Kylie: Golden

30PRODUCTION PROFILE

KYLIE: GOLDEN

Glasgow on the last day of September. The weather may be ‘dreich’ but the atmosphere inside the Hydro is bright and anticipative when Kylie’s in town for the ninth UK date of the Golden Tour, fresh from a three-night stand at London’s O2 Arena, as TPi discovers.

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There’s a calmness and openness about the Pull The Pin Out’s Kevin Hopgood that comes from 18 years of working with an artist who has remained popular since breaking through with second single, I Should Be So Lucky, in 1987. Hopgood shared production duties with Pull The Pin Out colleagues, Stephen Reeve, Lauren Sass and Francine Hough.

“It’s a really good tour to work on,” said Hopgood. “Kylie’s brilliant! She’s a super-pro, really on it and wants everything to be good – hence she looks after people. She’s one of those performers who can just go out there and hold a whole arena full of people in her hand - it’s a real skill. That comes from experience and confidence and stagecraft which she’s got that in spades.”

There were plenty of familiar faces in the management team and crew, as well as some fresh additions. Hopgood continued: “We’re using some new suppliers on this tour including Christie Lites. It’s the first time we’ve done a Kylie tour with those guys, and that’s gone brilliantly well. Another are Creative Technology, who are doing video. I’ve worked with them on a couple of other projects, but it’s their first time with Kylie as well. That’s been good. But it does feel like the start of a new era on this tour, to be honest. Not purposefully, it just evolved that way - it felt like it was the time to change on a few things.”

SHOW DESIGN Having been LD on previous tours, Rob Sinclair made the transition to Creative Director although he was keen to downplay the title and highlighted the talents of the crew. “My official title is Creative Director. I helped Kylie create the show and had an eye across the whole production; the stage, props, lighting, and video content. But I think a better title would be Editor as so much of the creativity came from all sides of the amazing team. The Pull the Pin Out guys, Stylist Frank Strachan, Tom Colbourne and

the team at Blink, Choreographer Ash Wallen, Creative Producer George Sinclair, Associate LD Ali Pike, Musical Director Steve Anderson and, of course, Kylie herself.”

The show was split into chapters that span a dreamy, make believe day in America. It began with a 5am desert sunrise and a mission to get to New York, before taking in opening time at the High and Dry Bar, a road trip, a biker rally, an evening at Studio 54 and the morning after the night before in Nashville. Material from across the singer’s decade-spanning career featured throughout, with newer songs complementing older classics. Kylie’s Musical Director, Steve Anderson, played an important role, said Hopgood: “The way he re-imagines older songs is really clever - they always sound very fresh.”

The story was guided by short, punctuating films (made by Blink specifically for the show) and continued with a mixture of pre-composed and live visuals behind the performance. Following a couple of one-off shows, Blue Leech joined the tour as Multi-Camera Director. Hopgood explained: “Video is a big part of the show and the thing we’re approaching very differently is the cameras and IMAG. We’ve got Blue in this time and he has a much more cinematic approach, which really works with the style of the show. The IMAG is much more integrated into the show than it has been in the past – it’s not just an addition on to the side so the people at the back can see her, it’s much more than that.”

Creative Technology supplied 206.6 sqm of ROE MC7 – made up of 5 distinct screens, all with 1.2m returns, giving the set a 3D look and greater engagement with members of the audience in seats nearer the sides of the arenas. The company also deployed 5 Sony HD cameras and additional Sony HDC-4300 cameras to shoot the tour film.

Jim Liddiard, Project Manager, commented: “It’s been a pleasure working with Kevin Hopgood and the team at Pull The Pin Out to bring the

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Above: Multi-Camera Director, Blue Leech.

Kylie tour together. It was also great to be working alongside Blue Leach and Rob Sinclair again, who always bring fresh and exciting elements to their shows.”

Leach’s design had long lenses mounted on pedestals to give the cameras more movement than is typically seen in arena tours. They were able to shoot through the crowd for more of a gig/club feel. Then there were 4 Q-Balls – 1 on an Autopod – again, for movement. They were fed through a disguise GX 2 server via a Panasonic AV-HS 6000 switcher. There was a dolly on track in the pit and the same at the end of the B-stage.

