Tinie Tempah

Producer Antony Randall, from The Tour Group and live music management company Tour Support, was approached to compile Tinie Tempah’s first ever arena tour. Having previously worked on Rihanna, Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas and Jay-Z’s tours, he brought a wealth of experience with him.
    “Tinie’s Tour Manager, JP Firmin, is one of my partners in the UK, which is how I first became involved,” said Randall. “Tinie and his band are difficult to class because it is hip hop and pop, but has a really edgy rock feel to it. We thought he was the first English artist in a long time that we were inspired by and we believed he could elevate himself throughout his touring career,” added Randall.
    “We decided to build him this great platform, but he had a very small core team so everyone on this tour apart from the initial team is new. I’m based in California and managing from over there was tricky, so I asked Production Manager, Richard Young, to help me put the show together. He was like the Technical Director over here and really helped me out.”
    Both Randall and Young have worked with each of the vendors on the tour at some point, choosing them because they believed they would not only provide an excellent service, but would also be supportive of Tempah’s abilities as a live performer. “We’ve brought some of our best team in to help with it, so we have a glamorous roster of A-list production crew. The band has also been one of the best I’ve worked with in the UK,” said Randall.
    The artist and band knew exactly how they wanted each of the show’s acts to run - with a total of four making up each performance. “The show is broken up into a warehouse scene, a futuristic scene, the B Stage and then into a crazy double encore at the end, which is nuts, and somewhere between a rock show and a rave. Tinie wanted a broken down section on the B Stage so he could get closer to the audience,” Randall highlighted.

THE SPECTACULAR DESIGN
The production department on tour was made up of a long list of talent. Randall brought Designer, Willow Perron, on board - a creative individual who too has worked with Rihanna. He was responsible for producing a strong creative brief, designing the show and making video content.
    “Willow was like our Creative Director and was responsible for co-designing with myself and LD Andy Hurst. It was Willow’s concept, design and treatment and then Andy did a co-design on the lighting portion. It was a heavy collaboration with Tinie too, who is very clear about what he wants,” explained Randall.
    Perron was responsible for the initial designs for the band cages and layout of the stage that would form the centre of a breathtaking production. He later added the triangular screens to the design that dominated the stage.
    LS-Live built all elements of the stage, including the pop-up lift on the downstage, through which Tinie Tempah makes a grand entrance. The upstage section was fitted to two riser sections - one on the mid stage and the other upstage - also produced by the rehearsal and staging structure company. 

