sign in sign up
<<
Home , 2 Become 1, Melanie C, Spice Girls, Spice Up Your Life, The Wall

PRODUCTION PROFILE

Opposite: Art Director, Kate Moross; Set Designer, Jason Sherwood.

SPICE GIRLS: SPICE WORLD 2019

Infused with all the trappings of modern technical production and creative ingenuity, the return to bring new meaning to , embracing stadium audiences with a message of inclusivity. ‘ Spice’ Mark Cunningham witnesses it unfold at Wembley...

Rarely has witnessed a display of such unbridled joy wanted it to be a communal, fun experience, taking fans back to a place amongst an audience as it did when the Spice Girls stepped on to the where they had innocence and a joyful connection with the music. stage to “welcome all ages, all races, all gender identities, all countries of “We looked at this not so much as a tour but as a theatrical origin, all sexual orientations, all religions and beliefs, all abilities.” Over entertainment property, analysing what the girls mean to their fans and three sold-out Wembley nights, 221,971 fans worshipped at the altar of how we can bring them to a market that has experienced The Greatest Girl Power, dressed to the nines and as much a part of the show as their Showman, whilst harnessing all of the potential that today’s technology idols. Performing for the first time as a four-piece without Victoria ‘Posh’ can ofer. You need to have passion for something like this because the fan Beckham, the quartet broke Ticketmaster’s UK records when their 13- base exudes an enthusiasm that has to be matched in order to deliver what date Spice World 2019 tour went on sale last November, leading many to they want to see.” speculate about further appearances. In preparation, while Moross curated a generous reference library of Dripping with all the colours of ‘90s nostalgia, the tour was a victory for memorabilia, Lodge conducted a musical audit of the act’s entire concert the vendor collective hired by Production Manager Tony Gittins, featuring history, noting every set list and watching hours upon hours of archived live the work of Brilliant Stages, PRG, PixMob, Wigwam Acoustics, Universal videos. “Spice World 2019 is not about a reunion, it’s not a separate entity, Pixels, Strictly FX, Star Events Group and, at Wembley, Stageco. Fly By Nite, it’s a continuation of the fabric of the band because if you’re a fan, they’ve Beat The Street and Eat Your Hearts Out also played faultless roles. never really been away – this is just the next chapter,” he commented, It all has to begin somewhere and in this case the buck stopped with adding that the show’s opening sequence had to be a killer. “If you can’t Creative Director Lee Lodge who assembled a vibrant creative team who create a brilliant first act for the Spice Girls, you shouldn’t be in the had shared the experience of working on ’s The Thrill Of It All tour. business, because all the ingredients are right there in front of you.” Namely Set Designer, Jason Sherwood, Choreographer/Stage Director, Paul The initial concepts that were shared amongst the creatives all hinged Roberts, Lighting Designer, Tim Routledge, and Art Director, Kate Moross. around four houses that representing a diferent Spice Girl. “It resembled a As Routledge observed: “When Lee calls, you know it’s going to be special. developed script for distinct acts with separate narratives,” explained Recognising great talent is one of his great strengths and he thrives on Lodge. “Act One is ‘The Return of the Four Queens’, Act Two is ‘Girl Power’, taking people like Jason and Costume Designer, Gabriella Slade from the Act Three is ‘The Garden’, Act Four is ‘Girls Night Out’ and, finally, Act Five theatre environment and placing them in the rock ’n’ roll world.” is ‘The Last Waltz’. By using choreographic references, graphic elements and wardrobe, we were able to structure the performance. And as for THE CREATIVE JOURNEY assembling the core values, I can’t think of anyone who would’ve grasped From the outset, the creative ambition was to give the Spice Girls the live the sentiments behind the girls’ brand DNA of the girls quite like Kate.” production they always wanted by designing a show that was rooted in Said Moross: “That master document was available online for all nostalgia while reaching forward as a symbol of inclusivity. Said Lodge: “We the creatives to access and see how the show was developing. It was so

