It's the kind of hype one would expect to come from any tour promoter looking to charm the media into publicising yet another Stones tour. But this one's different. Since 1962, when they emerged from the sweaty intimacy of the Marquee and Crawdaddy Club, the Stones have played every conceivable venue, peaking with the pomp and splendour of the world's most outlandish stadium set productions. Licks, their 2002-2003 world tour and first major outing since Bridges To Babylon, runs the whole gamut by touring, simultaneously, three different shows designed for stadiums, arenas and theatres. It's never been done before, and it has presented it's extremely experienced touring crew with one of the more challenging gigs of their career.
Summer rehearsals in Toronto saw the band revisit more than 130 songs, paring them down to three different sets of 25-30 numbers to fit in with the three productions, however, none of these are set in stone and some songs will feature in all three shows. It's a history lesson in some ways, but the show is no trip down memory lane... this is the Stones playing to their strengths, performing songs which for the most part remain timeless.
The Licks tour, informally referred to backstage as TOAST (Tour Of Arenas, Stadiums & Theatres), will take in 27 cities in the US and Canada, followed by dates in Australia and the Far East during 2003, including the band's first-ever visit to China. The European leg is scheduled for next summer, and London dates are already pencilled in for September '03.
The content of each of the productions, whilst sharing a pool of common technical elements, presents three distinctive identities. The outdoor stadium spectacle is, in Lighting Designer Patrick Woodroffe's words, "colourful, upbeat, positive, flamboyant, more of a greatest hits celebration." In the arenas, the show is more edgy, with unusual song choices such as 'Parachute Woman' (from Beggar's Banquet) and 'Hand Of Fate' (Black And Blue) nuzzling up against the classics. The theatre show, meanwhile, is completely different Ñ a more informal and simple presentation, giving the band a chance to dip in to their more obscure songs, some of which have never been heard live until now. Put simply, if you're a Rolling Stones fan who's never seen them live, then this is the tour to see.
For supremo Production Director Jake Berry, juggling the logistics of this tour represents a worthy challenge. Berry has enlisted the help of many long-time suppliers and crew to ensure that the shows all interlock smoothly, with veteran Project Manager Richard Hartman acting as the invaluable interface between all the suppliers, and Site Co-ordinator Toby Fleming looking after the stadium stage build. The staging, lights, PA and video are all shared in different permutations by the arena and stadium shows, while the theatre show has no video and as little production as possible.
The Mark Fisher-designed stadium and arena shows are, to quote him: "Smaller, easier, simpler, cheaper, have less crew and fewer trucks than Bridges To Babylon". However, both are formidable in their own right - the stadium show is enormous and features the largest tracking video screen ever taken out on a tour, while the arena uses the same components in a different configuration to create a giant static video backdrop, with images directed and/or co-ordinated by Willie Williams.
If there is one outstanding feature similar to both productions it is the computer control used for tracking, but most particularly on the stadium show which features the horizontally tracking video screen, plus vertically tracking backdrop panels and lighting: a lot of moving elements which need an extraordinary degree of precision to ensure they interface safely and accurately.
To this end, all credit to Brilliant Stages, although the shows could not have happened without the joint dedication and work of Tomcat, Tait Towers, McLaren Engineering and Stageco, all of whom drew on their immense experience and team spirit to build this tour. Their involvement will be explored in depth, along with BCC Video's vast input, in part two.
AUDIO
Although Jake Berry has been somewhat joined at the hip to Clair Brothers Audio on his last few tours, including U2's Elevation, he was more than happy to return to the Babylon tour's sound supplier, dB Sound of Chicago, for this production. Notably, both FOH Engineer Robbie McGrath and Monitor Engineer Chris Wade-Evans are also back in their respective hot seats.
Berry was full of praise for dB's Harry Witz and his team: "They came up with a system which I thought sounded amazingly clear and loud, and full of balls for a small system in a stadium." That system is Electro-Voice's X-Line line array package and its newer X-Line Compact (XLC) product, following in the wake of EV's X-Array system which famously debuted on Bridges To Babylon in 1997. The rig is powered by EV P300 amplifiers and processed by what McGrath refers to as the "invaluable brains of it all", a raft of XTA DP226 digital loudspeaker controllers.
When it came to investing in line array, Witz acknowledged the wide range available and claims that his choice of EV was not automatic, despite his links with the brand as a consultant and his company's worldwide pool of 800 X-Array cabinets. In fact, when he first heard X-Line against other brands, he was not impressed.
