In the late ’80s, it was impossible to escape clean-cut boy band Bros. With a pile of Top 10 hits and a sell-out show at Wembley Stadium, it seemed that the Goss twins could do no wrong until they broke teenage hearts by calling it a day in 1992. While drummer Luke went into the acting profession, frontman Matt began a solo career that took him to Las Vegas. Shades of Matt’s swing-style Caesars Palace production were present when Entec supplied a full lighting rig for his one-off show at Wembley’s SSE Arena, just as rumours of a Bros reunion were confirmed privately by production manager Duncan Brignell – the boys are back this August. For the last 30 years, Brignell has made much of his living from producing exclusive private parties and special events. His long friendship with Matt Goss’s manager Rob Ferguson resulted in the opportunity to work on the Wembley show. He explained: “Rob often said we should work together on something and then this came up. He showed me a WYSIWYG design that, to my eyes, looked quite flat and I told him that I thought we could achieve some extra production value and excitement out of the same budget.” Brignell turned to another old friend, lighting/show designer Svend Pedersen, for assistance. “Svend designed some looks that we loved and I looked at the practical, physical side, such as the stage decks and risers,” said Brignell. “Svend regularly uses Entec and I looked forward to working with because seeing their logo all over the PA on ‘The Tube’ in the ’80s gave me my first insight into the mechanics of event production and I later got to know Noreen O’Riordan through dry-hiring Entec’s stock.” Unable to be present at Wembley, Pedersen brought in Dave Byars to see the project through as lighting operator. “I was very lucky to have Davey there,” said Brignell. Byars, whose long association with Entec dates back to 1989, commented: “Svend and I have done a lot of projects together, so it was easy to take the baton. Despite Wembley’s size, the idea was to get as much out of as little equipment as possible, so we brought a lot of creative ideas to the table.”
Matt Goss at Wembley
TWO SIDES The show was divided into two distinct parts, the first being tailored around the swing music that has defined Goss’s Vegas career. For this portion, Byars achieved a range of moods and looks by projecting various colours and gradients from Martin MAC Aura XBs and Viper Profiles on to a rear grey voile drape – part of the elegant set dressing designed by Michaela Edwardes. Part two of the show focused on Goss’s pop history. “That’s when I brought the lighting out into the audience, with Vari*Lite 3000 spot chases and [Thomas] 4-Lite Molefays,” said Byars. “In fact, we had a lot of conventionals on this gig with tons of ETC Source Fours on the front truss, and it seemed perfect for this type of show.” Benefitting from the support of Entec lighting crew chief Will Wright and his technician colleagues Simon Chandler-Honnor and Sudip Shretha, Byars was operating his own Avolites Sapphire Touch with his trusty Tiger Touch as a back-up. He commented: “We didn’t have the luxury of production rehearsals so having my own desk meant that I could do a lot of WYSIWYG preparation at home. “There were some last-minute things that Matt demanded when we shoehorned a production meeting into the schedule just 20 minutes after the doors opened, such as having a backlight on him when he was at the piano. I just had to work those moves out on the hoof.” “There were several ‘lastminute.com’ aspects to the day,” laughed Brignell. “If I had a fiver for every time I heard the question, ‘when are we getting a set list?’, I’d have come away quite rich. A lot of people behind the scenes were working on other things like afternoon meet and greets, so it was pandemonium at times but I’m used to that. I do ‘pandemonium’ regularly! “Having Davey on our side was a huge bonus because nothing fazes him. For a show of that size, it was a bit of a busk but if the client’s happy, you can rest easy. Everyone seemed over the moon about the show and we are looking at bringing the bulk of the crew and suppliers back for Bros which will be great fun.”
Dave Byars & Will Wright
iNPUT • ENTEC SOUND & LIGHT • SUMMER 2017
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