41 SPICE GIRLS

important because each of us has informed and inspired each other. There the overall standard was so high, but we had a very firm idea of what we was a huge holistic sense of everyone knowing what everyone else was wanted to build for the four houses and, therefore, could spot the qualities doing, and being extremely communicative.” we were looking for. Sherwood and Moross were both first generation Spice Girls fans. “Each house has its own visual aesthetic and vocabulary of movement “Their impact was life-changing,” the Art Director confided. “They were the that is diferent to anything that’s been done before, with some references first act I understood creatively as well as musically. Each member had a from past tours that filter into the choreography. The enjoyment for me distinct personality while sharing a commonality that spoke to me as a kid. comes from indulging in the music - 10 of which are truly inspirational Naturally, I was excited to bring that all to life.” The girls had the same efect bangers.” on Sherwood in America at the age of eight. “I was sitting in my studio one day when Lee called and said, ‘I’ll tell you what I want… what I really, really PREPARATION want.’ I freaked out! Two weeks afer he asked me to come onboard, I had Production Manager, Tony Gittins was given the go-ahead last October, the design. The first decision that we locked into was shape and around the same time as he rolled out ’s Beautiful Life tour. He the Passerelle, the latter being one of my favourite aspects of the show said: “For a show of this size, we were given a very short lead time that was because these iconic women get to perform in the centre of the stadium, made easier by the professionalism of our suppliers.” uniting everybody. Afer several studios at Sarm Music Bank were hired to accommodate “I was also attracted to the image of the iconic, tilted gold ring that separate rehearsals for the Spice Girls, the band and choreography, Gittins appeared on the back of their début . When the concept of Spice and his team booked a three-week stretch at Cardington Studios for World came up in discussions, we were reminded that the second album’s production rehearsals. “This was probably the only place available that motif was a planet surrounded by a ring and I began to brainstorm how that could have contained this show. It’s an empty hangar so in our first week we might translate to the stage.” had to build what amounted to a complete festival-type infrastructure from Sherwood involved Render Artist, Evan Alexander ahead of Brilliant scratch. Afer the stage was constructed, production went in May Stages building the show. “Most of our interaction with Brilliant was done and we were on track.” by emailing photos and design files. It was a way into the project before I Assisted by Holly Sandeman, Gittins led 100 touring crew and an visited them to check on aspects of the build, such as the floor treatment of average of 130 local hands. A 36-truck tour, with transport co-ordinated by the stage and the Globe’s metallic finish, and I was delighted.” Matt Jackson at Fly By Nite and busses from Beat The Street, the frequency Spice World was the first concert project for Costume Designer, of the shows demanded three complete leapfrogging stage systems with Gabriella Slade, a fellow student with Tim Routledge at the Royal Welsh two trucks overlapping on each advance to install the video header and College of Music and Drama. The fruits of her labours amounted to an crescent frame for the front stage. The main production, meanwhile, astonishing 24 costume changes. Simultaneously, Paul Roberts had his amounted to a single system. work cut out when he auditioned contenders for the cast of dancers. “We “With only 13 shows in the schedule, we had to be match fit from show had nearly 6,000 people apply,” he said, adopting a comic weary look. No.1,” Gittins commented. “About halfway through we were loading out in “They were whittled down to 400, then 80, and we finally ended up with four and a half hours and driving to the next gig, arriving for an 8am load-in the 20 dancers with whom we toured. The process was dificult because and finishing between 10pm and midnight, ready for the following day’s

