Cream Classics at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral

The Requirement

Based in Birmingham, UK, The Events Company is a leading event management company who were tasked with creating a two night spectacle that would re-imagine Cream’s iconic dance music repertoire with help of a live orchestral accompaniment provided by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

The venue chosen for this unique, two night production was the magnificent setting of world-famous Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, however, whilst stunning, this unusual event space simultaneously provided The Events Company team with a few challenges that required an experienced and reliable supplier.

Adlib, having previously worked on a number of projects with Cream, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Liverpool Anglican Cathedral were an obvious choice, perfectly suited to satisfy all of the client’s elaborative requirements.

The Solution

Audio

The main PA was a ground stacked Coda Audio line array, consisting of four AiRAY boxes stacked on top of an SC2 with three SCP high power subs per side. Due to the cavernous size of the building, delay stacks were required and consisted of four SCV subs and six ViRAY boxes per side placed just behind FOH. Coda’s G Series boxes were used for front fill and also as extra delay boxes to fill in some holes at the rear of the cathedral. The speaker system was powered by Coda’s LINUS amplifier platform.

At FOH, a DiGiCo SD7 console was used for mixing as it provided plenty of extra faders that were required due to the sheer amount of inputs that were coming from the stage.

At the monitor position, a DiGiCo SD10 alongside 12 of Adlib’s MP4 wedges were used for the Cream musicians, and a custom headphone monitoring system serviced the orchestra’s needs. The microphone package comprised DPA 4099’s which were used to close mic all of the strings, and a mixture of Shure and Sennheiser dynamic mics and Shure and AKG large diaphragm condensers were in play for the brass, woodwind and percussion players. Shure’s UHF-R systems were used for the vocalists – SM58 capsules on UR2 handheld units. A mixture of Sennheiser mics and Radial DIs were used for the rest of the musicians.

Lighting

The lighting rig comprised mainly Martin by Harman fixtures. The moving light package specified 20 MAC Viper Washes, 16 MAC Auras, two MAC Viper Profiles. Also present were 20 Clay Paky Mythos. LED lighting was made up of 36 Core ColourPoint CP20 RX LED battery uplighter and the generic lighting units were four Arri 2000W fresnels, eight Arri 1000W fresnels and 12 ETC Source Four Profiles.

The Result

Uniting three of Liverpool’s cultural institutions for a unique event saw global dance brand Cream collaborate with musicians from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and transform some of the greatest dance classics from the electronic music genre in the majestic surroundings of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral.

The event was both a cultural and technical feat, accomplished by bringing together two polar opposites of the musical spectrum and combining them into a unique and challenging concept that brought out the best of the two genres.

‍