Hootie & the Blowfish UK and Ireland Tour

THANK YOU very very much for taking good care of us while we were over. We will be back! I do and would of course recommend you guys for anything!!

The Requirement

Hootie and the Blowfish’s 25th anniversary reunion tour was the first time they had performed in the UK for 20 years. Adlib was selected as the audio and lighting provider for the UK and Ireland tour.

As a “one stop shop” for all aspects of technical production in the UK and Europe Adlib was able to tie everything together for varying requirements across a wide range of venues, whilst offering a true all-in-one solution taking into account equipment rental, engineers, backline, pre-production facilities, and logistics. This included:

• Taking the design from the USA touring show, and creating versions suitable for the venues being visited based on the Adlib team’s experience working in each of the spaces in the past.
• Providing Adlib’s pre-production space for the full touring party (excluding the artist on this occasion) to check through backline, instruments, control, and floor packages in one location before heading out on tour.
• Co-ordinating backline hire.
• Arranging trucking for the full run of shows.

The Solution

The US touring party spent two days at Adlib’s Knowsley HQ prior to heading out on the road. They worked alongside the same Adlib techs that would be working with them for the larger shows in the run. This gave Adlib’s techs the chance to meet the touring team and discuss the needs of the show in detail before getting on site.

For the whole run, Adlib supplied a lighting floor package with control, and an audio control package. This was supplemented with additional equipment for the larger shows with everything carefully planned to integrate seamlessly with venue systems.

The lighting package comprised Martin MAC Viper Profiles, Clay Paky Stormy CC strobes, Robe picklePATT fixtures, and a Grand MA2 Light for control.

A larger flown lighting package with crew was supplied for the Dublin 3 Arena, Hammersmith Apollo, and Manchester Apollo shows. The larger system was carefully designed to be adaptable so that it could be scaled back to work in the smaller Apollo venues whilst achieving the same impact as at the Dublin 3 Arena.

Delivering what was essentially an arena scale lighting system in theatre venues required careful planning with the venue riggers and production managers ahead of time with significant advance prep work from Adlib’s engineers.
An audio control package was supplied for the whole tour based around a Midas Pro X console. This was complemented by Shure Axient wireless system and L-Acoustics K1/K2/KARA systems with crew for some of the larger shows – Dublin 3 Arena, Glasgow Barrowlands, and Manchester Apollo.

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