Renegade has worked with the band for the last four years. This tour has the two trussing arches starting in a position flat to the stage. These are automated via a Kinesys system which is supplied by the tour’s lighting contractor Neg Earth. The show is operated on the road by Paul Kell (PK), working for Renegade.
The starting point for this design – key elements of which will also be condensed into a floor based festival package to augment the house rigs at each event to ensure continuity and style – was last year’s West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum tour, which saw the band perform inside an LED ‘picture frame’.
Gray wanted to evoke a different ambience on stage for this tour, which is not related to any album, and to give it an identity of its own. (The release of the Kasabian’s fourth studio album is slated for later this year).
Responding to the band’s preference for old-school lightshow looks with classic beam effects, Gray opted against video in favor of lighting alone to create a bold, geometrically-balanced visual picture.
Gray also took into account standard Kasabian prerequisites like their dislike of front lighting, so the front truss is minimalist, with eight Source Fours for very subtle key lighting, plus four strobes and four blinders.
The arches are rigged with batches of three Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300 moving lights, lots of i-Pix BB4 LED blinders and drop bars containing Martin Professional MAC 301 LED washes also grouped together in threes.
Downstage on the floor are two Martin MAC 2000 washes per side to cross light the band from low levels, again keeping it subtle and relatively subdued along the front of stage.
“The idea is having a dramatic, more theatrical style that plays with areas of darkness and shadow rather than direct lighting,” Gray said.
Upstage at the back is a row of eight Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s, mounted on truss sections on the floor, to provide dramatic back light and ‘beam technology’ effects.
When they play festivals, all the lights – MAC 301s, BB4s, blinders and the Alpha Beam 1500s – are rigged onto 4-by-2.5-meter truss sections and a series of upright scaffolding pieces, which are wheeled on and offstage quickly during the change-overs.
With no rehearsals at the start of the tour, the band went straight into the first show in Sheffield, with Kell using a Hog 3 for control and taking advantage of Renegade’s WYSIWYG facilities to pre-plot as much of the show as possible.
“It’s great to be out with Kasabian again,” Gray said. “We love working with them, and each year they grow and develop and allow us to continue being innovative with the look and feel of the live show. It’s going to be a big year for them, specially once the album is released, with some large shows planned for later on, and the album that promises to be awesome.”
Renegade is also busy with other current music and concert touring projects, including Faithless, who are out with a new design from Jonny Gaskell plus Orbital and G2 featuring Groove Armada’s “Red Light Decks & Effects” DJ set.
For more information, please visit www.renegadedesign.co.uk.