A Notch system was used for camera effects and the MediorNet system allowed signals to be pushed back and forth to server control and Leach’s FOH position from the PPU backstage with minimal delay.

“The main thing in terms of the screens is to provide movement within the close ups and mid shots and to provide a rather filmic style of live/IMAG photography of what’s happening on the stage,” highlighted Leach. “We’re mostly focused on Kylie but there are also a lot of relationship shots - with the choreography and dancers themselves - which help to explain the narrative that runs through this show on a song by song basis.”

While the technology provided the backbone, it was nothing without the right personnel. Leach said: “Well here’s the biggest must-have tool… I think with any concert tour with cameras and video screens, an essential element is appropriate and well thought out photography. The public deserve great live imagery and in order to supply this I need to have experienced touring photographers. That’s the number one thing I can’t really leave home without. You have to have talent - a team who care and who understand that this whole process is an art form. In this case, Kylie’s art and performance.

“In terms of cameras, I would prefer everything to be moving whether in the sense that it goes up-and-down or left-to-right or it swings, plus something in the roof as well - choreography photographs well from overhead.”

Leach was positioned at FOH. “That’s something else I would always insist on where space permits,” he explained. “I get a better feeling for the show when I can see the stage and the screens - it puts all the elements into context. It enables a better relationship with the other visual parts of the show too - lights, pyro and lasers. Ultimately, it means better value all round both for artist and audience. Plus the desk, monitoring, comms and signal box take up no more than a 6ft x 8ft area.” 


LIGHTING Of course, the lighting design was crucial to the delivery of that aim. Christie Lites laid down roots in Europe and is enjoying considerable success since opening its UK office in April 2017. It was the first Kylie tour the company had supplied all of the lighting fixtures, desks and truss. Pull The Pin Out’s Stephen Reeve said: “We had a very good meeting with Huntly Christie when he came over earlier this year and we decided that we quite liked their work ethics and style, so we gave them a chance on Trevor Noah – one of our other shows that was going in to the O2. From doing that we’ve moved this toward them, purely because we think they are a nice bunch of people to work with.”

Christie Lites’ Account Manager, Mathew Ilott added: “It’s a huge honour to supply Kylie’s tour – a very prestigious show to be involved with. We’re extremely grateful to Rob Sinclair, Ali Pike and all the Pull The Pin Out team for the opportunity to work on the tour and also to Aidan Mccabe our Crew Chief.

“The lighting design afforded us the opportunity to showcase some of the proprietary products within our inventory, such as our F-Type Carriage truss system, which was used extensively throughout.”

The top of the video backdrop and wings were adorned with Martin by Harman Mac Viper AirFX luminaires, 6 Truss Ladders house a total of 36 GLP JDC1 Strobes, with a further 38 located around the 2 stages. The Viper Performances on the edges of the stage and Martin by Harman Aura XB

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Above: Associate LD, Ali Pike; Laser and Special Effects Technician, Seth Griffiths; Monitor Engineer, Gavin Tempany; FOH Engineer Kevin Pruce.

wash lights on the side of the stage ramp that faced the audience.

The oval truss above the main stage featured another 30 Martin by Harman Mac Viper AirFX’s. A straight truss at the front of that oval kicked out like the leg of a lowercase ‘g’ to lead down to the B stage. That leg featured Martin by Harman Viper Performances, as well as Sharpys above the B-stage.

Due to the nature of the show, with different chapters and styles, flexibility in the lighting design was important. Ilott said: “The Vipers and JDC1 Strobes offer plenty of versatility that complement the visual elements.”

Associate LD, Ali Pike, was working on an MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size console. She explained: “I did all the initial show file build, timecode programming and band rehearsals - the normal setup stuff. Then we brought the brilliant Ben Cash of Flare Lighting in to work as my programmer once we got into production rehearsals at Fly By Night. That allowed me to concentrate on the creative side and him to concentrate on the functional side of things. It is a very video orientated show, so lighting has to work alongside that, and also work for cameras, as the IMAG is also extremely important.”

The lighting setup has been enhanced by Zactrack – supplied by UK distributor Ambersphere. This was the first full touring application out of the UK. Zactrack is a 3D tracking system that uses ultra-wide band radio frequency to handle positional data. Anchors are set up within the performance area and are measured to produce a 3D map of that space. Tags are then placed on performers and as a performer moves around, the Zactrack system knows exactly where he or she is in that 3D space.

