Lighting the Non Stop Live 2018 stadium tour was the artist’s long-term LD Giovanni Pinna, who included over 300 Robe moving lights on the rig – a mix of Robe MegaPointes, Spiiders and LEDBeam 150s – all supplied as part of the lighting package by Rome based lighting rental company, BOTW, and used to create plenty of excitement and hi-impact.
The starting point for the tour design – was the show-stopping event in Enzo Ferrari Park, Modena last summer, Vasco’s one and only live appearance to celebrate 40 years of mainly-thrills-with-a-few-spills in entertainment. In front of around 250,000 people, it was the largest rock concert in Italy to date.
Lots of video and movement was right at the heart of this with a central screen 18 metres wide by 10 metres high (perfect 16:9 aspect ratio), with two 12 x 12 metre side screens, all 3 of which split into two horizontally to give some variation.
Over the stage were four 6 x 4 metre ‘satellite’ screens cladding the front of four trussing pods which were also rigged with lighting fixtures, and these tracked upstage / downstage and also flew up and down. With these and the splitting big screens, Pinna was able to transform the stage architecture highly effectively with automation cues.
All the screen surfaces were 8 mm semi-transparent, and Pinna positioned substantial quantities of lighting behind that could blast through, bringing a real 3D quality to the stage.
The set back wall at Modena was made up of scenic panels outlined with LED tape overlaid with a semi-transparent graphics image and the supporting scaffolding skeleton visible for additional depth, and for the tour, a re-scaled version of this was also present. In front of the panels were silver scaffolding pipes and lights were spread out across the whole expanse firing in from the back.
A series of trusses were installed over the main stage area, and above the side screens were box truss ‘pods’ for lighting. The side pods on the tour were each rigged with 50 moving lights.
The touring production had a roof which was missing at Modena, so Giovanni seized the additional rigging points to hang front and key lights. Pinna chose Robe’s new MegaPointe, with 135 of the luminaires scattered all over the rig – above the stage, on the back wall and on the side pods.
For the primary wash light, he picked Robe Spiiders. These were also deployed everywhere he could fit a fixture and used to wash the vast stage space, PA wings and runway out into the audience at the front with light.
It was the first time that Giovanni had used MegaPointes fully on a show, and they worked hard in every song of the 2.5 hour set! “I am really pleased with them. It’s an incredible fixture,” adding that they have proved totally reliable and endured some atrocious weather.
Robe Spiiders are now one of his go-to fixtures for any show, declaring “their colours, incredible zoom and the very nice tight, definite beam,” as a highlight.
A total of 8 Robe LEDBeam 150s on vertical poles were dedicated just to producing a more edgy style of low level cross and key lighting on the band and risers. Small and unobtrusive, they are ideal to have in close proximity to performers.
Pinna used around 200 blinders, some of which also doubled as strobes. There were also additional beam lights scattered around as practicals and for filling in the back-of-camera shots for the IMAG mix.
A remote follow spotting system controlled around 30 luminaires dotted all over the rig, including front and side key lighting fixtures and both Robe MegaPointes and Robe Spiiders. He also used a trusty MA Lighting grandMA full size console to run the show, and there was another one for the playback video.
Set designer Claudio Santucci for set builders Gioforma has also been involved in Vasco tours and live shows for some time. PRG provided the screens and the Kinesys automation system which was operated for the show by Jimmy Johnson.
PRG’s crew chief was Bart de Cleene and BOTW’s was Fabrizio Moggio. Lasers were from ER Productions, designed by Ross Marshall and the pyro and flame system was from Parente – the effects – fire and confetti – were also fired from the lighting console.
The audio vendor was Agora and the assertive and crystal clear FOH sound was mixed by Andrea Corsellini. The production manager was Riccardo Genovese.