Tag Archive: Touring lighting

1. White Light Goes for Goldie on New UK Tour

   28 November 2017 10:22 Comments Off on White Light Goes for Goldie on New UK Tour

   Widely considered as one of the most influential British electronic musicians of all time, Goldie has been creating music for over two decades, with his 1995 album Timeless considered to be an all-time classic. For the first time ever with a live ensemble, the musician recently travelled across the UK with The Journey Man Tour in which he performed tracks from his iconic repertoire along with material from his recently released album of the same name. Having previously supplied Goldie’s Timeless anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall, White Light was called upon once again to supply the lighting equipment on this latest tour.

   The lighting designer for The Journey Man tour was Richard Godin. He comments: “The show featured Goldie performing with members of the Heritage Ensemble along with a range of special guests. With Goldie’s music being so expansive, this is essentially a concert, jazz performance and rave rolled into one (!) so my task was to take the audience on an emotional journey through the different genres. As the songs built, this needed to be reflected in the lighting design, with a bombardment of beats and lights combined”.

   To inspire his design, Richard spent a lot of time listening to the show’s set list. He explains: “The music is hugely influential for this design. I would listen to the tracks over and over again in order to pick up on the complex beats and rhythms. Goldie himself talks about sound in terms of colour, light and darkness which I tried to incorporate. For instance, a deep blue felt right for the bass, saturated colours matched the cymbals whereas soprano voices almost felt like light coming from the darkness.

   

   Richard adds: “A lot of the design is about focusing light into the audience but avoiding direct light into their eyes. As a result, I used a lot of the venue’s architecture to send beams into the crowd which will allow them to feel surrounded by light and fully immersed into the music but not blinded”.

   Richard then approached WL and spent a week at the company’s state-of-the-art Studio15 in order to pre-rig his design. He comments: “The rig is based around five booms and a goal post which creates an arc around the band. This then throws light around the performers and into the crowd. Clay Paky Sharpys provided the laser-like light of the rave. The GLP Impression X4s provided texture and colour for the band, which the amazing light quality and zoom of the VL3000s creating a poetic link between the two. I drew on the Arri 2K and Selecon Acclaim Fresnels to crosslight the band and soloists, removing the need for followspots. The SGM X5 strobes deliver the staccato punch when we need to get the crowd moving”.

   

   The practicalities of travelling from venue to venue on tour meant that preparation was key. Richard explains: “The first get in required the rig to go from the truck to be ready and set up inside the venue within an hour. As a result, I needed to build it entirely at the WL warehouse. I also had to time myself and ensure that everything could be fitted up in time”.

   The tour opened at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and visited the Roundhouse in London, Brighton Dome, Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall and Bristol’s Colston Hall.

   Richard comments: “This was a fantastic tour to work on and we received a great response from audiences up and down the country. Roger Deane and the team at WL were once again really supportive and offered a great level of service and equipment”.

   The Journey Man Tour marks another example of WL’s work in concert touring, with the company also supplying the latest tour for the Fleet Foxes, who performed at Brixton Academy last night.

   Photos courtesy of Richard Godin.

2. What a Feeling as White Light Supplies Flashdance

   26 October 2017 08:15 Comments Off on What a Feeling as White Light Supplies Flashdance

   Based on the now iconic Paramount Pictures Film, Flashdance – The Musical tells the story of 18 year-old Alex who dreams of attending the prestigious Shipley Dance Academy and becoming a professional dancer. Yet when a romance complicates her ambitions, she harnesses this to drive her dream. The show is currently on a tour across the UK and White Light has provided the lighting equipment.

   Flashdance – The Musical is being produced by the award-winning Selladoor Productions and features a lighting design by Mark Howland. He comments: “Having never actually seen the film, this allowed me to approach the piece with a completely fresh perspective as though it were a new piece. The show is very rooted within 80s music so I was keen to push some of the bold 80s colours which are largely associated with the music videos and concerts of that time. We also keep a lot of the lighting rig in view”.

   

   By having the rig in constant view, this meant that it became a part of the aesthetic. Mark comments: “The boom towers worked well with the par cans making a strong feature at the side of the stage. These dance towers provided a powerful crosslight as well as being a strong visual feature in which we could frame the rest of the scenic design!”.

   Alongside his artistic approach, Mark was also conscious of ensuring that the rig he designed was tourable. He comments: “The rig has to remain manageable due to an extremely busy touring schedule. As a result, a number of moving lights were used to fulfil a range of roles. All of the overheads are moving lights. We used a number of Martin MAC IIIs as their punch and wide zoom range gave me strong gobo and toplight options. The fact that they’re so powerful also meant that we didn’t require a large number of fixtures.

   He adds: “We also draw quite heavily on the Martin MAC 700 range which are small enough to fit in the dance towers yet also quite powerful and work well for general colour washes as well as specials”.

   Mark also utilised the Chroma-Q Color Force LED Battens, ADB Fresnels and Look Solutions Unique 2.1 Haze Machines.

   The show is currently at the Blackpool Opera House and will tour the rest of the UK until August 2018.

   Mark adds: “The beauty of lighting a musical is the variety of different aesthetics that you can apply across one show. Whilst there is always a need to adhere to an overall design style that works with the whole team, there is often such a variety of styles and emotions within the songs that can really push the strong and varied choices in the way each one is lit – something I was able to achieve with Flashdance – The Musical”.

   Photos courtesy of Brian Hartley.