Yup... bloody perfect!
And I assume you're talking about the first, right? I tell ya, the second one was even better...
The CLAW Part 4 - (INCL. SPOILERS)
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Yup... bloody perfect!
And I assume you're talking about the first, right? I tell ya, the second one was even better...
subnet
New Yorker
PM me a brazil bootleg source d/l
So far I agree with you, I think the boys will add one or two songs from Achtung Baby/POP to complement the CLAW - it's totally a throwback to the major 90's tours, they'll find a way to relate to it.
zooropop40
Refugee
Yup... bloody perfect!
And I assume you're talking about the first, right? I tell ya, the second one was even better...
It was the one on Feb 20th 2006. Incredible show!
PM me a brazil bootleg source d/l
I dont have a bootleg (or have really looked for one)...but you can watch and see the whole show here:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Bibien1&view=videos&query=brazil
I am sure there is a vid download somewhere online that is not too hard to find. This was the setlist:
City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, Elevation, Until the End of the World, New Year's Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Beautiful Day, Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (acoustic), Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One
Encore(s): Zoo Station, The Fly, Mysterious Ways, With or Without You, All Because of You, Norwegian Wood, Original of the Species, 40
fullautoreverse
War Child
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2003
- Messages
- 580
I cant believe how good they - bono/edge are sounding now with 360 compared to back then, only a few years.. good stuff
DontExpect
Acrobat
Question for anyone who's been to the shows so far:
I've been looking at the videos shot from around the GA and during some songs (namely UV) it seems like the fog-pumping onto the stage to aid the lighting effects seems much stronger and obvious this tour than I've ever seen before. I love the look of Bono's lasers moving through the fog, but I'm not sure I'd like to have that stuff pouring over me throughout the show.
Anyone else notice this?
I've been looking at the videos shot from around the GA and during some songs (namely UV) it seems like the fog-pumping onto the stage to aid the lighting effects seems much stronger and obvious this tour than I've ever seen before. I love the look of Bono's lasers moving through the fog, but I'm not sure I'd like to have that stuff pouring over me throughout the show.
Anyone else notice this?
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
Oh, you thought that was fog? That was just the pot smoke coming from the GA crowd...
gvox
Ghost of Love
I thought it was a bit thicker also.
Just going off my scant knowledge of stage effects...in arenas they use more of a 'mist'..it's less obtrusive and it's a 'wet' type of effect, which most singers prefer over fog machines as fog is dry and scorches the throat a bit. I hate it. Fog in an enclosed area pretty much stays on the stage and further aggravates any discomfort for the singer. You'll notice on Vertigo there was only rare occasion where fog was used, and it was during Zoo, and the tech aimed it behind and away from Bono in other words he wasn't singing into it or breathing it.
Mist tends to dissipate quickly in an outside environment however so it's less effective for the purpose of lighting whereas even though the fog is thicker, you're outside so it carries away from the singer quicker and chokes less.
That's my theory, at least
DontExpect
Acrobat
well...i will be at the Amsterdam show...
just imagine the things bono will start saying during his speeches when he's breathing in a big cloud of smot poke
partygirl43
Refugee
well...i will be at the Amsterdam show...
just imagine the things bono will start saying during his speeches when he's breathing in a big cloud of smot poke
"Bono...you're harshing my mellow..."
ouizy
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Regarding the smoke and fog - yes indeed the system on this tour is indeed a more muscular system - I am going to post some tour stats here as some design facts have come to light:
“The goal always for me is when the fans come into the stadium they see something the like of which they have never seen before,” explains U2’s show designer & director Willie Williams. The design of the U2 360° Tour certainly fulfills Williams’ objective, who, working closely with architect Mark Fisher and production director Jake Berry, has created a scenic and lighting structure that is the largest ever designed for a concert tour. “The design is exactly as I imagined it two years ago,” notes Williams. “It is a contradiction of simplicity and complexity.”
When Williams and Fisher first started to work on concepts for the in-the-round stadium design, they realized that they would have to break many conventions in order to make it work. “We had talked about doing 360° outdoors, and, starting two years ago, I started seriously considering it for this tour. I looked at all kinds of ideas to minimize the impact of the structure needed just to hang equipment when you move to the center of the field,” describes Williams. “Then there was a moment when I realized that, instead of trying to make things smaller, why not make it so big that the structure becomes invisible.” In fact, the final structure is so large that Williams created a lighting challenge with long throws of enormous distances requiring him to find a luminaire that could be bright, carry that intensity some distance, and still be able to zoom, focus, and project gobos clearly.
“The throw distances that we are dealing with are much longer than you would normally ever deal with for all the lighting positions, never mind the lights around the stadium,” says Williams. “Even the closest lights to the stage are an 80’ throw, and the ones on the legs are nearer a 100’ throw. There is no way you could use old school moving lights, plus I needed a light that would not just reach and wash but would be able to have texture.” PRG arranged a fixture demonstration at Wembley Stadium so that Williams could evaluate the Bad Boy and other lights in a real world environment where he found, “The interest thing about the light is that PRG started with the application in their fixture design, which was to create a light for large scale shows, arenas and stadiums. That has been their master stroke—to start with what the light is intended to do and really work towards that particular goal. When you are at the back of Wembley Stadium, you need a light with the gas to get to the stage.”
Williams decided to use the Bad Boy as his only automated light for illumination, with his final design calling for 196 fixtures. The Bad Boy handles the distances from the 80’ “close” location to the 400’ stadium ring position on seven of the followspot platforms. It was a bold choice to base an entire design around only one fixture, and Williams had to wait until the lighting system was powered up for the first time at Camp Nou Stadium, the Barcelona rehearsal venue, to know for certain that his idea would work. “Even when I got here, we still had a few days before the system was turned on where I was biding my time. I was a little antsy, waiting to see what these things would do under show conditions. I think it is fair to say they are absolutely remarkable.”
