Adlib first worked with the high profile funny man in 2008, and have followed his spectacular career trajectory encompassing a steadily increasing amount of live work in larger in larger venues.
The tour's lighting was designed by Adlib's award winning Ian Tomlinson, and was operated on the road by Andy Rowe, working with technicians Chris Neary, Shaun Moore and Mike Summerfield. FOH sound was engineered by James Neale, with Marc Peers on monitors, who was also crew chief, working alongside Adlib's systems tech Kenny Perrin and George Puttock.
Once again, Neale specified a Coda Audio Airline LA12 system, after achieving great results on the earlier leg of the tour. They toured 60 x LA12 boxes, which was usually configured as four hangs of 12 for main left and rights and sides, with the remaining 12 used for the delays behind the FOH position, which varied between three stacks of four and two of six, depending on the venue.
Twenty-four LA8s were supplied for use as fills - deployed both as down-fills under the main hangs and as front fills. Adlib also supplied all necessary motors, control and rigging to fly the system.
Eight Coda SC8 subs were on the deck in front of the stage. Their neat dimensions and massive power made them a versatile choice for all venues as well as being good for maintaining clean sightlines. All the Coda elements were driven by their proprietary C10 amps. The only monitors/onstage-fills were four flown L-Acoustics ARCs, two per side.
Neale once again chose a DigiDesign SC48 console, which he has also used on other comedy acts and uses a Tubetech CL1B compressor/limiter and Rane Serato dynamics as plug-ins.
Peers used a Yamaha LS9 16-channel desk for mixing the monitors, and Russell Howard's mic of choice was a Shure SM 58.
Ian Tomlinson's original lighting design was such a success on the previous leg of the tour that Howard's production asked for an exact repeat.
With just Howard and a single chair onstage - the challenge was on to make it an intimate and friendly environment for the delivery of a comedy show in a series of large venues.
Tomlinson created a basic architectural structure to shape the performance space with four 30 ft high by 2m diameter scenic columns made from white sharkstooth gauze. Inside these hung four 30ft high by 1m wide drapes made from Polyester canvas, printed with 'Russell', 'Howard', 'Right Here' and 'Right Now' and lit from top and bottom. (Made & printed by Halifax based J & C Joel).
Five trusses were flown in the roof, three utilised for lighting and two for drapes and softs, with the two offstage columns hung from the mid truss and the two onstage ones flown off the back lighting truss.
On the front truss were eight Martin Professional MAC 700 Wash moving lights, used as general stage washes, together with 12 x 2-lite Moles for audience illumination and interactive moments.
On the mid lighting truss were six MAC 301 LED wash lights clustered around the two outer columns positioned towards the end of the trusses. All four columns were also internally lit by a MAC 301 mounted inside at the top and bottom, the small dimensions of the fixtures making them perfect for the task! Also on the mid truss were three MAC 700 Profiles, used for beamwork and backlighting the forestage area.
On the third most upstage lighting truss were another six MAC 301s lighting the two columns flown from that truss, together with six MAC 700 Profiles, utilised for big back-lighting looks and more powerful high-impact beam work.
On the floor just in front of the drapes was a set of 9 Sunstrips. Combined with an additional Sunstrip either side of the entranceway, these helped make a big, bold, exciting razzamatazz
