Iconic Italian superstar singer / songwriter Vasco
Rossi staged seven phenomenal stadium shows in Rome and Milan this summer
playing to over 400,000 fans, complete with a lightshow to match the occasion
designed by his long term LD, Giovanni Pinna.
Pinna used 68 Robe ROBIN LEDBeam 100s which were
used as specials and for highlighting the ebullient audiences that flocked to
see Rossi whose controversial and hugely successful career has spanned four
decades, spawned 27 albums and several spats with authority!. He is one of the
great Italian showmen who is passionate about his performances and famous for
his live interaction and very strong bonds with the crowds when onstage.
For these shows Pinna took the set design by Gioforma
based on the album artwork as his starting point for lighting. The stage was
custom designed for the show and he crammed every available centimetre with
lighting fixtures – around 650 in total!
The LEDBeam 100s were chosen for two very specific
tasks, 20 of them were positioned on the floor of the stage wings shooting up
the Vasco logo scenic drops at the sides. The other 48 were divided between
four trussing columns either side of the PA wings so they could beam right into
the audience.
“They were absolutely vital to the show, I used
them in every song and they were programmed into 90% of my cues and all the
special audience looks,” he explains.
He chose to use LEDBeams for this task because
“They are small, very powerful and perfect for the job”. They produced a
natural breakup and also became more like a wash effect over a long throw which
is more subtle and sophisticated than standard wash lights.
The show was full of big audience looks and moves,
and Pinna commented that although he also had 700 series wash fixtures on the
towers (from another brand) … it was the LEDBeams that were the most visible!
Pinna has worked with Vasco Rossi for an amazing 23
years, and also been a Robe user for some time. The 2013 Vasco stadium tour was
the first time he had used the little LEDBeam 100s and there are usually some
Robe elements in his live designs.
He ran lighting from a grandMA full size console,
with video playback operated by Marco Piva on a grandMA2 full size, all
supplied by lighting vendor BOTW from Rome.
He comments, “Robe is an excellent brand, they have
some great ideas, some really good people and I love the way they are always
coming up with fixtures that are properly innovative. I know there is something
big in the pipeline, so I am really looking forward to seeing this in the
coming months!”
Pinna has recently designed and specified lighting
for the main theatre at the just opened high profile amusement and theme park
Cinecitta World in Rome, which features nearly 50 Robe moving lights – a mix of
Pointes, LEDWash 600s, DLFs and DLXs – all from the ROBIN series.
