Multi-Award winning – and Sheffield UK’s finest –
metalcore rockers Bring Me The Horizon played a huge one off show at London’s
Wembley Arena closing a phenomenal year,
celebrating the conclusion of their 18 month global ‘Sempiternal’ album
cycle … and their 10th
anniversary.
The band’s Lighting Designer Ben Inskip chose 70 x
Robe moving lights as the backbone of the show – because he knows the products
and knew they would deliver the results he wanted. He needed multi-purpose
lights that could perform several tasks and that all balanced well together as
an integrated package.
Ben has worked with the band since 2009. He has a
great rapport with them and they trust him implicitly to come up with
interesting design concepts for their live work, which in this case also
included upstage video projection. Being a one-off, possibly the most important
parameter was that the design was practical and quick to load-in and rig …
whilst also looking massive and impressive to fill the venue’s cavernous
interior.
The Robes were a mix of 39 x LEDBeam 100s, 14 x
Pointes, 11 x MMX Spots and six LEDWash 600s.
The LEDBeam 100s were distributed across a network
of trussing in 13 clusters of three. Thirty (10 clusters) were flown on chevron
shaped trusses, helping to accentuate their eye-catching architecture. The
remaining nine LEDBeam 100s were ensconced in and around the backline to help
extend the beamy ‘fan’ lighting looks across the entire space. These were a
must-have for Ben due to their “Agility, brightness and small size”.
He remarks that the LEDBeam 100 is fantastic for
trailer tours and the smallest gigs on one hand … and yet holds its own
brilliantly on arena shows like this. There are not many fixtures around that
can achieve this!
Eight Pointes were rigged four each side of the
upstage chevron truss, with six on the floor following the same lines,
resulting effectively in two vertical beam ‘walls’ behind the band. They were
used equally as beam and in spot modes throughout the show, bringing numerous
different shapes to the stage – from a large diamond to a 3D box surrounding
the band to laser simulations utilizing the linear prism and a tight aperture.
The MMX Spots were rigged five on the floor and six
in the air. The floor based fixtures made dramatic silhouetting effects using
gobos and worked in conjunction with the LEDWash 600s placed behind the band
members adding heavy back-light to the scene.
The flown MMX Spots helped augment the looks
created with the other overhead moving lights – whether the need was for
additional tight columns of light, super-wide gobo shafts or additional
lighting for the IMAG cameras. “They are bright with an excellent zoom range, a
great selection of gobos and the adjustable hot-spot is ideal for flattening
beams out for the camera,” Ben comments.
One of the challenges with lighting this show was
trying to keep a clear path for the projectors – mounted at FOH – to hit the
large upstage screen. Ben’s BMTH aesthetic usually involves a lot of low
backlighting, so to retain this and keep lighting tucked away around the set
meant he needed fixtures that were properly unobtrusive. Once again the Pointes
and LEDBeam 100s proved a great solution.
Ben has been using Robe products in his work for
some years and thinks the brand is extremely strong right now. “All the new
products are well thought out and very good quality. They do what they are
built to do without any tacky or gimmicky elements”.
Since the Wembley show, he’s managed to get his
hands on Robe’s new BMFL Spot, which he is really excited about … and he can’t
wait to spec some onto his next project!
All lighting for BMTHs Wembley show was supplied by
rental company Siyan and project managed by Jez Johnstone. Joining Ben on the
crew were Crew Chief Luke Pritchard, Dave Mathieson, Dan Everitt, George
Doherty, Mike Williams and Jack Murray.
Video Illusions supplied the projectors and the
video content was created by Oliver Hutchinson who also ran the playback
system. The IMAG package came from Video Illusions.
Photos
: Handerson Yau