42 SPICE GIRLS

show, so we certainly had it together.” Universal Pixels to design and make custom light weight frames to which the video panels were mounted.” ARCHITECTURE A full ‘ground up’ system, the downstage crescent incorporated a sub Brilliant Stages kept itself busy this spring with a raf of jobs connected with level/structure as well as the top decks and scenic finish. In the centre, Spice World. As well as building the 13m diameter Globe, the Wakefield firm Brilliant used Serapid scissor lifs to form a customisable lif that could delivered the 19m diameter, 3m tall flown LED Ring; a 6m diameter, 1.2m operate individually or as one large lif, controlled by the company’s own high Globe base with tiered steps and integral LED lighting; the 30m by 11m automation system. downstage crescent comprising a substructure, underworld and six type The same system also controlled the six Passerelle lifs. Another large A electric Serapid scissor lifs; and the extravagant 41m Passerelle that element, measuring 41m in diameter, it featured egress bridges that extended 34m into the audience. provided access to the inner circle, underworld and lifs. It took the stage The Passerelle featured three circular lifs at three, six and nine o’clock, height from 2.5m at the main stage and downstage crescent to 1.5m at the using Serapid scissor lifs, two miners’ carts and egress bridges with Passerelle via custom non-slip treads, complete with handrails and secure incorporated steps. Along with several other Brilliant-built items, this doors and curtains on the underside. system was finished with matching non-slip surfaces. “This was a spectacular show to have worked on and it’s a credit A challenge to engineer, the Globe’s scale dictated that it had to be self- to everyone who pulled it together,” commented Van-Hay, referring to supporting. It was built from the top down using temporary hoists in the Brilliant’s in-house team and the 18-strong touring crew led by Adam roof and then had its weight taken of to allow capacity for the Ring to be ‘Bullet’ Bettley, who was on the road from rehearsals to give direct support hung. This produced a clear order of events that needed to be considered to the client. for the overall build. The structure included 167 custom straight and curved truss sections and 51 profiled assembly nodes amongst a total of FOUNDATIONS 554 sections that required an LED collaboration with Simon Cox from Light At the foundation of the staging lies a tale of two staging companies: the Initiative. tour’s main vendor, Star Events, and Stageco whose systems were resident Once Brilliant’s team understood the loadings and the efect the 15º at Wembley Stadium throughout June to cover a run of shows by acts angle would put on the structure, the construction of the 12-tonne Ring was including BTS, , , Eagles and P!nk. a straightforward task, involving 48 custom truss sections. The Ring Star Events provided a 25m VerTech structure for each system, with included both upper and lower light weight composite walkways to provide custom angled IMAG wings bringing the total stage width to 65m. “We are access to the video once populated. Custom rigging points provided the very wide with abnormally large wings, pushing us into egresses in every ability to hanging the ring at the 15º angle. stadium,” said Gittins. “Weight was again a big factor in the design and had the standard Extensive planning between Star Events, Brilliant, Gittins and the touring frame for the video been included we would have been too heavy,” “amazing” Head Rigger James Heath went into ensuring that the roofs said Brilliant’s Project Director, Tony Van-Hay. “Instead, we worked with could support the Globe during assembly and the show, while retaining

44 SPICE GIRLS

The team from Brilliant Stages; FOH Engineer, Jim Ebdon & Producer, David Odlum Monitor Engineer, Neal Allen; Choreographer and Stage Director, Paul Roberts & Creative Director, Lee Lodge.