Lighting director Ethan Weber understood Williams’ initial concern. “There is nothing else—spot, wash lights. Everything you do is with the Bad Boy, and coming into rehearsals, it was a light none of us had ever used before,” says Weber. “When we turned them on, it was pretty obvious it was the right way to go. We have all been very impressed. Many of the fixtures are a few hundred feet from the stage, and not only are they very bright, but their zoom allow us to go from pin-spotting the band to lighting a stadium audience with relatively few fixtures. I don’t know of any other light that can do this. So far, they’ve been very reliable—impressive—considering we’ve had them on for long hours in the Barcelona sun.”
“The actual lighting design,” points out Williams, “is very straightforward.” The effect is powerful and layered in visual appeal. The tour trusted PRG’s Concert Touring Group to supply the entire lighting package. In addition to the 196 Bad Boys, Williams is using 25 followspots—a mix of Strong Gladiators and Lycian M2 long throw units, as well as 156 Martin Professional Atomic Strobes with Atomic Color Changers. In the pylon, there are five custom Xenon ripple projectors, 42 sodium vapor floodlights, and 498 DWE PAR lamps ringing the pylon. On the roof of the structure, there are eight Zap Technology BigLite 4.5kW fixtures that act as searchlights and spot the mirrorball at the very top of the pylon. The mirrorball is believed to be the first lightning-arresting mirrorball on a concert tour. (The whole structure is well-grounded.) Also on the outside of the structure’s skin are 36 orange disks also known as polyps. Underneath each polyp/disk are eight custom LED fixtures, each containing 60W RGBW LEDs. These were designed by Tommy Voeten of 1212-Studio, Inc. in New York City and were manufactured in Belgium in just four weeks. They are called U2BE, which is pronounced you-tube. They provide another lighting effect that adds a glow to the fabric skin of the structure.
Seven lighting platforms that are arrayed around the top of the stadium each have three Bad Boys, a followspot and a Novalight Nova-Flower effect light. While Weber handles all the automated fixtures, lighting associate Alex Murphy calls all the followspot cues and controls the LEDs in the set and on the roof with the PRG Mbox™ Extreme Media Server. They split responsibilities of handling the 47 haze and smoke machines on the show. PRG also provided the Series 400™ Power and Data Distribution system and the PRG BAT Low Profile lighting truss.
The power and data system was designed by systems crew chief Craig Hancock along with PRG’s Chris Conti. Hancock, who has worked on U2 tours since the 2001 Elevation tour spent time with Jeremy Lloyd and Nick Evans of Fisher’s Stufish integrating the lighting system into the structural system. All together, there are a total of 24 universes of DMX. With S400 racks at the bottom of each leg of the structure, which are in custom dimmer carts that Hancock designed. They also contain S400 main breaker racks, dimmer and relay racks, strobe distribution racks, communications, etc. There are also two carts of S400 and two dimmer carts up on catwalks in the roof structure that handles the power and data for the 167-foot center pylon. There is an S400 trunk cable run to the FOH control position, providing the power for the consoles as well as running the DMX from the consoles to the S400 system. Then they went with fiber optic cable to distribute the data around the system. There are a total of eight 350’ runs of PRG Virtuoso fiber optic cable for the data.
Hancock and Conti then tied into the SHoW DMX™ wireless DMX system from City Theatrical to get DMX out to the seven lighting platforms that ring the stadium. The wireless DMX transmitters are in the pylon above the structure with directional antennas to stay out of the way of other wireless transmissions of audio, video and scenic—all of whom have wireless systems. Getting physical height paired with directional antennas improved the signal significantly.
Supporting the Bad Boys and the followspot chairs on the legs of the structure is the new PRG BAT Low Profile truss. The Bad Boys are actually able to travel inside of truss. There are eight sticks on each leg as well as mounted under the octagon and inside of the video screen for a total of 444 total feet on the show. The BAT truss also supports twelve Thomas 360° rotatable followspot chairs, three on each leg.
The designers knew it was an ambitious undertaking and were pleased with the team effort of all involved. Everyone needed to be on the same page, working toward the same result. Tim Murch, PRG account executive, notes, “They really have brought together wonderfully qualified people, starting with the incredible Jake Berry and, of course, Willie and Mark. It is incredibly well organized, thanks in large part to them. It is a very heads up situation with coordination between every single department.”
Williams is pleased with PRGs efforts on behalf of the tour. “At the end of the day, it is about people, and if you don’t have the right people, it is just not going to happen,” he says. “I am absolutely delighted. They have been really good. You can’t do this by second-guessing; I just have to have complete faith that people are doing what they are supposed to be doing. You really have to trust.”
Williams and Fisher also had to trust that they wouldn’t see their design complete until the final piece was added. “The audience is the final element,” explains Williams. “They are part of the overall look to the design working.” On opening night in Barcelona, Spain, their designs success was brilliantly completed.
500,000: number of pixels on the expanding video screen
24: universes of DMX for the lighting rig
31: stops on the current tour
3: number of steel structures (AKA The Claw) built and used on a rotating basis at the various tour stops
25: followspots
1,344: structural pins used on the screen
196: Bad Boy fixtures on the lighting rig
164: approximate length, in feet, of the pylon/spire
8: number of hours to set up video screen
6: number of hours to tear it down
60: approximate weight, in tons, of the video screen
360: estimated number of crew members, factoring in drivers and vendors in addition to ground crew.
