MANCHESTER, U.K. — DBN installed the house lighting rig at Band On the Wall, an iconic 300-capacity live music venue in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. The landmark venue dates back some 200 years and has been associated with live music for much of that span. (The name comes from the 1930s, when musicians used to perform standing on precarious platforms, strapped to the wall.) Since then, the venue has been completely renovated and restored. It was recently reopened by operators Inner City Music with the help of a £4 million combined award from the Manchester City Council, Arts Council England and the Lottery Heritage Fund.
DBN’s Nigel Walker completed the design, meeting the goal of providing lighting with a retro feel, in keeping with the lounge-y ambience of the room. This was not necessarily to be related to any specific period — but Walker was asked to steer clear of any resemblance to the current trends for glitzy neon and flashing LEDs.
“It’s not about the lighting rig, it’s about who’s on stage,” noted Walker. The brief also called for a rig that didn’t need too much ladder work or fuss for refocusing.
Although performers are no longer strapped to the wall, they still don’t have a very voluminous performance space. The stage measures three meters deep and approximately nine meters wide, and the headroom is less than five meters, so it has a cozy feel.
Walker’s design uses a front and back truss and a bar over the front edge of the stage. Martin Professional MAC 300 moving lights with wide lenses are rigged to the front truss, chosen for their compact dimensions and light output. They’re also used for the basic stage washes, along with ETC Source Four PARs.
The rig also includes a Martin Mac 250 for highlighting singers and musicians.
On the back truss there are five LED PARs. Two Source Four Juniors are used for funky cross-lighting, and there are break-up gobos hanging on the edge of stage bar along with two sets of 2-way Moles, used for audience blinding.
DBN has also supplied an Avolites Pearl Tiger console and Zero 88 6-way Beta pack dimmers for control, and the stage presentation is finished off with a black backdrop.
“It was a great honor to be involved in this high profile project on our home ground, and the challenge was designing and supplying something appropriate and in character for the venue,” said Walker,
For more information, please visit www.dbn.co.uk
