XLTV Supplies Foo Fighters UK Stadium Shows

After being on tour for six months, Foo Fighters recently performed three UK stadium shows. The 86,000-capacity Wembley Arena sold out immediately for the June 6th & 7th and proved to be their biggest shows ever. Another Manchester date was also added to accommodate the demand of the UK fans and was another full house that sold out in minutes, just like the Wembley Shows. Over 230,000 happy fans in less than three days.

Production designer, Nathan Wilson, was tasked with the monumental duty of simultaneously designing, programming, and building the two separate stadium shows while still nailing the touring version nightly.

A joint effort by XL Touring Video Los Angeles, XL Touring Video London, and XL Video Belgium was launched to produce not only the fabrication, but the extensive LED requirements and labor to execute the massive shows in support of Designer Nathan Wilson. The Wembley show incorporated over 5000 individual MiTrix panels divided up into three different screen configurations. 3000 MiTrix were in a circular screen above the stage, above that was a roof surround screen with 300 MiTrix and 750 MiTrix were configured into four zipper screens. This very creative use produced a 360-degree viewing angle.

The Manchester show used 648 MiTrix and 60 Lighthouse R16s on a rotating stage. The Lighthouse was divided into two side screens and the MiTrix into three LED screens

XLTV’s John Wiseman says, “We are blessed to have a band, management, design, and production team that gets it. They think big and act bigger. As the Foo’s continue their incredible success we get the fantastic support role of helping them all deliver the vision. What a great thing to be involved in, and there seems to be nothing but incredible upward trajectory for everyone around this artist. This is the kind of client and team guys like me dream about working for!”

Overall video project management for stadium shows on behalf of XLTV was Mark Ward, Phil Mercer, and Jo Beirne. Touring on behalf of XLTV Los Angeles is LED tech Rob McShane.

Production team is production manager, Rodney Johnson, stage manager, Brian Kountz, and production coordinator Clair Van Herck. Road manager is Gus Brandt. The Wembley Stadium Shows were filmed by Splinter Films for an upcoming cinema and DVD release. Produced by Emer Patten and directed by Nick Wickham. Executive producers are John Cutcliffe and John Silva. Management by S.A.M.