Brilliant Stages has designed and constructed the staging
and spectacular suspended pyramid feature for Muse’s current tour, Second Law,
which tours Europe until Christmas before moving to North America in January
2013.
Oli Metcalfe’s design for the Second Law tour incorporates a
semi-circular stage with a straight leading edge, from which projects a full
width fore-stage and thrust, and which is inset with circular polycarbonate
panels housing lighting effects. Tech bunkers flank each side and a curved
runway circumnavigates the upstage edge. LED panels and moving heads feature
heavily in the Brilliant Stages’ design which needed to incorporate the
necessary support and infrastructure to accommodate this.
The stage is surmounted by the original revolving drum riser
which was adapted to accommodate 600mm high LED panels attached to its sides.
Brilliant Stages increased the height by adding a rectangular base and infill
corners, and created a framework into which the LED panels slide and are locked
into position by the corner pieces.
The finishing touches at stage level are made using B1 M1
rated black Regal satin drapes around the thrust, rear of the runway, and tech
bunkers, with roll up panels for access to monitors and acoustically
transparent fabric across the front of the bass speakers incorporated into the
forestage.
This is not the first tour to bring such a centrepiece along
with them, fans raved about the stage design at U2’s 360 tour.
Lovingly dubbed the
Claw by the band and the army of crew members needed to erect it on a nightly
basis, the stage — anchored in the middle of the field — featured a giant 360
video screen, flowing silk screens and a light show that would make Pink Floyd
jealous.
As Bono told Rolling Stone when news of the tour first
emerged, the stage set up is "an engineering feat that creates this real
physical proximity to the crowd."
Even as far back as 1987, David Bowie was leading the way in
stage design for his Glass Spider tour. With a team that included lighting
designer Allen Branton, set designer Mark Ravitz, and video director Christine
Strand, Bowie’s Glass Spider Tour was all spectacle, including using
scaffolding for multiple levels for the band and dancers and, of course, the
40'-diameter spider dominating the stage with its 15'-high inflatable body, not
including the legs, which themselves held 20,000’ of colour-changing rope lights.
It didn’t hurt the dramatic effects level to have Bowie descend from the
spider’s belly in a chair, or the Flying by Foy rig that enabled the singer and
dancers to rappel from various levels back to the stage deck.
