Designing shows for artistes ranging from Sheryl Crow to
Fleetwood Mac over a long period, experienced LD Paul ‘Arlo’ Guthrie has been
increasingly finding GLP’s impression X4’s an essential component in his
touring inventory.
Earlier this summer, PRG supplied production for the
evergreen Fleetwood Mac’s LIVE 2013
48-city Stateside arena tour — and this time Guthrie requisitioned 36 of the new
generation LED moving heads.
The X4 itself
features 19 of the new Osram Quad Optic 15W RGBW LED’s in a slimline body with
no base unit weighing just 17.5lbs. The fixture offers a 7° to 50° zoom range
for variable beam spread and matrix effects, and full color mixing including
CTC and customizable pixel patterns across its front face — all essential
attributes for a forward thinking production designer.
The association
between Paul Guthrie’ (of Toss Film & Design) and Fleetwood Mac dates back
to 1999 when he worked with lead singer Stevie Nicks, before co-designing the
band’s 2003 tour with their veteran LD Curry Grant and Bruce Rodgers (of Tribe
Design). He then took over the reins entirely for their 2009 and 2013 tours.
Curry’s own
history with the band dates back to 1974, and since he had always used PRG as his
preferred service provider Guthrie saw no reason to break with tradition. “I love their attention to equipment, service and crew,” he
says.
Sensitive to the persona of the band, and their desire to
carry the show themselves rather than being driven solely by the stage
dynamics, the LD concedes that each member first needs to be individually
catered for, before everything combines into a single production. “We try not
to revisit things each time, but each member has his or her own likes and
dislikes, plus there are a number of basic principles we need to adhere to on
each production — such as how we light them for camera and the fact we can’t
use any haze.”
With a pedigree extending over two decades Paul Guthrie had
become an early adopter of GLP’s pioneering LED technology, using the original
impression 90’s soon after they were released and moving onto the impression
120 RZ zooms in 2010, when Sheryl Crow went on tour. “I had been looking for a
small LED wash light at the time, and these made exactly the right impression,”
he said.
But as time marches on so product technology evolves. And
when it came to speccing the latest Fleetwood Mac tour a number of attributes
attracted him to the new generation impression X4 — notably the obvious
economies to be had from the size, weight and power draw as well as the quality
of colors and dimmer curve, he says. “The pixel effect of the X4’s is the most
unique attribute used.”
This versatility has enabled them to perform different
functions, as the LD explains. “I had some X4’s rigged high in the mother grid —
for overhead effects, 16 on an upstage truss to provide upstage wash and also tone
a white drape that is used for the middle section of the show … and then some
on the floor under the band risers. They integrate perfectly with the
conventional 1200W and 1500W [discharge] fixtures.”
Getting them to and from a gig is also a breeze, he notes.
“The packaging is great — having six heads fitted in each small road case that
would normally hold two lights is a great advantage.” And he confirmed that every
fixture worked from first show to last without issue.
Board operator Rich Locklin also adds his endorsement
that the lights are both easy to programme and fast to respond.
The two and a half hour show itself, which resumes in
Europe in the Fall, is built very much around greatest hits — but the band is
also promoting its current four-track EP Extended
Play — their first new recordings in over a decade.
Overall, Paul Guthrie says he has been “extremely happy”
with the performance of the impression X4’s on the road. “Now that the
marketplace is flooded with choices for LED lighting it is difficult to
criticise a light that is well designed and well built with feature sets
catering to users that want good color rendering and smooth transitions,” he
says.
And for lower budget tours such as Sheryl Crow — which
combine promoter supplied lighting rigs with a touring floor package — they can
be even more valuable. “I am using ten X4s with Sheryl and these additional
impressions provide me with a super versatile effect light as well as a great
wash light — taking up minimal truck space and requiring minimal current draw.”
Pics attached. Credit: Todd
Kaplan
