Pet Shop Boys

The winners of last year’s Outstanding Contribution to British Music award at the BRITs, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are currently enjoying a rebirth of sorts. Twenty-five years after their chart début with the classic ‘West End Girls’, the duo are doing better business on tour than ever.

    Whilst this could be attributed to the rosy glow of in-vogue ’80s nostalgia — a period in which their electro-pop reigned supreme — their elegantly-crafted songs sound as relevant today as they were when the onslaught of fame forced Tennant to abandon his deputy editorship at Smash Hits magazine.

    Hot on the heels of their most recent studio album, Yes, the Pet Shop Boys kicked off their Pandemonium tour in Russia last June and brought its latest leg to a Christmas-flavoured climax at London’s O2 Arena on December 21.

    Designed by the multi-disciplined Es Devlin (Take That, Lady Gaga, Muse, Kanye West), the show’s visual mix of art, glamour and Gilbert & George-style dry wit was the perfect accompaniment to a rich collection of pop greats, many of which were re-imagined for the tour.

    Rehearsed at Bow’s Three Mills Studios during May 2009, this is the third Pet Shop Boys world tour for unflappable production manager Joe Sanchez, who made his PSB début in 2004 on the Release tour after his predecessor, Andy Crookston decided to move from PM to a tour management role.

    Sanchez played an important role in the Boys’ Battleship Potemkin project and continued the relationship on the 2006-7 Fundamental tour. This led to live work with the Arctic Monkeys and Sarah Brightman, and he was delighted to renew his ties with Tennant & Lowe for the latest world trek.

    “It’s a perfect working environment and it’s pretty rare that you get that,” he said. “Neil and Chris are great to work with because they are grown-ups who have a genuine appreciation of production and understand why things have to happen the way they do. Ultimately I have their trust and I’m very aware that it doesn’t grow on trees.

    “We have a good bunch of guys who I’ve used for a number of other tours that I’ve PM’d and they make a solid, professional crew. A lot of them have become firm friends. It feels like home.”
   
DESIGN
For many years, the Pet Shop Boys have maintained relationships with a core of key suppliers and crew, including Britannia Row Productions and Neg Earth Lights, whose Carl Burnett was the band’s LD for many years before passing the baton to Rob Sinclair of Keane and Peter Gabriel fame for this tour.

    In a year when most attention seemed to be focused on huge, gargantuan touring sets like U2’s ‘Space Station’, it was interesting to see how Es Devlin — the tour’s overall creative director, who first worked with the PSB on their 2001 musical, Closer To Heaven — used the most basic of materials to form a scenic palette.

    Throughout the show, around 250 40cm2/50cm2 cardboard boxes — specially treated by Perry Scenic — were constantly reconfigured into grid shapes of fortresses, skyscrapers and larger-than-life Rubik’s Cubes, upon which a dazzling range of imagery was projected.

    The Piet Mondrian-influenced geometry was also applied to the costumes worn by Tennant, Lowe and their cast of dancer/vocalists, resulting an ever-changing onstage world.

    Es Devlin explained: “DJ/producer Stuart Price and I wanted to follow the principle of interweaving beats, bars and themes between old and new PSB material that had worked well for their 10-minute mash-up at the BRITs.

    “Neil and Chris’ brief was for the show to feel like a perfect Friday night out — complete with a bleak interlude of tears in the toilet and a grand celebratory ending. Within this framework, the choreography, costumes, films and animations and set design explore the theme of the automaton versus the human, people versus grids and boxes, individuals resisting categorisation.

    “The great thing about collaborating with the PSB is that if they recognise an idea to be strong enough, they will go through with it all the way. Only Neil and Chris would be bold enough to step out for their entire opening number with coloured boxes completely covering their heads!”

    Joe Sanchez took us through the evolution of the box concept: “Es came up with this idea for small, white cubes. In researching how we would make this set, we realised that we were looking for something that folds flat and looks like a cardboard box... so how about a cardboard box? What we’ve ended up with is, literally, a flat-pack production!

    “We met with Jon Perry at Perry Scenic who produced some reinforced prototype boxes that, very importantly, were fire-retardant and we went from there, replacing them every few shows as they start to wear.”

    Instead of designing an ‘A’ and ‘B’ show to accommodate different venue sizes, the modular nature of the box formula meant that the production could be scaled appropriately without compromising on style and content.

    Sanchez: “We can go from venues as big as the O2 and headline festivals like Roskilde in front of 40-50,000 people with 250 boxes, or play a 1,800-capacity theatre in Milwaukee with 70 boxes, and present the same show. It’s a brilliant concept in that respect.”

    There are even dedicated box techs. “Our carpenters, Roger Cabot and Tom Keane, look after the construction and placement of the box walls each show day. It’s like watching a couple of kids with Lego except they, like the rest of the crew, wear uniform white coats so they look more like meat inspectors!”

