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Entec on The
Beautiful South
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Entec is supplying lighting
for the Beautiful South "Gaze"
tour, which is receiving creative
treatment from one of the UK's
most talented lighting designers,
Dave Byars.
The tour has been highly acclaimed,
with the band getting rave reviews
for an energetic and tight sets,
featuring 'all-the-hits-and-more'
Beautiful South 'classics',
plus an eclectic selection from
the new album and a stonking,
funky and jazzed up version
of S-Club 7's monster hit "Don't
Stop".
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The lighting and set had to fit into
a wide range of venues, from Bridlington
Spa Theatre to Manchester Apollo,
Shepherd's Bush Empire, etc., Truck
space were parameters for Byars' to
take into account when finalising
the lighting and stage set with Richard
Jones and Simon Foster from The Beautiful
South Management team.
As always, he came up with an impressive
result!
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Taking the album artwork of
1950's male bodybuilders as
his creative starting point,
Byars decided to give the stage
an atmospheric retro-cinematic
look and feel. This was achieved
by defining the space with three
trussing arches - a main flown
one at the rear, flanked by
two smaller floor-supported
arches. All three were dressed
with rich, red, ruched velour
borders, and very effectively
highlighted by forty-eight MR16
fixtures.
The arches were filled, top-to-bottom
by a set of pale grey cyclorama
cloth, arranged in gentle folds,
again emphasising the 50's movie-house
feel. These were lit in traditional
cyc style, with 7 James Thomas
Pixelline LED battens that illuminated
the drapes in a distinct 'electric'
texture across the colour spectrum.
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With
the Pixellines producing mega-bright,
three-dimensional colour washes, the
main drapes were offset elegantly by
the borders.
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Lighting the arch borders was
an interesting daily rigging challenge
undertaken by Dave and his team,
Phil Turner, Dave "Gibbo" Gibbon
and Phil White. The task became
vastly easier after crew chief
Gibbo - in a flash of inspiration
at production rehearsals - suggested
using Velcro straps to attach
them to the truss. This method
is quick, easy, simple and safe.
The MR16s are gelled in a mix
of 106 (primary red) and 113 (magenta).
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Other
kit includes 6 Vari*Lite 2000 Washes
and 6 2000 Spots on the rear truss and
four 6-lamp bars, 12 Source Fours and
three V*L 2000 Spots on the front. The
latter are fitted with three different
custom gobos of the Mr Universe style
bodybuilding icons from the album. There's
also eight Martin MAC 250s on the top
of each of the side arches giving another
level of lighting fixtures.
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Five floor PARS and four V*L2000
Washes round off the onstage
fixture picture, and FOH they
utilised three Pani spotlights.
The whole rig was controlled
from an Avolites Diamond 3 console,
operated by Byars himself. Dimming
was also Avolites - an ART 2000
48-way.
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Although
minimal in terms of lights, a master
of the 'less is more' philosophy, Byars
coaxed a huge range of dynamics from
the rig. He runs his shows a distinctive,
tactile hand on 'live' style, which
translates into fluid, colourful and
dramatic punctuation of the show - and
always has a steady stream of visual
surprises up his sleeve!
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Byars comments that as always,
it's been a pleasure working with
Entec, and Noreen O'Riordan, who
did a lot of pre-production work
on the tour as Byars was also
busy working with Blur. "They
are just a fantastic supply company
in every way" he states empathically.
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The
Stage set comprises of an 8 x 8 x 3ft
high for the drums, an 8 x 4 x 2ft high
for keys and an 8 x 8 x 1ft high for
percussion - all with grilled tops,
handled by Stage Manager/Crew Boss Paul
"Chumpy" Knowles
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Entec is also servicing the
Blur tour, which runs concurrently
to some of the Beautiful South
itinerary, which has resulted
in some creative logistical
leap-frogging by Byars between
bands, venues and countries.
Other suppliers to the Beautiful
South include Wigwam (sound)
and Popcorn (catering). Ray
Furze is mixing FOH, and monitor
engineer is Eddie Mulrainey.
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