Said Witz: "A lot of paperwork got torn up and the design was overhauled, and the next version I heard was better than the others I had tried, with more horsepower. We A-B tested it against other systems, listening 100 feet away. When we closed our eyes and switched from one to the other you would swear that the EV system was 20 feet away from you and the competitor was much further away. That was the starting point."
Before committing to X-Line, there were a number of determining factors in Witz's mind. "The system rolls in stacks very easily and quickly which is essential for this kind of tour. The subwoofers have exactly the same dimensions as the full range boxes, so we can use them in combination, or next to others, or separately. There is a box that is 90 degree dispersion and one that is 120 that we put lower in the array, so when we get down near the front rows we don't need to put up extra stuff, enabling us to cover the audience without any holes. I don't know of a company that can give you such a wide dispersion. Other commercial or proprietary systems require a bunch more boxes near the bottom to cover the first 20 rows, but you can do that with one 120 degree x 40 degree dispersion EV Xfill."
Early issues concerning weight were dealt with rapidly, leaving only the system set-up software to consider. Witz commented: "Other companies do have software which take in the characteristics of a venue and tell you where to position boxes. We know that it's a lot more complicated acoustically than that, so myself and engineers from EV developed new software, taking in production issues as well as acoustical predictions."
With sonic accuracy high on the agenda, Witz and his colleagues arrive in the morning at every new venue, standing underneath the PA with a rangefinder and a Suunto (a mountain climber's instrument), with which they measure distances and angles. "It takes about five minutes to get the information which we then enter into the system. We then know how to set every clip position on the cabinets, and exactly where to point the boxes. So far, it's very accurate. So now we set it up differently for every room, depending on whether we have high or low balconies. After using that program for six months or so we were able to know what system we would need for the Stones tour."
Additionally, a wireless link is employed by System Engineer Dave Dickson and the team during the audio set-up, walking around adjusting EQ settings and levels in the different sound zones, and during shows Dickson walks around fine-tuning zone levels from the laptop. "We're using the Windows XP remote desktop client to enable us to switch from the computer and drive rack to the remote instantly," added Witz.
Witz: "We take an audio snapshot of each and every show and the PA configuration in every venue using XTA AudioCore, and store them in a preset library, so that where it would normally takes hours on end to get it all adjusted every day, once it's on file it's as simple as pulling into the gig and calling up a memory and making a few minor adjustments to it - without AudioCore it would be very tough indeed."
Naturally, the PA configurations for the three productions differ considerably. The stadium rig comprises a 20-deep EV X-Line system, with one column of full range cabinets and one of subs either side, plus another column of 10 full-range X-Line speakers either side facing the bleachers. Further X-Line delay hangs are scaled to suit each venue. Driving it all are 60 EV P3000 amplifiers with 12 XTA DP226s in control of all EQ and delay timings.
Indoors, it's a scaled-down version of the stadium production, using a main X-Line rig, 13 cabinets deep, with columns nine deep for the sides, plus four delay towers each carrying eight XLC cabinets.
THE B STAGE
The Stones' stadium and arena shows feature central B stages, designed to give the band the chance to perform a 'down and dirty' set, right in the face of their fans. At the start of the tour, the outdoor B stage was an entirely different beast to the one that is now touring. Originally sporting a 'four poster' tower system, the B stage employed its own localised PA with 12 XLC cabinets hung on each tower.
Ensuring that this stage didn't block sightlines during the main stage action was another big consideration and the subject of much internal debate over the first few weeks of the tour. Initially, the PA rigging was the work of inspired genius. Both the roof and the line arrays sat on the ground throughout the first main stage set, before being lifted by motors at 16 feet per minute while the band walked to the B stage. The XLC rigging was a genuine rarity, with each array rising like an expanding accordion - the rigging pins creating the perfect curve as it 'climbed' the towers.
However, this fascinating concept was eventually shelved. Even during its short life, Jake Berry was cautious, saying: "The outdoor B stage is a bit of an experiment at the moment, and it's a definite challenge."
Robbie McGrath explained: "The band love the arena B stage, but it was felt that the stadium version was more complicated and a bigger production than was necessary. It kind of looked like the 'Rumble In The Jungle', and many believed it was missing the point, not achieving the simplicity that complemented the rawer material they've been playing out there. It also didn't sound as good as we'd hoped for.
