The tour kicked off in the US and Canada and is currently scheduled to run until February 2008, hitting the UK and Europe in September and October. There are two formats for the lighting rig - to fit both arena and stadium sized shows.
Nolan was asked onboard by Woodroffe back in January 2007, so was involved right from the very beginning. Woodroffe came up with the whole show design including the set concept, and he and Nolan shared the lighting design credit. "Patrick's idea was not to make it too techie," Nolan explains. "He wanted 'large, simple and spectacular."
The show design is based around two ovals - an ovular truss overhead and an elliptical stage down below. Inside the overhead oval are three straight trusses on a vari-lift system - with several different truss move positions. Around the oval stage are six ribbon lift towers, each with three moving lights on top which perform a 'ballet' of preset moves and positions throughout the show. The set was built by Tait Towers.
All 36 of the powerful Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs are positioned around the overhead oval and along the straight trusses. They are used for a series of profile and beam effects and for gobo projections.
(Jim Evans)