1: Number of ideas show director Willie Williams pitched to the band
Jake Berry, production director for U2 360°, recently joked that the tour had gotten so large and complex that the production team should be called Crew 360. Judging by the design, production, and vendor crew list below, he’s not far off. The group of individuals involved in this tour below clocks in at over 250, but that doesn’t include all of the staffers working for the vendors involved on the tour (PRG, Tait Towers, Kinesys, Clair Brothers, XL Video, etc, also listed below). Add those folks, plus, we guess, the four band members, and they may be pretty close to that final tally.
DESIGN
Show Designer/Director: Willie Williams
Video Screen Concept: Frederic Opsomer
Video Screen Kinetic Design: Chuck Hoberman
Production Architect/Designer: Mark Fisher
FOH Audio Director: Joe O'Herlihy
Video Director: Tom Krueger
Video Content Producer: Sam Pattinson
Video Content: Catherine Owens
Video Technical Director: Stefaan “Smasher” Desmedt
Presentation Animation: Adrian Mudd
Lighting Director: Ethan Weber
Associate Lighting Designer: Alexander Murphy
Production and Technical Design: Jeremy Lloyd
Structural and Membrane Engineering: Neil Thomas, Atelier One
Project Leader, Hoberman Associates: Matt Davis
Project Engineer, Hoberman Associates, Ziggy Drozdowski
Video Screen Structural Engineering: Bruo Happold, New York
Lead Structural Engineer, Buro Happold: Oliver Osterwind
Video Screen LED System: Frederic Opsomer
Membrane Form Finding: Gavin Sayers, David Dexter Associates
Technical Coordinator: Nick Evans
Video Screen Technical Management: Richard Hartman
PRODUCTION
Production Director: Jake Berry
Tour Director: Craig Evans
Stage Manager: Rocko Reedy
Assistant Stage Manager: George Reeves
Production Coordinator: Helen Campbell
Prod Coordinator: Jessica Berry
Tour Coordinator: Alison Larkin
Lights Crew Chief: Nick Barton
Lighting - Temporary Crew Chief through Paris: Rodney Clay
System Crew Chief: Craig Hancock
Lights - Dimmers/Distro: Mick Stowe
Lights - General/Mains: Stuart Lee
Lights - Hi Platforms: Russell 'Bits' Lyons
Lights - Moving Lights: Andrew Beller
Lights - Moving Lights: Blaine Dracup
Lights - Moving Lights: Jake Sullivan
Lights: Chris Keene
Lights: Jessica LaPoint
Lights: Alison Triplett
Lights: Gareth Morgan
Lights: Christopher Davis
LED Tech/Crew Chief: Patrick Van Steelant
Video Engineer: Bob Larkin
Video Engineer: Myway Marain
LED Tech: Jan Bonny
LED Tech: Jeroen Mahieu
Camera Operator: Mark Cruikshank
Camera Operator: Gordon Davies
Camera Operator: Luke Levitt
Camera Operator: Eoin McLoughlin
Video: Olivier Clybow
Video: Tobias Kokemper
Video: Frederik Gomaere
Video: Jan Paulsen
Head Rigger: Todd Mauger
Rigger: Scott Fremgen
Rigger: Robert Slepicka
Rigger: Dion Pearce
Head Carpenter: Flory Turner
Assistant Head Carpenter: AJ Rankin
Carpenter: Gino Cardelli
Carpenter: Johnny Gonzalez Mendez
Carpenter: Andrew Johnstone
Carpenter: Hajime “Haji” Minatodani
Carpenter: Jesse Thayer
Carpenter: Appy Thörig
Carpenter : "Sox" Shewmake
Head of Automation: Raffaele Buono
Automation Tech: Jack Richard
Automation Tech: Timothy Woo
Crew Chief and Drum Tech: Sam O'Sullivan
Edge Guitars: Dallas Schoo
Keyboards: Terry Lawless,
Adam Clayton Guitar Tech: Stuart Morgan
Electronics Wizard: Colm 'Rab' McAllister
Bono Guitar Tech: Phil Docherty
Wardrobe Associate: Karen Nicholson
Wardrobe Asst: Chloe Bloch
Wardrobe Asst.: Eva Maguire
Monitor Engineer: David Skaff
Monitor Engineer: Niall Slevin
Monitor Engineer /Recording: Alistair McMillian
Consultant : Robbie Adams
Sound Crew Chief: Jo Ravitch
Sound: Ben Blocker
Sound: Dave Coyle
Sound: Hannes Dander
Sound: Thomas 'Duds' Ford
Sound: Chris Fulton
Sound: Kelsey Gingrich
Sound: Pascal Harlaut
Sound: Joel Merrill
Sound: Jason O'Dell
Sound: Vincent Perreux
Sound: Jennifer Smola
Crew Chief CAT Power: Jon Boss
CAT Power: Dennis Crespo
CAT Power: Jason McCabe
CAT Power: Erich Nemier
CAT Power: Michael Tagliabue
CAT Power: Francsisco Reyes
CAT Power: Jimmy Angerami
IT: Joshua Kapellen
Frequencies: Joshua Flower
Health and Safety: Dave Wilke
Ambiance Director: James Jacques
Ambiance Asst.: Mark Caldwell
Tour Accountant: Ian Jeffery
Security Director: Scott Nichols
Personal Chef - Sweet Chili: Sandy Hylton