suficient rigging capacity to suspend the video ring and other core Stageco was fulfilling a residential contract with Live Nation that demanded elements. When heavy-duty hoists were needed to suspend the IMAG and a Super Roof system formed of 280 tonnes of materials designed to cover Ring safely, Star Events supplied two packages of five tonne LoadGuard all bases. Roel Voeten managed the project alongside Jelte Smets and Gert hoists and control from its inventory to meet requirements. Hulsmans from Stageco’s R&D department, and Mario Dockx who created At the top of the structure, a bespoke, cantilevered curved header truss the drawings, incorporating “endless” changes to match the headlining linked to custom straight sections across the wings, providing a seamless acts’ configurations and rigging plots. video train. Star Events also designed, built and rigged identical aluminium “Moving everything over to a Stageco stage for Wembley required a header systems for each touring stage with over 300 custom suspension lot of work because the show wasn’t designed for it, even though we were brackets to allow the screen modules to be quickly installed across the full considering a certain amount of flexibility early on,” remarked Gittins. “The width of the stage header. touring systems were designed to deal with specific weight loads, so there With Star Event’s head of structures Pete Holdich overseeing the whole was some to-ing and fro-ing involved in matching Star Event’s elements project, the Thurleigh company’s 13 crew were boosted by up to 48 locals with Stageco’s structure. while one project manager was allocated to each system, namely Sarah Holdich added: “The header was our system. We took the truss that Howlett, Phil Addyman and Rachel King. was efectively part of the regional shows’ main stage and turned it into a Holdich commented: “It was a tight schedule that had to interface with mother grid system, applied the same header and came up with a rigging the advance production so we had three complete touring stage systems solution to get it all suspended within the Stageco stage.” with three customised header to support the video header which itself ran to a diferent load-in schedule. We worked closely with SPICE UP YOUR LIGHTS Universal Pixels to develop the ladder frame system that supported the Lighting Designer, Tim Routledge’s priority was to accentuate the glamour video header and then created a custom bracket that would fit to the video of the four female icons and their cast both onstage and on screen, whilst panels to allow smooth and rapid interface on to the stage during the ensuring that kicking of in daylight would not be an obstacle to delivering a advance scheduling. powerful introduction. “It’s a full visual assault with right “We were on a three in, one out schedule. Afer day two of our build, we from the top of the show,” he said. “Where some stadium shows lack punch had to be ready for the advance production to come in and hang the video, until it gets dark but here there’s no holding back!” lights and hoist pre-rigging, so that the full production could be handed The tour’s lighting systems were provided by PRG, headed by Rich over on day three.” Gorrod and Aidan McCabe. Working closely with programmer and Tour A further challenge came when the teams loaded in at Wembley, where Lighting Director, Tom Young, Routledge commented: “This was never

46 SPICE GIRLS

Production Manager, Tony Gittins; Star Events Head of Structures, Pete Holdich; Former FOH Engineer ‘Snake’ Newton Lighting Designer, Tim Routledge & Lighting Director, Tom Young; The Strictly FX crew

going to be a subtle show. It’s big, it’s fun, bursting with colour and full design. What we get from the back wall, from the strobes’ twinkly efects to of positive pop energy. We’ve achieved a lot of the glamour really well high intensity Beyoncé-style looks, is just stunning.” Icon Edge beam/spot/ with clever positioning of 16 PRG Bad Boys and Best Boys, as part of our wash luminaries were also in evidence, rigged above the stage wings as followspot system that is driven remotely by GroundControl.” Also making extensions to the rear MegaPointes. an appearance were PRG’s new GroundControl LongThrow high-output Tom Young has been Tim Routledge’s first-call programmer for many spots. Eight of them were out front alongside four GC Bad Boys downstage years. The designer was brimming with praise for his wingman, describing and four GC Best Boys hidden inside the Globe. him as “probably the most intelligent programmer I’ve ever come across.” The theatrically-styled ‘Queer Tango’ scene – in which two topless He added: “Every show file that Tom hands to me is immaculate and just males appear from outside the B-stage – was lit in peach and lavender seeing him program those JDC-1s within an inch of their lives was just tones that were designed as a respite from that full-on assault of colour in incredible!” the rest of the show. “It’s not what you might have expected from the Spice Young began work on Spice World by spending a week in WYSIWYG Girls,” admitted Routledge. “I’ve definitely had my TV head on with this mode, continuing in production rehearsals during the set build when he show and this has been a great asset. We have Robert Juliat Dalis all around was programming overnight. An MA Lighting grandMA user since 2011, which give us colour temperature-controlled floor lighting with an even Young was touring with two grandMA3 full-size main and back-up consoles field. They’ve really lit the girls and the dancers beautifully, giving us a sof as well as an MA2 light for use onstage to help focus the rig early on show light for camera. They even have an internal safety light that you can dim so day. “I’m pleased to have become an early adopter of the MA3 platform, the dancers can always see the edge of the stage.” just as I was with MA2,” said Young. “It’s still a work in progress running the Routledge populated the Globe with Light Initiative intelliFlex RGB pixel MA2 sofware, but by using the new hardware, I’ve been able to get up to tape to enable animation. A Robe MegaPointe was bolted on to each nodal speed with the updated layout. I don’t believe there is another console that point inside the Globe, where GLP impression X4 Bars were also rigged for could reliably deliver this scale of show, which extends to just over 60,000 band key light. To add general key light and back light from lef and right of parameters across a single system with just one programmer.” the Globe, vertical lines of Robe BMFL Blade moving heads were installed, nine per side. A further six per side were on the downstage edge of the back WRIST ACTION wall with some also on the floor to add cross light. The group wanted to include an interactive element and the solution Behind the Globe was what Routledge described as “ of doom”. came in the form of infrared-activated LED wristbands from PixMob. Tim He explained: “We have no less than 510 GLP JDC-1 strobes positioned Routledge explained: “A wristband is given to each member of the audience in rows on what we call the ribs. Every other row of strobes also has at the point of entry. Halfway through the show as the sky gets darker, MegaPointes on there, so it’s massively punchy and a relief from the those wristbands come alive during a medley. We have full control growing trend of just big upstage video screens which I tend to view as lazy over each wristband and program them as we would for a light show so

