Rock Circus

Madame Tussaud's Rock Circus was a walk-through exhibition celebrating the history of rock & pop music, featuring its major figures recreated in wax. Predominately British artists featured, but many American artists were also included. The attraction told the story of rock and pop from the 1950s to the then-present day by using videos, music, narration and audio-animatronic figures.

Opened in August 1989 by Jason Donovan, it usually had over 50 static figures on display, spread over the four floors of the attraction, and cost a reported £10.7 million / $18 million to create.[1][2]

The London Pavilion, former site of Rock Circus

Beginnings

The company was looking for a new venture in the early 1980s and decided to canvass the public as to what interested them. They organised focus groups of people living in the UK, and five types of potential overseas visitors; Americans, Scandinavians, French, Australians and Germans, giving them various ideas to consider.

The three main concepts Tussaud's was considering were an historical exhibit about London, the lives of the contemporary rich and famous and something they called at that time "The Pop Experience".

What the Tussaud's researchers discovered was people in the focus groups would much prefer to see the music-based attraction proposed, rather than the other options suggested.[1]

Deciding which stars should be represented within the attraction was left to Martin King, the original general manager of Rock Circus, Then-Tussaud's executive Ian Hanson and rock writer Paul Gambaccini.

Tussaud's sculptor Stuart Williamson went to Los Angeles to capture Little Richard and to Frankfurt to work with Sting, who was on tour at that time. Johnny Rotten came into the Tussaud's studio several times and allowed the artists to make a cast of his rotten teeth to add authenticity to his figure.[1]

Eric Clapton attended the Tussaud's studio several times to pose with his guitar. At one session, he played an old blues number for the artists. "It was like a private concert for us" said the appreciative Tussaud's then-sculptor Stuart Williamson, and who was one of the artists involved in capturing Clapton's likeness.[1]

More simplistic wax figures without any electronics took about three months to make at a cost of about $17,000 each. The audio-animatronic figures took up to a year to create and, depending on the complexity of movement involved, cost up to $170,000 each.[2]

Exhibition

The attraction was operated by The Tussauds group (the owner of Madame Tussauds at the time) and took up the top four floors of the newly refurbished London Pavilion building at Piccadilly Circus, London.
The exhibition was opened in 1989 by Jason Donovan [3] and closed completely in September 2001.

Visitors walked around the exhibition wearing headphones which used infra-red technology to beam relevant audio material according to what you were looking at. The centrepiece of the exhibition was a 'live' show performed by a series of lifelike animatronic figures, looking at the history of Rock music from 1950 to the present day. The audience sat in an auditorium which rotated to view the various stages.

The wax figures that made up the exhibition can take up to six months to create at a cost of around £30,000. The animatronic figures can take up to a year and cost £100,000 each. The control systems for the exhibition were provided by Electrosonic Ltd.

Many of the performers featured in the exhibition donated their own clothes; Paul Simon, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Eric Clapton and Phil Collins all donated items amongst others, with Simon sending a guitar and a pair of jeans for his wax figure and Knopfler a pair of his boots and a shirt to copy.[1][2][4]

Layout and Experience

Once visitors had paid for entry, they proceeded to a headphone station. Visitors would be given a set of wireless re-chargeable headphones (infrared transmission[4]), whilst visitors leaving the attraction would pass the same station on the opposite side, to return their headphones. The returned headphones were placed into charging racks and rotated to ensure visitors entering the attraction had fully charged units. No additional languages were supported, and all the dialogue was delivered in English only.[5]

From the charging station, visitors would put on the headphones and follow a logical path walking amongst the first floor / area's exhibits. Each one had its own audio track playing on a loop and as visitors approached each one, they became in-range of the infrared signal for that exhibit and their headphones switched to this audio track automatically. A minor disadvantage with the system was that visitors usually joined after the loop for that exhibit had already begun its current playing, and therefore had to wait until the audio had looped back to the beginning for the best effect. The tracks featured narration by Paul Gambaccini,[4] and who discussed the performer the exhibit was for, along with short sections of their music, background, or history, with these typically lasting no more than a few minutes each. In practice, the system worked well, but there were a few areas where the signal would be lost or erroneous sounds or dropouts would be heard. One notable point was that the entire attraction was silent in this respect; originally, all narration, music, and the theatre show sound was delivered entirely to the headphones with no audio being played externally. One side effect of this decision was that visitors in pairs or groups could be heard shouting to each other, as they tried to "talk over" the audio being played via their headphones.[5]