Catering: Steve Quinn
Catering: Franca Geppert
Catering: Joshua Ireland
Catering: Courtney Keene
Catering: Tai Lopez
Catering: Lindsay McGoran
Catering: Rob Mullen
Catering: Natalie Parkinson
Catering: Chris Ricalis
Catering: Christian Streppel
Catering: Marisa Zoccolan
VIP Party Coordinator: Jared Braverman
VIP Party Coordinator: Jessica Yaccino
Red Zone: Fran Coombs
Merch – All: Paul Nolan
Merch – EU: Graeme Bell
Merch EU: Jonathan Ellis
Merch USA: Richard Carter
Production Security Coordinator: Knute Brye
Ticketing and Security Assistant: Sarah O'Herihy
Ncompass: Andrew Kloack
Ncompass: Joseph Lucchese
Ncompass: Scott Graves
Ncompass: Carl Lyon
Ncompass: Valerie Adamson
VENDORS
Primary Steelwork Fabrication: StageCo
Main Stage, “B” Stage and Bridge Fabrication: Tait Towers
Video Screen Fabrication: Innovative Designs
Video Screen Truss Fabrication: Wi Creations
Video Screen Automation: Kinesys Projects Limited
Membrane Fabrication: Architen Landrell Associates
Polyp Mushrooms: Steel Monkey Engineering
Motion Control System Design: Kinesys
Cigar/Pylon/Spire: Brilliant Stages
PA System: Clair Brothers
Lighting System: PRG
Video System: XL Video
BLUE STEEL
Site Coordinator: Toby Fleming
Advance Caterer: Adrian Morson
StageCo Crew Chief: Johan 'Bellekes' Van Espen
StageCo: António Alves Monteiro
StageCo: Tim Beckers
StageCo: Olaf Brinkmann
StageCo: Austin Brown
StageCo Cees Dazler
StageCo: Arne De Kneght
StageCo: Jo De Wit
StageCo: Mark Gandy
StageCo: Wilco Geerts
StageCo: Rene Havermans
StageCo: Jonathan Hawkins
StageCo: Jan Heylen
StageCo: Hans Koersen
StageCo: Tambani Lokoza
StageCo: Franz Rieger
StageCo: Jasper Ruebens
StageCo: Franciscus Schilte
StageCo: Kurt Schneider
StageCo: Sonya Schubert
StageCo: Yuri Sparidaans
StageCo: Tom Strauf
StageCo: Karsten Truyens
StageCo: Michiel van den Boomen
StageCo: Roman Van Den Dugen
StageCo: Martin van Eijk
StageCo: Jan van Eyck
StageCo: Johan Van Lieshout
StageCo: Jesse Winn
RED STEEL
Site Coordinator: Robert Hale
Advance Caterer: Paul Kennedy
StageCo Crew Chief: Patrick Martens
StageCo: Kim Achterberg
StageCo: Koen Daems
StageCo: Eivind Haugen
StageCo: Ludo Hoebrechts
StageCo: Stefan Jans
StageCo: Christopher Lanosga
StageCo: David 'Cinch' Lanosga
StageCo: Marcel Leederts
StageCo: Thomas Lomanto
StageCo: Marc Melotte
StageCo: Dalibor Misura
StageCo: Lothar Schader
StageCo: Lennart Siik
StageCo: Bjorn Steegen
StageCo: Robert Szerszyn
StageCo: Jimmy Termaat
StageCo: Carly Thomas
StageCo: Janneman Van Battum
StageCo: Bart Van Damme
StageCo: Marco Van de Beek
StageCo: Michel Van Der Veken
StageCo: Erwin Van Duyse
StageCo: Mark van Gorp
StageCo: Jozef Vermeerbergen
StageCo: Gregory Vervoort
StageCo: Jaap Vriens
StageCo: Norbert Wiesinger
StageCo: Ryan Worsham
GREEN STEEL
Site Coordinator: Seth Goldstein
Advance Caterer: Matthew Pierce
StageCo Crew Chief: Hendrik Verdeyen
StageCo: Milt Angelopoulos
StageCo: Jason Bond
StageCo: Wim Carens
StageCo: Wilfried Celen
StageCo: Huckle Cleary
StageCo: Ken De Roovere
StageCo: Andreas Eibl
StageCo: Randall Ellson
StageCo: Magnus Harding
StageCo: Iain Hardwick
StageCo: Ben Hommers
StageCo: Hugues Imschoot
StageCo: Johan Jonckheere
StageCo: Oisin Kelly
StageCo: Janos Kerekgyarto
StageCo: Jurgen Krauts
StageCo: Patrick Lively
StageCo: Erik Muhm
StageCo: Florian Sadrawetz
StageCo: Chris Staal
StageCo: Benny Sterckx
StageCo: Joerg Strobel
StageCo: Marc Van Dijck
StageCo: Rudi van Hool
StageCo: Christophe Van Hostauijen
StageCo: Maarten van Kruijsdijk
StageCo: Pieter van Tulder
StageCo: Florus Van Zaten
StageCo: Bill Yager
Field Cover: Okan Tombulca
Field Cover: Sebastian Tobie
Field Cover: Dirk Boda
Field Cover: Dirk Henneberger
Field Cover: Matthew Kelly
Field Cover: Richard Dunne
“The goal always for me is when the fans come into the stadium they see something the like of which they have never seen before,” explains U2’s show designer & director Willie Williams. The design of the U2 360° Tour certainly fulfills Williams’ objective, who, working closely with architect Mark Fisher and production director Jake Berry, has created a scenic and lighting structure that is the largest ever designed for a concert tour. “The design is exactly as I imagined it two years ago,” notes Williams. “It is a contradiction of simplicity and complexity.”