48 SPICE GIRLS

they are beat perfect. It’s quite a moment as most of the audience would and mines, to crossettes and more, with heights ranging from 40f to 400f. have forgotten they’re wearing them by this point, then suddenly they As well as firing efects from the stage and the top of the header, Strictly FX come alive.” shot 250 items from the roof. Rafael Linares’ role as PixMob’s Creative Consultant included assisting An arsenal of 20 machines ensured that the audience was regularly Tom Young during the programming stage on how to achieve the desired showered with various types of confetti including the powderfetti seen looks and efects, while Nathan Ellis and Didier Lachance toured as the during Who Do You Think You Are? While Holler witnessed a huge pyro cue, company’s technicians along with Executive Producer, Sophie Blondeau. featuring red and yellow comets and mines, the biggest display came Linares said: “We implemented four PixMob Moving Heads and multiple in the finale when 120 items were fired simultaneously. Said Yarbrough: PixMob Wash transmitters into the lighting rig in an unobtrusive way. These “It’s a fantastic looking pop show and we’re all proud to be a part of the transmitters are responsible for sending the lighting commands to the spectacle.” wristbands through our infrared technology. “Our show control was integrated into the lighting system on the main VIDEO CONTENT control desk, with Tom Young operating with the benefit of our in-house The visual branding efort came out with all guns blazing from the show’s Visualizer sofware tool that ofers a WYSIWYG-type environment. opening section in which the crowd were asked “Which Spice Girl are you?”. “The range of efects we can achieve with the wristbands is as broad Representing the characteristics of each member, the accompanying as one’s imagination – they really contribute to the elevated excitement,” short film was the first evidence of the extensive palette of video content claimed Routledge. “In we achieve a comet trail efect across produced by Kate Moross and the team at Studio Moross which, at the the stadium. At other times, we do colour chases, sweeps and strobing, and project’s peak, involved three producers, five freelance motion designers, a program them in such a way that diferent sections of the crowd will have render manager and a core staf of eight. diferent wristband outputs, and then chase between them in sync with a “There were so many of us, we had to hire a caterer! It’s the biggest song’s . It’s super clever!” project we have undertaken to date,” said Moross. “Whenever we create content, it’s either meant as a backdrop to support the choreography, the HIT & SIZZLE meaning of the song or to create a theatrical stage. It’s not usually meant In consultation with the creative team, Strictly FX designed pyro sequences to pick up on musicality. With graphical content, it’s all about highlighting for five key moments in the show. One of a seven-man crew, David or delivering branding phrases. For this show, we are dancing Yarbrough explained: “Timing each sequence is the clever bit. Depending between the two all the time. on the product we use, it can take a second or a second and a half between “Throughout March, April and May, we were in full production mode, hitting the button and the actual impact, so it takes some rehearsing with eight to ten people working full time every day. The video content was in order to be on the beat and accentuate correctly. It’s obviously not built in disguise with a render farm set up with 10 PCs constantly running practical to try these things out in production rehearsals but you can give at full stretch, so that by the time we arrived at Cardington, everything was the client some reliable, computer-generated visualisations. fully loaded. We continued to do a lot of work there, rendering terabytes of The team shot around 600 pieces every night on the tour, from comets content and reloading the entire show every other day.”

