Hot on the heels of a successful UK and European tour celebrating three decades of his iconic debut record, Illmatic – hailed by many as the greatest hip-hop album of all time – Nas, backed by the Heritage Orchestra and his transatlantic touring outfit, showcased the 1994 body of work, culminating with a selection of his greatest hits at the Royal Albert Hall for two nights. Behind the scenes equal measurements of orchestration ensured the production was worthy of the milestone, as TPi discovers.
Tour Director, Charlie Bradshaw, who has worked with Nas since 2012, retraced the origins of the project. “In 2014, we did a run with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Centre to celebrate 20 years of Illmatic, which became the blueprint for these symphony shows,” he said. “This is our fourth design this year, following a successful residency with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and a subsequent UK and Europe tour.”
With 31 years’ experience in touring, Bradshaw stepped into the role of Tour Director, enlisting the ‘on the road’ expertise of Tom Bielby, to advance the tour – having first been introduced to the camp as a Production Manager amid Nas and Wu-Tang Clan’s N.Y. State of Mind Tour in 2023. “We immediately hit it off and became friends. He was so eager, positive and a hard worker, truly invested in the production,” Bradshaw recalled.
The show displayed content throughout the years of Nas’ journey without detracting from the performance. “Nas has a real focus on the quality of his production,” Bielby said, joining the conversation. “This was a complete redesign of the previous production we were touring; it needed to be a modular system that could fit a range of differing sized venues. This year’s tour was the celebration his debut album, Illmatic, which is widely hailed as one of the most important albums of all time, so it’s a special year for Nas. With that in mind, Booking Agent, Brian Cohen, booked venues to reflect on that journey, delivering the same experience regardless of the size of venue.”
The loyal suppliers of choice included Beat the Street (travel), More Eyes (content), Ox Event House (staging and set), Siyan (lighting and video), Solotech (audio), STS Touring Productions (backline) and Stagetruck (logistics). “I’ve worked with these vendors on several projects in the past and that relationship provides the best product. We understand each other’s workflows and are prepared to go the extra mile to help you out, knowing that in the long run, that the favour is going to be returned,” Bielby said.
There were whispers during the booking phase that there would be the addition of an orchestra. “Nas has, in the past, played orchestral symphony dates in the States, so it is nothing new to him. However, nothing was set in stone until around 10 days out, when we got the final confirmation that we would be joined at the Royal Albert Hall by the iconic Heritage Orchestra,” Bielby stated.
With a tour ongoing, it was counterproductive for the team to advance both projects. Bielby elaborated: “You can lay the foundations with vendors and local promoters, however, the point we were able to assess our options was 10 days out.”
Due to the layout and history of the Royal Albert Hall, this required a complete redesign. “[Production Designer] Brian Spett and I had to pull some all nighters, going through several iterations to come up with the perfect design together, before landing on the eventual concept,” Bielby remarked.
The format of the show was the album Illmatic performed in its entirety with the Heritage Orchestra, followed by Nas’ greatest hits without the orchestra. There was a tasteful changeover, which flowed from one to another. Bradshaw praised the influence of longtime collaborator, Production Designer, Brian Spett, in addition to the wider production team.
“The entire team did their homework before we arrived on site. We wanted to embrace iconic, historic elements of the room, like the organ, while incorporating modern production value. This was one of the highlights of my career,” he said, recalling the unique ‘cultural exchange’ of the project.
“This tour was my first experience with a mixed crew, half British and half from the States, so it was an interesting exchange of knowledge and processes, and one of the best tours I’ve ever been involved in – I’m extremely proud of Nas and the entire team.”
THE GENESIS
The brief was to deliver a hybrid, hip-hop symphony show, and be respectful to an historic British institution. “It was sold as a general admission hip-hop show, so you can imagine, we didn’t have the largest stage extension, so one of the biggest challenges was to construct something that looked respectable with a 45-piece orchestra while keeping the artist and band separate from the orchestra; we didn’t want it look like it was thrown together,” Bielby explained.
“You can’t just put your A rig into the Royal Albert Hall as it wouldn’t use the space in the wisest way possible and you could very easily disrespect a venue, so we had to use the architecture of the building and create a stage design that highlighted Nas and the Heritage Orchestra,” he added. “What I learned on my way up, building stages and working with staging companies and vendors, helped me understand the challenges of a build like this.”
The result was a three-tiered stage setup to elevate Nas and the Heritage Orchestra, with the band situated in a ‘sunken’ pit. The team installed a curved LED screen to match the curvature of the building, complemented by surrounding lighting towers, using the pillars and the architecture as an integral part of the show. Space paramount, and with the last-minute addition of the orchestra, the team had to innovate.
The other big challenge was loading straight into the venue the day after Bob Dylan’s team, who left the venue at 2am the night prior. “We didn’t have much time to put this three-tiered decking on top of the stage; implement the lighting and video; dress the stage in black and gold marley; load-in three trucks’ worth of orchestral gear, afford the piano tuner an hour to tune in the morning and half an hour before the show – the orchestra also need a three-hour rehearsal, so the schedule was comprehensive,” Bielby explained. “We had three pages of logistics and schedule items documented on [Eventric] Master Tour, alone!”
Intense calculations were required to get it right and the result flowed seamlessly. However, it meant Bielby had to leave the Wolverhampton show – the night before the opening Royal Albert Hall show. Interpreting ‘I never sleep, ’cause sleep is the cousin of death’ quite literally, once the Wolverhampton date was ‘show ready’, the PM hopped on a train to London, had three hours sleep, before entering the RAH with a team of set designers and local crew to embark on the overnight build – a testament to the team’s skills and tenacity.
Ox Event House provided the staging system, which was layered on top of the venue’s house stage, effectively building a new stage above at varying levels – a 4ft orchestra structure at the upstage edge, a 3ft artist level downstage, and a 1.5ft sunken platform for the band. As well as the downstage edge being wrapped in video panels, gold and hi-gloss black marley from Harlequin Floors and bespoke fascia panels and steps were fabricated. The set design outfit further provided plexiglass steps and custom brackets to fix the video to the stage set. These were grilled to allow smoke and light to emit from the caverns of the stage, as well as a stock set of rear aluminium stairs and risers.
The Ox Event House team worked with the production team overnight build due to the incredibly tight schedule. “Tom allowed us to come in earlier with a bigger team, supported by local technicians to help, knowing it would be a big project to get in, in a short amount of time. We started at 2am and were installed by 11am,” Ox Event House’s Ben Levitt commented.
Logistics and timings for each department, as well as the orchestra, including which doors they came in, at what time, and what street level and whether the venue could allow the lift to still be in use for the longer period, were all factors the team had to consider throughout the build. “We were pleased with the time of the load-in and build speed, which provided more time for the Heritage Orchestra to rehearse,” Levitt stated.
The custom-shaped curves and stage triangles, made from timber, were fitted overnight with nine stage technicians, six fabricators and multiple joiners working on the gold-cladded staging, covering the timber with custom aluminium items. Including the office team handling CADs, around 20 members of Ox were invested in the project with a six-strong team installing the build alongside 16 members of Stage Miracles local crew.
Reflecting on the equal orchestration on and off-stage, Levitt said: “Working for the Nas team on a unique show in the iconic setting of Albert Hall was special.”
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Words: Jacob Waite
Photos: Andy Paradise and Tom Bielby (@tourlifetom)
