Italian rock veterans of over 30 years, Pooh have spent the past two months on an arena tour of 19 Italian cities, promoting their new triple-platinum album ‘Cento di queste vite’ (A hundred of these lives). Pooh, one of the few acts which manage to stay on stage for three whole hours, are renowned for the quality of their technical and musical presentation. Staging and lighting for the current tour is looked after by service company Xenon, owned by Renato Neri, who is using a wide array of Clay Paky lighting fixtures for the show, including the new Astroscan projector, launched at PLASA 2000. Neri says: "Astroscan is a spectacular effect that can create soft and relaxing atmospheres or powerful flashes of light. It can be positioned on the stage or up on the trusses, and covers the entire intermediate area thanks to pyramid head which oscillates at the speed and angle desired and creates a diffusion of the light beam on several axes at 360°. As well as providing an effect that blends in perfectly with the rest of the lights, Astroscan gave us the opportunity to light up the audience in a creative way, encircling it completely and making it an active part of the show."Lighting designer Giancarlo Tosani, who has been lighting for the band since 1980, said: "I must say that Xenon provided me with everything I wanted and also Renato Neri and I are absolutely convinced that Clay Paky projectors outshine all their competitors. I installed the Super Scan Zooms on the central truss above the stage together with the Stage Color 1200 for basic lighting. A lot of Stage Zooms 1200 were placed on the upper truss, on those perpendicular to the stage and on the floor, while the Astroscans, the brand-new Clay Paky projectors, were arranged on the stage and ceiling.
The stage covers area of 16m x12m, and is surrounded by a large white drape that serves as a projection screen used in various ways, for example: for the spectacular entrance of the band, whose huge silhouette is rear-projected onto the closed curtain; for projecting large-format images from a Pani projector in the director’s cabin, or for various graphic effect projections and rear-projections.