A SOPHISTICATED SET
Stage, studio and set specialist LS-Live began a rapport with Tinie Tempah and his crew when its in house team designed and delivered the artist’s touring stage set for the summer festival run and small venue gigs earlier in the year, made entirely from hire stock. Said LS-Live Designer, Gareth Mallon: “Whilst we were designing and building Tinie’s summer stage set in the studio, then Production Manager Tobi Oyerinde started discussions with us about requirements for the arena show and we began to pass several designs between us.
    “They were pleased that we could offer a complete set design service, creating a stage set from off-the-shelf hire kit which meant value for money, and we could build it on site in the studio, where they could tweak the design and do rehearsals,” continued Mallon. “We built a multi-level set from our industry standard LiteDeck, incorporating staircases, handrails, drapes and a LiteConsole with a custom branded front panel.”
    Tinie Tempah wanted to step things up for his arena tour and tasked LS-Live with designing a more sophisticated stage set for the show. Different designs passed between LS-Live and Randall, over the course of several months, but the pressure was on as the final drawings reached the LS-Live design desk just a week before the production was due to load in to the studio in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. Mallon transformed the design sketch into a viable touring system providing detailed CAD drawings and 3D renders, before the design was brought to life in the studio.
    Again, the set utilised a lot of standard hire kit from LS-Live’s stock. It comprised a raised three-tier LiteDeck stage system with a rectangle base platform, three middle-tier platforms to support custom Versatube frames and two mirrored top-tier platforms downstage of the rear video screens. The set was supported by LS-Live staircases, handrails and drapes between each level. Continued Mallon: “We designed three bespoke cages, each using between 20 and 30 colour-changing Barco Versatube LED battens in one metre or two metre sections, which were designed to magnify and work with the effects on the video screens at the rear.”
    Adam ‘Bullet’ Bettley, LS-Live Project Support, commented: “The cages acted as performance spaces for the drummer, keyboard player and DJ and they sat on eight by eight scissor lifts so they raised up during the show. We also built a 60ft by 8ft thrust at centre stage, which included a manlift for Tinie Tempah’s reveal, and a support for the video wall from our standard truss.”
    Taking around a week to fabricate from start to finish, the set was complete for the artist and crew’s arrival at the rehearsal studios in October. The production team checked in to the ‘LS-Live Hotel’ on the top floor of the studio’s recently expanded adjoining facilities, using all 14 en-suite bedrooms. They also booked the green room, all five dressing rooms, two production offices and catering area for the three days of rehearsals.
    Added Bettley: “Their crew re-built the stage set during rehearsals and we offered support to them whilst they were on site, answering their questions, and helping them to adjust the height and positioning of some of the staging. Other than these small changes they were very happy with the set, which packed neatly into less than one truck due to its modular format.”
    The production crew made use of LS-Live’s collective of backline technicians, taking Andrew ‘Brigga’ Briggs on tour with them as drum technician, who said the stage set ran very smoothly on tour.
    Randall appreciated the efficiency of the LS-Live team. “It was vital to have access to the set division during the build, because we couldn’t afford any down time. We had a few set elements that we knew would need tweaking, and being able to have Ben [Brooks, General Manager of LS-Live] available to make changes made it possible to achieve the high level of quality required in only three days.
    “The on site rooms were an added bonus; I programmed content all night, and could still be on site first thing, for all production changes as well. LS-Live is a first class company, with a first class team,” he added.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TOOLS
As well as getting on personally, Monitor Engineer Raphael Williams and Tinie Tempah see eye-to-eye when it comes to making technical decisions for audio. “He is the first big artist I have worked with and I’ve grown with him in the music industry over the past 18 months. I understand the foundation of what he wants when listening to his monitors,” said Williams.
    Three tours after he started working with Tinie Tempah, Williams is still more than satisfied using the Soundcraft Vi6 96 channel console to mix the artist and his band. Said Williams: “The sound is great and it’s easy to use when managing 64 channels plus. The Vi6 is like an analogue board in a digital domain and you get great aftercare support from Soundcraft. When I’m on tour, I just need to make sure I have the tools and people to get the best results needed for the artist and the show. Ever since I’ve got this desk it’s been fantastic.
    “Although you can’t add external plug-ins to the desk, there are Lexicon effects on the console for reverbs and delays. I use reverbs on the acoustic section of the show, but because it is monitors, everyone wants it quite direct and dry. The room gives it that natural reverberation anyway so I don’t use many effects. For the near future I would like to use the RME MADIface as inserts on channels for dynamic processing and equitation.”
    For Tempah, Williams used all 32 outputs - some of which were stereo lines. A total of 10 in-ear systems and 20 mixes were run on the desk for subs, side fills and B-stage duplicates.
    On stage, Williams opted for mainly in-ear monitors. “As we are going into arenas and you can get slap back from the room, it is more effective and quieter at FOH and on the stage if everyone is on IEMs,” he commented. “Tinie uses the blinged Sennheiser SKM 2000 handheld series for his customised mic and the IEM SR 2000 receiver with true diversity on the body pack EK 2000. The in-ear mould acts like the other antenna and the spectrum it can work to is fantastic. It has a big bandwidth in the RF frequency,” commented Williams.
    “The in-ear moulds we use are Ultimate Ears, which sound great. We have models ranging from UE7-18s and we also we have a fantastic relationship with the company.”
    Williams opted for a combination of Sennheiser G2 in-ears with an AC 3000 active antenna combiner for the band. He also chose the A 5000-CP circular polarised antenna and two A 2003 passive antennas. Microphones he was fond of included SKM 2000’s and the MMD 935 from Sennheiser and Shure’s SM57. A total of 13 Sennheiser e904’s were used for all toms and snare along with an additional two Shure Beta 91’s, three Shure Beta52’s on floor toms and kick, two Neumann KM184s for hi-hats and five AKG 414’s overheads.
    Alongside the IEMs, d&b M2 wedges were placed beside the DJ. Said Williams: “They sound really punchy. The drummer, keyboard player and DJ also had their own personal sub because they like to feel the weight and definition of their instruments.”
    In monitor world there were three L-Acoustics ARCs placed a side, which were flown as side-fills, with two L-Acoustics SB218 dual-driver subs per side and DV-SUB subs positioned two per side.
    Each night, the show was recorded to enable Williams to carry out a virtual sound check using RME HDSPe MADIface giving him 64 channels of in and outputs. “This allows me to find out what the band are hearing in their in-ears and listen to what the sidefills were doing and tweak it before the musicians get onstage,” he explained.