50 SPICE GIRLS

Universal Pixels’ screen package amounted to 795m2 of 5mm LED; 90m2 of ROE Visual CB5 for each of the two header systems, 360 m2 of InfilLED er5 for IMAG, and an additional 255 m2 of er5 for the Ring. A surface, the Ring was the visual core, while the headers and footers were used either architecturally to create a scenic backdrop or for tickertape-style graphics. While the Ring was static, the nature of some of the content sometimes made it appear as if it was twisting and turning. Moross commented: “The show is inherently British, with visual references to the and Big Ben, though not in a nationalistic way. We build Big Ben on the side screens and extend the clock face on to the Ring. For we create a stone architectural flower garden which was inspired by Gabriella Slade’s ideas for the dresses. “There’s also a sequence that places a comic book item within a stained glass window for Say You’ll Be There and we have a disco moment where the Ring becomes a boom box controller. “My ultimate favourite look comes in Who Do You Think You Are? which is really simple. The song is all about celebrating the four houses of Spice World and we made a set of scenic banners like you’d see at a football match. We imply that they are being hung over the top of the stage. I knew I’d done my job when Bullet from Brilliant claimed he thought they were real… despite him building the stage!” as much about showing their movement and chemistry, and reinforcing specific moments in the choreography that are so important to the THE IMAG CUT branding.” Camera Director, Jon Shrimpton was touring with Snow Patrol when Two Hitachi SK-HD1200E cameras manned two FOH towers to capture Modest! Management invited him onboard. Over the Christmas holidays, spot vocal shots. On the Passerelle, cameras were at stage lef and right, he reacquainted himself with the Spice catalogue and worked with Phil with a floating hand held that focused on the more energetic sections. An Mercer at Universal Pixels on booking a 16-person crew that included Video additional camera was positioned at the front of the stage to capture the Engineer, Richard Burford, Media Server Tech, Ben Farey, Lead LED Tech, girls when they returned to the golden circle. Al Wright and Crew Chief, Al Bolland. “Our crew have been amazing,” said Shrimpton was also intent on adding four Agile ARC360 robocams Shrimpton. “Dicky Burford is a veteran of the first Spice Girls tour with PSL to the spec. He commented: “They’ve proven themselves many times to and when he’s on your side, you know you’re winning!” be rainproof and the built-in windscreen wiper is a very handy addition. The scale of the show required a diferent approach to IMAG and the We have them downstage centre, stage lef and right at head height, and camera shots were notable for their televisual flavour. Shrimpton: “The fans upstage centre on a four foot stand in front of the keyboard player to get a obviously want to see the close ups of the girls but the camera cut is just wide band shot.”