It is then possible to calibrate lighting fixtures so that they are dialled in to a particular Zactrack tag, meaning some or all of them can be pointed at a tagged performer at any stage of the show. Because it’s a radio tracking system, it doesn’t need line of sight – meaning tags can be hidden underneath costumes.

Ambersphere’s Sales Director, Philip Norfolk, explained: “Kylie performs over quite a large stage - she’s very mobile over a big area. Rob was very focused on ensuring that at any point she was correctly key and backlit for camera, so she maintains a steady illuminance and steady colour temperature.

“That’s typically very difficult to do when you’re dealing with a large performance space but Zactrack gives them the ability to manage that automatically. Wherever she goes, different units can pick her up and follow her around accurately so that at all times she appears correctly lit, as per Rob’s wishes. At one point we have 60-70 units pointing towards her – the entire rig could point towards her if necessary.”

The show also features SFX and lasers from ER Productions. With the video screens covering the entire upstage wall, the challenge for ER was to deliver a retractable laser display around them. The solution was a new automation technique - 50kg winches dropping 4 Phaenon 30’s and 2 Artic from the grid during Lost Without You. A diffraction effect splits the light into multiple beams, scanning the audience with gold, green and red lasers. Once the track is over, the winches move the lasers back to the grid quickly and smoothly. A similar feat is delivered during On a Night Like This with purple and blue lasers.

The feedback data from the winches mean that the Pangolin control software is able to monitor the winch positions, which let Laser and Special Effects Technician, Seth Griffiths know that the positioning was totally safe and accurate. Griffiths commented: “It’s great to be the first ER technician to use the new winches. The system works really well with the video screen and looks really clean. It’s been a battle working lasers around video in the past, but this solves that problem, meaning we can be more creative.”

Alongside the innovative laser choreography, ER’s special effects kick off in the second half of the show. Two Swirl Fans above the stage blow out autumnal coloured maple leaf confetti over the audience during Especially For You. Six Stadium Shots blasted rainbow colour confetti over the

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Above: Kylie performing with an ER Productions’ laser display.

audience for All The Lovers, and gold glitter during In Your Eyes.

ER Productions brought another new product into play with its electro kabuki driven ‘flop and drop’ system - 15m gold mylar streamers, which the dancers interact with, drop during Spinning Around. Finally, six Stadium Blasters give a gold and white confetti burst for the show’s finale track Dancing, providing a spectacular end to the show.

Brilliant Stages supplied all of the staging and set elements, including the rolling house stage with quick change areas and a custom changing room for Kylie, hydraulic scissor lifts with bridging platform, toaster lift, catwalk, and the B-stage with lift for access.

Brilliant Stages’ Client Director Ben Brooks explained: “We have a strong and long-standing relationship with the Kylie camp, as we helped out on the KylieX 2008 tour that rehearsed in LS-Live. Over the last 10 years we have worked closely with the Pull The Pin Out team on many productions, meaning that when we all got together to discuss this it, we already knew the way we needed to approach it.

“Working closely with Rob and George [Sinclair] to realise their fantastic design, we modelled the ramp and complexed areas, and prototyped the finishes, which were the elements that were going to make the set look really special. I spent a few days in rehearsals with the show and was really happy to see the final finished product come together so well.”

AUDIO Kylie toured with a d&b audiotechnik J-Series PA system, specified by long time FOH Engineer Kevin Pruce and supplied, along with the rest of the audio infrastructure, by Capital Sound.

“I like the J-series with array processing,” stated Pruce. “It has improved a good system by making the coverage of the arena more even. I’m using Meyer Sound Galaxys to EQ and time align the system, with Smaart and a wireless tablet to be mobile around the arena. The two Galaxys feed the d&b D80 amps with AES and analogue inputs via an Optocore fibre from FOH.”

Capital Sound’s Head of Operations and Sales, Paul Timmins, said: “To

work, once again, with Kylie and her team has been a pleasure - 18 years providing her tours and to be back in Europe’s largest venues and sold out shows is testament to a great performer.