RETAINING THE ALBUM QUALITY
FOH Engineer Mark Kennedy found he needed more inputs than the Midas PRO6 he had enjoyed using for the past three years would allow. “With around 70 inputs, we’re eating up the channels, so I chose the Midas PRO9 for the tour. I just love the sound of it,” explained Kennedy.
    “I know how to make a PA sound good and the best way to make the show sound incredible is with snapshots for each song. This allowed the Musical Director, Josh McKenzie, and myself to record the rehearsals and build the snapshots to get them to sound exactly the way we wanted them.”
    Prior to joining Tempah’s Disc-Overy production crew, Kennedy was busy running FOH for Pendulum at the summer festivals and touring with Faithless, who he has worked with for 15 years.
    Said Kennedy: “This show is completely different to Pendulum but fairly similar to Faithless in the way it is set-up. It’s the sort of thing I have been doing for years so I am familiar with it.”
    To prepare for the tour, Kennedy spent two days of rehearsals in Music Bank and then another four days at LS-Live. He has reaped the rewards of using virtual sound checks over the past five years, initially when touring with Faithless. “I use Avid’s Pro Tools rig for virtual sound check and it’s so fast. Being able to play last night’s show through the PA at exactly the right level makes an amazing difference. Flip it into Solo In Place mode and you can listen to individual things on the PA. There really is no comparison,” reported Kennedy.
    Every night, the show is recorded and pulled onto a hard drive for the artist and management. “I’ve used Pro Tools to record shows like this for years and it is a really stable system even though I’m using so many tracks,” Kennedy added.
    As a result of the combination of hard disk and live elements, mixing the show at FOH can be demanding. “I have to try to make it sound live and real whilst still keeping the album quality when I mix the live band with what is on the hard disk,” commented Kennedy.
    Minimal effects such as repeat echoes were applied to Tempah’s vocals, with clarity of voice being a priority. However, Kennedy was particularly fond of one on-board feature he used frequently on vocals - the multi-band compressor. “On this show, the band is like a gated reverb sound on the toms and snare drums, which fits in perfectly with the feel of the set.”
    Commenting on the vocal mics, Kennedy said: “They were there before I came onto the tour, but I’m very happy with them. I used Sennheiser on Faithless for a few years and have never had one go down on me yet because they are so reliable. They also offer a great sound quality that is very open and natural.
    “The band set-up on stage was substantial, we have five toms and three snare drums that are mic’d top and bottom. There are also three overheads, two hi-hats and two kick drum mics - so that’s a lot of mics just on the main kit.”
    During the show, Tinie Tempah and some of his band members performed from a B stage at FOH. For the B Stage kit there were another two kick drum mics, two snare drum mics, a tom mic and a pair of overheads. “There is also a huge keyboard set-up on the main stage, but that’s sub-mixed through his own system, saving me a lot of channels,” said Kennedy.