    The boxes constantly moved during the show care of a circular winch, custom-built by Perry Scenic to enable a pick-up flying gag. Perry Scenic also supplied the main projection screen, surround fascias and PVC-faced steps/rostra. These were later replaced by a new set, made by Roger Cabot with cardboard fascias.

    Contributing soft goods was Rockdrops, which supplied seven rolls of Marley flooring, set dressing and trimming, and masses of fabric including black wool serge.

LIGHTING
“Cardboard boxes, shiny floors and front projection add up to a nightmare for lighting designers, but I like a challenge,” said LD Rob Sinclair. “In fact, the projection is the visual benchmark around which everything fits.”

    Working alongside Neg Earth crew chief Nick Barton and technicians Mark ‘Scratch’ Hitchcock and Martin McLoughlin, Sinclair approached the lighting as he would musical theatre, which was very much the flavour of Devlin’s design.

    He explained: “It was a case of finding positions for lamps that weren’t going to get hit by any boxes, so all the floor lights died on the first day, but we’ve ended up with something that’s pleased everyone.”

    The lighting rig was deceptive in that it seemed fairly small at first sight, despite carrying more than 70 moving fixtures. “It’s actually very simple,” said Sinclair. “I specified models that would be easy to source, knowing that for most of the year we’d be hiring local rigs. That worked because we got pretty much what we wanted everywhere.

    “Although the spec is for Martin MAC 2000 spots and washes, we’ve used just about every moving light brand over the last six months, including Chinese copies I’m afraid to say.

    “Thankfully, I have MAC 2Ks here as well as 12 GLP Impressions which light the cyc. They’re small and bright, and don’t mind being hit by cardboard boxes! We also have a 5kW Fresnel, two 2kW Fresnels, six Birdies, three truss spots and a single FOH spot.”

    The show is time code-driven by a master clock. Sinclair’s favoured console for the tour was a Jands Vista S1 with a pair of M1 wings, and an S3 wing was also used for the front-projected video content at the O2.

    “I’ve been using the Vista for five years and I think I was responsible for its tour début,” claimed Sinclair. “I just love it and I think more people should consider using it because I feel it’s been overlooked.

    “What’s important to me is that the guys at Jands have been great at writing new elements into the desk for me, and I get tremendous support from A.C. Entertainment Technologies [Jands’ distributor] as well as Neg Earth who have also kept me very happy.”

SOUND
The more I spoke to the crew, the more I sensed that this feeling of contentment was universal. FOH engineer Holger Schwark was another happy camper and Brit Row’s supply of its newly-upscaled Electro-Voice X-Line PA ticked all his boxes.

    Britannia Row’s Jerry Wing told TPi that this was the first touring show to the south London rental firm’s new version of the system, which has recently been supercharged by the implementation of EV’s new FIR-Drive (Finite Impulse Response) technology.

    FIR-Drive is the name that EV gives to its entire range of FIR offerings, including FIR-capable processing hardware, custom FIR speaker setting files and related software. FIR-Drive systems provide a flat, smooth frequency and phase response, uniform directivity at crossover frequencies, smoother total output power, better overall sound quality and require less EQ and tweaking during set-up and tuning.

    “The FIR-Drive products have given X-Line a new lease of life — it’s almost a new system,” said Wing. “X-Line always was a good rock’n’roll system, but the FIR filters have unleashed something that was hidden — the system now has finesse and clarity, as well as being raunchy and loud.”

    Wing noted that when Brit Row piloted its FIR-enabled X-Line at the Classical Brit Awards, the improvement was immediately noticed. “Now it’s got something else, a sweet top end, absolutely sparkling, and it’s a difference you can hear easily,” he said.

    “The Pet Shop Boys show demands a lot of clarity as well as punch, and Holger Schwark is very pleased with the quality of the vocals from a quiet singer in a loud environment.”

    The implementation is through the DSPs in the EV P3000RL amplifiers, which operate in the IRIS-Net environment and accessed via EV’s new NetMax N8000 controller.

    For the O2 show, the crew expanded the usual cabinet count, with the total amounting to L/R 16-unit main hangs, 12-unit side hangs, 28 subs. Dolby Lake Controllers were on on the front end, fed by the FOH console via AES.

    Schwark explained: “We go through a Dante network to another Dolby Lake onstage and from there we go via AES into the NetMax. Up to that point it’s entirely digital before we go into the amps.”

    This was the first full PSB tour for Schwark and he was mixing on a DiGiCo SD8. He said: “At the start I wanted an SD7 because I liked a lot of the features it brings like multi-band compression and a dynamic EQ that resembles a good old BSS DPR-901.