“Kevin Pruce’s wish to take out a sizeable d&b J rig and our policy of providing customers with the equipment of choice, led to us calling on the resource of the SSE Audio Group we are now part of. Our continued global support of Sam Smith with d&b resulted in us asking Wigwam to supply the array processed d&b package on this occasion. This also enabled us to maintain our day-to-day customer supply of smaller d&b jobs.”

Pruce was spotted during setup moving around the audience area with the tablet in his hand. “I use 4 analyser mics placed around the venue for data collection and then walk the venue for a listening test with music or playback from virtual soundcheck, using the tablet to adjust the levels and EQ of the various system zones.”

He had a DiGiCo SD7 console at FOH: “I really like DiGiCo consoles, and my favourite is the SD7. It just feels right ergonomically to mix on and has good metering - it sounds good too! I use Waves plugins, via Extreme servers, for effects. Every engineer has a favourite console, for various reasons. Take Gavin Tempany (monitor engineer), he is using the SSL, which is undeniably a great sounding and powerful console. It is all subjective and a personal choice.”

Indeed, Monitor Engineer Gavin Tempany is working on a Solid State Logic L500 Plus. “I love it,” he exclaimed. “For me it’s like a sports car – it’s unreal. The sound of it is just mega – it’s really good. Like audio steroids – but not cheating, if you know what I mean?”

Tempany was looking after Kylie plus two backing singers and five musicians. While he described the 50 or so instrument and vocal inputs as, “not too much compared to my usual madness,” the aesthetics and design of the show have created a few side challenges. First, the monitor console position is under the stage, so video feeds are used for sight to stage. The backline is also under the stage, out of sight, as were the guitar and bass pedal boards.

This meant good communication is even more critical than usual:

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“There are a lot of talkback mics,” said Tempany. “All the musicians and techs have shout mics and there are a few techs with switches that route their talk either to the band and crew or just to the crew.

“The production comms are also fed to my cue bus so we can follow what is happening at the top of the show. This all means that the cue mix is quite busy with not only the solo bus in play, but a lot of information being passed around on top of it.”

“We’re using all Sennheiser radio with 16 Sennheiser 2000 series transmitters and 8 5200-II Series handhelds. Then some Sennheiser 6000 series radio for the instruments – for the guitars and bass and stuff. Everything’s on rechargeable batteries, including the in-ears. We haven’t used any alkaline for the whole run. Due to the large amount of IEM receivers in use, by using rechargeable batteries we have saved over 4500 AAs during the seven-week rehearsal and UK tour period alone.”

Kylie used 4 Sennheiser SKM5200-II capsules in custom colours to match her costume choices, working over a Sennheiser EM3732-II system. Tempany uses the SSL’s Stem Group path type to group all 4 microphones as a single input to the monitor mixes. “It becomes one fader and one channel where I can adjust levels, EQ, and dynamics for all four mics during a show,” he explained. “If one player wants to vocal up a bit, I simply do a group automation change in relative mode on that stem in their mix. It then scales for all mics through the show.”

RF Tech Joshua Thomas was in charge of the getting coverage in all the places that matter. He said: “The main challenges with doing this Kylie show is that her in-ears need to work on the stage, under the stage, on the B-stage and under the B stage. So, you’re trying to cover a large part of the arena. To do that I used a small RF amplifier and split the signal to get two points of coverage.

“The next issue is with the band and the techs, because they need coverage on top of the stage in case anything goes on up there but also

under stage for when they come on and off, and also the guitar pedals were offstage at the back, so they needed coverage there as well. I again employed a split system in there, where I was splitting the output of the IEM signal, so there was an antenna onstage and off stage.

“We also had the dancers on in-ears - that works with a hidden antenna under the stairwell at the back, which wide-covers all of the stage. The guitars are also on wireless.”

Thomas deployed Sennheiser A5000CP and Sennheiser omni-antennas for transmission and A2003 UHF passive and AD3700 active antennas for receiving. He added: “Sennheiser make very good equipment and they give good support, so it was great to have a full Sennheiser system. Kylie always uses Sennheiser mics.

“I work very closely with Gavin the monitor engineer because, at the end of the day, I’m the person between him and what the artist hears. Obviously, he has his own preferences and decisions on what is best audio-wise, which is another reason Sennheiser is used. He likes the sound of them and has always used them.”