MAXIMUM AUDIO CONTROL
L-Acoustics’ K1 system with the company’s V-DOSC side hangs were chosen for the show because Kennedy had used them previosuly when touring with Faithless. PA amplification was achieved through L-Acoustics LA8’s. “The K1 is a very controllable box and so powerful, especially in the HF region. The way it’s laid out, the crossovers are built into the amplifiers so there is an individual amplifier per two boxes, which gives you very good control,” commented Britannia Row System Engineer, Richard Trow.
    A total of 12 K1’s per side made up the main system for the front, with 12 V-DOSC per side for sidefills on the second hang, 20 DV-DOSC for downfills and frontfills and 12 SB28 subs per side. Although they were not needed at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena, rear hangs were included at venues such as the O2 Arena in London and the M.E.N Arena in Manchester.
    “For the O2, we’re getting a couple more K1’s in addition to some rear hangs of L-Acoustics ARCs, which are good fillers of holes. We haven’t needed them up until now, but at some of the larger arenas, if they decide to sell seats past 270°, we would need a third hang. Otherwise you’re relying on moving your side hang further upstage. If you do that it throws the time alignment out further,” explained Trow.
    The new Lake LM44 was put to use as a matrixing unit at FOH, with the earlier model, the LM26 units, in the wing racks. Said Trow: “With the processor’s DSPs being built into the amplifiers, you don’t need to send multiple frequency returns. This means you have so much more control because you can individually change gain and EQ anywhere in the system.”
    A Dante return system was also run at FOH, allowing multiple channels of digital audio to be sent down a fibre. “One of the main advantages of using Dante is the likelihood of any buzz is eradicated and the system is very stable. We have an analogue back-up as well, which is on auto to take over in case we ever lose a switcher,” Trow added.

WHEN POP MET HIP HOP
Lighting Designer, Andy Hurst, who joined Blackburn based lighting and visuals rental specialist HSL in September as Creative Director, also brought a raft of new clients to the company’s busy Touring and Special Events division including Tempah.
    Hurst’s main priorities onstage were making sure that the band were well lit and felt comfortable in their individual spaces, whilst creating a visual energy and excitement to match the vibes of the set for the audience. Speaking from backstage at the Newcastle venue, Hurst said: “The audience reaction in Liverpool on the first night was great, the band and Tinie were very happy.”
    With the video content and visual information being fast paced, Hurst wanted to ensure that the lighting was supportive, complementary and straightforward without the visuality of the show becoming cluttered or overloaded. Lighting in this specific style was challenging and required plenty of precision.
    With all eyes on the star, timing - in the very theatrical sense of the word - was crucial. Hurst explained that on the cover of debut album Disc-Overy, Tempah appears in a triangle, but having seen many sets already featuring this look the creative team wanted something edgier and original, so decided to invert the shape, which was then reinforced with a series of ‘V’ trusses.
    Hurst described the base aesthetics of his lighting design as “pop meets hip hop,” for which he used a combination of moving lights in the rig including 16 Martin Professional MAC III Profiles, a total of 30 Martin MAC XB Washes with PC Lenses, 12 Martin MAC 101 LED Wash Lights, 16 Robe ROBIN 600 LED Washes Lights and 22 Clay Paky Sharpys which are on the deck to provide a good juxtaposition to the overhead fixtures.
    Currently, the Clay Paky Sharpy is one of Hurst’s favourite fixtures, but he also commented that the Martin MAC III’s are “really bright and fast”. Robe LEDWash 600’s also score highly with the LD for their colour mixing abilities and wide colour range. As one of the early adopters of using LED fixtures as scenic and architectural elements in his designs, Hurst enjoys using these lightsources, but only when appropriate. “For this I chose fixtures that would work well together and produce plenty of big, sumptuous arena looks,” he said.
    In addition to the moving lights, 16 Martin Atomic Strobes with colour scrollers were used, 30 LED Colour Blocks for truss toning and general washes and 24 linear 4-lite Moles, together with two Jem ZR 33 smoke machines and two Le Maitre Stadium hazers.
    For control, a High End Systems Whole Hog Full Boar console is Hurst’s lighting console of choice, so much so, that he actually owns three. When they’re not required for his own shows, the Full Boars are constantly out on hire. For Tempah’s arena shows, two of the desks were present, one being used as a back up.
    HSL’s Lighting Crew Chief for Tempah’s sold-out arena production was Tim Oliver, with Stuart ‘Wales’ Picton looking after dimmers, working alongside techs Jon Trincas and Dan Oswald. Previously, Oliver was on the road with Bolton funny man Peter Kay for two years, before joining Tempah’s first arena tour. Like Hurst, Oliver is also a fan of the Martin Professional fixtures chosen. “Right now, my favourite fixture is the MAC III, they just look great and have got a really good zoom,” said Oliver.