When Williams and Fisher first started to work on concepts for the in-the-round stadium design, they realized that they would have to break many conventions in order to make it work. “We had talked about doing 360° outdoors, and, starting two years ago, I started seriously considering it for this tour. I looked at all kinds of ideas to minimize the impact of the structure needed just to hang equipment when you move to the center of the field,” describes Williams. “Then there was a moment when I realized that, instead of trying to make things smaller, why not make it so big that the structure becomes invisible.” In fact, the final structure is so large that Williams created a lighting challenge with long throws of enormous distances requiring him to find a luminaire that could be bright, carry that intensity some distance, and still be able to zoom, focus, and project gobos clearly.
“The throw distances that we are dealing with are much longer than you would normally ever deal with for all the lighting positions, never mind the lights around the stadium,” says Williams. “Even the closest lights to the stage are an 80’ throw, and the ones on the legs are nearer a 100’ throw. There is no way you could use old school moving lights, plus I needed a light that would not just reach and wash but would be able to have texture.” PRG arranged a fixture demonstration at Wembley Stadium so that Williams could evaluate the Bad Boy and other lights in a real world environment where he found, “The interest thing about the light is that PRG started with the application in their fixture design, which was to create a light for large scale shows, arenas and stadiums. That has been their master stroke—to start with what the light is intended to do and really work towards that particular goal. When you are at the back of Wembley Stadium, you need a light with the gas to get to the stage.”
Williams decided to use the Bad Boy as his only automated light for illumination, with his final design calling for 196 fixtures. The Bad Boy handles the distances from the 80’ “close” location to the 400’ stadium ring position on seven of the followspot platforms. It was a bold choice to base an entire design around only one fixture, and Williams had to wait until the lighting system was powered up for the first time at Camp Nou Stadium, the Barcelona rehearsal venue, to know for certain that his idea would work. “Even when I got here, we still had a few days before the system was turned on where I was biding my time. I was a little antsy, waiting to see what these things would do under show conditions. I think it is fair to say they are absolutely remarkable.”
Lighting director Ethan Weber understood Williams’ initial concern. “There is nothing else—spot, wash lights. Everything you do is with the Bad Boy, and coming into rehearsals, it was a light none of us had ever used before,” says Weber. “When we turned them on, it was pretty obvious it was the right way to go. We have all been very impressed. Many of the fixtures are a few hundred feet from the stage, and not only are they very bright, but their zoom allow us to go from pin-spotting the band to lighting a stadium audience with relatively few fixtures. I don’t know of any other light that can do this. So far, they’ve been very reliable—impressive—considering we’ve had them on for long hours in the Barcelona sun.”
“The actual lighting design,” points out Williams, “is very straightforward.” The effect is powerful and layered in visual appeal. The tour trusted PRG’s Concert Touring Group to supply the entire lighting package. In addition to the 196 Bad Boys, Williams is using 25 followspots—a mix of Strong Gladiators and Lycian M2 long throw units, as well as 156 Martin Professional Atomic Strobes with Atomic Color Changers. In the pylon, there are five custom Xenon ripple projectors, 42 sodium vapor floodlights, and 498 DWE PAR lamps ringing the pylon. On the roof of the structure, there are eight Zap Technology BigLite 4.5kW fixtures that act as searchlights and spot the mirrorball at the very top of the pylon. The mirrorball is believed to be the first lightning-arresting mirrorball on a concert tour. (The whole structure is well-grounded.) Also on the outside of the structure’s skin are 36 orange disks also known as polyps. Underneath each polyp/disk are eight custom LED fixtures, each containing 60W RGBW LEDs. These were designed by Tommy Voeten of 1212-Studio, Inc. in New York City and were manufactured in Belgium in just four weeks. They are called U2BE, which is pronounced you-tube. They provide another lighting effect that adds a glow to the fabric skin of the structure.
Seven lighting platforms that are arrayed around the top of the stadium each have three Bad Boys, a followspot and a Novalight Nova-Flower effect light. While Weber handles all the automated fixtures, lighting associate Alex Murphy calls all the followspot cues and controls the LEDs in the set and on the roof with the PRG Mbox™ Extreme Media Server. They split responsibilities of handling the 47 haze and smoke machines on the show. PRG also provided the Series 400™ Power and Data Distribution system and the PRG BAT Low Profile lighting truss.
The power and data system was designed by systems crew chief Craig Hancock along with PRG’s Chris Conti. Hancock, who has worked on U2 tours since the 2001 Elevation tour spent time with Jeremy Lloyd and Nick Evans of Fisher’s Stufish integrating the lighting system into the structural system. All together, there are a total of 24 universes of DMX. With S400 racks at the bottom of each leg of the structure, which are in custom dimmer carts that Hancock designed. They also contain S400 main breaker racks, dimmer and relay racks, strobe distribution racks, communications, etc. There are also two carts of S400 and two dimmer carts up on catwalks in the roof structure that handles the power and data for the 167-foot center pylon. There is an S400 trunk cable run to the FOH control position, providing the power for the consoles as well as running the DMX from the consoles to the S400 system. Then they went with fiber optic cable to distribute the data around the system. There are a total of eight 350’ runs of PRG Virtuoso fiber optic cable for the data.
Hancock and Conti then tied into the SHoW DMX™ wireless DMX system from City Theatrical to get DMX out to the seven lighting platforms that ring the stadium. The wireless DMX transmitters are in the pylon above the structure with directional antennas to stay out of the way of other wireless transmissions of audio, video and scenic—all of whom have wireless systems. Getting physical height paired with directional antennas improved the signal significantly.
Supporting the Bad Boys and the followspot chairs on the legs of the structure is the new PRG BAT Low Profile truss. The Bad Boys are actually able to travel inside of truss. There are eight sticks on each leg as well as mounted under the octagon and inside of the video screen for a total of 444 total feet on the show. The BAT truss also supports twelve Thomas 360° rotatable followspot chairs, three on each leg.
