Newsgroup: it.fan.musica.u2
Titolo: [lunghissimissimo] All about Elevation Tour

Questo non tradurlo Gilthas, sarebbe una follia :P :P :P
Cmq in qualche punto è interessante, se a qualcuno interessa l'originale con
tanto di fotografie (pure quella del fighissimo aereo dell'Elevation Tour)
glielo posso mandare via mail ;)
CASE STUDY #6 THE ELEVATION TOUR
By: David Yanks
The beginning of a rock 'n' roll band's touring career is pretty standard.
The singer has a homegrown PA system, the guitarist has an electric guitar
and maybe an acoustic, the bassist his own beat-up wooden bass, and the
drummer owns a kit that has paint chips and is probably in need of new
heads. This equipment is then loaded into the back of a beat up old van that
needs repair, and the band heads out on the road. If they are lucky, they
get booked at a club or theatre that supplies a stage, lights, and PA.
Otherwise the band makes do with what they have. This is how thousands of
bands -including U2- started touring.
The making of a U2 tour can be seen more like roving architectural project
than a simple live music show. Architects, engineers, lighting designers,
sound designers, video designers, and a host of other specialists contribute
to what becomes a spectacle in the art of the live show. Many of these
designers have worked with U2 for over 15 years and are now recognized as
industry leaders in the development of ideas and products that many other
bands use in their live tours. Names like Mark Fisher, Peter "Willie"
Williams, Bruce Ramus, and Joe O'Herlihy are now well known in the touring
world due to their extensive work with U2. Many of U2's 'permanent crew' are
also the stage, sound, lighting, and video designers for such bands as The
Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and REM. These people are considered part of U2'
s immediate technical family and they arrive early on the scene when it is
time to invent a new tour.
The following is a technical summary of U2's last tour dubbed, the Elevation
Tour.
The Elevation tour (March 2001 - December 2001) was grouped into two U.S.
legs and one European leg. Initial planning for the show started during the
recording of All That You Can't Leave Behind. Usually, during the recording
of an album, U2 reunites with Willie Williams to discuss ideas about their
feel for the upcoming tour. Willie responds with thoughts of his own,
including his knowledge of what technologies have emerged since the last
tour, and how he would like to implement them in the new tour. Planning
begins and Willie gets to work. Williams is the show designer and he puts
together the broad strokes for the preliminary designs for the show.
Before the Elevation tour kicked off, the band did a limited number of club
dates in New York, Paris, and London to warm-up the new songs. They were so
well received in the smaller venues, U2 wanted to bring that intimate
feeling to the upcoming world tour. The band decided to play strictly indoor
arenas and forgo the monstrous stadiums they had played in the past. This
was going to be a "back-to-basics" tour, and the show was to focus more on
the music and less on the props. The idea to have a "show within the show"
emerged and Williams' idea to implement it was to have the band play in the
round, have audience members within the stage confines, and to have general
admission on the floor.
Set Design
A U2 concert is a complete design with the stage, lights, sound, and video
forming a seamless entity. Williams gets the designers on board early in the
process. The first of three visual aspects of the show is that of stage and
scenery design. Mark Fisher, a London based architect who primarily designs
for entertainment, is responsible for the design of the stage from
development, through schematics, and into construction and/or technical
documents.
For the Elevation tour, Fisher devised a stage that would fit with Williams'
idea of having a "show within a show." Gone would be the second B-stage the
band had used in the past. Instead the base stage would extend into, and
surrounding, the crowd. One of the symbols on the Popmart tour was a heart,
and this logo found its way into the graphics for the new album - this time
inside a suitcase. Fisher took this symbol and literally formed the stage
into the shape of a heart. The stage's shape resembled a rectangle with two
wings (reminiscent of the indoor Joshua Tree stage) with a red heart that
started at the back of the stage with its point extended out into the
audience, reaching about halfway to the back of the arena.
