to support eric clapton’s crossroads centre - · pdf file • september 2010 •...

76 • September 2010 • Lighting&Sound America

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t’s the best show on theplanet,” says associateproduction designer andprogrammer Eric Wade. With alineup that includes EricClapton, Steve Winwood, Jeff

Beck, John Mayer, B.B. King, ZZ Top,the Allman Brothers, Buddy Guy, and

more, it’s hard to argue his point.The event is the Crossroads Guitar

Festival, which took place atChicago’s Toyota Park in late June.The event, which was produced byUpstaging Inc., of Sycamore, Illinois,featured production design by DaveMaxwell (also known for his work on

Clapton’s tours), with technicaldirection by Upstaging’s JohnHuddleston. The event was createdby Eric Clapton to support hisCrossroads Centre for the treatmentof addictions in Antigua. The event’smain stage featured more than twodozen performers; the Guitar Center

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • September 2010 • 77

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G A top team gets togetherto support Eric Clapton’s

Crossroads CentreBy: Sharon Stancavage

uitar Heroes

Above and right: The main stage by day. For this year’s event, Dave Maxwell was responsible for the graphics as well as the productiondesign.

Copyright Lighting&Sound America September 2010 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html


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used them,” notes Wade. “It’s a verycool light, which we used for stageand audience washes. It was one ofthe units that Upstaging recom-mended to Dave.”

The spotlights were the final majorelement of the lighting package. “Weused 14 Lycian spotlights—eight intruss, or six upstage and twodownstage—and some Gladiators outfront,” notes Maxwell.

From a lighting standpoint, theshow had three phases tied todifferent times of day—daylight,twilight, and night. “During the day,we used pastels and light colors,things that would read on camera;basically, we just painted a picture fordaylight on TV,” says Wade. As theweather changed throughout the day,so did the lighting: “When we hadshadows, we could go with nicer,richer colors.” Twilight was atransition time where “we did a fewmore looks with the automated lightsto give it a bit more depth, and did alittle more on the video screens,”Maxwell says. The nighttime actsfeatured full-on lighting and videowith all the bells and whistles.

During the almost 13-hour show,Maxwell and Wade divided up theirduties. “Dave basically handled all thekey lights and the audience, and I didall the main stage and video,”explains Wade.

Maxwell and Wade ran the showon two High End Systems Road HogFull Boars, the console that was usedoriginally to program Clapton’s tour.“A lot of the stuff I do is on the Hog,”says Maxwell, “Eric likes to use a[Martin] Maxxyz a lot, but he’s verygood on other consoles as well.” Itwas, in fact, Wade’s first time on aRoad Hog. “It did great,” he says. “Ihave no complaints about it. I’ve runthe Hog III a couple of times and it’sthe same as programming that.”

SoundThe sound rig, provided by ClairGlobal, of Lititz, Pennsylvania, wasalso based on Clapton’s current tour.

“Compared to the Clapton tours thatI’ve been doing both in the US thisyear and in Europe—which werearena tours—the side array wassignificantly bigger: 12 boxes high, asopposed to eight per side,” says BobWeibel, a Clair system engineer.“Amplifier-wise and speaker-wise, it’spretty much a standardarrangement,” he adds. Each side ofthe main PA contained 12 Clair I5cabinets, 12 I5bs, and 12 BT-218subs. Eight I3 cabinets were used asfront fills.

In addition, says Weibel, “Wearranged for Mountain Productions toprovide two delay towers, which weused to make the back of the venuework a bit better. We had six of ourR4 four cabinets on each tower.” Thekey to making the delay towershappen was management, he notes:“Production was not only willing butcommitted to doing whatever it tookto get the best sound possible.”

For the show, Clair Globalprovided two DiGiCo D5 consoles forthe front of house and two formonitors. In addition, says Weibel,“We used a Midas XL88 at the frontof house as the master summingconsole, and there was a smallerMidas Venice, which served as aproduction console.” The XL88accepts only line level inputs, and iscommonly used in festivals likeCrossroads. “It is a four-rack-spaceconsole,” adds Weibel. “We couldcombine it into a rack with some CDplayers and CD recorders; we had theVenice console on top, basically forwalk-in music.”

