Viva Brighton Issue #80 October 2019

MUSIC
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Roy Orbison & Buddy Holly
Hologram concert
You might have heard about the growing trend
of dead superstars performing in holographic
form, but this month gives us a chance to see it
for ourselves at the Brighton Centre. We spoke
to Martin Tudor, CEO of BASE Hologram, a
US-based company specialising in developing
and promoting the nascent form of live
entertainment.
Why are Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly
performing together? It is Roy Orbison and
Buddy Holly sharing the bill. They do not play
together because Roy and Buddy never really
did play together, although they did at one
point share a bill. We try to be as authentic as
we can. We think it will be a great, fun evening
for audiences since every song’s a hit. So it’s
pretty special actually.
All quite short hits too… Exactly. It’s hit
after hit after hit. Because then, songs were
two or three minutes, not three, four, five, six,
seven and so on.
The show’s blurb mentions ‘mixed reality’,
what does this entail? There’s a big screen
with some videos that give you some history on
both of them. People in their lives
talk about them both, so you
get a real flavour of who they
were as artists and individuals.
Are they backed by a band
or an orchestra? You’re
seeing a live band
but hearing the
artist’s actual
voices, from the
holograms. This
is about as close
as it could be to
seeing the two of
them live. Most people never got to see Buddy
Holly, because he died so young. And Roy died
at such a young age too, only 52 years old.
What recordings do you use for the vocals?
In this case they are all studio recordings,
because the quality of the live recordings from
back then is just not good enough. We have
remastered all the vocal recordings, so it sounds
as good as one can sound in today’s world.
Where does the video of them performing
come from? We create the video, starting
from scratch. We use original videos as
reference, so we can get their movements
correct. We do it exactly the same way as how
they created Carrie Fisher in the Star Wars
movie [Rogue One].
How does it work, technically? We use
military grade laser technology to project a high
quality hologram onto the stage… for this tour
we’re using one very powerful Epson projector.
Have the shows proved popular? Audiences
cheer and act at these concerts in a similar
way to how they would if the performers were
really there. There’s a great party atmosphere.
Do the performers appear solid?
They appear solid from a distance
– anyone particularly close can
see through them, because
ultimately, of course, the figures
are just projections. But
people tend to get swept up
in the atmosphere and feel
so immersed that no one
remembers.
Interview
by Joe Fuller
22 Oct, 7.30pm,
brightoncentre.co.uk
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