Canada – Quick! Say “Sgt. Peppers” to someone, and chances are that the first thing that comes to their mind will be the glorious colors on what is, arguably one of the most iconic album covers of all time. Who can forget the image of the famous foursome decked out in brilliantly hued band uniforms from M. Berman Ltd? These were more than just eye-catching outfits though; their bold design and eye-catching embellishments mirrored the psychedelic vibe of the album and heralded the beginning of a new era of music.
Pierre E. Roy, celebrated for pushing the color envelope in his lighting designs, captured the magical aura of the band and their moment in time for the “Beatles Story band Orchestra II” tour. This was brilliantly evident at the tour’s March 14th Théâtre Capitole show that feature a captivating flow of stark psychedelic-inspired color patterns created with help from CHAUVET Professional fixtures.
“My color choices were made very deliberately to evoke the Beatles’ psychedelic era,” said Roy. “For the Sgt. Pepper intro, I created a beautiful rainbow effect that evoked the mood of the album. My colors were also chosen to follow the video content and match it visually, as we would say.”
But the Beatles did not always play amidst rainbows. In the earliest days, when they performed at Liverpool’s Cavern Club and in the underground haunts of Hamburg’s St. Pauli Quarter, the lighting was often pale and dim. Roy reflects this too in his design.
“The beginning of the show is much more focused on shades of white, because in the early Beatles days, colored lighting simply didn’t exist,” he explained. “So, for roughly the first 30- minutes of the show I stay within variations of white — warm, cool, slightly greenish, yellowish. As soon as we enter the Sgt. Pepper era, I brought out all the colors.”
For the final two-plus hours of the show, Roy treats fans to a brilliant panorama of colors, which, like the Beatles music from the late ‘60s, is joyfully transcendent as it gleefully breaks rules, combining different hues in refreshingly original ways. At times, his colors are painted across the stage in broad strokes, while at others they reflect moods in more narrowly focused beams. The palette on stages also moves seamless from monochromatic to multi-colored. Regardless, the mood is always playfully rebellious, much like the Beatles themselves.
Key to helping Roy weave these colors together at Théâtre Capitole were 16 Maverick Force 2 Spot fixtures. “We had 12 of them rigged on pipes to create different looks and for musician specials, and four on the floor to create a nice fanning effect while keeping the orchestra in shadow,” Roy said of the fixture. “Their wide zoom range was very helpful in changing the scope and depth of our lighting.”
Joining the Maverick fixtures was a collection of COLORado 2 Quad Zoom units, which were used to pour additional color on to the musicians. “We were passionate about covering the stage with color,” said Roy. “I am grateful that Pierre Chainé and Christian Morissette from Productions Orchestra Inc. entrusted me to bring this vision to life. We all wanted to use color to capture the magic of the Beatles.”
