Clay Paky on the Pooh 2011 Tour

Without the faintest hint of a crisis after the drummer Stefano D'Orazio left the band, the Italian rock band Pooh returned as trio (plus three session musicians that will change on each tour) with an album in old-time symphonic pop style.

And, once again Clay Paky was on board for Pooh's new tour. Lighting designer Fabrizio "Fabi" Crico has worked for Pooh during several periods dating back to 1978. He explained that the tour consists of a first stage in halls and a second, in theatres. In the halls, he used 11 battens assembled in a kite-surfing wing shape, and a large background LED screen that traced the history of Pooh and showed music clips. The trusses were colored by the lights, so there was no need for screens to enclose the scenery.

In theatres, the lighting design had to be adapted to the different spaces in order to maintain his basic ideas, which meant redistributing the lights. The backdrop consisted of a translucent sheet, reproducing the arabesque seen on the album's cover, partially illuminated by the wash lights. This was a deliberate choice by the designer to lighten the image and at the same time keep it constantly conspicuous.

The intention was also to create a setting that transmits the idea of a "return to nature and primordial things". The scenery obtained was therefore purely theatrical: no LEDs or videos, not even any graphic effects, just a careful blending of colors that immersed the artists in an intimate and cozy atmosphere.

"We wanted to recreate the sets of the 1970s," continued Crico, who co-designed the stage scenery with Red Canzian. "A soft, but emotionally intense, atmosphere where the single light beams take on a meaning and particular poignancy in the roles they play. To do this, we used lighting equipment including the intelligent lighting technology with which Pooh were born, in other words scanners, as well as the newcomers, namely wash and beam lights. However we used them in a very measured way, without indulging in breathtaking effects, but giving priority to slow, synchronized movements, evocative mixtures of colors, and beams criss-crossing in the air.

Crico could count on Clay Paky Alpha Wash 700s, Alpha Beam 700s, Alpha Wash 300s and Golden Scan 4s. "I chose Golden Scans both because they are a link with our past and because scanners offer features that are still unmatched by today's moving heads, such as their speed and the thickness of the beam. I love to use them like followspots against the backlight, and I can assure you that they are impressive even compared with the most modern lights!

I highly appreciate the Alpha Wash 300s and 700s. They have wonderful colors, especially a very deep magenta, and an excellent range of fixed colors on the color wheel, like saturated red. With the Alpha Washes you can reproduce the same color intensity and uniformity you get by using gelatin filters, and at the same time there are many other creative solutions available that are inconceivable with fixed lights. I have already said everything there is to say about beam lights: they are truly revolutionary and will still be first choice for a long time in the future. I already had 46 purchased for the 2009 tour, and I am increasingly sure that I rightly recognized their enormous potential."

Pooh's theatrical tour began on January 26 and continued through April 2.