Put together by a formidable crew of creatives, the Texas-born and Los
Angeles-based multiplatinum artist’s live shows are renowned for their
bold looks and brash vocal delivery. Immersed in bright lights, plumes
of CO^2 and carnival iconography, for one night only, London’s O2 Arena
was transformed into carnival-inspired fairground, based on the rapper’s
beloved Six Flags AstroWorld – a Houston theme park that inspired the
Travis Scott’s latest number-one album and formidable North American
tour, ASTROWORLD.S TA RG A ZIN G
Ahead of the theme park of theatrics, TPi grabbed Lighting Designer, Ben
Dalgleish, who previously worked on Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys
tour earlier this year. “Travis Scott is a really unique act in the sense that he
has the complete oppose vibe of Post Malone, who is all about theatrics
and minimalist lighting and design.”
Dalgleish dubbed the show’s theme as a “toy box” of ideas, noting the
giant teddy bears and carnival carousel on the main stage. “A Travis Scott
show mimics the conventions of a rollercoaster; it’s a ‘balls to the wall’
approach to match his energetic performance.”
Transcending genre constraints, Scott’s live shows combine punk and
heavy metal conventions – stagediving, mosh pits and headbanging. His
on-stage movement coupled with automation and lighting is haphazard
and intentionally jarring. “We want it as chaotic as possible to match his
energy,” Dalgleish noted.
Having perfected an eye-watering scream, Scott uses his voice to
summon euphoria. His signature sound emits a rapturous vapour trail to
make intimate tracks like 90210 intensely poignant. “A Travis Scott show
doesn’t compare to the record,” Dalgleish explained on the high-intensity
nature of the set list. “The songs are completely unrecognisable to what
you’re listening to on the album, so we always program lighting and visualsto the the live audio to match his energy.”
Not afraid of the challenge, Dalgleish made the executive decision to
design a brand-new rig for the O2 show. “I knew as we were not able to
bring the rollercoaster from the US leg of the ASTROWORLD tour, the lighting
design and programming had to be special.”
Dalgleish and programmer Jacopo Ricci took on the task of building
a new show in the space of 24 hours, with the pair alternating time on the
rig at the O2 to program the 27 song setlist. “Travis Scott one of the most
dynamic and engaging performers around at the moment and the lighting
is designed to reflect that with arrays of fixtures all across the arena,
B-stage, thrust and main stage.”
With such a quick turnaround time, there was only one vendor in mind
for Dalgleish: PRG. The company’s Account Handler, Benjamin Holdsworth,
commented: “The original design that was put forward changed
dramatically. We didn’t get the final drawings until ver y late, but we were
able to pull out all the stops and make it happen.”
Far from usual but not unheard of in the live touring industr y, the PRG
team “bent over backwards” to supply lighting, rigging and a crew of 19
faces to the rigging, automation and the lighting departments. “We only
had one load-in day before show day and as there are so many moving
elements, we thought it was wise to split shift the personnel,” Holdsworth
recounted. “This allowed us to identify any issues from the start and
mitigate the problems should they arise.
With no rehearsals, Holdsworth prepared for the show by watching
Scott’s headline show at Wireless Festival. “It meant we were able to come
away with a visualisation of how the show needed to look before passing
it onto the crew chiefs and rigging team to ensure the end result was well
received,” he said.
PRG Crew Chief Richard Gorrod got to work putting together the plan
of attack. Iestyn Thomas was the on-site lighting chief taking over fromTRAVIS SCOTT