    “However, with the advent of the new Overdrive software and the facility for building a customised fader bank, the SD8 looked like the perfect choice. And of all the digital consoles I’ve worked on, this is definitely my favourite.”

    For a show with just one live musician and five singers, it was interesting to note that 40 channels were under Schwark’s control. “All the stuff that’s on playback is sent to me in sub-mixed multitrack form, and I’m approaching it just as I would a regular band,” he said. “So it’s a slightly different mix every night especially as each venue responds in its own way to sub-bass and I need to compensate for that.”

    Although most of the dynamics were handled internally within the SD8, Schwark used a TC 6000 for “some nice reverbs” and an SPL Charisma tube limiter to add definition to bass lines. “Some of the electronic basses are so ‘super low’ that they create a lot of unwanted rumble, and the Charisma is a good tool for this.”

    Shure’s UHF-R series wireless systems were used for vocals. Neil Tennant had a Shure KSM9 hand-held mic (set to a super-cardioid pattern) and the BVs were all on Beta 58s and occasional Shure headsets.

MONITORS
Previously Paul Weller’s long-time monitor engineer, Seamus Fenton was also manning a DiGiCo SD8 console, running around 38 channels and creating eight stereo mixes without any need for external processing.

    He explained: “The SD8 is very small and lightweight, but it was mainly chosen because it does MADI generically and, of course, we have a MADI stream which starts at our keyboards/MIDI tech, Hansi Kecker, who resides at stage left with me and MD Pete Gleadall.

    “The first 24 lines come from Hansi’s playback hard drives and they get added to an RME device to collect the keyboard lines. The stream leaves Hansi’s rack, comes into the digital split rack and goes into two RME Micstacy eight-channel pre-amps before being sent to an Optocore DD4ME module that sends the resulting stream optically to FOH.

    “I take one side of the Optocore and the second side goes to a MADI bridge for recording and media splits.

    “Our ‘shout’ system is also within that stream. Once it’s all there, the Optocore/MADI system is fabulous to operate and extremely versatile in terms of what you can pull from it.”

    All the performers are on Sennheiser G3 in-ear systems and Lowe also has a pair of L-Acoustics 108P powered wedges, hence a very quiet stage — much to the pleasure of the carps.

    Chiefed by Mike ‘Monk’ Shear, the Britannia Row crew also included Colin Burrell and digital system technician Nico Royan.

VIDEO
“It’s the first time I’ve worked with Creative Technology and I’ve been really pleased with their service,” said Joe Sanchez. “They’ve supplied six [three double-stacked] Barco 20kW HD projectors that fire on to two focal planes — an upstage and a downstage box wall — and handle the left/right I-Mag screens.”

    With Robyn Tearle taking the role of video tech, the I-Mag was directed by Blue Leach who was clearly happy with his lot. “This is an enormously fun show that’s bursting with creativity,” he said, “and I’m trying to put that over as efficiently as I can with the four cameras I have, a few occasional flourishes on my [Grass Valley Kayak DD] desk and with the VT content on Catalyst v4 Pro media servers [supplied to CT by SNP Productions].

    “They’ve had some tailor-made films produced [by Sam Pattinson to Es Devlin’s brief] for the show and the way they are projected on to 3D surfaces looks just superb. So I’m trying to do that justice. There’s always scope for character in an I-Mag cut and we’ve found a lot in this.”

    Leach’s line cut of the PSB O2 show in June featured heavily in their promo video for the ‘All Over The World’ single. He also praised CT for its part in the production: “It was CT who asked me along for that first O2 show and then Joe got me back for these December dates in the UK. It’s a tour with plenty of good vibrations!”

YULE FEST
Pyrovision looked after the fake snow and ‘flutterfetti’ requirements to add a Yuletide sheen to the December shows’ encores, which included the Boys’ festive single ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas’ and a surprise cover of Madness’ ‘My Girl’.

    Jim Webb stage managed the tour, and Joe Sanchez was supported in the production office by Danielle Dowden. Fresh from his work on U2 and Sarah Brightman for December’s shows was head rigger Todd Mauger.

    Eat To The Beat’s team (thanks to Dan, Alicia and Anna!) served up the company’s usual high standard of catering while the other key suppliers were Sound Moves (freight), Chapman Freeborn (air charter), Stage Truck (six trucks), Phoenix Bussing and Freebird Travel.

    Also notable were support band Bad Lieutenant, the impressive new outfit formed by New Order/Joy Division’s Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, whose guitar-heavy treatments of their former bands’ hits (including turbo-charged versions of ‘Temptation’ and ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’) breathed new life into these vintage gems.

    A DVD of the Pandemonium tour — directed by David Barnard — was filmed at the O2 gig for release later this year. The tour kicks back into action in March with further dates in Australia and Asia, and a number of summer festival appearances, notably in the States.
TPi