The set was a 5-foot tall stage fabricated by Tait Towers out of Lititz
Pennsylvania, with two 7-foot tall wings and back apron that rolled into
place and snapped together under the lighting and sound rigs. The heart was
painted red and along the inside and outside edges of the extended heart
shape, were 6-inch troughs used for in-stage lighting with grilles to
enclose the troughs. The area under the heart was known as the "Underworld."
It was here that the band's technicians worked tuning the instruments and
mixing the sounds. Under the wing on stage left, were the on-stage sound
monitor, and in-ear monitor mixing position manned by U2 veterans Don Garber
and Dave Skaff. Under the wing on stage right was Edge's guitar technician
Dallas Schoo.
One of the trickiest assignments of Fisher on this tour was to have the
ramps of the heart at an angle that was easily manageable for Bono, but also
gave the greatest sight lines for the audience. Having a stage built in the
middle of the arena meant that the design was going to block the view of
some, but hopefully not many. The first 300 or so fans in line to get into
the arenas were given bracelets and were allowed to stand inside the heart.
Due to fire requirements, the stage had to be outfitted with something not
usually seen on a rock 'n' roll stage, bright red EXIT signs. There was one
on each side of the heart so in case of an emergency the audience would know
where to go. Around the perimeter of the heart were the typical steel
barriers seen at any of today's rock shows. Mojo Barriers, a company based
in the Netherlands, who has done extensive work with many rock tours,
fabricated the crowd control barriers. The barriers were fitted with a
number of cantilevered surfaces that Bono could stand on to gain further
access to the crowd. Fisher's Web site lists his scenery suppliers as Tait
Towers, Brilliant Stages, and Tomcat USA.
The Elevation Tour was planned to play only arenas to give the feeling of a
smaller venue, while satisfying the greatest number of fans. However, there
were a few special shows that required the stage be modified, or an entirely
different stage had to be used. Turin in Italy, and the Slane Castle shows
in Ireland, required a bigger stage be constructed as the shows were
outdoors. Fisher and Williams were able to keep the same aesthetic with this
stage as the smaller indoor version utilizing a bigger heart, bigger video
screens, and a larger sound system to satisfy the venue.
The final design change for the tour came when the band was asked to play
during halftime at Super Bowl XXXVI. The heart-shaped stage had to be rolled
out onto the football field and erected in four minutes and 30 seconds. The
band played three songs, and during the second song, a large scrim fell from
the lighting rig. The names of lives lost on September 11 were scrolled
vertically on the screen. The heart-shaped stage was duplicated in design
approach, and it was built on rolling carts with additional lighting for the
television production.
Lighting
Willie Williams and Bruce Ramus designed the second of three visual aspects
of the show, the lighting. In today's world of high-tech concert lighting
and computer driven automated lights, the role of the lighting designer
(Williams) and lighting director (Ramus) starts before the first light is
hung from the rafters. Williams and Ramus met at the prelite lighting studio
in San Francisco to develop some schemes for what would eventually become
the Elevation palette. A mock stage and truss rig is drawn in a CAD
(Computer aided design) program, and virtual lights are added in software
called WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). The lights in this program
can be automated, and the colors and intensities can be controlled. Using
songs the band planned to play on tour, the two were able to get some basic
schemes set up and saved into lighting consoles. Later in the design phase
of the lighting rig, they were able to go back to these original schemes and
use them to program the lights they decided to use.
The same theory went into the design of the lighting rig as was used for the
stage; less is more. The designers did not want the rig to look naked, but
they did want to maximize the technology they had and use minimal pieces to
do so. Typical big name tours use large amounts of steel trusses hung over
the stage to make the lighting rig look massive and impressive. On
Elevation, Ramus used simple straight trusses over the bulk of the stage and
a circular truss suspended over the heart. The straight truss system
consisted of four trusses, two measuring 48 feet and two measuring 54 feet.
The trusses were controlled by ChainMaster Vario-Lift motors. The motors
allowed Ramus to keep the trusses at a trim height of 50 feet above the
stage and to drop them 12 feet above the stage during the show. They were
also used to make the simple truss system move and create different schemes
for different songs without having to add a multitude of lights. The
circular truss measured 20 feet in diameter and did not move from its
position over the heart.