51 SPICE GIRLS

The camera cut was dispatched to the disguise gx 2 media server station the smear campaign, however, the aforementioned tabloid continued to manned by Ben Farey. “It’s a very complicated media show and Ben put wage war. in an enormous amount of time getting this all together and working his Said Newton: “I would never have lef the show in jeopardy so my magic,” noted Shrimpton. “The camera images are predominantly in full handover to Jim was done over three days. I was confident of him colour and they are integrated into graphical frames of various styles seamlessly taking the reins; he did just that and I’ll be eternally thankful. I depending on the song, sometimes with overlays.” am delighted that I spent several weeks with amazing people to help put together a unique show that was always about generating happiness.” PASSING THE MIX BATON Jim Ebdon was understandably moved by Newton’s departure. He The tour began with FOH Engineer, ‘Snake’ Newton. Everything was in explained: “I watched Snake mix the first of the three Manchester shows place to deliver a sonic experience to match the stunning visuals and, sure and then the baton was handed to me for the rest of the tour. I got on the enough, the opening show in was a huge success. Some corners of console, listened to some ProTools sessions and used a virtual soundcheck the media, however, decided that all was not rosy and launched an attack [created in Waves Tracks Live] as I prepared to mix the second show with that led to Newton falling on his sword. Snake helping me through it. There’s nothing quite like diving in at the deep He explained: “We had management, family and the support act, Jess end.” Glynne, up on the tower enjoying every minute. There were some issues, such as the girls’ chat between songs appearing garbled up in the high CONTROL stands where thousands were literally having a party, although nothing we Ebdon inherited Newton’s Avid S6L console, part of the audio package couldn’t sort out. supplied by Wigwam, which accommodated the 128 inputs. “My current “Within hours, a few tweets of complaint were inflated by one of the preference is SSL,” he said, “and Wigwam kindly obliged in case I wanted to tabloids, which claimed it was a “disastrous” first gig. A newspaper even switch everything over, but that felt like I’d be going backwards. Snake did ofered cash to fuel what seemed to be a hate campaign. We had no a lot of great work before I came in and his session remains the foundation indication that such a storm would be whipped up.” upon which I’ve built everything. As the storm began to rage overnight, Newton considered throwing “We all have our own process of how we get somewhere, so stepping in the towel to present Modest! Management with the PR opportunity of into someone’s gig is always dificult. If you’re going to own the mix, you announcing some major changes. “No one wanted me to do that – I never have to tailor things towards your personal taste. Fundamentally, we both felt pressured to leave,” claimed Newton. “In fact, the girls looked at the achieved the same results through sightly diferent processes. speech delivery and we ironed out some kinks in the coverage. Meanwhile, “I took some elements of the mix. I don’t usually rely heavily on plugins the press criticism that snowballed afer Cardif convinced me that I should – I’ll only use them when absolutely necessary. For me, moving a lot of air go, and I had already sent a text message to my friend Jim Ebdon, asking if with a big sound system has a very diferent outcome to mixing in a studio. he would be available to take over.” My outboard TUBE-TECH SMC2B multiband compressor took care of the When Geri Horner asked the audience in the far reaches of Manchester vocal buss and gave me the warmth and control I was looking for. I’m from Arena if they could comfortably hear her words, the resounding “yes” and that school of thought where I raise the fader and think about what I’m follow-up reports of “crystal clear sound” should have been enough to kill hearing before I consider using compression. I also added an SSL Fusion

52 SPICE GIRLS

to the master buss to take the edge of the digital sound that I find hard to instrumentation.” listen to.” Artists have been performing in front of PA hangs for years and many At the heart of the analogue input side of the system was a three-way engineers have learned how to minimise the risk of feedback. It is, however, passive split stage box that divided the signal for FOH to a pair of Avid very unusual for an act to spend 95% of a show out front. “I expected that Stage-64 racks. One with five AES input cards and a DiGiCo SD-Rack and to be a challenge,” explained Ebdon, “but by following a detailed vocal cue SD-MiNi Rack with 32-bit input cards for monitors. The digital input side script, everything has turned out fine. I have the benefit of music producer came in the form of 48k MADI stream, split with a DirectOut Technologies David Odlum, a gifed man who created many of the music files and knows M.1k2 MADI router into an Optocore DD2FX for monitors, which sent all of the songs inside out. He works alongside me at FOH to ensure that none of the MADI channels to the DiGiCo loop. For FOH, it was split to an RME ADI- those cues are missed.” 6432 MADI-to-AES converter that provided AES signals for the Avid Stage-64 rack. PA & MONITORS The band accompanying the group may be familiar to some as Melanie Wigwam’s d&b audiotechnik PA system formed the main hangs of 16 GSL8s C’s touring band. “They’re very tight and consistent,” Ebdon commented, per side, side hangs of 14 GSL8s and two GSL12s per side, and two sub “and they are playing along to content on ProTools which amounts hangs of nine SL-Subs. A further 16 GSL8s constituted the outer fills, while to orchestral and choral parts, some backing vocals and other filler 10 V10Ps and two V7Ps were distributed between the front and centre fills.

