The Joanne World Tour is the fifth headlining tour by Lady Gaga, in support of her fifth
studio album, Joanne. When the curtain was raised for the opening show in Vancouver
last month, the audience was awed by a spectacular set and visual concept
masterminded by production and lighting designer, Seven Design Works’ LeRoy
Bennett.
The inventory comprises over 500 GLP fixtures – including 294 of the new JDC1 hybrid
strobes, 147 of the award-winning X4 Bar 20 and 38 GT1 hybrids – all of which play a
major role in a tour de force that pushes the boundaries of arena-style production to
the limits.
The design is based around a massive back wall, measuring 21m x 3.5m and weighing
12 tonnes, which houses all the JDC1’s and X4 Bar 20 battens, while the GT-1’s are
partly flown in the air above the stage and in a row on the floor at front of the stage.
“The main lighting for the show is the wall of strobes and X4 Bars,’ the designer
confirms, adding that the ability to run low-res video imagery with the added bonus of
having strobes that are able to tilt alongside the X4 Bars, gives the wall enormous
personality. Due to its size and power requirement, it takes three dedicated 400 amp
supplies to run the wall at 60%, since production did not want to tour generators.
Designed into the set are three B stages spread out around the arena floor, and Lady
Gaga performs on each, travelling via bridges which drop from “cocoon’ like structures
— surfaces which are used for some inspired pixel mapping. All structures were
fabricated by Tait Towers.
LeRoy Bennett knows exactly how to project the artiste’s stage performances, having
been involved with the artist since her Monster Ball tour. Much planning went into the
latest design following the initial discussions in November 2016.
Bennett reports that Lady Gaga presented a few concepts regarding what she wanted
for the Joanne tour, which were quite different from past tours. “The stage concept
was to put the focus on her,’ he reveals. “She wanted to gradually strip away some of
the more outrageous branding with which she emerged on the scene and bring it back
down to an “earthier’ version of Lady Gaga, to show the world who she really is.’
To help implement the concept, Bennett quickly visualised a major role for the GLP
fixtures, which were sourced from Solotech, who purchased them specifically for the
tour from GLP’s Canadian distributor, AVL Media.
Explaining the thinking behind his design, Bennett confirms, “The JDC1 strobes were
chosen because they had tilt functionality and because of the flexibility in what could
be done with pixel mapping. They also formed an LED array that played within the
strobe-like an old school tube type strobe. It has a lot of personalities — including
being very bright — and it needed to have as many effects as possible over the course
of the show.’
The X4 Bar 20’s have been brought in to add a further texture and layer by
introducing a different pixel size — either used alone or in conjunction with the JDC1.
“What I like about the X4 Bars is that they can produce a sheet of light — sometimes
it will look like low-res video screen, sometimes just a wall of light.’
As for the GT-1, LeRoy readily specified them based on his first experience with
Rammstein. “I found them to be a pretty awesome product and was impressed with
the stability of the lamps, speed and brightness.’
In this context, they are used both for effect lighting and key lighting the band — and
their use as all three modes — Beam, Wash and Spot — was fully taken advantage of
during the show. “Part of the reason we were able to have only three trusses above
the stage is because the [the GT1’s] are so versatile — otherwise we would have
needed three times the number of fixtures up there.’
Harry Forster was lead lighting programmer and director on tour along with Jason
Baeri. For Forster, working with the JDC1 has been a joy. “The updated layout pixel
mapping software on the lighting desk and functionality of the JDC1s in extended
mode worked even better than we had imagined,’ he admitted. “After weeks of pre-
visisualisation, we were all still curious about what it would look like once we finally
had the 300 strobes in front of us. It was a joyous moment when it looked even better
than it had in the 3D software! Running them in full mode gives us more flexibility,
and when Roy asks for a specific area of light behind a musician, we can easily pick
out a single pixel of any unit.’
Summing up his first outing with the JDC1, LeRoy Bennett stated, “These fixtures are
great, the flexibility that the product has is wonderful, and it gave me all the things I
was expecting. Lady Gaga is the first show I have used them on, and they have been
fabulous.’