Despite the available gear, Weibelsays, “Quite a few of the bands wereon tour and brought their ownconsole and/or monitor system.”Just how many artists did so? “Itlooked rather like a consoleshowroom,” he adds. The modelsbrought in by various artists includeda DiGiCo SD8, three Avid Profiles,and an Avid Venue.

Because Weibel knew how manyartists were bringing their own

consoles, they adjusted the front-of-house and monitor footprints accord-ingly. And when the 13-hour showbegan, the space was necessary.“We had up to three consoles at atime, so they just rotated through—you were always at least two bandsahead in terms of what was actuallypatched in.”

To make sure that everything wentsmoothly, Weibel took part inextensive pre-production planning. “Imade it a point to be in touch witheveryone in well in advance of theshow, and collected all the input listsfor all these bands,” he says. “I alsohad a checklist to work down inregards to inquiring about micro-phones, wireless, monitors, in-earmonitors, and so on.”

With so many artists on stage,the list of microphones was long andvaried, and not all of them weresupplied by Clair Global. “Vince Gillbrought in his stuff complete, fromtop to bottom; John Mayer was ontour, so he brought his completepackage, and Robert Randolph hadhis own stuff,” says Weibel “TheAllman Brothers were not on tour,but they managed to bring in somemics that were unique to theirsetup.” The microphones used forClapton were, of course, the tourmicrophones. Overall, the workhorseof the microphone stable was aproduct from Shure. “You can’t gowrong with a Shure SM58,” he says.

The length of the show was a bitof an issue for Weibel and his crew.“it probably represented the singlebiggest challenge of the day—dealing with a 12-hour sound checkday and then a 13-hour show day,”he concludes.

Graphics and videoMaxwell, a veteran of severalCrossroads Guitar Festivals, had anexpanded role in the production thistime around. “For this one, I wasresponsible for all video content forshow and the sponsors,” he explains.He also was responsible for 100% of

Village (see sidebar) included avariety of vendors who let patronsliterally play with their gear, and takepart in guitar clinics; this area alsofeatured another stage, sponsored byErnie Ball, the maker of guitar stringsand accessories. The event was alsofilmed, and had limited cinemarelease in July; a DVD is expected

out soon.“We got together a great team,”

says Huddleston. Key to the teamwas Tim Rozner, the site and stagemanager. “Tim handled the showwith military precision—backstage, itwas like the flight deck of an aircraftcarrier. The sold-out show achievedsomething that few shows,

especially live festivals, manage toachieve: Everything went ahead ofschedule on every level that day,”Maxwell reports.

LightingThe design was based on whatMaxwell and Wade were doing withClapton before the event. “We moreor less doubled the touring system,then added a bunch of videoelements, side lighting, and audiencelight,” notes Wade. The audiencelights—Martin Professional MAC2000 Washes—were hung in thestadium on two 100' trusses. Inaddition, there were “three curvedtrusses stacked on top of oneanother,” explains Maxwell.

A variety of lighting gear wasfound on the stage. According toMaxwell, the rig “consisted of aquantity of [Philips Vari*Lite] VL3000profiles and washes, VL3500 FXWashes, and a large number of[Martin Professional] MAC 2Ks dottedthroughout the audience and thestage, as well as low-to-medium-resolution Martin LC panels.” Thesizable equipment list also includedAltman single-cell cyc lights, ETCSource Four PARs, and a bevy ofMolefay fixtures. As for the rest of thegear, Maxwell and Wade relied on thevast inventory at Upstaging, creatinga winning combination of hard-edgeand wash fixtures to fill in the stageand audience.