53 SPICE GIRLS

While 24 SL-Subs were arrayed at ground level, 56 KSL8s and eight KSL12s The vocal mics were all from Shure’s Axient Digital range with Beta 58 were divided between four hangs for the delay system, with D80 amplifiers capsules and a custom chassis design that was colour-coded for each powering the system. singer. “I always know exactly what I’m getting with these mics,” insisted Ebdon heard GSL for the first time earlier this year at a festival in South Allen. “It’s what we use with and they’ve worked just as well with America. He recalled: “I was beyond blown away. It sounded so natural and the other girls.” The remainder of the mic package included a Shure Beta accurate from the moment it was switched on, so I was very pleased to see 52 and Beta 91 for kick drum, an SM57 (snare top and congas), AKG C414Bs it on this tour.” on snare bottom, overheads and percussion, Sennheiser e904s on toms, His counterpart on monitors, Neal Allen was backstage at Wembley AKG C451s on hi-hat and ride cymbal, DPA 4015s on various percussion amongst a mass of control real estate. He also commented on GSL: “You instruments and DPA 4035 lavaliers taped to the percussionist’s knuckles. don’t hear anything out of the back of the GSL hangs, so I have to make a Led by Nick Mooney, Wigwam’s audio crew also included Bill Laing, Nick few adjustments in that respect, so that the girls feel more of a true live Davies, Dan Dries, James Smallwood, Harris, Tom Maddocks, Sean response.” Horsman, Tom Horrobin, Kerry Hopwood and Nigel Fogg. Negotiating 120 inputs, many of them running as stereo pairs, Allen Despite the Spice Girls’ immense status within , it is assisted by Monitor Tech, Nick ‘Mystic’ Davis – presided over 177 individual possibly surprising that this was only their fourth tour, all of which have scenes across 24 songs including segues. His choice of a DiGiCo SD7 been covered by TPi during its 21-year lifespan. That elusive sweet spot Quantum desk gave him access to the onboard Nodal Processing. between nostalgia and the present was captured, nurtured and executed Said Allen: “Nodal Processing is like Y-splitting an input and then perfectly at Wembley. Scanning the audience, the smiles and the elation opening it up to all the front end control and it keeps everything in one were as infectious as the sing-a-longs on the return tube journey. Job done place with maximum flexibility. It really proved itself when I had to lif a bass and then some. line that was buried within a drum loop but do it without afecting anyone TPi else and without making another input which would’ve been the only Photos: Andrew ‘Timmsy’ Timms, Luke Dyson & Mark Cunningham. option. Mel C needed to hear it as it was an indicator for where she needed www.thespicegirls.com to move within the choreography on the Passerelle. I used the compressor www.jasonsherwooddesign.com to lif the line and then EQ to drop the drum loop.” www.studiomoross.com Although his plugin use was minimal, Allen did incorporate Waves’ dbx www.timroutledge.co.uk 160 compressor for , MV2 on snare and the new F6 dynamic EQ, which www.brilliantstages.com he used for acoustic guitar and vocal contouring. www.stareventsltd.com Allen created 32 individual mix sends, which included five onstage sub www.stageco.com mixes. Each band member had a d&b V-Sub to their rear as well as an in-ear www.sseaudiogroup.com/wigwam mix to help keep them tight with what they might hear in a more regular www.prg.com situation. While the band were on Shure P6HW IEMs, the four girls used www.unipix.tv Ultimate Ears UE18s, fed by a system by Wisycom, consisting of MTK952 dual www.strictlyfx.com transmitters and CSI 16T wideband combiners. www.beatthestreet.net “We tried out the Wisycom gear on some shows by Mel C,” said Allen. “We www.flybynite.co.uk were encouraged by the ability to always get a signal through, which was a www.cardingtonstudios.com consideration given how far away from the stage the girls are performing.” www.musicbank.org

54