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 keep visual clutter to a minimum. To do this they came up with the idea of concealing a packed arsenal of lighting, fans and smoke machines within a huge raised ‘half box’ structure, created by All Access Staging & Productions. Essentially, this formed a raised stage, atop which Ora would perform for the majority of the show, as various lighting and effects were fired up through the grated floor.

The lighting dept: Sam Lisher & James Scott; Monitor Engineer, Sam Savillie; FOH Engineer, Luigi Buccarello; Production Manager, Bronski.

An additional consequence of this raised position, noted Bronski, was to give the singer a heightened status in the room - a plinth on which to perform - as well as massively improving sightlines for the whole audience. “For the entire show, she’s raised in to the air on this 2.5ft box, so there’s actually this cool, god-like look to her performance,” he said.

As part of creating the clean-cut scenic look, Ora’s band was relocated 5.5m above her. A giant 11m x 5.5m LED screen formed the backdrop to the singer’s performance, and it was above this - on a specially constructed riser from Production North - that the musicians sat. “By raising them up above the screen, not only does it have a major look, but when you’re on the first row of the balcony at Brixton Academy, they’re at the same level,” said Bronski. “We ended up speaking to a few people about it, and Ben Levitt at Production North said he was up for it - and they did a sterling job.”

LIGHTING

When it came to translating their concepts into lighting reality, Tawbox knew exactly the man for the job: Tim Routledge. “Amber and I both knew we wanted Tim to do this - and after we mentioned Tim’s CV to Rita and her management, it didn’t take much persuasion at all,” explained Bronski. “We just knew that, with Tim having worked with the likes of Take That and Beyoncé, the big theatrical side and the super-heavy timecoded programming was going to work really well - so it was a no-brainer.” Having worked with Bronski in the past, Routledge was happy to come on board again. He in turn brought in fellow Lighting Designer and Programmer, James Scott. The pair had already been discussing potential project to work together on and the Girls Tour provided the perfect opportunity, with the pair collaborating on the design before Scott took it out on the road.

Having received Tawbox’s mood board of ideas, it was clear the show would require a lot of tech to be packed into a relatively small space. The team decided to focus on the biggest show of the tour, Brixton, while at the same time considering ways to par everything down for the smaller venues to be visited. “We essentially have 2 shows,” explained Routledge. “We have this massive show, in which we’re going to squeeze an awful lot of gear into Brixton, and then we also have to squeeze it in to these tiny little academies everywhere.”

Key to achieving this was filling the raised, grated deck with the right fixtures for the job. “We were looking for a fixture that would have a decent impact underneath the deck and give us the movement we needed, so we opted for the MagicPanels. The only thing is, it’s quite a tall fixture so we had to get Bronski to marginally increase the height of the deck to fit them underneath. But they give us a great energy and depth in the show, the continuous rotation creates a weird shift of beams as you never see the fixtures”

The 36 concealed Ayrton MagicPanels sit alongside 9 Martin by Harman Jem AF-1’s and 9 MagicFX SmokeJets, the latter specified by Tawbox in preference to CO2 jets. “We’ve have always hated the sound of CO2,” Bronski explained. “It’s also quite dancey - it’s a look that’s been taken by the EDM world - and we didn’t think it was right. Pyrojunkies gave us these MagicFX upward jets with quick dispersion fluid, which looks great.”

Two layers of video - the main, high resolution 11m x 5.5m screen with a lower resolution 19m x 12m screen behind that- formed a backdrop to the performance. The smaller screen was edged top and bottom by a line of GLP impression X4 Bar 20’s, with a further row placed along the front of the grated platform. Yet more X4 Bars were used to create 3 vertical columns on each side of the stage - columns which also carried 6 GLP JDC1 each, used for both strobe hits and dancer cross lighting.

“There’s effectively very few fixture types,” said Routledge. “What we didn’t want was 4 of one thing, 3 of another, 2 of something else... So the show has quite a GLP-orientated rig. It’s a very linear show; we have focussed our efforts on clean clever programming and accenting with some stunning linear looks.”

The floor package was completed by 5 Martin by Harman MAC Aura XBs per side, discretely placed to maintain the desired aesthetic. “We’ve kept everything really clean, bar some very simple lines of X4 Bars, so nothing impinges,” said Routledge. “You don’t see any fixture in the way of the screen whatsoever, which can be limiting, but I think the fact that we have this entire package under the deck - and these thin lines of X4 Bars - stops the show feeling 2D, which it easily could have done. We’ve given it a lot of depth just by being able to sneak in some kit here and there, and the rest of the kit is a border around the edge of the screen.”