Next came selection of lighting. The design team in keeping with their
simple design plan selected one type of moving light to be used on the tour.
The fixture selected was the Vari-Lite VL2416
(commonly known as the VL8.) The Vl8's were hung on the straight and
circular trusses and were primarily used as wash lights, which mean they
were basically used to "wash" different parts of the stage with a specific
color versus using the fixture to create patterns, or images on the stage.
This was done with other specifically selected equipment. To be fitted into
the 6-inch gutter that Fisher supplied in his stage, Williams selected 300
T3 quartz lights to be used as footlights as well as 400 Egg and Star
Strobes to be used on specific songs like Until the End of the World. This
is a clear example of how the architectural details of the stage and the
lighting design fit together. The crowd did not know there were lights built
into the heart, but when the heart's T3 footlights, or the strobes went off,
the crowd was awestruck.
There were fixtures designed and used for specific songs in the sets, and
this is an aspect that sets U2 apart from many of today's touring bands.
They have the flexibility and the creativity to be able to come up with a
product to be used specifically for one song they plan to play during the
night. Days before opening night in Florida, the band had the wild idea of
simply walking out onto the stage for the opening song with all the house
lights on. They tried it, and the idea was such a hit, and it got the crowd
into such an uproar, they did it for every show on the tour.
To make this happen, the arena staff left the house lights on and the stage
was augmented by some standard gymnasium high powered lights in the rig to
make the stage bright white. During Elevation the band ripped into the song
while the intro music cued and halfway through the song the house lights
went down and the show "began." During the first couple of shows, the design
team used lights that came straight out of the warm-up club shows. The crew
placed 24 fresnel lights on stands around the perimeter of the back of the
stage. The lights came on as the house lights went down during Elevation and
the lights gave a sepia brown hue to the stage. The lights were only powered
50% and were painted gold to give a very warm feel to the second half of the
song, but in the end Bono and the crew felt they were the wrong fixture for
this tour. Williams went back to the lighting fabricator (Light & Sound
Design/Fourth Phase in Los Angeles) and had a fixture created they dubbed
the "fornow." It was a four-DWE Mole Striplight housed in a deep black
wedge-shaped box. It was a more modern look than the fresnels and some
dubbed it the "Darth Vadar lights."
For Where the Streets Have No Name an effect was created in the rig that
could only be described as stunning. When the motors lowered the four
trusses to different trims during the intro to the song, modified police
beacon lights mounted vertically inside the truss members started to spin
and only emitted white light. The motors of the beacons spun the lights in
the same direction, but they were set out of sync, so a rain effect was
produced with the lights.
For Bad the designers had some custom-made lights in their arsenal to use.
Basically the fixture was a handmade design using a revolving trashcan and a
bright light. It was known as the 'ripple drum' and it consisted of a naked
5kW fixture surrounded by a black painted trashcan with holes punched in it.
The can revolves and throws random beams of light on the audience. The team
used four of these mounted on the surface of the stage. The lighting rig
also contained some DWE's (the bright circular lights used to light the
audience), some ETC Source Four lights and some Lowel-Light Omni and Tota
Lights. For controls Williams used an Avolites Pearl console and Ramus used
a Jands console.
Video
The third of the three visual aspects of a U2 show were the video stills and
lips shown throughout the show. Aside from traditional lighting fixtures,
the design team used visual media in the show at different times and on
different surfaces. Williams used PIGI Projectors (from Fourth Phase New
Jersey) to project images and light on the audience and arena roof. He
customized the projector by mounting it on its back, so the light comes out
its top. He then mounted a mirror on top that is controlled automatically by
a crew person to beam the image of light wherever they wanted it. The
projectors had an aperture size of 7 inches and scrolled film that was 7
inches wide. Each projector had two scrolls and was able to scroll two films
on top of each other. Stephan Desmit controlled the video system and Irish
artist Catherine Owens and a team of fellow artists from England produced
the images projected from the PIGIs. The projections showed lyrics to songs,
graphics from the cover art, as well as original linear and organic art
projected on the audience and on screens that dropped down from the lighting
rig surrounding the stage.
