Production values are always at the top of the agenda for Gabriel's performances. The precise, highly original Growing Up show (see L&SI July 2003) was originally conceived by Canadian film maker Robert Lepage and Peter Gabriel. Lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe was asked this year to produce a new design and feel for the original show, one more suited to arenas, sheds and larger performance spaces.
Woodroffe worked alongside long-term Gabriel Growing Up lighting director Dennis Garner, who was with the tour from the start. He added many new dimensions to the show, boosting the large bright looks department for the traditional crowd pleasers, but also keeping many of the original ideas and subtleties from the initial tour lighting. Gabriel - who is always integrally involved with the lighting designs - was keen to retain specific intimate moments, even in large arenas.
The show is staged in the round. The main lighting truss is a 13m diameter circle - the same one that's always been with the tour - with 24 High End X.Spot Xtremes and 24 PC Beam wash lights spaced around its perimeter. This is crossed with four trussing 'fingers', each rigged with four X.Spot Xtremes, two 6k washes and a followspot. On the circular stage floor, which is also a full revolve, are another six X.Spots, six generic fixtures and 16 Martin Atomic strobes - and that's it. Minimal but highly effective. Gardner operates using a Wholehog III which he loves, and all lighting equipment is supplied by Neg Earth.
Above the LX truss is an entire hidden technical world - the Tech Grid - housing all the lifting and flying equipment for the various scenic elements and props that appear throughout the show - which are also stored up here, along with the dimmers, amplifiers and power distros. The Tech Grid has presented a major challenge in low-headroom venues, ideally needing a 50ft trim height to fit comfortably.
The set was designed by Gabriel and Charlie Kail and constructed by Total Fabrications. It included a flown circular stage - slightly below the LX truss dubbed 'heaven' - and used by Gabriel and his daughter Melanie, who performs in the show, for an anti-gravity stroll during 'Downside Up'.
Projected gobo effects were also important in the precise visual equation. Woodroffe approached Projected Image's Jim Douglas to come up with completely original artwork for two of the gobo designs. This included a girder/truss-like design, tiled together for the song 'Tower', when the gobos were beamed vertically up the tower as it appears mid-stage, flown in from the grid above.
They also supplied a set of gobos of Gabriel's face: these required intricate production methods to attain the correct amounts of contrast and to retain the photographic shadow detail. These were used to project his face up onto the ceiling in a sinister, shadowy 'Big Brother'-style effect. Lightning flashes for 'Signal To Noise', the final number of the set before the encores, were also produced with gobos.
Video was supplied by XL Video, consisting of two circular screens, one at each lengthways end of the stage, high up in the roof. Of three main cameras, one was positioned at FOH and two around the stage, supplemented by three mini cams onstage. Video director was Tim Brennan. The video screens were also fed with clips and images from a Catalyst digital media server run by Gardner from his Hog III.
Gabriel's front-of-house engineer is Ben Findlay, who's also a studio engineer. He's worked on the show since 2003, and used a V-Dosc system and a Yamaha PM1D console.
Effects on Gabriel's vocal are minimal - an exception being a Quantec Yardstick reverb, a re-make of the original 1980s Quantec, complete with tactile front knob to increase the reverb in real time
