Adele Live

Adele Live was the second concert tour by English singer-songwriter Adele. She visited Europe and North America, the tour supporting her second studio album, 21. Adele was backed by a five-piece band and backing singers. The setlist comprised all of her songs from 21, except for "He Won't Go", as well as selected songs from 19. The shows garnered positive critical reviews, many of which emphasised the show's understated, “unplugged” nature, as well as the singer's vocal performance and accessible persona.

Recurring health and vocal problems led to numerous adjustments and postponements to the tour itinerary. The first European leg of the tour was uninterrupted, however. For the first North American leg (which was originally scheduled to begin 12 May 2011 in Washington, D.C. and end on 22 June in Minneapolis), Adele canceled the last nine dates after she was diagnosed with acute laryngitis. These dates were rescheduled with some additional dates and some larger venues. The tour was sold out quickly across North America and Europe, and received positive reviews.

In September 2011, "continuing problems with a serious cold and chest infection" prompted the further postponement of seven additional dates on the second leg of the European stop. However, the tour was resumed on 13 September, and new dates for the missed shows were rescheduled. In October 2011, the singer again cancelled the remaining dates of the second leg of her North American tour—this time due to a vocal hemorrhage that caused internal bleeding near her vocal cords. Adele was forced to cancel the remaining dates of her tour to undergo emergency surgery for the throat hemorrhaging.

Background

Production designer Rob Sinclair wanted the stage to be sparse so the audience would focus on Adele and her voice. The back wall of the stage featured a "distinctive" wall of 96 cone-shaped lampshades using 60-watt household lightbulbs to illuminate them. Each lamp was individually dimmed and the bulbs of each lamp were dipped in a special rubber solution so they wouldn't break. The rest of the show featured moving lights and much white light to focus on Adele at the center of the stage. The moving lights were designed so that they didn't appear to move from the audience's point-of-view and were powered by Jands Vista's next-generation Vista v2 software. The decision to focus on sculpted white light for the stage won "considerable acclaim."

The tour was minimalist in every aspect, from stage design to using each venue's own sound system rather than transporting a tour-specific system. The front-of-house engineer for the tour was Dave McDonald. McDonald carried an Allen & Heath iLive-112 with him during the tour and hooked it up to each venue's sound system with a Cat 5 connector. This allowed the tour to travel light and allowed McDonald to control the mix for each show using each venue's systems. McDonald used plug-ins to replicate the sound of vintage ENT plates for the sound. The tour chose to only use Sennheiser microphones. McDonald chose to have Adele use a wireless Sennheiser SKM 2000 system with an SKM 500–965 G3 transmitter. For the back-up singers, McDonald chose hardwired Sennheiser e 935s. The guitarists used Avalon DIs and the piano was a "gag piano", lacquered upright to look traditional but actually housed a Yamaha MO. McDonald's goal for the tour was, "I want the audience to forget who they are for a moment and be able to project themselves solely onto what's occurring onstage. That is, after all, why we go to shows."

The tour featured a 12-piece string section that backed Adele up, consisting of eight violins, two violas, and two cellos. During some performances, a 20-ft mirrorball (named "Mirrorball Mike") descended from the ceiling during the encore. A screen lifted up at the beginning of the concert to reveal Adele and occasionally descended behind her with images projected upon it. During "Hometown Glory", an image of St. Paul's Cathedral was projected onto the screen.

Opening acts

• The Civil Wars (North America, leg 1, select dates and United Kingdom, leg 2)
• Plan B (North America, leg 1, select dates)
• Wanda Jackson (North America, leg 2, select dates)
• Amos Lee (United Kingdom, leg 2)
• Michael Kiwanuka (United Kingdom, leg 2)

Setlist

1. "Hometown Glory"
2. "I'll Be Waiting"
3. "Don't You Remember"
4. "Turning Tables"
5. "Set Fire to the Rain"
6. "Daydreamer"
7. "If It Hadn't Been for Love"
8. "My Same"
9. "Take It All"
10. "Rumour Has It"
11. "Right as Rain"
12. "One and Only"
13. "Lovesong"
14. "Chasing Pavements"
15. "Make You Feel My Love" Encore
16. "Someone like You"
17. "Rolling in the Deep"

Source:

Notes

• "Daydreamer" was not performed in North American leg or at Royal Albert Hall
• Starting July 2011, "I Can't Make You Love Me" was added to the setlist.
• On the second North American leg, "Someone like You" followed "Rolling in the Deep".

Shows

"As I’m sure most of you know I had to cancel over half of my US tour a couple weeks back. It was a devastating decision to make, but I really had no choice. I had to give my voice 2 weeks rest or risk permanent damage" — Adele on cancelling part of her North American tour.

Festivals and other miscellaneous performances

A This concert was a part of the London Pride

B This concert was a part of the iTunes Festival

Cancellations and rescheduled shows

Box office score data

Broadcasts and recordings

The concert at The Roundhouse (a part of the iTunes Festival) was streamed live on iTunes. The event was followed with an EP release entitled iTunes Festival: London 2011. The album showcases an abbreviated concert with the songs; "One and Only", "Don't You Remember", "Rumour Has It", "Take It All", "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "Rolling in the Deep". The album is an iTunes exclusive and was made available for download on 14 July 2011. A DVD/Blu-ray/CD entitled Live at the Royal Albert Hall was released on 28 November 2011. It features the entire concert along with behind the scenes footage.

Personnel

• Adele: Vocals, guitar on "Daydreamer" and occasionally "My Same"
• Ben Thomas: Guitar
• Tim Van Der Kuil: Guitar
• Miles Robertson: Keyboards
• Sam Dixon: Bass guitar
• Derrick Wright: Drums
• Kelli-Leigh Henry-Davila, Sharleen Linton: Background vocals
• David "Zop" Yard: Tour manager
• Pat Baker: Production manager
• Rob Sinclair: Production designer
• George Sinclair: Associate designer
• Dave McDonald: Front-of-house engineer
• Joe Campbell: Monitor engineer
• Adam Newman & Adam Carr: Stage techs

Source:

Accolades

External links