Also used on tour was a video wall (supplied by XL Video/Nocturne Europe)
that was located at the back of the stage and rose up to different heights
during different songs. The video wall's maximum height was 8 feet and it
was used to project graphics, video, and was also simply used as a very
bright light source (red for the intro to Streets.) Brilliant Stages
fabricated the lifting system and the LED system was pre-programmed and
controlled by an Apple Mac G3 laptop.
Above the stage were 10 video screens (dubbed the 'Whales' by the crew) used
to simply project the band members and the stage during the show. Four of
the screens were hung in front of the lighting rig over the front of the
stage. Throughout the show, each of the four would broadcast one of the band
members up close. There were four long-lens regular broadcast cameras in the
arena and they were directly linked to the four screens above the stage and
projected mostly in black and white.
Audio
When it comes to making U2 sound great live it takes three very important
ingredients: a massive sound system by Clair Bros Audio, an enthusiastic
audience, and a little bearded Irish man named Joe O'Herlihy. Joe has been
mixing the band's sound for as long as he can remember, and as long as he
can remember means their first show. Joe is on hand during almost every note
that comes off of the Edge's guitar and every word that Bono cries. He is
involved in the studio and on the road and when it comes to putting a tour
together, he is the ears of the audience as Willie Williams is the eyes. Joe
has an intimate relationship with the Clair family, and for most of U2's
major tours the company has designed a custom system for the band. From the
massive black walls of sound from ZOO TV to the flying orange mono system
from POPMART, Clair Bros has delivered U2's sounds crisp, clear, and most
importantly, loud.
For the Elevation Tour, the requirements for the sound primarily came from
the seating arrangement. Fans seated behind the stage needed to hear the
band with the same quality as those seated in front. As the floor was
general admission, the band wanted the crowd to be blasted by sound from
above and below. And of course the guy in the last row of the upper tier of
the arena had to hear just as well as the girl in the front row. This all
had to be done by keeping the quality of sound as high as possible for both
the crowd and the band on stage. Since the band decided to forgo stadiums,
the need for sound delay speakers at the back of the house was not
necessary, and Clair Bros came through with a design that was indeed crisp,
clear, and most importantly, loud.
The audio system consisted of a Clair Bros I-4 line array system flown above
the stage by engineer Tom "Duds" Ford. Two arrays of six enclosures,
arranged in ten-degree increments covered the back of the stage. Each side
of the arena was covered by an eight cabinet deep column and the main left
and right system was a 14-box "banana" arrangement with cabinets angled at
two, five and ten degrees covering the long medium and short ranges. O'
Herlihy used two-dozen supplemental I-4B bass cabinets that were vented
single-18 enclosures that were flown immediately adjacent to the array on
one side. This made the flying array a "chubby banana" as known in the
industry, by putting the entire low end in the air with the rest of the rig.
The rest of the sound system used Crest Audio 10004 amps while QSC 9.0 amps
powered the I-4Bs. This amp was chosen, as it is able to drive multiple
low-end drivers cleanly. The three zones of the main I-4 arrays each had
their own XTA DP 226 processor as well as TC Electronic 1128 programmable
Equalizers.
Sound like a lot? It was, and that was only the system hung above the stage.
As the general admission crowd stood inside and outside the ramps of the
heart, the band decided they needed extra sound to really elevate them off
of their feet. This was done with P-2 speakers on top of ML18 subwoofers
under the front of the stage, as well as a flown three cabinet P-4 center
cluster that was hung above the heart. For the band members, there was a
system designed to each member's specifications. Adam Clayton prefers wedge
monitors on stage as he rarely moves from his spot on stage left. A single
Clair Bros 12-AM wedge was used for him near Larry's drum riser, as well as
a pair of Clair Bros double-12s on the front of the stage. Bono utilizes a
pair of 12-AM's; the Edge used a pair of newer Series II wedges and behind
Larry's head stood a pair of Clair Bros ML18 single-18 subwoofers. On top of
these stood a single P-4 speaker on its side aimed at Larry's head, and at
the front of the stage on each side stood another double-12, a pair of
subwoofers and a wedge. All these monitors were used in case any of the
in-ear monitors popped out accidentally or on purpose.