The designers knew it was an ambitious undertaking and were pleased with the team effort of all involved. Everyone needed to be on the same page, working toward the same result. Tim Murch, PRG account executive, notes, “They really have brought together wonderfully qualified people, starting with the incredible Jake Berry and, of course, Willie and Mark. It is incredibly well organized, thanks in large part to them. It is a very heads up situation with coordination between every single department.”
Williams is pleased with PRGs efforts on behalf of the tour. “At the end of the day, it is about people, and if you don’t have the right people, it is just not going to happen,” he says. “I am absolutely delighted. They have been really good. You can’t do this by second-guessing; I just have to have complete faith that people are doing what they are supposed to be doing. You really have to trust.”
Williams and Fisher also had to trust that they wouldn’t see their design complete until the final piece was added. “The audience is the final element,” explains Williams. “They are part of the overall look to the design working.” On opening night in Barcelona, Spain, their designs success was brilliantly completed.
500,000: number of pixels on the expanding video screen
24: universes of DMX for the lighting rig
31: stops on the current tour
3: number of steel structures (AKA The Claw) built and used on a rotating basis at the various tour stops
25: followspots
1,344: structural pins used on the screen
196: Bad Boy fixtures on the lighting rig
164: approximate length, in feet, of the pylon/spire
8: number of hours to set up video screen
6: number of hours to tear it down
60: approximate weight, in tons, of the video screen
360: estimated number of crew members, factoring in drivers and vendors in addition to ground crew.
1: Number of ideas show director Willie Williams pitched to the band
Jake Berry, production director for U2 360°, recently joked that the tour had gotten so large and complex that the production team should be called Crew 360. Judging by the design, production, and vendor crew list below, he’s not far off. The group of individuals involved in this tour below clocks in at over 250, but that doesn’t include all of the staffers working for the vendors involved on the tour (PRG, Tait Towers, Kinesys, Clair Brothers, XL Video, etc, also listed below). Add those folks, plus, we guess, the four band members, and they may be pretty close to that final tally.
DESIGN
Show Designer/Director: Willie Williams
Video Screen Concept: Frederic Opsomer
Video Screen Kinetic Design: Chuck Hoberman
Production Architect/Designer: Mark Fisher
FOH Audio Director: Joe O'Herlihy
Video Director: Tom Krueger
Video Content Producer: Sam Pattinson
Video Content: Catherine Owens
Video Technical Director: Stefaan “Smasher” Desmedt
Presentation Animation: Adrian Mudd
Lighting Director: Ethan Weber
Associate Lighting Designer: Alexander Murphy
Production and Technical Design: Jeremy Lloyd
Structural and Membrane Engineering: Neil Thomas, Atelier One
Project Leader, Hoberman Associates: Matt Davis
Project Engineer, Hoberman Associates, Ziggy Drozdowski
Video Screen Structural Engineering: Bruo Happold, New York
Lead Structural Engineer, Buro Happold: Oliver Osterwind
Video Screen LED System: Frederic Opsomer
Membrane Form Finding: Gavin Sayers, David Dexter Associates
Technical Coordinator: Nick Evans
Video Screen Technical Management: Richard Hartman
PRODUCTION
Production Director: Jake Berry
Tour Director: Craig Evans
Stage Manager: Rocko Reedy
Assistant Stage Manager: George Reeves
Production Coordinator: Helen Campbell
Prod Coordinator: Jessica Berry
Tour Coordinator: Alison Larkin
Lights Crew Chief: Nick Barton
Lighting - Temporary Crew Chief through Paris: Rodney Clay
System Crew Chief: Craig Hancock
Lights - Dimmers/Distro: Mick Stowe
Lights - General/Mains: Stuart Lee
Lights - Hi Platforms: Russell 'Bits' Lyons
Lights - Moving Lights: Andrew Beller
Lights - Moving Lights: Blaine Dracup
Lights - Moving Lights: Jake Sullivan
Lights: Chris Keene
Lights: Jessica LaPoint
Lights: Alison Triplett
Lights: Gareth Morgan
Lights: Christopher Davis
LED Tech/Crew Chief: Patrick Van Steelant
Video Engineer: Bob Larkin
Video Engineer: Myway Marain
LED Tech: Jan Bonny
LED Tech: Jeroen Mahieu
Camera Operator: Mark Cruikshank
Camera Operator: Gordon Davies
Camera Operator: Luke Levitt
Camera Operator: Eoin McLoughlin
Video: Olivier Clybow
Video: Tobias Kokemper
Video: Frederik Gomaere
Video: Jan Paulsen
Head Rigger: Todd Mauger
Rigger: Scott Fremgen
Rigger: Robert Slepicka
Rigger: Dion Pearce
Head Carpenter: Flory Turner
Assistant Head Carpenter: AJ Rankin
Carpenter: Gino Cardelli
Carpenter: Johnny Gonzalez Mendez
Carpenter: Andrew Johnstone
Carpenter: Hajime “Haji” Minatodani
Carpenter: Jesse Thayer
Carpenter: Appy Thörig
Carpenter : "Sox" Shewmake
Head of Automation: Raffaele Buono
Automation Tech: Jack Richard
Automation Tech: Timothy Woo
Crew Chief and Drum Tech: Sam O'Sullivan
Edge Guitars: Dallas Schoo
Keyboards: Terry Lawless,
Adam Clayton Guitar Tech: Stuart Morgan
Electronics Wizard: Colm 'Rab' McAllister