At times, visitors may have entered an area and be asked to remove their headphones and pose next to a waxwork of a particular artist or artists by members of staff and have a no-obligation to buy photograph taken. This was often right at the start of the exhibition, to allow time for the images to be transferred to the production facility and processed, and which was within the gift shop area towards the end of the exhibition. This was not always static, and could be found elsewhere in the attraction, depending on the visit time.[1][5]

The first main room visitors came to featured a large rotating, circular stage with the figures of Elton John performing "Bennie and the Jets," Little Richard singing "Tutti Frutti" and Stevie Wonder with "I Just Called to Say I Love You", with the two former seated at pianos, whilst Wonder sat at a three-keyboard synthesizer, all pointing into the centre of the stage. At pre-determined intervals of a few minutes or so, a figure of Elvis Presley would appear from the centre of the stage and rise up above the pianos and sing a section from the song "Glory Hallelujah", before dropping back down out of sight.[1]

The remaining floors followed the same pattern, with various music performers modelled in different backdrops or scenes, or posed in balconies and walkways and visitors moved between them via escalators and lifts as needed (originally, the lifts were not available for general use, but required a staff member to assist).[5] Amongst others, these scenes included;

The escalator leading to the top and last floor was inside a perspex tunnel containing rings of neon lights and other lighting effects, and captioned with a sign "Stairway to Heaven", referencing the Led Zeppelin song of the same name. At the top of this escalator the floor opened out into a small area where visitors could watch music videos and similar content via ceiling mounted screens, complete with seating below them. Freshly squeezed orange juice was also available to purchase, and this area served the purpose of a waiting area for visitors to remain in whilst they waited for the next performance of the theatre show. This was notified by a dot-matrix timer mounted to the ceiling adjacent to the entrance doors to the theatre, and ran from 15 minutes down to zero. During quieter periods, the member of staff managing the theatre would often come down into the waiting area and advise visitors that the next performance was about to commence.[5]

This area also featured a Madame Tussard's attraction regular feature; that of a waxwork representing a member of the public or staff, and placed in-situ in the attraction; one pair of seats below a monitor just prior to the theatre show was occupied by a male waxwork looking up, as if watching the screen above him. This was rumoured to be modelled on a known person, such as a member of staff or waxwork artist employed by Tussauds at the time, but no firm evidence of this is known to exist. This was in-line with the main Madame Tussauds attraction located in Marylebone Road, London North West, which had a female waxwork standing at the Information / Ticket counter, dressed in the same uniform as genuine members of staff, compete with the name tag "Maude" and which caught out many visitors to the attraction seeking assistance at the counter.[5]

Visitors would then walk to the theatre entrance, and could either wait outside in a queue, or backtrack to the waiting area as they wished. When ready, the staff member would guide the visitors into the theatre and ask them to take any seat from two rows of height-staggered bench seating. Once the seating was full, or no more guests remained outside, the doors were closed and the show started,

After the show, visitors exited the theatre and were guided to a spiral staircase taking them down to a lower level, and complete with music photographs and images mounted on the walls surrounding it. This took visitors to a small gift shop selling Rock Circus-branded merchandise, camera film, and other items. This was also where they could view and purchase any photographs that had been taken earlier by the Rock Circus staff, if they wished.[1]

From the gift shop another staircase led down and back to the headphone charging station, where visitors dropped off their headphones and exited the exhibit back into the main London Pavilion building within the Trocadero.[5]

Artists Featured

Amongst the artists featured as waxworks, in video, or as other exhibits were:

To celebrate the opening of new museum and to decorate the outside of the building, a series of Rock legend statues were installed around the London Pavilion exterior. Artists featured were Annie Lennox, Buddy Holly, David Bowie, Diana Ross, Elton John, Gary Glitter, Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger.[8]

End Theatre Finale "Live" Show

The revolving theatre "live" show formed the last part of the attraction, and featured a number of animatronic performers, using the then-ground breaking pneumatic or otherwise known as air-compression technology, being seen for the first time in the UK at that time. More than 200 computer-generated signals were used lift the figure of Bruce Springsteen`s guitar-strumming right arm to the familiar raised fist when performing "Born in the U.S.A."[2]

Visitors entered the theatre and took up places on two rows of height-staggered seating, facing a stage area, and positioned on a turn-table (although this last point was not made obvious as not to spoil any unexpected surprise when the seats rotated. Once the seating was filled or at a pre-determined point the doors would be closed, and the show was started.

Various animatronic performers would play out parts, with narration and linking dialogue provided by an animatronic Tim Rice, seen seated in a swivel chair, or via voice representation only at other points during the performance.

