The theme of Robbie Williams’ Heavy Entertainment Show tour is clear as soon as Williams makes his entrance in typical tongue-in-cheek style, wearing a boxer’s robe as he emerges to the sound of the pre-recorded mock national anthem, ‘God Save Our Robbie’. Extending the pugilistic theme, the stunning 61m wide x 20m high set designed by Es Devlin is built with a traditional Stageco SuperRoof that is framed by two giant Roy Lichtenstein Pop Art ‘pow’ cut outs and bookended left and right by Robbie’s boxer figures that reveal themselves as video screens. The boxers have a very irregular shape that required Stageco to build a set of bespoke supporting structures. The front ‘pow’, as it’s often referred to, sticks out above the roof and slightly leans forward so the front of the roof had to be specially adapted. With production manager Steve Iredale calling the shots on all things technical, the stage was test-built in Werchter and sent to Brussels for rehearsals prior to the opening date of the tour at Manchester’s Ethiad Stadium on June 3rd. It’s essentially a ‘re-tuned’ SuperRoof, but having worked on so many Robbie tours in the past, we can usually expect something a little different and always look forward to the challenge. Once again, Stageco has also supplied and built the main FOH and delay tower structures on the field throughout the tour. Two identical systems have been leapfrogging each other around Europe with two Stageco crews.
Stageco Worldwide