Bono Guitar Tech: Phil Docherty
Wardrobe Associate: Karen Nicholson
Wardrobe Asst: Chloe Bloch
Wardrobe Asst.: Eva Maguire
Monitor Engineer: David Skaff
Monitor Engineer: Niall Slevin
Monitor Engineer /Recording: Alistair McMillian
Consultant : Robbie Adams
Sound Crew Chief: Jo Ravitch
Sound: Ben Blocker
Sound: Dave Coyle
Sound: Hannes Dander
Sound: Thomas 'Duds' Ford
Sound: Chris Fulton
Sound: Kelsey Gingrich
Sound: Pascal Harlaut
Sound: Joel Merrill
Sound: Jason O'Dell
Sound: Vincent Perreux
Sound: Jennifer Smola
Crew Chief CAT Power: Jon Boss
CAT Power: Dennis Crespo
CAT Power: Jason McCabe
CAT Power: Erich Nemier
CAT Power: Michael Tagliabue
CAT Power: Francsisco Reyes
CAT Power: Jimmy Angerami
IT: Joshua Kapellen
Frequencies: Joshua Flower
Health and Safety: Dave Wilke
Ambiance Director: James Jacques
Ambiance Asst.: Mark Caldwell
Tour Accountant: Ian Jeffery
Security Director: Scott Nichols
Personal Chef - Sweet Chili: Sandy Hylton
Catering: Steve Quinn
Catering: Franca Geppert
Catering: Joshua Ireland
Catering: Courtney Keene
Catering: Tai Lopez
Catering: Lindsay McGoran
Catering: Rob Mullen
Catering: Natalie Parkinson
Catering: Chris Ricalis
Catering: Christian Streppel
Catering: Marisa Zoccolan
VIP Party Coordinator: Jared Braverman
VIP Party Coordinator: Jessica Yaccino
Red Zone: Fran Coombs
Merch – All: Paul Nolan
Merch – EU: Graeme Bell
Merch EU: Jonathan Ellis
Merch USA: Richard Carter
Production Security Coordinator: Knute Brye
Ticketing and Security Assistant: Sarah O'Herihy
Ncompass: Andrew Kloack
Ncompass: Joseph Lucchese
Ncompass: Scott Graves
Ncompass: Carl Lyon
Ncompass: Valerie Adamson
VENDORS
Primary Steelwork Fabrication: StageCo
Main Stage, “B” Stage and Bridge Fabrication: Tait Towers
Video Screen Fabrication: Innovative Designs
Video Screen Truss Fabrication: Wi Creations
Video Screen Automation: Kinesys Projects Limited
Membrane Fabrication: Architen Landrell Associates
Polyp Mushrooms: Steel Monkey Engineering
Motion Control System Design: Kinesys
Cigar/Pylon/Spire: Brilliant Stages
PA System: Clair Brothers
Lighting System: PRG
Video System: XL Video
BLUE STEEL
Site Coordinator: Toby Fleming
Advance Caterer: Adrian Morson
StageCo Crew Chief: Johan 'Bellekes' Van Espen
StageCo: António Alves Monteiro
StageCo: Tim Beckers
StageCo: Olaf Brinkmann
StageCo: Austin Brown
StageCo Cees Dazler
StageCo: Arne De Kneght
StageCo: Jo De Wit
StageCo: Mark Gandy
StageCo: Wilco Geerts
StageCo: Rene Havermans
StageCo: Jonathan Hawkins
StageCo: Jan Heylen
StageCo: Hans Koersen
StageCo: Tambani Lokoza
StageCo: Franz Rieger
StageCo: Jasper Ruebens
StageCo: Franciscus Schilte
StageCo: Kurt Schneider
StageCo: Sonya Schubert
StageCo: Yuri Sparidaans
StageCo: Tom Strauf
StageCo: Karsten Truyens
StageCo: Michiel van den Boomen
StageCo: Roman Van Den Dugen
StageCo: Martin van Eijk
StageCo: Jan van Eyck
StageCo: Johan Van Lieshout
StageCo: Jesse Winn
RED STEEL
Site Coordinator: Robert Hale
Advance Caterer: Paul Kennedy
StageCo Crew Chief: Patrick Martens
StageCo: Kim Achterberg
StageCo: Koen Daems
StageCo: Eivind Haugen
StageCo: Ludo Hoebrechts
StageCo: Stefan Jans
StageCo: Christopher Lanosga
StageCo: David 'Cinch' Lanosga
StageCo: Marcel Leederts
StageCo: Thomas Lomanto
StageCo: Marc Melotte
StageCo: Dalibor Misura
StageCo: Lothar Schader
StageCo: Lennart Siik
StageCo: Bjorn Steegen
StageCo: Robert Szerszyn
StageCo: Jimmy Termaat
StageCo: Carly Thomas
StageCo: Janneman Van Battum
StageCo: Bart Van Damme
StageCo: Marco Van de Beek
StageCo: Michel Van Der Veken
StageCo: Erwin Van Duyse
StageCo: Mark van Gorp
StageCo: Jozef Vermeerbergen
StageCo: Gregory Vervoort
StageCo: Jaap Vriens
StageCo: Norbert Wiesinger
StageCo: Ryan Worsham
GREEN STEEL
Site Coordinator: Seth Goldstein
Advance Caterer: Matthew Pierce
StageCo Crew Chief: Hendrik Verdeyen
StageCo: Milt Angelopoulos
StageCo: Jason Bond
StageCo: Wim Carens
StageCo: Wilfried Celen
StageCo: Huckle Cleary
StageCo: Ken De Roovere
StageCo: Andreas Eibl
StageCo: Randall Ellson
StageCo: Magnus Harding
StageCo: Iain Hardwick
StageCo: Ben Hommers
StageCo: Hugues Imschoot
StageCo: Johan Jonckheere
StageCo: Oisin Kelly
StageCo: Janos Kerekgyarto
StageCo: Jurgen Krauts
StageCo: Patrick Lively
StageCo: Erik Muhm
StageCo: Florian Sadrawetz
StageCo: Chris Staal
StageCo: Benny Sterckx
StageCo: Joerg Strobel
StageCo: Marc Van Dijck
StageCo: Rudi van Hool
StageCo: Christophe Van Hostauijen
StageCo: Maarten van Kruijsdijk
StageCo: Pieter van Tulder
StageCo: Florus Van Zaten
StageCo: Bill Yager
Field Cover: Okan Tombulca
Field Cover: Sebastian Tobie
Field Cover: Dirk Boda
Field Cover: Dirk Henneberger
Field Cover: Matthew Kelly
Field Cover: Richard Dunne
gvox
Ghost of Love
I appreciate the post, but you might consider condensing to just the part about the smoke and fog, which is very small. That was alot of information - great information, no doubt about it - but it was mostly about the lighting
zoopop
Rock n' Roll Doggie
I didn't want to start a new thread but
How loud are the shows? I was quite impress with audio clarity of the Vertigo stadium show and was wondering if the 360 show has great audio.