The in-ear monitors Larry, Bono and the Edge used were the latest dynamic
earpieces by Future Sonics with wireless systems by Sennheiser. All the
mixes for each member employed Aphex Dominators, with a TC Finalizer on
Larry's specific mix. There were a number of mixers used to grab the show's
sound and mix it in including microphones located throughout the arena
recording the voices of the crowd.
The microphones used were Shure SM56's miking the Edges Vox AC-30 Amps, and
one direct line was taken from his equipment to be used for effects on the
new album's live songs. In front of and behind the Edge stood a ridiculous
assortment of electronics to drive his sound (to be included in a separate
description entirely). Bono's Line 6 Flextone guitar amp was miked with an
SM57 and another Flextone was used on upstage right recording ambient sound.
Larry's kick drum is double-miked with an SM98 and a Beta 52; the snare has
a Beyerdynamic M 88 on top and a Beta 56 below. Sennheiser MD-421s were
employed on the single rack and both floor toms. Audio-Technica 4050s were
used as overheads, while AKG 460s were on the hi-hats and beneath the bell
of the ride cymbal. A pair of SM57s were Y'ed for the two mounted
tambourines, and an SM98 was used for the piccolo snare Mullen plays Where
the Streets Have No Name. The microphone stands were technologically
advanced as well. The position of each stand was established after the first
couple of shows, and then the bases were removed and the stands were
hard-screwed into adapters located in the stage. Vocal mics were Shure Beta
58 capsules, the Edge's was hard-wired and Bono used a handheld Shure UHF
system. For New York Bono wore a headset mic and a custom made hat with the
transmitter built-in.
The sound engineers were responsible for mixing the sound for the audience
through the flown array and below stage speakers, on stage for the band
through the wedge monitors in front of each member, as well as in the in-ear
monitors Bono, Larry and the Edge use. Each show was recorded on a rack of
five HHB CD recorders with a copy given to each band member and of course,
Joe O'Herlihy, who mixed the sound on a Midas XL4 board. A Yamaha 02R
sidecar handled extraneous overflow inputs which included the Edge's Yamaha
CP70 electric Piano used during New Year's Day and Sweetest Thing, the audio
input for the video of Charlton Heston and some of the special effects
returns. A double wide sound rack was used to house outboard processing
units. These included blue dbx 160SL compressors on vocals, Summit DCL-200
tube compressors for The Edge's guitar inputs, dbx 160XT compressor/limiters
for bass inputs and Drawmer DS201 gates across Larry's tom drums. Vocal
effects include two TC 2290 delays for short and long delays, a Lexicon 480L
and an Eventide H3000 D/SE. There are also two Lexicon PCM 70s (one for
snare and the other for toms), two SPX-990s with chorus and reverb settings
for guitars and two more SPX-1000s for special vocal treatments on certain
songs.
Proven by the amount of sound equipment now used, it's no longer a simple
task of taking the homegrown PA system out on the road anymore. Mics,
triggers, amps, subs, arrays, and cabinets give U2 their sound. This
equipment is useless without a reliable and on-time transportation system.
In the United States, enter Upstaging.
Communications
For a traveling show like the Elevation tour to operate seamlessly, there
needs to be constant communication between the crew, the production
companies, and the outside world. Outside of landline telephones, and
personal cell phones, it is necessary to establish a two-way communication
system within the road show. Before, during and after the show, the
Elevation crew utilized walkie talkie systems supplied by AAA Communications
to enable leaders in the crew to give orders, and to be in touch with each
other inside and outside the venue.
For communication with the outside world, the use of e-mail was prevalent,
however the landlines supplied by each venue were deemed inadequate for the
100 or so traveling members who wanted to communicate with their companies,
families, and friends. Typically there were four groups of people who were
in need of outside communications once they arrived at each venue. Members
of Principle Management, the bands personal manager and all assistants, the
tour crew, employees of Clear Channel Entertainment who was the promoter and
financier of the tour, and the tour management group who included the people
who provided budgeting, transportation, food and lodging for the band and
crew.
