The band has seen its latest album, Monkey Business, ride high in the charts in the second half of 2005 and tickets for the new London shows in December were hot property.
The shows feature a versatile lighting rig complete with advanced motion control, designed to focus attention directly on the dynamic Peas themselves. The central upstage area is occupied by two vertical circles, a large one in front while the rear circle occasionally frames a backdrop of a smiling monkey, taken from the album cover.
Each truss carries an array of Vari*Lite luminaires - the tour carries a total of 30 Vari*Lite VL2000 Washes, 12 VL2000 Spots and nine VL3000 Spot luminaires - accompanied by more around the perimeter of the stage floor and elsewhere, with a complement of 18 Atomic Strobes forming the design's third key element. In front of it is a single straight truss carrying more Vari*Lite luminaires and four Robert Juliat Aramis 2.5K HMI followspots. Other effects are a pair of DeSisti Leonardo 5kW fresnels and four James Thomas 4-lite Par 36 Spot Banks, with a Flying Pig Wholehog II, plus Wing, in command, and Flashlight ALC dimmers.
The two truss circles (6m and 4m in diameter) are complemented by 50m of Slick Mini Beam, 20m of Maxi Beam and 45m of Prolyte H30-d truss, flown from a complement of 39 CM Lodestar hoists in total, for lights, kabuki drop, set pieces and sound.
The circles are transformed into flexible, animated structures by the CyberHoist/InMotion 3D motion control system from XLNT Advanced Technologies, using just eight CyberHoist CH500 (500kg maximum load, 20m per minute variable speed) chain hoists. The rig is programmed and controlled by a dedicated InMotion3D full production control system.
Aart Gigengack of Rigging Box and Flashlight's production manager Marco de Koff helped devise the animation, which involved inserting a hinge in each circle at the 12 o'clock position, enabling the two halves to fold upwards and outwards like a pair of bird's wings, with CyberHoists supporting the centre points and lifting each outer edge. In combination, these also provide an overall 'tilt' movement for the circles. Two more pairs of CyberHoist motors provide overall height control of each circle.
The result is a pair of flexible shapes that can rise or fall independently or in unison, spread out or close back down into circles again - creating a huge variety of lighting positions and truss shapes using just eight motors.Marc Brickman explained: "The overall design concept came together after long discussions between Anthony and I. He came up with the idea for the stage layout with the two circles of truss carrying the principal lighting elements, which I thought was a great solution because of the dynamic look of having that central structure as the lighting focus. Nick had pre-programmed the show in New York before the first dates, so that by the time the tour started he already had a lot of palettes in."
Nick Kyriakou takes up the story: "It's a very simple design technically, yet incredibly versatile. With the CyberHoists controlling the front and back truss circles we're making the movements in 2D and yet they look like 3D movements. Each song has a different look and CyberHoist makes it wonderfully easy to change from one look to the next. It's also very fast to rig and de-rig - the same as normal chain hoists with just an extra data cable."
Lighting director Nick 'The Greek' Kyriakou is operating the show from a Wholehog II and Flashlight's crew comprises crew chief Andy Mitchinson, Cyberhoist operator Ruud Werkhoven, lighting technician Pascal Vergeer and system engineer Gert Jan Houben.