A UNIQUE CONFIGURATION
Stuart Merser started his professional career around the time that XL Video was born, finding his feet with a full time position at the company. That was 11 years ago, and after a good 10 years as a touring Video Engineer, Merser has since, albeit accidentally, found his way into directing, which seems to be a natural step. He said of XL: “It was very beneficial to work for a company like that; being able to see every bit of video kit that came through the door. Now, I’ve not been directing for very long, but I was brought in on Tinie because I was able to look after the media servers too.”
    Merser has previously toured with some big stars honing his directing skills, from American rock and bubble gum pop to quintessential British comedy. His CV includes Gwen Stefani, The Backstreet Boys to Ricky Gervais and Steve Coogan.
    This is Merser’s first time working with Tempah, as the last tour took a much smaller crew out on the road. For his first arena dates, however, the call for a creative video element was clear. Explained Merser: “This time around, the video aspect was incredibly integral to Tinie’s tour; there’s a high res video screen, which is masked to create a V shape in the centre, complemented by a low res screen at the sides to create an outer ‘V’ shape.  All the drum and backing risers had video wrapped around it too.”
    Merser’s crew was completed by Roger Nelson, working hand held cameras (on stage), LED Tech Freddy Debaille, Tim Bolland who manned track and dolly cams in the pit and Mark ‘Sparky’ Cranham, a full time Video Engineer for XL. Said Merser: “I had an excellent crew, they were unbelievable and it was great to work with all of them. Matt Askem brought me in on this tour, and I’m very grateful for that. For him to ask me was really nice, and this was a great opportunity to take. He really helped me in the beginning with how the video should look, acting as a Creative Video Director.”
    Invited to direct on this occasion by Askem, (whose own credentials include directing Take That), Merser elaborated: “Matt has done some huge stuff, so for him to put me forward for the job was a real pleasure, to be accepted in that way. For me, the biggest challenge was to get it right for Matt and Tinie,” said the VD.
    “It’s important to keep the video as lively as possible, and Tinie played up to the camera great. Between him and Charlie, [Mitchell Charles] his DJ, they made my job very easy - If you have an artist who is interested, you get the maximum out of it.”
    XL Video supplied all the video kit which comprised a Lighthouse R7 LED Screen for the high res component, and a Pixled F30 for the low res addition which created something quite different. “It’s a very unique configuration, the way it’s built into the triangle shape,” said Merser.
    For control, Merser used the Grass Valley KayakDD 2 M / E Digital Switcher system, which is designed for live production purposes. As an add-on, Merser used a Snell & Wilcox Magic DaVE 8D DVE to generate effects on various songs. For a lot of the set, Merser created black and white images with progressive scanning, incorporating standout red elements where necessary.
    Other songs had polarised effects. The song Mosh Pit, for example, needed the camera shots to look very dirty and grainy, almost like raw CCTV footage, with the whole idea being to follow the show, telling a story across the board. For the live camera feeds, four Sony D50’s were used along with two Sony mini cams on the drums because a hand held couldn’t get in to capture the movement. A Catalyst media server was used with content triggered via time code. In addition, two Barco R12 Performer projectors were used in conjunction with 16 by 12 screens.
    “Matt and I spent a lot of time with Jesse and Willow, talking about the show’s design with video, and I spent a lot of time softening the edge so it didn’t seem to dark or in your face,” highlighted Merser.
    “Randall chose to get the kit from XL, and as I say, I’ve worked with them for a long time and know the gear is always in great shape, using the latest technology. The Kayak is the desk I like using anyway, and XL makes things happen - they go above and beyond.” This sentiment is shared by Show Producer Randall, who added, “I have worked with XL Video for many years and have a brilliant relationship with them.”
    Merser concluded: “On the song Snap Tinie wanted the fans to be involved with lots of snap shots of the crowd, so I took still pictures and put it on the live video feed to create a library of live pictures from the show and relay them on screen - every night!”

