THE LIVE RETURN OF RITA ORA After a 5-year break from the road, Rita Ora returned to show the world what they’d been missing - delivering an academy venue tour that packed an arena-sized punch, as TPi reports.
As well as providing a platform for her debut album, Rita Ora’s 2013 Radioactive Tour marked the beginning of what would become an enduring creative relationship. It was the first tour to be helmed by Tawbox - a partnership of Bronski (as he’s known to all) and Amber Rimell, who brought a fresh, cohesive approach to the singer’s presence on stage. Though Ora has been away from the touring circuit for the last 5 years, the Tawbox duo have continued to work with the artist, providing creative direction for a relentless schedule of TV, one-off performances and private appearances. In those 5 years, Tawbox has grown and matured creatively in tandem with the singer, developing a tight understanding of what can, could and should be achieved in a live performance. Perhaps because of this, both artist and creative team recently returned to the road with a real desire to deliver, pushing the limits of what’s normally expected - indeed what’s physically possible - in a short run of academy gigs.
The 2018 Girls Tour comprised 13 dates across the UK and Europe - 12 of which were concentrated versions of what would prove the true jewel of the run: an appearance at the 02 Academy Brixton. It was this show that formed the focus for a design process that began, as ever, with the Tawbox team thrashing out concepts in their studio before hand picking the right team to bring it to reality. At its core, the Tawbox concept delivered a high level of theatricality; a mix of dramatic choreography, delicate artistic interludes, and intense pop-energy performance. Lighting and video interplayed cleverly with the movement of the performers on stage - a consequence of Rimell’s choreographic expertise and Bronski’s technical savvy (which extends to the creation of the video content itself). Indeed, with Bronski also taking on PM duties - reprising his 2012 role - the design of the show and its execution became one single fluid movement. In terms of the physical aesthetic of the stage, the team wanted to 46
