Claypaky Xtylos and Tambora Linear units on Vasco Rossi's 2022 tour

Claypaky has contributed significantly once more to the impressive set of lights used on Vasco Rossi's much-awaited tour, after last year's concerts were cancelled due to COVID-19. Italy's top rocker has sold out on all dates yet again.

 

 

Giovanni Pinna, Vasco Rossi's lighting designer for over thirty-one years, told us: “Vasco's concerts always set new benchmarks, and that goes for the stage and lighting systems too. This year's set, designed by Gio Forma Studio, included an enormous number of LED screens at the back of the stage (about 10760 square feet) which broadcast the musicians live, as well as video content and various graphic effects. The challenge for me was to integrate a lighting rig into this set which could rival the very high brightness of the LED screens themselves.”

 

 

With a more than 85-foot high, nearly 230-foot long stage front, this year's creative concept mostly involved circular structures: curved LED screens, two large concentric, automated circles in the middle of the stage, two side circles, and eight other circles anchored to the front of the roof, arranged perpendicular to the stage floor. Forty-eight Claypaky Xtylos units were fitted inside these.

 

 

Giovanni Pinna said: “Xtylos units are capable of projecting concentrated beams of light and ultra-saturated colours at great distances. I used them as special features of the tour at a height of over 75 feet, and they were the key lights for some of Vasco's classics such as "Gli spari sopra", "Stupendo", "Rewind" and "Albachiara”. Each circle contained six Xtylos units, and the circles rotated at varying speeds around their own axes, adding further motion and three-dimensionality to the projections.”

 

 

John Pinna then used Claypaky's brand new Tambora Linear units to frame the musicians' platforms symmetrically at three different heights. “The Tambora Linear units unleash incredible power. They are perfectly visible even when the set lighting is impressively bright.  I used them in every possible way: as strobes, with colour-changing effects, with pixel mapping, and with 'three-layer selection', a unique, exclusive feature of Claypaky LED bars. The number of effects and functions that can be achieved today with a professional LED bar like the Tambora Linear is truly remarkable.”

 

 

Tambora Linear is an advanced line of pixel-mapping LED bars designed to generate bright, versatile lighting effects and decorate sets in artistic ways. The bars consist of 400 RGB pixel LEDs, which provide a background light much like that of a high-definition LED wall, and a central line of 200 white LEDs for an exceptionally powerful strobe effect. In addition, the "three-layer selection" function - exclusive to Claypaky LED bars - means you can use three levels of effects at the same time. The Tambora Linear unit was launched on the market at the recent ProLight+Sound, and this is the first time they have been used on a major tour.

 

 

Vasco's 2022 tour took place between May and June in stadiums, at racetracks and in large outdoor venues. He performed a total of eleven dates, in addition to the debut soundcheck in Trento reserved for his 15,000 fan club members and the subsequent Italian première, also in Trento, with more than 120,000 spectators.

 

 

The lighting service company on Vasco Rossi's tour was Pomezia-based BOTW, which - according to Giovanni Pinna - "did a commendable job”. Production was handled by Live Nation. Fabrizio Moggio was chief technician, Marco Piva D3 console operator and Nicholas di Fonzo D3 specialist.

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