The set and visuals have maintained some base common elements as they have evolved throughout the tour which started in Australia in February 2015 shortly before the album dropped, and continued with festivals and headliner shows worldwide, culminating in this sold-out UK arena spree.
Andy wanted a bit of an abstract and urban look to the stage, one that was open to interpretation in a number of different ways. "I didn't want something that was too literal and certainly not too predictable," he explained, "and I needed to follow the raw, edgy feel and vibe of the music."
Striking visual elements included seven floor-based scenic 'transmission' towers upstage - commissioned by HSL from Alpha Fabrications - with dishes on top resembling satellite apparatus, and a large red fox backdrop. The dishes were made by Perry Scenic and painted in a distressed white finish to match other set pieces which were also given the same distressed paint finish.
They were complimented by a massive 10m diameter trussing circle, made up from a number of interconnecting components and several custom pieces, which was inspired by some huge metal radio transmission antenna structures that Andy had encountered in Latin America.
The spherical truss structure brought an entire additional architectural dimension to the stage and performance space as well as providing air based lighting positions for numerous fixtures.
The impressive list of luminaires included 64 x Philips Snowline E-Strip 10 LED battens used to outline the structural pieces, 54 x Ayrton Magic Blades which were located on the seven towers and flown rig, 47 x Robe Pointe multi-purpose moving lights dotted all over the circle and the towers, 46 x Philips Showline Beam 30 FX moving lights, 54 x Martin Atomic strobes, 23 x 2-cell and 16 4-cell Moles, 18 Robe LEDBeam 100s, 14 Martin MAC Aura XBs, 16 x Robe CycFX 8s, 6 x MAC III Profiles, 6 x Vari*Lite VL4000 WashBeams and last but not least, 20 x Robe PATT 2013s.
Fixtures were also hung on a front truss and two side trusses.
Much of the kit was purchased by HSL for the arena tour, part of a larger £4 million investment in kit by the Blackburn based company in the last two quarters of 2015.
Andy operated the show on his own Hog Full Boar 4 system, with 24 x DMX universes running over fibre via two of the new DP8000 FOH racks and a Luminex 16XT switcher.
Joining Andy on the road for the UK arenas was an HSL A-team crew of Ray Whelan (crew chief), Matt Brown (dimmers), Johnny Harper and Jake Jevons, and co-ordinating everything from the office was HSL project manager Jordan Hanson.
(Jim Evans)