Before the tour hit the road, it spent two weeks at Fly By Nite (FBN) Studios. The number of technical elements that make up the show meant the production needed a bespoke space to ensure the crew and kit were up to speed in advance of the tour. FBN Studios is a state-of-the-art facility with onsite accommodation to maximise productivity during the rehearsal period.

FBN’s Studio Manager Scottie Sanderson said: “I spent 20 years on the road myself, including four tours with Kylie, and know how demanding it can be. The camaraderie of the right mix of people is second to none, and a great feeling. I always look forward to seeing who is on the crew list for incoming shows, and there are always old faces to catch up with.”

Discussing the facilities at FBN Studios, he said: “We pride ourselves in having what we believe is the best facility in the UK, if not Europe. Not only

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can the production stretch out and make the most of the vast floor space, we also have 21 en suite bedrooms to offer, five dressing rooms, a gym, sauna, rooftop terrace and a laundry facility - pretty much everything you want is immediately close to hand.

“Being able to facilitate core crew staying onsite means you can really spend the most amount of time possible fine tuning what are usually very complicated stage and lighting designs. We are close to Birmingham Airport and minutes away from Arrow Valley Lake where you can escape for a while. But, also, the volume of glass in the building lends itself to a light and bright and airy environment, which really gives people a positive outlook throughout their stay.”

The tour then went out with 15 Fly By Nite trucks. This seamless transition from rehearsals to road has a number of advantages, explained Fly By Nite’s Managing Director, David Coumbe: “We’ve worked with Kylie and Pull The Pin Out for a number of years and we’re happy that our relationship has extended to include tour rehearsals at FBN Studios. Joining these two key elements of the tour provides more flexibility, as any changes or alterations that come out of rehearsals can be very quickly and easily applied to the trucking itinerary. It simplifies the process and gives the production team peace of mind that they’re in the best possible shape.”

Phoenix Bussing has supplied six 14m Setra double-deckers in various combinations – one artist, one band/dancers, and four crew. The artist bus features a bedroom and en suite, plus eight bunks. The band/dancers and crew buses are all 16-berth - with two (band/dancers and production) boasting a brand new layout.

Transport Manager Andy Gray said: “Phoenix has looked after Kylie for years now and we’ve worked with Kevin since before he started Pull The Pin Out. The Pull The Pin Out team are great to work with, as they are lovely people, easy to deal with and are all experienced in the touring industry. They know that they want quality suppliers - they are very loyal to that and build good relationships with them.”

The company recently placed an order for 10 brand new Setra 531 double-deckers, with the first hitting the road on 1 November. The others will be delivered and built every eight weeks. Gray added: “Everyone has been loving our new layouts and it will continue on the new models as well. There will be two additional artist buses in the order, which will be

ready early next year.” Another key component of the logistic team was The Appointment Group who took care of all other travel needs for the 100-strong production.

All-important sustenance is being provided by Popcorn Catering. Head of Catering Simon Raynor revealed: “You get a wide range of dietary requirements but for the amount of people - considering there’s over 100 – it isn’t too vast. Vegetarian, vegan, couple of allergies, but nothing too crazy.

“The atmosphere is fantastic – it’s a good one, it really is. That comes from Sean (Fitzpatrick – Tour Manager) and the management all the way down. The production guys are great as well. We’re pretty much left to our own devices, as long as we’re doing what everybody wants - which seems to be working well.”

That sentiment spreads across the production team and into the show, as Kylie delivers the type of performance one would expect from the queen of pop and mistress of reinvention. Rob Sinclair’s design and all of the technical elements feeding into it add up to a captivating visual spectacle.

Kevin Hopgood concluded: “Having good suppliers is fundamental to a show and tour like this. It’s a relationship that’s integral to the whole thing. You’re not going to have a good delivery of the design and you’re not going to have a good tour where everyone works well together unless you’ve got that relationship. And once you bring all those suppliers together, they’ve got to mesh together as an overall team. Sometimes if departments butt heads, it’s never going to work - it’s been good on this.” TPi Photos: Andrew Whitton & TPi www.kylie.com www.pullthepinout.co.uk www.gribiche.org www.christielites.com www.ct-group.com www.er-productions.com wwwcapital-sound.co.uk www.flybynite.co.uk www.fbnstudios.co.uk www.phoenix-bussing.co.uk www.appointmentgroup.com www.popcorncatering.com

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