English singer/songwriter Sam Smith is known for stunning live shows. For 2023’s Gloria the Tour, the challenge was to capture the luxuriant sheen of the recorded work onstage. Staging, scenic, and automation all had their role to play in the opulent, visually arresting show at Sam Smith’s Gloria Tour, which featured a 65ft gold sculpture based on the Louvre’s “Hermaphrodite endormi”.
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Image provided by Madison Phipps
Smith exploded into the limelight in 2012 as a guest vocalist on Disclosure’s critically acclaimed “Latch”. Two years later, with debut album In the Lonely Hour, Smith won four Grammys and netted a host of number-one singles, becoming an internationally renowned pop superstar in the process. Almost a decade later, for 2023’s Gloria the Tour, Smith was keen to build a scenic setup that captured the album’s artistic vision in a live environment.
Image provided by Madison Phipps
Image provided by Madison Phipps
For Gloria the Tour, Sam Smith needed excellence. TAIT’s Jacqui Pyle hand-sculpted a wax maquette model based on “Hermaphrodite endormi”, which was scanned into CAD software and scaled up to full size to match the grandiosity of Sam Smith: Gloria the Tour. Delivered in multiple pieces, the 65x20x10ft gold structure was hard coated with polyurea coating and mounted to a custom support structure to allow it to be used as an extension of the stage.
Image provided by Madison Phipps
Image provided by Madison Phipps
And speaking of staging, our interlocking Mag Deck system featured four integrated Type-A scissor lifts automated by our Navigator Automation Platform and three underworld tech spaces. During production, we kept one eye on practicality to ensure that – despite the scale of the scenic centerpiece – the setup could be broken down and easily transported from one venue to the next.
