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Liverpool Pops
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Entec Sound & Light supplied
a full production lighting rig
to the 5 week, sold out Liverpool
Pops summer festival season,
staged in a 4,500 capacity 6-pole
big top in the City's historical
dock area.
The eclectic musical programme,
promoted by CMP and supported
by Liverpool City Council, provided
a varied range of entertainment
including musical heroes like
Jools Holland, OBE, John Mayall,
Eric Clapton and Chris Barber,
OBE, to progressive rock pioneers
Yes and Deep Purple.
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The talent continued with international
acts like Alice Cooper, The Beach
Boys, and "for all the ladies", James
Brown and Julio Iglesias.
Blue, Busted, the Sugar Babes and
local lasses Atomic Kitten injected
youthful pop energies into the tent,
while Lesley Garrett and various classical
orchestras and performers added flavour
and sophistication. Peter Kaye stole
the box office records selling out
the first five shows of the run.
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Each performance proved equally
as popular at this urban festival
event, now in its third year,
and buoyed by Liverpool's ebullience
after their successful bid to
become European Capital of Culture
in 2008.
The house lighting rig for
the season was designed and
run by Dave Hill assisted by
Leigh Yeomans. Due to the high
calibre of the acts performing,
a host of visiting LDs throughout
the season joined them.
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The main aesthetic thrust for
lighting was that the rig be
completely versatile and able
to deal with the wide range
of musical and entertainment
genres appearing onstage.
The stage rig consisted of
16 VL2202s and 15 VL2402s as
the moving elements, joined
by Source Four profiles at the
front, 10 ACL bars, 21 bars
of PARs and some Martin Atomic
strobes. The stage headroom
was 20 ft at the back and 28
ft at the front, but the perceived
deptgh of Hill's lighting design
actually created an optical
illusion, making the space appear
much bigger.
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The trussing architecture consisted
of a five leg 60 ft span of
Tomcat ground support over stage,
and a 132 x 60 ft flown box
truss around the arena. The
latter was toned with PARs and
ChromaQ scrollers, forming a
feature in its own right. A
further 10 bars of PARs were
rigged around the room for audience
lighting, and 4 long throw Pani
follow-spots were under-hung
from the audience superstructure.
Sven Knight and his renowned
team of regular riggers tended
this "metalwork monster".
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On the 'specials' side, 10 of Entec's
new James Thomas Pixelline LED battens
were made available for LDs wanting
to experiment, plus 8 PixelPAR 90s,
the Pixel Range equivalent of the
PAR 64.
Control wise, Hill ran a WholeHog
3 and a mini-wing as the main lighting
console, with a Hog 2 and a wing also
available. Most LDs chose to use the
Hog 2, but Hill, who loves the 3,
utilised it to light at least a dozen
acts across the season including operating
and designing the lightshow for recording
a DVD of John Mayall & Friends' performance.
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Hill's most memorable performance
of the run was producing a "huge"
lightshow for the popular Australian
Pink Floyd.
In addition to supplying the
arena stage lighting, Entec
also supplied bars of PARs,
profiles and pinspot banks to
illuminate the large reception
tent area, and lighting for
the VIP tent, including an all-encompassing
starcloth walled effect.
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It's the first year Entec has
won the contract to supply lighting
for Liverpool Pops, and Hill
describes the Middlesex-based
company as, "Absolutely brilliant.
On the ball and always paying
great attention to detail!"
Sound was supplied by Wigwam
and supervised by Pops regular
Don Parks, with Nick Warren
running FOH for Wigwam, and
Eddie Mulrainey taking care
of monitor world assisted by
Nick Moon.
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| This year a VDOSC system
was chosen, which has proved great in
terms of minimising the reflections off
the side of the tent. Being a commonly
specified system, it's also one with which
the majority of visiting engineers are
familiar and happy. |
| Comprising of 8 VDOSC
cabinet-hangs per side, with two
dVDOSCs underneath, the subs were
VDOSC SB18s. Infill was provided
by two stacks of d&b 402 a side
and eight E9s. System processing
was via XTA 226s, amplification
was Labgruppen and the FOH consoles
were a Midas H3000 for the main
band and a PM3500 for the supports.
They also had five racks of "every
imaginable effect and processor
available". Compiled after scouring
all available specs from the artists,
they decided the best insurance
was to offer at least one of every
specified device! |
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This philosophy was repeated
at monitor city, with Mulrainey
clocking up 6 racks of effects!
He used Yamaha PM4000 and PM3500
desks and Wigwam-modified Nexo
PS15 wedges powered by more Labgruppens.
Side fills were d&b 402s with
B2 subs.
The sound department also came
equipped with heterogeneity of
microphones and a Shure radio
system to deal with the assorted
IEMs that popped up!
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