"So we returned to the idea we used for Bridges To Babylon ("back to the Devil we knew," according to Berry), where the stage itself was very plain, like a postage stamp in the middle of the field, using just the main stage PA and delay towers, and the band cope very well. They're all playing off wedges, while Mick and Darryl Jones [bassist] use Shure in-ear systems. I think it's amazing that they can walk out from the huge, glittering main stage and on to that basic postage stamp of a B stage, and still be the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world."
EMOTIONAL RESCUE
Back on board at FOH, having bridged his time away from the Stones with tours by Mark Knopfler, James and Richard Ashcroft, McGrath said: "Coming into the camp this time, I have a much better idea of who the Stones are and how to reproduce their music. I got into this business because of music; it's an art form that evokes so many emotions, which is why movie soundtracks are so important in setting moods. For 40 years, the Rolling Stones have provided the background music to our lives and this has to be the pinnacle of my career, so I'm very proud to be associated."
Despite knowing about Bob Doyle's new baby, the DiGiCo D5 Live console, McGrath chose to stick with the same pair of Midas XL4s (and an XL3 stretch) as he used on the last Stones tour. Although a progressive engineer in many ways, McGrath's exposure to the Stones' organic approach to music has certainly influenced his thinking.
He said: "The XL4 is a very beautiful-sounding analogue desk which suits a band like this down to the ground. By the time I've got all my outboard changes programmed in, the show is fairly simple to run with occasional ratio changes for solos. The digital age is wonderful in its concept and I do want to take it on-board; the things you can achieve are amazing. But I don't want the industry to rush in and forget where we're supposed to be coming from.
"Since July, I've been observing the Stones as they've broken their music down and listened to how they put their songs together when four-track machines were all they had. That's made me appreciate more than ever how crucial natural energy, soul and expression was, and still is, to their sound. Working with them in that sense has sent me on a musical journey. They really are rock'n'roll personified."
THE WORLD OF WEVANS
The Stones Monitor Engineer since the 1989-90 Steel Wheels tour, Chris Wade-Evans (a.k.a. Wevans) has introduced a new monitor console for the Licks tour - a four-frame Cadac R-Type featuring 78 inputs, plus a full 32 x 16 output matrix. Faced with the alternative choice of using a Yamaha PM1D digital option, Wevans, like McGrath, stayed with the analogue domain and extended his allegiance to the Cadac brand.
Down in his semi-underworld, Wevans explained his reasoning: "My original thought was that the B stage monitor system could handle the theatres and clubs, and the main boards would do the arenas and stadiums. Thinking of how I could cover monitoring for the whole tour, the first thing I did was eliminate possibilities. Yamaha had lent me a PM1D to see if it would be the right tool to cover all bases.
Meanwhile, Cadac had built a new monitor board, the R-Type, which had more outputs and as the main board it gave me the flexibility to add in-ear mixes for BVs, because I'd run out of mixes with the 28 plus the matrix that was on the M-Type. Also with the R-Type, it's designed in blocks so I realised I could build a custom-configured console with slightly more inputs than I needed and have duplicate inputs that could be used for stadiums and arenas on channels where things needed to be changed a lot. If I used the M-Type from the previous tour, half of that could do the B stage, and the other half could be set up for the theatres with completely separate mixes."
With this in mind, Wevans realised he would not need to move from Cadac to the Yamaha digital alternative. "I knew that there would be a certain amount of risk involved in going all-digital without tons of back-up, and I didn't relish the thought of the monitor system crashing and having Keith or Charlie stare at me! If an analogue system fails, you experience a lot of horrid crackles and bangs. But when a digital system crashes, it's catastrophic.
"So the new R-Type was in, giving me 72 inputs plus three stereo inputs. The extra outputs mean that I can run two sets of sidefills which differ enormously between the arena and stadium shows. Cadac have done a great job with the R-Type. Although we've lost a little of the automation features, which was a trade for a lot more outputs in a smaller space, they've improved on the sound quality which was astonishing to start with."
ENVIRONMENTS
As usual with outdoor shows of this magnitude, there is nothing far enough downstage on which to hang the sidefills without affecting the precious sightline aesthetics. The solution was to halve the X-Array sidefills in size and bring them back into the stage, appearing on the roof-ette and on the ground. In the arenas there are three Xcb bass cabinets and three Xcn mid-highs per side on the grid; outdoors there are two Xcbs and two Xcns hanging off roof truss yokes, and the same on the ground.
