Claypaky Ultimo Sharpys hit the road with the “Bon Jovi Forever Tour,” which kicked off with a nine-show July residency at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, played stadium dates in Edinburgh and Dublin in late August and concluded with three shows at London’s famed Wembley Stadium in September. The tour tied in with Bon Jovi’s album “Forever (Legendary Edition),” which includes special guest tracks.
Spike Brant served as Creative Director, Producer and Show Director for Nimblist with Felix Peralta of Peralta Productions, Inc. acting as the Lighting Designer and Programmer. 4Wall provided the Ultimo Sharpys for the tour, with support from Inner Circle Distribution (ICD), Claypaky's exclusive US distributor.
According to Brant, “the creative brief was to design a show using off-the-shelf components, and our kernel of the design became the JBJ's element, the band’s Nashville bar. JBJ’s evolved into a unifying thread and the foundation that is woven into the show from the time you walk in to when you exit.”
The Ultimo Sharpys were one of the tools chosen to enhance the design, says Peralta. “We needed a fixture that could compete with our screens’ content, and the Ultimo Sharpy is super bright; it was the right tool for the task. In the arena show, we included them on the floor and in our pods to help define that pod shape. But in the stadium version, we had the opportunity to really define the space of our stadium design, so the Ultimos became a big element in the creative.”
He notes that the original pod design called for two other brands of fixtures “which took up all that real estate and only had one parameter: on or off! We quickly realized that wasn't the smartest move. The Ultimos [became] the cherry on top of the pod. They were the last little element to really make the pods pop. They’re small but mighty,” a description that Brant echoes.
Peralta adds that “the best thing [about the Ultimo Sharpys] is that they cut through. They cut through, and they make a statement but they can also be very delicate at times with some of the band’s songs like ‘Legendary’ and ‘Lost Highway’ where there's a big graphic pattern. It's not just the wide shots Ultimos help make beautiful compositions for video director Tony Bongiovi a longtime collaborator with Brant. They've been very effective; we absolutely loved them on this show. For a set list like Bon Jovi’s they’re a tool that allows us to go in a lot of different directions. A good song will inspire you.”
Christopher Fernandez was Associate Lighting Designer and Programmer.