Genesis on Tour
From Lighting + Sound International, April 1998 - by Steve Moles
 © Dominik Pfleghaar |
Who'd have thought that the Spice Girls and Genesis would have anything in common? Well, they both had a terrible autumn last year, and many thought their careers were over. And for genesis the abandonment of a major US arena tour, including an ill thought-out attempt to reschedule to a less ambitious circuit seemed to portent their final demise. The loss of the charismatic Phil Collins was the reason for all this angst, and with the band reduced to just two original members, they must have questioned the point of carrying on. Well, they've weathered this before, three times in 30 years, and stoically as ever they've shaken off the disappointments of 1997 and have come out a little more humble, but fighting nonetheless.
Pared down (the production is touring Europe only) this is admittedly lower-key that the ambitions of last year. However, the essential component - sound is no less than it would have been, and lighting, video and staging are still well within the term 'acceptable' for the arena circuit, Indeed, production managers everywhere might wish to take a look at what the tour has achieved logistically. I've never seen Howard 'Howie' Hopkins - tour production manager for Robbie Williams Productions - looking so young and unflustered, and this is immediately after his lengthy stint with the aforementioned Mr Collins. This is a full-scale show, yet the rigging call is 8.00am, lights start as 10.00am and the crew are all playing with their remote controlled cars by 1.00pm.
Staging
Despite Mark Fisher's protestations to the contrary, this is a striking design. It might not transform the venue to 'another place' but in an understated way it is 'other-worldly'. The stage is simplicity itself: a modular package transported in wheeled dollies which double as the stage sub-structure. Clamped together, the dollies are assembled into the stage proper out on the arena floor while the riggers work uncluttered in the area where the stage is meant to be. Once Phil Broad and his team of riggers from the recently-formed Star Rats have put the points in and the lights are flown, the stage is wheeled in beneath. Not a new trick, but in terms of time saved by not having to fork lift everything up and then off, worth a reminder.
The aesthetic element to the stage is its deck: all Perspex clad, it sits perhaps 0.4m above the sub-stage on elegant aluminium florets. The open weave of this structure is left exposed to the audience and presents two very distinct faces. For those sat on the arena floor, the profusion of lighting that sits beneath, hidden in the sub-stage, makes the platform appear disembodied, like a magic carpet floating in space. For the audience higher up in the bleachers it's as if the band were walking on water. Either way, it's a strong enough illusion that it holds its enchantment for a full two hours. Both Mark Fisher, and Brilliant Stages who built it, should know how many jaded old roadies drew my attention to its elegance and functionality.
Video
Like the stage, the video system is quick to deploy, yet is just a little more that what's normal or easy. Three Sony Jumbotron screens from Screenco are hung across the back of stage, a two-meter gap between each. In portrait configuration made up with JTS35 modules, each screen is two-wide, four-deep, but for image purposes treated as a single 2:1 ration landscape screen. There is no camera team; every image comes form a playback system supplied by PSL, all run by one man - Andy Sugars. "It's a show that combines the liveness of a camera support," he said, "with the laid-back feel of playback," something that initially proved challenging for Sugars. The early tour venues would not support the ton-and-a-quarter of each Jumbotron, and ground support was not an option, so while the tour was cutting its teeth in Eastern Europe, Sugars was left behind with a show-tape to learn his cues. By the time he joined, everyone was needle-sharp and he was thrown into the vagaries of a live performance that often bore only passing resemblance to the tempo of the show-tape he'd been given.
Source material was all produced and edited by director Matthew Amos - mostly abstract images computer generated, line animations or severely modified simple camera footage so distorted as to wander into abstraction. Three CRV Sony Disc players give Sugars the instant access he needed to 'play' the video material in a live way, using Dataton Trax to control it all. "I'm mainly cueing live. There are only three songs with a specific time code. I've had to figure out ways around the problem, and I haven't found a better solution than the Trax. Being able to create quick loops to sustain the correct image when he band decide to extend an introduction by three minutes is invaluable."
Lighting
The lighting is perhaps the simplest element of the show, in terms of its physical content at least. When you look up it's almost spartan: three silver trusses with just a scattering of Vari*Lites and a rear truss laden with four-lamp ACL strings. The only other visible instruments are the four 'towers' on stage - simply a cluster of two VL6s and a 5kW Fresvel with colour changer and barn-doors on a self-climbing tower built into the stage. (The towers are Genie lifts with electric motors attached to the crank. An extra one is used as a man lift for the song 'Domino', when the new vocalist Ray Wilson is elevated to the centre of the screen). The show is designed by Patrick Woodroffe, though it is now largely in the hands of Dave Hill (Woodroffe is still firmly glued to the 'Stones' tour). Hill is obviously enjoying the design for both its scale (non-stadium, a welcome change for him) and inventiveness. "Whatever I do I get 18" of colour underneath the band - it looks like they are floating. It's a simple Fisher design, but it looks wonderful, the strobes we've got under the stage just look stunning."
The video takes up 50% of the show, and for these songs lighting is generally muted, though there are occasional powerful interplay's between video and lighting where the two elements produce huge effects. For the remainder, the screens are obscured, either by a black cloth or a grey silk which doubles as a cyc. It is when the black is in that the under-lighting is at its most effective, the aluminium supports contributing heavily to the amount of reflected colour that suffuses the perspex decking.
The under-stage is thus filled with more 5kWs, Molefays with colour changes, strobes, and of course more Vari*Lites (CPL are main contractor), giving several options to the way the decking feature may be exploited. However, as Hill himself pointed out, one of the best effects of the night is actually the cheapest: "For 'Mama' we wanted a real seventies look, so we get the guys to rattle the cyc while I flood red up-light across it." And it's true, the silk looks like liquid and the effect raises the loudest cheer of the evening.
Sound
Inevitably, Showco provide the PA: the front-of-house engineer, however is a new pair of ears for this band - Chris 'Privet' Hedge. He's there by dint of his efforts: earlier good work a little further down market on the Town Hall circuit with Mike and the Mechanics was enough to convince manager Tony Smith of Privet's abilities, and he's now reaping the reward. Privet has been driving an EAW system when he's previously appeared in these pages, so it was interesting to hear his comments on the Prism: "I don't know what's in the cabinets - but it's brilliant for this type of room. We've done some shitty places - venues like the Palau in Rome where you can't really understand what he (vocalist Ray Wilson) is saying between songs because of the six second decay, but when the music's there it's great."
Genesis, with their roots firmly in Prog' Rock, present a rich musical fabric. There's a great deal of aural information on offer and Privet finds it. Levels are relatively low: this is a geriatric audience, but the full spectrum sound presence makes it feel louder than it is. Wilson sings it true to the recorded material - he doesn't try to be Collins' chirpy chappy, and he has none of Peter Gabriel's intensity. Privet does little to treat the vocals, a couple of hot spots pulled out with a BSS Varicurve and a 901, and a variety of reverbs. But a glance at his Midas XL4, with most channels set flat, tells the story about what he's given to work with and how well tuned the PA system is to the room.
If I could lay complaint about this show it would be only this. Genesis performed 'Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' - this concept material nearly finished their career back in the early seventies. As a committed fan who's followed them since the day of 'Trespass' I feel qualified to say that it was crap then and it still sounds crap today. But then as I turned in boredom to look at the rest of the audience they were all mouthing the words. What do I know?
Thanks to Martin Dean for providing this interesting article.