The rig above the stage comprises a handful of JDC1’s and 2 rows of Robe Spiiders. “On a tour like this, they’re great because they give you so many options,” commented Routledge. “They’re a real Swiss army knife of a light and look really gorgeous. We’ve used them quite a lot in the last year.”

A front truss consists of 8 Martin by Harman MAC Viper Performances and 10 4-Lite moles, as well as 2 of the 3 Robe BMFL Robospots used to followspot the singer. The BMFLs provide sufficient punch to compete with the video content - although the LD does have overall master control of video from the MA Lighting grandMA MA2 lighting desk, allowing him to inhibit and balance the master intensity to suit a particular venue. The BMFLs also provide an extra layer of options, placing the singer in strobing spots or gobo spots, or adding one of the fixtures’ many effects onto the followspot. “We loved using heavy saturated colours on the spots at the flick of a button,” Routledge commented.

With a packed rig at their disposal, the team were able to conjure up a host of looks to create a richly textured evening. Tightly constructed pop numbers, none of which would look out of place in an award show setting, sit alongside segments that verge on performance art. “The creative that Bronski and Amber put together gave us the ability to do something quite theatrical and not just a flashing pop show,” said Routledge, citing the song R.I.P. as a case in point. Ora begins the performance seated, illuminated red from below and purple from behind, as smoke vents up around her. The song builds to a crescendo of pulsing heartbeat-red and electric blue saturating the screens behind her. “R.I.P. is a bit of a work of art, to be honest,” said Routledge. “It’s a beautifully clever piece that works with the video and light together.”

Video took a back seat during a rendition of Body On Me, with Ora playing with silk fabric as it was blown around by fans concealed under the stage and stunning peach tones of light backlighting the fabric and accenting the music. With no video screen on, the linear lighting could really take centre stage.

At other moments - particularly in the interludes between songs - the video wall became an integral part of the physical performance. The segment that led into Body On Me is a prime example. “The video and choreography work together to emphasise the body,” explained Rimell. “We have moments where the video content becomes a ‘reaction’ to the choreography. And we also utilise silhouettes created by strong and simplistic visuals to really show off the dancers body lines, technique and shapes.” This intertwined creation of video content and choreography - a symbiosis that allows one to be moulded by the other throughout the design process - is a cornerstone of the Tawbox team’s complementary expertise.

Tour Manager, Rich Jones; Rita Ora (far right) with her core team: Amber Rimell, Bronski and Elena Sahatciu, her Manager.

Though video content is largely pre-programmed, a few songs later on, during Girls, the live feed from a camera operator on stage was run through Notch to fill the main video wall with a fuzzy-pink, retro-VHS look. Screenlike planes of matching colour, created by the vertical X4 Bar columns at either side of the stage, cut across the space, blurring the line between 2D visuals and the 3D performance.

Throughout much of the show, the lighting took its cue from the softer colour palette of the video content. “For a pop show there’s quite a lot of unsaturated colour,” said Routledge. “We use a lot of peaches, bastard ambers and lavenders - things that aren’t typically associated with this kind of show. So, when we do hit full saturated colour, it gives us a massive impact.”

“We’ve got a great disguise programmer, Sam Lisher,” Routledge continued. “He’s not long out of drama school, but he knows everything about the disguise and he’s been a really keen and helpful person to work with on site.” For those songs and interstitial scenes that are framed to directly match the video, Lisher was on hand to help dial everything in.

Lisher was also responsible for taking the video content created/ produced by Tawbox and piecing it together in disguise. “The video system is great,” said Lisher. “Bluman Associates have provided us with a really nice disguise rack. We’re using disguise gx1 servers, one master running the show, and an understudy for tracking backup. We’re utilising the Notch optimised server to overlay some simple but effective IMAG effects to give the song Girls its edgy retro feel.” For the smaller academy venues on the tour, a single, smaller-scale main screen was used, with the content resized to fit. “disguise’s mapping tools are super flexible and easy to adapt, so scaling down from the main Brixton show, which we had programmed to, was done in seconds,” Lisher added.

Despite being designed primarily with Brixton in mind, the aesthetic of the show retained its impact even in the smaller venues on the tour, Scott said. “I actually don’t think we’ve had to compromise too much on stripping it back from the Brixton show to take it on the academy tour,” he commented. “We’ve got an element of everything: the X4 Bars, the under floor, the towers - albeit shorter and there’s less of them. I think we’ve done really well to keep the integrity of the whole design while squeezing it in everywhere.”

