ROBERT PALMER : Music & Style

Lighting a show for both a 70,000 capacity live audience and the television cameras is a skill that Designer Patrick Woodroffe has carefully honed over several years. Whilst the televison requirements had to take priority, the lighting could never be to the detriment of the stadium spectators and the atmosphere.

"We obviously needed a lot of lights just to light the scenery, but there was very little space to rig lights within the scenery because of the large screens and decoration, and one did not want to place big trusses in front of those. So the lighting was pretty high in the air, and although the cameras could hardly see the lighting system, the payoff was that they were constantly seeing the video screens, scenery, and great-looking backgrounds," said Woodroffe, who commissioned  CPL to supply the bulk of the lighting hardware, controlled from an Avolites Diamond console, with a Scancommander driving the six Sky Arts at front-of-house.

In a televised stadium show, it is often difficult to achieve good close-ups because the key (spot) lights are normally so far away from the stage. On Songs & Visions, the eight 3kW Gladiator Xenon troupers were 200 feet away and were keying from one side only, which put the artists' faces mostly in half-shadow to create an unusual but attractive look for television. Another consideration for television is the big, wide shot of the audience and set.

Woodroffe commented: "We lit the audience in a very distinct way, lighting them from the central mixing tower island. We also lit them from each side of the stadium roof with long lines of Par 64 ACLs (the system boasted 288 of them). Over the top of those, we laid 40 VL5Arcs which are incredibly powerful units and keep very good colour saturation over a long distance. That was a big success because the audience always had a different look and it was easy to match it with the stage cues. I'd never done this before, but I would definitely use the VL5Arcs for this purpose in the future."

To bring Fisher's gold torches to life, Woodroffe installed simple Molephay and Molemag elements in two shades, amber and yellow, on two flickering circuits. The rest of the rig consisted of 35 Light & Sound Design-supplied Icons (controlled by an Icon desk), which delivered extreme punch from a distance of 50 feet in the air. "The Icons gave us the revolving gobo, which was great for dappling the stage and back shots. There were also 69 workmanlike VL5s and 20 VL6s which put colour in and painted the scenery. Dave Hill programmed the Icons and Vari*Lites at very short notice and with only about a day and a half to do the job. I think everyone was very happy with the outcome."

Most of the 70,000 at Wembley departed glowing with satisfaction having seen the sort of event that doesn't come around that often. It's all such a subjective area, of course, and if Tribute had presented this show purely as a celebrity singalong, without the sometimes flawed historical link, then it would have sat more comfortably with this spectator. Just a few weeks after Wembley, Tribute staged a mammoth classical spectacular in Moscow to celebrate the city's 850th anniversary. Tony Hollingsworth is someone who truly knows the definition of the word 'big'. He remains one of the bravest men in the business and, despite my negative observations about this one show, deserves much acclaim for the way he has expanded the concert medium far beyond the boundaries of the venue.

Mark Cunningham (SPL - 1997)

Set list :

Rod Stewart, Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige, Steve Winwood - Papa Was A Rollin' Stone 
Toni Braxton - Un-Break My Heart
Seal & Mary J. Blige - Kiss From A Rose 
Jon Bon Jovi - Keep The Faith / Sympathy For The Devil 
K.D. Lang - Constant Craving
Rod Stewart & Mary J. Blige - Nothing Compares 2 U  
Chaka Khan - Ain't Nobody  
Jon Bon Jovi - Bad Medecine 
Steve Winwood & Seal - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 
Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love
Rod Stewart & Robert Palmer - Some Guys Have All The Luck
Chaka Chan & K.D. Lang - Every Breath You Take 
Mary J. Blige - Another One Bites The Dust / Good Times  
K.D. Lang - I Will Survive
Seal - Is This Love 
Rod Stewart - Tonight's The Night 
Seal - Stairway To Heaven 
Rod Stewart - Maggie Mae 
Jon Bon Jovi - Travelin' Band / Proud Mary 
Seal & Tony Braxton - You're All I Need To Get By 
Steve Winwood - Gimme Some Lovin'  
Rod Stewart - In The Midnight Hour 
Mary J. Blige - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Seal, Jon Bon Jovi & Robert Palmer - Like A Rolling Stone 
Chaka Khan & Robert Palmer - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Steve Winwood & Chaka Khan - Dancing In The Street  
K.D. Lang & Chaka Khan - All My Loving 
Toni Braxton - Love Me Tender 
Steve Winwood - Hound Dog  
Jon Bon Jovi - That's All Right, Mama 
Robert Palmer - All Shook Up 
Rod Stewart - Jailhouse Rock 
Rod Stewart, Robert Palmer, Jon Bon Jovi & Steve Winwood - Heartbreak Hotel 
Whole cast - Hey Jude