...AND THE CROWD WENT CRAZY
The sold out, 17 day long production had to not only sound outstanding, but also deliver on all aspects of visual entertainment that could draw the audience into a high-energy performance with some well-timed stage weapons.
    Enter Pyrojunkies, Tempah’s preferred special effects crew. “Tinie had ideas for cues on some songs, and we put our ideas together and made it all happen,” said Dan Mott, Project Manager at the company. “I think pyro complements the show’s design, especially with the hip hop / pop lighting hybrid. It was a pleasure working with Tour Support for the first time and we’ve continued to provide special effects for Tinie after working with him at Global Gathering earlier this year.”
    From festival to fierce fanbase, Mott and his team came up with a plan for the Disc-Overy tour that would create exciting additions to the artists back catalogue. For Written In The Stars, Mott used Duration Gerbs and Silver Titanium Comets, Low Smoke Machines were designed into the show for both Disc-Overy and Mosh Pit. The latter also required a large dose of Stage Flames. Line Rockets, Mines and XL Sparkle Flash for was provided for Frisky.
    Pyrojunkie’s used all in-house kit including Magic FX CO2 Dominators and Confetti Blowers on Miami 2 Ibiza. Next, Flash Reports, Mines and Large Loud Report Airbursts were used on the number one, award-winning single Pass Out.
    Mott continued: “The real crowd pleaser of the show was definately Miami 2 Ibiza - we created two giant Vortex’s of CO2 to give the song the Ibiza club CO2 feel and look. Along with a whirlwind of yellow confetti, the crowd went crazy!” Randall was also impressed with the delivery: “Pyrojunkies were the right fit for the project and they have done a great job,” he explained.
    “One of the real challenges for the show was the positioning of effects. It’s a busy stage with band and video screens everywhere, along with all the scissor lifts. Luckily, Pyrojunkies use Galaxis Pyrotec firing systems, which enable the operator to wirelessly control the effects from the best view at any particular time,” Randall concurred.

CREATING AN INTIMATE ATMOSPHERE - SAFELY
Under the experience of Tony Hume - Area Manager for Showsec in Newcastle, Head of Security for the Metro Radio Arena show was Tom Rigby who project managed the show’s security needs, liaising with both the venue and the client to ensure all security requests and necessities were met.
    Rigby managed a total of 83 staff at the event, comprising 61 stewards, 13 SIA staff and eight supervisors.
    Said Rigby: “My main priorities on the night were the safety of the public attending and the smooth-running of the event. Ensuring people have a safe ingress and egress into the venue was vital and happened with no issues on the night. Secondly, I was responsible for the artist passing from the main stage to the B stage behind the mixing desk.”
    Indeed a challenge for Rigby and his team came when he had to ensure the artist got from the A to B Stage without any issues during the sold out, hysteria-breeding gig.
    The move was to create an intimate atmosphere by singing acoustically. “Having the artist leave the stage and pass through the audience was a very important time with regards to crowd control. The artist left the main stage and made his way to the B Stage at the rear of the mixing desk and it was my responsibility to ensure this happened safely,” explained Rigby. Safety arrangements for the crowd were made before the show started, in a security meeting. The artist passed through with no issues and the event was without issue or medical incident.
    The move from stage to stage with a number one selling artist and an arena crowd of thousands in the standing area, needed strategic planning. “As agreed by myself, the tour security and the venue prior to the show, we decided the exact route the artist would take to ensure his safety. We also had meetings with the venue medical teams to ensure that if any medical issues were to arise, an agreed location - stage left of the pit barrier - would be where those incidents were dealt with.”
TPi

www.tinietempah.com

www.ls-live.com  

www.hslgroup.com  

www.britanniarow.com 

www.xlvideo.com  

www.pyrojunkies.com