Lighting and the video system was designed by Neil Marsh, working closely with all three members of Above & Beyond - Jono, Tony McGuinness and Paavo Siljam?ki - with lighting kit and LED screens supplied by Colour Sound Experiment.
Neil started working with the band after lighting their set at Glastonbury's Dance East a few years back, and he now co-ordinates lighting and visuals worldwide for all shows, primarily working with local productions in large one-off scenarios.
When in the UK, Colour Sound is one of his go-to suppliers and when he approached them about this show, H (Haydn Cruickshank) and the team fully embraced the concept of the fundraiser and ensured that they could produce a full on arena show.
Neil decided on a completely new design for the Wembley show as it was special.
The idea of the 12 truss spines - running upstage / downstage, six hung in a curved arrangement cascading onstage to offstage each side of the DJ booth - created the basic stage architecture. This was originally inspired by a stylised drawing of an angel created by Neil's wife, artist Leora Honeyman.
Having the spine trusses each side also left the perfect space for a large block of LED which is suited to the style of the visuals. While the LED elements available will vary from gig to gig, the one large surface is preferred rather than a fragmented look and on this occasion it was Colour Sound's new proprietary BT-7 HD screen, which looked spectacular.
Two trusses were rigged either side at the front of stage, each loaded with six Robe BMFL Spots well placed for scanning over the audience and pulling them into the action.
The 12 x spine trusses - of three different lengths - were populated with a total of 50 x Clay Paky Sharpies, 50 x 2-lite blinders and 26 x strobes. The bottom of each truss was outlined with Colour Sound's house 1m LED strips - utilising 60 units in total.
The front of the DJ booth was clad with 12 active Showtec Sunstrips - to differentiate it from the screen.
On the floor were another 12 x BMFL Spots, 12 Robe LEDWash 600s and 22 x Atomic strobes arranged in pairs.
The impressive screen measured 15m wide by 7 high and its 7mm resolution offered a 1920p pixel-perfect, clean and high-clarity surface for the content which needed no mapping or manipulation. Two 3x3 metre side screens were 400 pixels wide.
All lighting was run off a ChamSys MQ200 console, Neil's desk of choice, through which he also triggered the visuals.
Colour Sound's Haydn Cruickshank concluded, "It was a great pleasure to be able to work on this with Neil and Above & Beyond, especially for such a worthwhile cause. We were very proud to have been part of an amazing event."
*Little Something' is a charitable fund established by the band and Charlotte's colleagues to support the work of the Devon Perinatal Mental Health team (with whom Charlotte worked) and to assist more families in the future.
(Jim Evans)