I would also like to add, the camera work for the screen is really great. Some great shots of Bono and the band.
How loud are the shows? I was quite impress with audio clarity of the Vertigo stadium show and was wondering if the 360 show has great audio.
I would also like to add, the camera work for the screen is really great. Some great shots of Bono and the band.
I thought the audio clarity of this show blew Vertigo stadium sound out of the water, comparing Barca 2005 to Barca 2009 (I was at both)
I could understand every single word that Bono sang and spoke this time. I'm not sure if it was because of where my seat was this time; which was directly in front of the speakers that faced the the RZ on Adam's side but the sound was awesome.
I could understand every single word that Bono sang and spoke this time. I'm not sure if it was because of where my seat was this time; which was directly in front of the speakers that faced the the RZ on Adam's side but the sound was awesome.
subnet
New Yorker
well if the audience recordings are any sign, it would seem obvious this tour's audio will blow out the doors of any previous U2 tour
subnet
New Yorker
I was looking around today for any photos of the claw setup in Paris, but nothing turned up on google images
have any of you turned up anything?
have any of you turned up anything?
zooropop40
Refugee
ohhh thats good! How did this show compare overall to Barca 2005? Was the audience's reaction different? maybe a different feel to the show?
sorry for so many questions, I just am a curious U2 fanatic!
ouizy
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Absolutely - my bad.
They are doing a kick-ass job documenting this tour and many kudos to them for putting in the substantial effort.
I would have assumed the credit would have been assumed by some of my prior posts.
to Live Design!!!Absolutely - my bad.
They are doing a kick-ass job documenting this tour and many kudos to them for putting in the substantial effort.
I would have assumed the credit would have been assumed by some of my prior posts.
I second, third or fourth that one! Man, the Tour DVD is going to have awesome extra's on the design/build of the CLAW!
zooropop40
Refugee
^ nice! thanks for sharing.
Claw looks super modern and cool from those angles.
Claw looks super modern and cool from those angles.
Headache
Acrobat
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
- Messages
- 439
Reasoning that playing a stadium ‘in the round’ would require twice as much PA as an end-on show, my original design was based on duplicating the PA used for the Rolling Stones’ ‘Bigger Bang’ stadium stage. In late June Clair Brothers came back to Stufish with a detailed design for the PA that almost doubled the number and weight of the PA over my original estimate (thus employing four times the amount of PA used on the Bigger Bang tour). Incorporating this much larger PA into the project required a major redesign of the superstructure
Vital statistics:
The superstructure
Across stage width across bases - 64m (210ft)
Up/down stage width across bases - 48.5m (159ft)
Height of superstructure - 30m (100ft)
Height to lightening conductor (tip of pylon) - 51.8m (170ft)
Clear span across stage -57.5m (189ft)
Clear span up/down stage - 41.5m (136ft)
Height to underside octagon truss - 25m (82ft)
Tip to tip length of pylon - 43m (141ft)
Total unladen weight of superstructure - 190 tonnes
read more at Stufish | Mark Fisher Studio | Concerts |U2 | 360� | 2009
Vital statistics:
The superstructure
Across stage width across bases - 64m (210ft)
Up/down stage width across bases - 48.5m (159ft)
Height of superstructure - 30m (100ft)
Height to lightening conductor (tip of pylon) - 51.8m (170ft)
Clear span across stage -57.5m (189ft)
Clear span up/down stage - 41.5m (136ft)
Height to underside octagon truss - 25m (82ft)
Tip to tip length of pylon - 43m (141ft)
Total unladen weight of superstructure - 190 tonnes
read more at Stufish | Mark Fisher Studio | Concerts |U2 | 360� | 2009
Headache
Acrobat
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
- Messages
- 439
think this has been put up before
so look at it agian
so look at it agian
elevated_u2_fan
Blue Crack Supplier
these pictures are serious wallpaper material...
zooropop40
Refugee
Some more CLAW pictures (from MILAN!)
Headache
Acrobat
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
- Messages
- 439
http://www.stufish.com/images/project_images/535-U2-09/Reality/535-02JUL09-003w.jpg
I have no idea how I posted this , I cant seem to get it to work for any other pics. seems to be a mix of url & img with a bit missing and a few ] added.
Hey hands off i am patenting it
I have no idea how I posted this , I cant seem to get it to work for any other pics. seems to be a mix of url & img with a bit missing and a few ] added.
Hey hands off i am patenting it
zooropop40
Refugee
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