One new unit that Wadediscovered during Crossroads wasthe Robe 2500 AT Spot. “It’s a reallynice hard-edge light; I was veryimpressed with it,” he says. TheRobe units, working along with someunits from Philips Vari-Lite, were anintegral part of the camera lighting.“The Robes and [Vari-Lite] VL3000Profiles were on the side towers andthe PA towers downstage—we usedthem as camera key lighting inCTO,” Maxwell says.

The design team also had BB4LED fixtures, made by the UK-basedcompany i-Pix. “It was the first time I

The stage by night, as seen from the front-of-house position.

The video, which consisted of 32 Martin Professional LC Panels, extended into thewings.


The artists on stage weren’t the only attraction at theCrossroads Guitar Festival. The Guitar Center Village—aretail main street featuring vendors like Dunlop, Marshall,Ibanez, Roland, Gibson, Fender, and more—was a big partof the Upstaging Crossroads experience. “It is very similarto a trade show with a couple of major anchors,” explainsVillage project manager Jerry Swatek. In other words,there was merchandise for sale, and gear was available forpatrons to demo.

There was also, of course, entertainment, courtesy of theErnie Ball stage. The Stageline SSL100 mobile stage is“where they did musical clinics, which had various artistsfrom the main stage as well as those who didn’t performthere,” Swatek notes.

Another anchor in the village was the Guitar CenterLegends Tent, which contained two vintage guitars fromClapton—the Blackie and the Martin 335—as well TheStratocaster on which Stevie Ray Vaughn wrote the song“Lenny.” “We did use some PAR 56s to light up the threeguitars and to create some ambience to create a museum-like atmosphere,” says Swatek.the graphic content.

One of Maxwell’s first acts was tochange the overall look of the stage.“In previous years, we used a lot ofbanners on the stage; this year, wekept them to a minimum and brokeup the video panels on stage,” hesays. The video, which consisted of32 Martin LC panels, extended intothe wings; there were also two BarcoD7 14mm 15' x 27' side screens forIMAG, provided by NocturneProductions Inc. of DeKalb, Illinois.The video content was managed via aCatalyst PM V4 media server.

Although the show day was sunnyand warm, there were storms thenight before, and, unfortunately, theweather did affect some of the videogear. “The weather hit so bad, the LCpanels that were exposed to theweather out in the wings weredying—so, in the middle of show onSaturday, the crew started droppingthese panels, fixing them andreplacing them; once we hit theevening hours, we had every panelup,” says Wade. “I have to say,without the hard efforts of ourUpstaging crew, we would not have

had the success we did. They werefantastic in every aspect.”

Graphics could also be found insome unexpected places as well.“We used banners on the walls of theturntables, which were mirrored onboth sides,” Maxwell notes. The 50'turntable, provided by AccurateStaging, of Los Angeles, “took fourminutes to turn completely,”reports Huddleston.

If Maxwell cut down the numberof banners, he did not eliminatethem; there were 22 on the mainstage. “When we were creating thebanners for the event, we startedwith guitars—our big sponsors forthe event—manipulated them, andcame up with some nice branding,”he notes.

For Maxwell, this aspect of thefestival was in some ways morearduous than the production design.“Getting the graphics approved wasquite challenging,” he admits. Andsponsors weren’t solely concernedabout the live event. “There weremany sponsors generous enough tospend their time on the show, so theyshould be in the loop and they should

have a say about what’s going toshow up on the DVD,” he adds.

In the end, the event went offperfectly; Wade and Maxwell havenothing but good things to say aboutUpstaging and its staff. “They are anincredibly good firm, I just can’t sayenough nice things about them,”Wade comments. “We don’t have toask for anything. It’s all just there, soyou don’t have to worry, and it takesa whole level of stress away fromyou. When you get on site, all youreally have to think about is theshow.” Maxwell adds, “JohnHuddleston and the staff atUpstaging—it was an absolutepleasure working with all of them.”

Another key element to thesuccess of the project was the groupof people behind Eric Clapton.“Peter Jackson, Mick Double,Hannah Charlesworth, and the restare the iron behind the scenes;without them, the event wouldn’thappen,” says Wade.