Approximately half way through the performance, the whole seating area was rotated to face a second stage area which accommodated further animatronic performers and features. The music that played whilst the stage rotated was the opening piano bars of Elton John's Bennie and the Jets song.

Once the show had completed after around 10 minutes, the lights were raised again, and visitors exited the theatre.[5]

The performance begun with The Beatles, in full Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band costumes,[1] performing an extract of the title track of the album, and went on include video, audio and animatronic representations of music stars and celebrities including:

As the auditorium rotated, the animatronic characters were revealed either from behind a curtain, or they were raised into view. The control systems for the animatronics were underneath the stage area of the theatre, out of sight of the audience.

The performance ended in the same manner as it started, with The Beatles, again in full "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" costumes, performing an extract of the title track of the album.[1]

The original set-up had audio fed to the audience via the infra-red headsets they wore in the rest of the attraction, but in later years, a sound system was installed to improve the quality of the sound.

Malfunctions

During at least one performance a Tim Rice animatronic mounted in a swivel chair rotated sharply to give the impression of turning to view the stage, having previously been addressing the audience. As the figure spun around with one leg crossed over the other, the shoe fitted to the crossed leg dislodged, due in-part to the centrifugal force, and became airborne. Fortunately, the shoe did not have enough momentum to reach and hit any of the seated visitors and landed just outside the stage area, where the member of staff operating the theatre walked across in front of the stage and retrieved it without halting the performance.[5]

Reception

Initial reception and attendance was good, and year two estimates put expected attendance at upwards of 750,000, in comparison to the groups main Madame Tussaud's attraction, which was then the most popular tourist attraction in Great Britain, drawing 2.7 million visitors a year. Some music fans may have questioned the choices of figures and for example, it was thought that Americans may have been baffled by the inclusion of Lonnie Donegan, when other notable artists such as Jim Morrison were not represented at all.[1]

Tussards attempted to address this by polling visitors on who should be added to the exhibition, stating that the artists with the most votes will be made into figures and shown in a designated area.[2]

Some visitors were not impressed and at least one thought everything at the museum was unintentionally funny and not very convincing.[2]

Major Refurbishment 1998-1999

The ageing technology was given a much-needed £4 million refurbishment in its ninth year and after a short closure period, it reopened in March 1999.[3] New parts of the attraction included a virtual reality simulation of the view from a Wembley Stadium stage, and an after-show party set-up featuring Robbie Williams, The Spice Girls and Jarvis Cocker.

One aspect that was not updated in this refurbishment was a dot-matrix display mounted just below the waxworks present on the outside of the London Pavilion, and which used standard incandescent light bulbs. Originally, when the attraction opened, this read "Rock Circus" which was scrolled to give an impression of movement. Over time, more and more of the bulbs failed leading to the sign becoming illegible, although a number of bulbs still continued to cycle on and off.[5]

Closure in September 2001

Despite the update a few years previously, and having attracted up 682,000 visitors during its heyday in 1993,[4] the attraction failed to meet its income targets, and closed permanently in September 2001. The space it formerly used has now been replaced by Ripley's Believe It Or Not! museum (which opened 20 August 2008).

Tussauds Group staff blamed the closure on the strength of the pound (making London an expensive destination for the young Europeans the attraction was aimed at), and a decline in visitors, despite a reported 6 million visitors since opening in 1989. Many of the waxwork figures were redeployed at the main Madame Tussauds exhibition, and Rock Circus staff were offered posts at other Tussauds Group attractions.[9]

Although unconfirmed, all or a number of the other wax figures used at the attraction were then placed into storage by Tussauds.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 KAYE, JEFF (1990-08-04). "Waxing Enthusiastic Over Tussaud's Rock 'n' Roll Circus : Nostalgia: Opened less than a year ago in London, the rock museum features robotic figures of rock stars sculpted in wax. Each exhibit is accompanied by music and comment.". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Waxing Nostalgic". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  3. 1 2 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n9654982
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Who's the prat in the white tuxedo?: Isabel Wolff at the Rock Circus,". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Watson,James (2015). Own recollections
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Preview London (1992) Rock Circus", retrieved 2015-12-02
  7. 1 2 3 "Madame Tussards Rock Circus August 1996, retrieved 2015-12-01
  8. ↑ http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_keywords=CIAT_6.3.8.6.4&display=rock+groups
  9. ↑ http://www.allbusiness.com/services/amusement-recreation-services/4564512-1.html[deadlink]

External links

Coordinates: 51°30′37″N 0°08′02″W / 51.5103°N 0.1340°W / 51.5103; -0.1340

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