Setting up 'environments' for the band is a real challenge for Wevans. "It's simple enough for Darryl who tends to stay put for most of the show, but Keith and Ronnie run all over the place. Mick is another consideration entirely though! There's a wedge every three feet along the front of the stage and it thins out as you go along the runways. That's a lot of wedges but we are working with a singer who hardly ever stands still for the whole show. The B stage has pairs of wedges for each person with three along the front and one either side at the back.
"Although I'm not using all of them yet, we are carrying 96 Firehouse wedges, dozens of which are mounted underneath the main stage, with four subs pointing upwards [mainly for the benefit of Richards, Woody and Darryl Jones] which rock the deck a little bit. When we do the stadiums we position wedges up and down the ramps. Charlie's drum fill is a couple of 1 x 18" subs with two Firehouse wedges on top."
Like McGrath, Wevans has been drawn to digital solutions to enhance his otherwise analogue system. "I recently switched from the KT DN3600s to the dbx DSP DriveWare system which gives me fully digital graphics; it's a controller much more like the TC remote pad and works very well. That was a major change. There are some areas of digital technology which I will go for and this is one of them. There's 32 mix graphics plus eight insert graphics, and that is a tall order for any analogue equivalent without a lot of physical space and set-up time. It's great to be able to store whole shows with this kit - I have settings for every different venue permutation. With only minor adjustments I've been able to take the programs I created in rehearsals and have them work on the shows."
The microphone regime is uniform throughout the tour. While the Stones-owned Sony WRT867 radio mics are used by Jagger and the backing vocalists ("the most cable-sounding radio mic," according to Wevans), the standard Shure SM58 are on other vocals, other mics are: Beyer M88 (kick drum), Shure SM57 and DPA 4011 (top snare), EV RE200 (bottom snare), Neumann KM184 (hi-hat & ride cymbal), Neumann TLM 103 (toms), Neumann TLM 193 (drum overheads & Keith Richards' guitar rig), Sennheiser 421 (horns), Sennheiser 409 (Ron Wood's guitar rig), Audio-Technica AT4050 (Mick Jagger's guitar rig), EV RE20 and AKG C414s (Chuck Leavell's Leslie cabinet). Finally, Avalon U5 tube DI boxes are used for bass, keyboards and acoustics. The Leslie cabinet has an EV RE20 and two 414s in it. The dbx DriveWare kit is used as insert graphics across the radio mics.
Has Wevans' monitor world changed much since he joined the team in '89? "Not much apart from getting a little quieter on stage, even though Ronnie and Keith still like it loud. Mick's voice has always been the loudest thing on stage, it's fairly inescapable! Slowly, we've been reducing the space between the members because it started to get very spread out, and I think that's helped the interaction a great deal. They're certainly enjoying performing together a lot more and that's evident from the B stage set."
COLOURS EVERYWHERE
Licks is the fourth major Stones tour to benefit from the visual collaboration between Mark Fisher and Lighting Designer Patrick Woodroffe. The Stones, of course, have never done things by halves, and Fisher's creations have become more elaborate every time, leaving Woodroffe the problem of how to light them.
During the planning of Licks, Fisher and Jagger reviewed the successful design of the 1981/2 Still Life tour which relied heavily on the colourful Kazoo-painted backdrop - a grand but simple approach which was a reference point for Licks. The current stadium set used a reproduction of Jeff Koons' painting 'Lips' from his 'Easy Fun' series as a backdrop before a freshly commissioned Koons work took over after the first few weeks.
Said Woodroffe: "What I really admire about the Stones is that this could be their last really major tour production, and many other acts would have probably stripped down the design and made a bigger profit. Not so with this band, who have always given fantastic value for money, and have always gone the extra mile. Although this has turned out to be one of the most technologically complex designs we've ever done, the look and feel is much more simple and brings more focus to the band. For the first time we have a major portion of the lighting right over the band and stage, which focuses the attention on them immediately. What we do around and above this space are the big scenic looks."
The chemistry of the Fisher/Woodroffe partnership continues to eclipse many of their contemporaries. "Mark and I work very closely together and of course share ideas about the scenery and the lighting, but ultimately we have separate responsibilities. Usually I wait until he's finished his concepts and then find an interesting way to light them. If a set design is strong and effective enough, and you can light it somehow, you will always find a way to make it look good. That's the main reason why our collaborations have worked in the past."
