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S+H helps 10cc celebrates 40 years of ‘Sheet Music’

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 10:31

10cc


LED screen, drapes and special FX specialist S+H Technical Services is supplying their Glux 12mm LED screen to the current UK and European tour by maverick rock band 10cc which is celebrating 40 years since their seminal “Sheet Music” album. Released in 1974 this was their second album which received worldwide critical acclaim and remained in the UK charts for an incredible six months! It’s generally considered to be one of THE most influential studio albums of the 20th century.

The LED screen was specified by video and visuals designer Ian Holmes of Essex, UK based XIVIX … having used it very successfully on previous tours.

It’s the second tour for which he has co-ordinated the video elements for 10cc, where he is again collaborating very closely with lighting designer Russell “Tigger” Matthews - they have also previously worked together on the ‘Genesis Revisited’ European tour by Steve Hackett throughout 2013 and “make a good team” says Holmes.

Holmes sourced the video hardware from S+H because he thinks the Ilfracombe, Devon company is “really helpful and very easy to deal with – nothing is ever a problem – with excellent service and support”. He’s worked on several previous projects with S+H including various Kim Wilde tours since 2012.

The requirement was for a lightweight and easy to rig screen solution that was adaptable and practical for the wide mix of venues on the itinerary that could be rigged quickly and easily. “This is one of the most handle-able and reliable screens I’ve encountered to date,” says Holmes.

The screen is arranged as five 3 metre high by I metre wide columns anchored to trussing towers which are spaced one metre apart and fitted to ingenious ‘skate’ bases devised by Holmes, Tigger, Andy “Jurgen” Munford - Holmes’ dep for the middle section of the tour due to pre-existing commitments with Kim Wilde’s Netherlands tour – and tour lighting supplier Neg Earth.

The skates allow the screens to be moved manually into two configurations - the five columns and one single 5 x 3 metre block which is used for a Kevin Godley - original band member and ‘godfather of pop video’ - movie that plays during “Somewhere in Hollywood”.

Holmes created and programmed the video content on his Green Hippo media servers for all but “Somewhere in Hollywood” for which visuals were designed and produced by Kevin Godley himself. In this moody piece Kevin sings the lead vocal and appears to be floating above the band on the screens - now configured as the single block surface.

Seven tracks of vocals plus click are also played back on the Hippotizers, along with a MIDI timecode that syncs the video and audio perfectly. LoopMIDI is used to link up the midi signals internally to the server without a cable in sight, using a technique developed by Holmes and Green Hippo for the tour.

Audio is provided by ESS, and the five week tour concludes at the end of October.





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