga, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, just to name a few. We spoke with Brant about his work on the current Bon Jovi — This House Is Not For Sale Tour, along with lighting director and automation programmer Joe Bay.

The phrase,” A well crafted career,” is often heard regarding the success of someone’s longevity in their particular line of work. This certainly applies to Michael Ledesma. Throughout his career, Mike has possessed a key ingredient underpinning all the elements necessary, that of being present in the moment. For 37 years, he has lit some of the greatest artists of our time, and they, in turn have relied upon him to interpret visually their music and art. Longtime associations with legends Paul Simon, Kenny Loggins and Gloria Estefan are a testimonial to not only his lighting skills but his personality as well.

Stevie Nicks performed a solid two-hour set spanning her 35-year solo career, which also included some notable Fleetwood Mac hits on her 24 Karat Gold Tour. With the added pleasure of The Pretenders on the bill, fans got two powerhouse iconic acts in one show. One of the highlights came when Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde comes back out to sing with Steve on the hit “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” to the delight of the crowd.

The Pet Shop Boys’ Super tour has been wowing fans in the U.S. and Europe with visual splendor from the creative minds of Es Devlin, the tour’s creative director; and Rob Sinclair, the lighting designer. Both have been collaborators on past Pet Shop Boys tours with the band’s own Neil Tennant (vocals & guitar) and Chris Lowe (keyboards). We spoke at length with Devlin, Sinclair and Jack James, the video & projection creative director with Really Creative Media, and touched base with ER Productions’ Andrew Turner and Marc Webber on the laser looks for this tour (see sidebar, page 28) which will continue into 2017.

Lighting designer and director Andrew Nissley is out with Lindsey Stirling, the American violinist, dancer, performance artist and composer, who’s a YouTube sensation with more than a billion total views. Stirling’s music is a combination of classical, pop, rock and dance. Her tour dates tend to be sell-outs and she continues to grow as an artist. The solo dates in the States wrap up this month, then she shares the stage with three more multi-artist U.S. gigs in December. Then she returns to the road for a European leg in 2017.

Designing Radiohead’s current tour is longtime visual designer and director Andi Watson, who says the design was a response to the band’s latest album with the knowledge that they wanted a single production design that would work in all the venues they were playing.

PLSN spoke with production and lighting designer Butch Allen of Blame Funnel Creative about his work on Carrie Underwood’s arena tour earlier this year, in support of her Oct. 2015 Storyteller album. The tour sold out arenas around the country. Allen’s previous clients have included Eric Church, Metallica, Usher, Paramore and Van Halen, to name just a few. Allen spoke about working with the tour’s creative director Barry Lather, the production team and putting together Carrie’s first in-the-round tour.

It starts with “Hello” and ends with “Rolling in the Deep,” and in between is enough music, lighting, and video to sell out the world’s biggest arenas for consecutive nights. “I think the real success of this show is that the line between lighting, video and scenic is very blurred,” says lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe. “You are never quite sure what you are seeing and this very much plays into the aesthetic around which the whole show is created.”