In this case, on the stadium set, Fisher incorporated a series of six steel 'fingers' above the band, which hold around 50 light fixtures, thus providing the means for Woodroffe to ensure a high level of coverage over the stage. The fingers also give (retractable) waterproof coverage for the band members and their backline.
EQUIPMENT POOL
Specifying practical lighting rigs for this tour was no easy task. The solution was to firstly decide on the stadium kit list, then establish how to break that pool of equipment down, using the same elements to form smaller systems for the arenas and theatres, with Crew Chief and Lighting Director Ethan Weber given the task of the calculations!
Vari-Lite is the main lighting contractor, supplying 40 VL5s, 40 VL6Cs, 38 VL2416 and12 VL2402s. LSD Fourth Phase is also involved as the source of 24 High End Studio Beams, 38 High End high output model X-Spots, 32 8-lite Molefays with colour scrollers, and the show's only controller, a Wholehog II, which is loaded with a different program according to the type of venue. Six 7kW Syncrolites and 22 3kW models were provided direct by their French manufacturer.
As well as 16 Diversitronic strobes, part of Vari-Lite's kit specification includes five of Budapest-based Hungaroflash's massive 85kW T-Light strobes, supplied through Coemar UK. An impressed Woodroffe commented: "It's big and bright, and currently more affordable than the Lightning Strikes!" Control of the T-Light is either in the form of the pre-programmed 'lightning strikes', or it can be created by the operator via the dedicated controller. The lamp is low pressure non-explosive xenon - offering a flash length ranging from 1/24-sec to 3-sec - and the beam angle can be varied from spot to wide angle.
With Woodroffe favouring moving lights as his main tools, there is not a single Par can in sight. Lighting Director Jim Straw, has worked with both Woodroffe and Jake Berry in the past, observed: "The colour and movement provide for a lot of different looks outdoors where you're trying to light such a big area. We're using the same lighting both indoors and outdoors, but obviously the way we truss it changes."
Eight lighting 'pods', each containing two X-Spots and a VL2416 have made their way into the stadium show design. Although they may appear to be typically arty set pieces, they offer a practical solution to a challenging problem. Said Woodroffe: "We realised that the video screen would be tracking right through all the lighting positions. We then put lights on pods, so as soon as the screen passes you can move the pod up into position. If the screen is in one central position we can have the outside pods up, or surround the screen with them. The pod automation, like the rest of Brilliant Stages' automation on the show, has been fairly trouble-free. "My assistant, Adam Bassett, took on the job of noting exactly where everything is at any one time and how it relates to the screen coming through. It appears effortless when you see the show, but it's a very complicated cueing script. It's sometimes made more difficult because the Stones like to have the freedom to change their set list ideas early on until it all gels perfectly and becomes locked in, we've had to build some looseness into the way we operate this system. That, as you can imagine, makes for an interesting life!"
Ethan Weber offered an interesting observation about the existence of the pods: "The problem with today's sets is that everything's getting so big that it's pushing lighting rigs so much higher, even though the lights are brighter. You get into steeper angles and it's harder to light the show. Innovative approaches like the pods evolve because of the need to use available space and angles in an interesting way."
Whereas the stadium show is visually more dependant on the inspired tracking video screen and its various configurations, the arena show is more of an opportunity for more interesting and unusual material to play on the screen, and for the lighting department to shine. It's a 'clean' presentation with only backline and a few risers providing distraction from the band.
The lighting rig is based around the static 50 x 50ft screen which takes the place of a traditional backdrop. There are three 76ft long trusses that are curved, downstage of the screen, and consist of VL2416s and X-Spots. There are truss spots on the rear truss and some dropper bars on each side with VL6s on them. On the back corners at 45 degrees there are three Syncrolites on each side. In total there are 34 X-Spots, 35 VL2416s, 46 VL6s, 10 VL5s, 24 PC Beams, 11 Syncrolites, five truss spots and FOH spots. Smoke for both the indoor and outdoor productions comes from eight DF-50s and two JEM Roadies.
On the famous B stage, MR16 battens are featured as footlights and uplights for the band's faces, while two follow spot towers each have four 3kW Gladiators and three 8-lite Molefays for audience lighting. Some of the main stage Syncrolites are also focused on the B stage.The theatre/club shows employ just a two truss system with 60 moving lights and one backdrop.
Additional reporting by Mark Cunningham
Rolling Stones Part2