Colour
Sound Experiment delivered equipment for a recent UK tour by pioneering d‘n’b
music producer Wilkinson, a much anticipated series of sold-out gigs ahead of
the release of his new “Hypnotic” album in April working with lighting
designer Sam Tozer.
Playing a
variety of venues, this was a great opportunity for the company’s new
pre-rigged trussing – a Litec product specially modified for them – to provide
a flexible and practical solution. Features include an expedient 4-wide-2-high
stacking truck pack combined with super-fast deployment onstage.
The
regional dates were primarily at academy venues, culminating in a high profile
high pressure performance at London\’s Roundhouse.
The look
and design developed for the tour was a total change from any previous
Wilkinson live shows, and a big part of the aesthetic goal was to produce
something new and exciting.
The floor
package was based around six trussing towers – made up of the new pre-rigged
truss. All the fixtures and cable looms staying in the trussing for
transportation, and once unloaded from the truck the truss towers are moved
swiftly into place using removable wheelbases which detach once they are in
place on the custom X-base floor stands which provide excellent vertical
stability.
The show concept
was initiated after discussions with Mark Wilkinson himself and his management
team during which Mark expressed a strong desire for no video elements –
wanting to keep the focus firmly on the music. However as an interesting twist,
he indicated he did want a video “vibe” to the stage!
With this
challenge in mind, Sam produced a strobe-tastic design using the adaptability
and mapping and zoning capabilities of some of the newest LED strobes on the
market sculpted into a pixelesque environment that met this brief.
Colour Sound
supplied 28 strobes which were at the core of the touring floor package comprising
18 Philips Nitros and ten Claypaky
Stormies. These were boosted with another 16 Stormies for the Roundhouse,
and with 44 in total at that gig, there was some serious potential for shaping
the show!
Inside each
tower were three Robe Pointe multi-purpose moving lights, three Nitros and a
laser array fixture together with a Stormy.
The towers
proved a neat and extremely efficient way to install a great looking lighting
rig that could be set up and fired up within an hour of being wheeled out of
the truck!
Robe
LEDWash 300s on the band risers provided mid-stage fill light and three LEDWash
600s were positioned down both sides of the stage for cross lighting for the
singers and front line. Another two Stormy LED strobes each side of the LEDWash
600s kicked strobe light and pulses in
from that punchy low-level angle. A WholeHog 4 console was used to run the
lights with a RoadHog for backup.
The biggest
challenge creatively was building the wide variety of looks needed to keep pace
with the huge dynamics of the set which dipped into its pumping d\’n\’b roots and
travelled to some of the more mellow but equally intricate sounds of the new
album.
Everyone
was delighted with the results. Dealing with Colour Sound was a “Fantastic” experience
confirms Sam, who was joined on the tour by crew members Alex Ryan and Steve
Wilkinson, plus David Cattermole as an extra technician for the Roundhouse
show.
Wilkinson Sound
A touring monitor and stage system
was supplied by Patchwork London, based just north of the capital. Calum Mordue
and Steve White both work full time for Patchwork and are Wilkinson’s monitor
engineer and tour manager respectively for all live shows. FOH engineer and
musical director is Pete Thomas.
The monitor rig for the Hypnotic tour
comprised of a full mic package and line system which fed into a Midas PRO2C
console with DL251 stage rack. Twelve sets of Sennheiser G3 IEMs were used for
the performers, which were augmented at the recent Roundhouse show with a
combination of L-Acoustics SB28s and d&b C7 stage subs. No floor wedges are
needed.
A series of shout mics are used for
both performers and crew to communicate during the show. Calum uses the inbuilt
matrix mixer for this solo, so he hears all the shout mics whatever mix he is
listening to.
Patchwork also provided a CJ2000 /
DJM setup for the support DJ who opened on the tour.
RF coordination can be a challenge
for this show as, in addition to the 12 sets of IEMS, five channels of G3 500
945 hand held mics are used. An RF explorer and Vantage are used to scan the
venue, together with an intermodulation spreadsheet to calculate where to plot
the frequencies.
At FOH, Pete requests an Avid
Profile/SC48 or Soundcraft Vi series but doesn’t currently carry a console on
the road, instead he utilises the house PA. At the Roundhouse he used the new
SSL Live L500 Plus console.
The installed PA there is a Britannia
Row L-Acoustics K2 system, comprising 8 x K2 elements a side with four K1 subs
hung directly behind, 12 x SB28 subs ground-stacked with five ARCS Wides a side
on top. The front fills are Kara, with flown Karas and SB18s for balcony fills and two
112Ps for the VIP areas.
All members of the Wilkinson team
enjoy a cool family vibe on tour – most of the people involved have worked
together for some time, so it’s a smooth, slick and friendly operation.
Commenting on working with Colour
Sound, Calum says, “Alex is one of the best project managers we’ve ever worked
with – he’s absolutely meticulous in his planning and execution, which really
pays off when we are on the road”.
Photos : Fresh to Death
