Since building the support structure for Mark Fisher’s iconic, fire-breathing cobra on the 1994-95 Voodoo Lounge tour, Stageco has been proud to have a close association with the world’s greatest and most enduring rock’n’roll band, The Rolling Stones. And this year has seen them back on the road with No Filter – yet another spectacular production milestone that has spanned outdoor stadiums and arenas around Europe with Stageco’s expertise close to hand all the way. No Filter marks another stunning victory for Rolling Stones production manager Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth who engaged what he referred to as “my A team” – creative director Patrick Woodroffe and set designer Ray Winkler from Stufish Entertainment Architects, with Jeremy Lloyd of Wonder Works co-ordinating the technical design elements and working with Stageco to create two complete steel, tower and roof systems that leapfrogged around Europe. From the outset, the band’s main wish was for a tidy and streamlined production, with sleek contours but absolutely no hint of behind the scenes steelwork. Spreading 60 metres wide, the resulting set features four monolithic 22m high x 11m wide LED video screens, a 28m long T-shaped catwalk and B-stage, and a bespoke, cantilevered, transparent-skinned ‘roofette’ -designed and fabricated by Wi-Creations- that hovers above the band. Each of the roof’s 12m sections accommodates nine Martin intelligent lights that are key to Patrick Woodroffe’s lighting design and travel in custom-built beams. Interconnected to the black steel superstructure of two of the four central video towers, the band roof was flown on the indoor arena shows and continued to be a major part of the performance area, with modified construction. As usual with productions of this scale, Stageco handled all the scaffolding and stage decking requirements, and also supplied and built the spot/delay towers, platforms and covered front of house risers – for this tour, lighting/video control and sound each had their own riser. The Rolling Stones’ No Filter European tour ended in Paris on October 25th when they were the first band to perform live in the city’s newly-opened U Arena.
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