UK indie rockers Circa Waves are certainly making
some waves right now, and the release of their second album “Different
Creatures” brings some more serious, hard-hitting and thought-provoking
messages along with solid catchy rhythms.
Lighting designer Ed Warren started working with
Circa Waves at the start of this album campaign in October 2016. Having known
their management team for some time, all the circumstances and stars aligned to
make it the right time for Ed to add his ideas and imagination to the stage
presentation on recent UK and European legs of the tour.
Ed specified an almost entirely Robe rig including
12 x Spiiders, 12 x CycFX 8s, 36 x Halos and four DL4Ss, all supplied by CEG
Hire & Productions, and operated on the road by Toby Hoggarth.
Ed was left free to create a visual stage
environment after receiving the new album artwork and a few pointers from the
band and their management. One of the requests was for a false perspective feel
to the stage, with some more epic cinematic looks, plus lots of strobing and
hi-energy effects for the manic elements of the set, all of which left plenty
of scope for creativity.
For this design, he selected a classic white
backdrop look – the nature and texture of which could be changed with
up-lighting from the CycFX 8s. Some custom gobos featuring the new album
artwork were made for the DL7s, which could be flashed up on the backdrop at
strategic moments.
Eight Spiiders were on top of four trussing towers
each side of stage which were gradiated in height with the shortest at the rear
and the tallest at the front, with the other four Spiiders upstage behind the
band.
Ten of the Cyc FX 8 were up-lighting the backdrop,
and four were hung vertically off the two more upstage towers and used as side
key light for band.
The Halos were rigged to the front of the towers
where they could delineate the architecture of the performance space.
Five were on the front one, four on the next, three
on the third and two on the most upstage tower each side, which took care of 28
fixtures. Another eight were on unobtrusive low towers along the back of stage
in a horizontal line effectively connecting the two upstage towers.
By running different effects through the Halos,
Toby could shift the sense of perspective onstage, either dramatically or
subtly as needed. Used this way, they were extremely powerful tools that could
change the environment constantly throughout the set.
Robe’s new Halo product is a circle of bright
encapsulated micro-pixel LEDs mounted on a standard PAR 64 sized colour frame.
It can either be used as a stand-alone fixture as Ed did on Circa Waves or to
bring a completely new dimension to the legendary PAR 64, allowing them to be
incorporated into lighting and set designs in new and dynamic ways.
DMX control means numerous looks and effects to be
created and programmed simply and quickly producing a wide range of
eye-catching effects – from the very basic to highly complex.
The DL4Ss, fitted with the custom gobo?s were hung
on house front trusses at each venue and used as cross stage backdrop lighting.
The lighting set up was completed with four strobes
on the floor behind the band.
The Spiiders produced an excellent true thin-beam
as well as the big bright wide washes and “a fine selection of \’gobos\’”
commended Ed, “It’s an extremely versatile LED head”.
Ed and his lighting director on the road Toby
Hoggarth took advantage of the on-board Halo effects and chases, and the units
provided a highly unique look on-stage, described by Ed as “quite ethereal and
strange”. They were instrumental in producing the false / changing perspective
looks using the towers, and helped frame the performance space perfectly. Their
glow alone was also enough to wash the stage completely at certain moments.
The main challenge of this design was getting all
the cues nailed explains Ed … as there were many – with an average song
featuring around 20 – 30 hits. With a few gigs under everyone’s belts, the
workflow was harmonious and fluid, and the shows received great reviews and
generated lots of positive social media chatter.
Ed has been working with Robe products for a few
years now and thinks it is great that they are releasing new fixtures
regularly. “I hope they maintain their reputation for providing excellent,
reliable and stylish fixtures and that the flow of interesting products will
continue,” he said.
The contact at CEG was Ben Bowles, “who went out of
his way to ensure we were happy and had excellent service and exactly what we
needed”, he concluded, adding that Toby and touring lighting tech Jo?n Curtis
“really excelled themselves” to make sure the standards and level of service
were top notch.
http://www.robe.cz
Photos : Lindsay Cave
@loosplat