Helping to shift and squeeze this mountain of lighting kit was the Neg Earth team of Paul Coopes and Diego de Leon - joined on the Brixton show by Crew Chief Nick Burlace. “The lighting techs Paul and Diego from Neg Earth Lights have been great,” remarked Bronski. “They probably had more lights than they should for just the 2 of them, but fully embraced it”

Video screens were provided by Creative Technology. “It was a pleasure to support Rita Ora and her production,” Creative Technology, Project Manager, Nick Knowles. “After listening to Bronski explain the creative outline, we recommended our InfiLED ER 5.9mm due to its ease of use, speed of deployment, versatility and amazing colours. The Brixton show looked fantastic with the addition of the 19m wide ROE Vanish 25 upstage screen contrasting with the main ground supported 11m x 4.5m InfiLED wall. We were also asked to provide one of our new 4K camera packages for the Brixton show to record for prosperity.”

SOUND

For audio, Bronski once again contacted his go-to man, Luther Edmunds, who in turn furnished the tour with kit from SSE Audio. Heading up the audio crew on the road was Monitor Engineer, Sam Savile, who used a DiGiCo SD10 with Bricasti external reverb. The SD rack was fully loaded with the new 32bit input cards. “Which we’re loving,” noted Savile. “The noise floor is incredibly low and the sound quality is great.”

For wireless mics and IEM, Sennheiser were at the fore. The 6000 Series handhelds and 2000 Series in-ears proved a hit with Savile. “We’re really enjoying the brand new 6000 Series, and the 2000 Series is a great old workhorse that I think sounds better than anything else out there.”

Notably, Ora uses a white version of the SKM9000 mic, custom painted by Rebel Mic Stands in under 48 hours so that it could be ready in time for the singer’s performance at this year’s BRIT Awards.

The restrictive trim of many of the academy venues on the tour occasionally required the band to be tucked behind the stage’s giant video screen instead of sitting up top, which in turn created a challengingly tight RF environment. To sidestep any issues this might cause, the musicians were all given Shure P9HW wired packs. The screens also had the potential to prove problematic for Ora’s audio, but according to Savile, the Sennheiser breezed through. “I’ve been really impressed; the 2000 Series has gone straight through the video screen and we’ve had no drop out issues. The 6000’s been solid as a rock too.”

In addition to its reliability, the Sennheiser kit scored well in the environmental stakes: the 6000 series is entirely rechargeable and SSE provided a fresh set of rechargeable Fisher batteries for the 2000’s.

An eclectic mix of moulds were used on stage. Savile and Ora were on UE-11’s, while backing vocals were on Cosmics CE6Ps. JH16’s, UE-7’s, and JH Roxannes were used by the various members of the band.

Savile said the audio kit as a whole really delivered. “SSE have provided us with a really beautiful package: it goes in quick, I can see everything I need, it’s got minimal connections. We’ve been very happy with it.”

Throughout the UK run of academy venues, the in-house PA was coopted for each show. For Brixton, the biggest of the shows, this meant an L-Acoustics rig, comprising 16 K2 boxes and 8 KS28 per side - with KARA and ARCs as fills.

For FOH Engineer, Luigi Buccarello, the prevalence of L-Acoustics throughout the academy run proved a perfect fit. “It’s definitely one of my favourite PAs, so it should be good,” he commented ahead of the Brixton show. To pull the best out of the each venue’s PA, Buccarello used an Avid Profile with Waves plugins - an old favourite that allowed him to concentrate on the task in hand. “I’ve recently joined the team on Rita Ora and, when it comes to a new mix for a new band or a new act, I just want to focus on the mix and almost forget about the desk itself!” said Buccarello.

TO BRIXTON AND BEYOND

Despite the absence of a touring PA - the scale of the touring kit and crew was sizable enough to fill 3 Phoenix buses and 2 Fly By Nite trucks. It’s indicative of a desire to truly deliver something special for Rita Ora fans. As Tour Manager, Rich Jones, noted, however, the challenges of fitting a high-impact, fully rounded show into an academy sized space was a challenge that certainly paid off. “Logistically it’s a nightmare, but visually it’s amazing,” he said. “And it’s definitely something that people will talk about when they leave - and hopefully it shows what we can do when we go onto arenas.”

Indeed, the success of the Girls tour stands as testament to the creative clout of Ora and her team - giving fans a flavour of what they can expect in the year to come - and leaving them hungry for more.

TPi Photos: Crew Shots: TPi; Live Shots: Bret D Cove & Timmsy. www.ritaora.com www.tawbox.com www.prodnorth.com www.timroutledge.co.uk www.pyrojunkies.com www.sseaudiogroup.com www.negearth.com www.allaccessinc.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.phoenix-bussing.co.uk