Leading London based rental
company Colour Sound Experiment was the first in the UK to purchase Robe’s
brand new Spiider LED WashBeam moving light – with 30 being delivered directly after
the PLASA expo in London in October.
These went straight out on the
Placebo “Retrospective” tour, with show visuals designed by Jvan Morandi. The
tour is a showcase of the band’s ground-breaking work from 20 years at the
forefront of indie and alt.rock.
“We were very excited to be the
first in the country with Spiiders,” enthused Colour Sound’s Haydn Cruickshank
(H), “I think they have great potential and I was really pleased that Jvan could
integrate them into his design which – as we would all expect – is refreshing,
ambitious and different”.
Jvan has worked for the band for
11 years and is known for his innovative ‘out-of-the-box’ designs, of which
this is no exception, bringing a raw but complex filmic quality to the stage.
Central to the stage architecture
are five I-shaped trussing pods running upstage / downstage with LED video
screens attached to the audience end, and four Spiiders rigged to each truss
piece via special bracketry.
These are the main show wash
lights, bathing the band risers and stage area in light, supported by four LEDWash
600s on the front truss.
The other six Spiiders are
downstage on the deck, positioned at the stage right and left corners and used
for low cross and front lighting as well as for firing out across the audience.
“We needed an interesting light
and wanted to use these because they are small, lightweight and bright”. With
their positioning on the pods and their role in the show, the size-to-lumen
ratio was important. Being LED and without lots of mechanical parts, they are
ideal for being ensconced in the pods and move up and down into a series of
different heights, angles and shapes throughout the show,
Jvan describes the flower as “A
beautiful effect” which is used quite a lot. He is impressed that it’s working
well in the arena sized venues with a large full-brightness LED screen to
contend with! “It’s a harsh environment, the lights are worked extremely hard
and so far have been an excellent tool”.
Also on the rig are 26 x Robe BMFL
Spots – two each on the pods, eight on the front truss and eight on the floor,
and the four LEDWash 600s. Colour Sound has several hundred Robe moving lights
in its inventory.
Lighting and video on the tour are
being run by lighting director / operator on the road, Hunter Frith, with 11-cameras
mixed by Fergus Noble.
http://www.robe.cz
Photos : Louise Stickland