Crossroads Centre can be foundonline at www.crossroadsantigua.org.From the US, it can be reached at 1-888-452-0091.


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Crowds gather around the Ernie Ball Stage.

Maxwell’s graphic-design brief extended to the street signs in theGuitar Center Village.

Village Life

This preliminary drawing shows the highly graphic approach by Maxwell, who ultimately retained 22 banners featuring guitars.


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The sound requirements for the tents were essentiallynon-existent. “Most of them had their own soundbecause of amplifiers,” explains Swatek. And althoughthere were musicians picking up guitars and playing inmost of the tents, the amp levels didn’t cause anyissues. “In our pre-advance show book, we addressedthe issue of being respectful of the people next to youwith your sound,” he reports, noting that everyoneheeded the warning.

Event sponsors Guitar Center and T-Mobile had theirown branded tents; the rest of the vendors had three-sided 10' x 10', 10' x 20', or 10' x 30' white tents as partof the Crossroads vendor package. “Even though theywere promised a back wall and two side walls, we madesure that the tent company brought front walls foreveryone—so, on Friday, the day before the show, thevendors could set up, and they could close their frontwalls. That way, if it did rain, which it did, it would providesome level of protection,” says Swatek.

The key to the project was, of course, pre-production:Swatek paid an advance call on each vendor, to confirmeverything that was needed. “We also provided pre-warehouse shipping, as well,” he says. Upstaging has anextensive warehouse that can accommodate plenty ofspace for freight storage, and often provides pre- andpost-event storage for its clients. “Because we were atToyota Park, and some of these displays needed to comein early, it would be difficult for Toyota Park to startreceiving all these trucks,” he says. Instead of worryingthat expensive freight was unsecured at the venue, orhaving to hunt for it at the venue Saturday morning,Upstaging handled it all. “They could ship their product

and their display at any time, and have it arrive at awarehouse and then get loaded it into our truck. It wassitting at the vendor’s tent waiting for them to arrive onFriday morning to set up,” explains Swatek. He even sentconfirmation notices to the vendors when their geararrived. “Because the Village closed at 6:30, they all toredown very quickly, and got all of their product anddisplay back into a secured truck, which went back toour warehouse until Monday when a common carriercould pick it up.”

The village was located on Toyota Park’s northconcourse, which meant Upstaging had to arrange power;the company called on Peter Mitchell, at Moveable Powerof Chicago. “Peter Mitchell is one of the best power guysin the entertainment business; whenever we had a powerissue come up, he took care of it whether it was part of hisscope of work or not,” Swatek says.

Branding was also part of the experience provided byDave Maxwell, who handled all graphic designs for theevent, including street signs for each vendor in the village.“The signs kept everything nice and clean; you didn’thave ten million vendors providing their own banners andflags,” Swatek notes.

While Maxwell cut down the number of banners in thestadium, “We took abstract banners from 2004 that were40' and 50' long, and cut them down to 30', and took 20'down to 10',” explains Swatek, who adds that the ideawas to distract viewers’ attention from a large sign for theChicago Fire, the soccer team that plays at Toyota Park.Upstaging’s seamstress then re-hemmed the banners andadded grommets; Swatek and his team put them on polesand hung them like pipe and drapes.

The biggest challenge for thevillage team was, in fact, MotherNature. “You know that you’re goingto have bad weather when theseagulls on the railroad tracks on theother side of the venue decide it’stime to leave,” Swatek says with achuckle. The week before the showthere were tornado warnings; thenight before, there were torrentialrains that bought Swatek to the venueat 4am. “For the most part, there wasonly one issue, and that was a coupleof graphics that had blown down—that was the worst of it. Thankfully, allthe tents stayed in their uprightposition.” In the end though, “Wewanted to make sure that everybodycould see the show, so we closed theGuitar Center Village at 6:30,”concludes Swatek.—SharonStancavage

The above graphic was placed to block out a sign for the soccer team, the Chicago Fire.

to support eric clapton’s crossroads centre - · pdf file • september 2010 •...

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