When this large group of people arrived at each venue they typically flocked
to the computers the band brought on the road, and the system was deemed
inefficient after a short period of time. The Elevation tour was probably
one of the first rock 'n' roll tours that had a full time IT manager on hand
and due to this, a system was incorporated to get information flowing when
necessary.
Craig Sneiderman created a wireless network at each venue. Using Wi-Fi
wireless products from Toshiba, he was able to create a network in which the
crew was able to send and receive e-mails, make phone calls, and access the
Internet simultaneously on the same landlines through the network. The
disparate teams were able to share files and Sneiderman (also the tour
accountant) was able to immediately calculate the night's revenue after each
show within the venue. The wireless network cut down the amount of computing
equipment the band took on the road, as well as minimizing costs and truck
space necessary to move it.
Transport
Upstaging Inc. is probably the world's best-known entertainment hauling
company that has over 25 years experience. Although they may fade into the
background, that is exactly what they are hired to do. However, if one has a
keen eye, is interested in tour happenings, and is simply a pest, then no
doubt, one of Upstaging's bright red trucks will be spotted outside the
arena U2 is playing in.
In Europe the trucking company Atkinson & Sanders hauled the band's gear
from country to country. For the Elevation tour the crew personnel are
responsible for the logistics of moving the band, its equipment, and its
entourage from city to city as quickly and efficiently as possible. Tasks
are divided primarily into load-in (the activity of getting all the
equipment into the arena and assembled before the show) and load-out (the
activity of disassembling everything and loading it back into the trucks.)
The U2 crew divides themselves as well as over a hundred local volunteers
into their task specialties and using color-coded T-shirts to the job at
hand. The show loaded in approximately two hours and it took 14 Upstaging
semis to carry the load. Part of Mark Fisher's responsibility as set
architect as to design set pieces that fit into the dimensions of these
trailers, as well as a system of construction that was durable, and
efficient that would last from city to city over the course of over a year.
Throughout the Elevation tour, the band, crew and management traveled
through the United States and Europe and depending on the distance between
cities, and schedule of gigs, the transportation method was either bus or
plane. The crew typically traveled by bus, as the band, manager, and
essential crew traveled by plane.
A band with a financial backing like U2 does not need to simply rely on
ground transportation to get them and their crew from city to city. Airliner
charter companies were hired to supply planes for the band, management, and
critical crew members. On the Elevation tour, two companies were used, on in
the United States and one in Europe. For travel in the United States, Clay
Lacy Aviation supplied a 40 seat Boeing 727-100 with details such as a
custom paintjob and headrests. On the tail of the plane was painted a red
ellipse with the "heart in the suitcase" logo, which also was seen on the
front of the fuselage with a gray "U2." The plane was dubbed "Elevationair"
early on in the tour and it carried a host of celebrities along with the
band and assorted guests. Its call letters were N724CL and it was left
behind (to be used on leg three) when the band went to Europe for leg two.
In Europe, the Swiss company Privatair supplied the band with a Boeing
737BBJ. On the morning of July 5, 2001 the company had the tail and nose
painted red, and the "heart in the suitcase" logos were applied to the plane
for its arrival at the first European show in Copenhagen on July 6. Its call
letters were HB-IIQ and it was left behind when the band returned to
America.
CIAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :P
Mirko

(Cuttone stratosferico)
Madooo!!!! Hai scordato il manuale d'istruzioni per poter far leggere
'sta cosa!!! :PPPPP
Spero per te con l'hai scritta di tua mano e l'hai copiata col cut and
paste!!! :PPPPPP
Altrimenti credo che avrai i calli come le dietorelle di Highlander!!
:PPPPPPP
Comunque grazie... :-))
McPhisto
-- 
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 paste!!! :PPPPPP
;) non sono cosě pazzo da scrivere un messaggio da 29kb a tastiera :) sarei
da internare :P
CIAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Mirko