LONDON – Adlib supplied lighting and sound for the autumn tour for The Specials. Adlib’s Simon Pettitt designed the lighting. It’s his second tour with The Specials in the LD role following an autumn 2014 trek, when Pettitt was freelance before joining Liverpool-based Adlib full time in 2015.
More details from Adlib (www.adlib.co.uk):
The Specials’ tour saw the UK’s favorite 2 Tone and ska revival band take their energy, politics and rocksteady beats around the country to their wide and loyal fan base.
Simon’s concept for the 2014 run was formulated after meeting with the band, where references ranged from David Byrne to Pina Bausch. The design was repackaged and refreshed for the 2016 tour, largely remaining unchanged but taking the opportunity to clean up the floor package design into cleaner lines of fixtures.
The show takes a distinctive ‘clean’ theatrical look – with no video or imagery to distract from the band’s performance. “Even using gobos would create too much visual detail and complexity – I’m looking for solid, bold blocks of light,” says Simon. “The main components of the design are the movement between back, top and side light, the movement between white and pastel tones and the use of shadows, silhouettes and perceived distance,” he adds.
This concept extends to the backdrop – a white sharkstooth gauze – which is a basic, yet versatile, surface which can frame the stage as a white block, act as a projection surface for shadows or present a bold block of color when necessary.
Above the stage are three ‘conventional’ 40’ trusses – front, back and mid – plus kit on the floor which is distributed between two upstage carts and four side booms.
All the flown fixtures are Martin by Harman MAC Vipers, 10 Profiles and 14 Washes – Simon loves the flat-field quality of the beams and the natural white balance of the lamp as well as the the wide and consistent color gamut. “I use open white for a lot of the show, so whatever I take has to have a good-looking source – and the Viper’s open white is my favorite”. The four Viper Washes on the Front Truss are almost exclusively used to light the gauze backdrop.
Rigged on the rolling carts – made up from Prolyte S36-PRT 3m pre-rig truss fitted with custom-made boards to facilitate the top positions – are another six Viper Profiles, together with six ProLights Solar static LED wash fixtures and 6 x Chauvet Strike 4 LED Moles hung underneath.
Simon likes the Strike 4s for their sheer brightness and the full ‘classic’ Mole effect as well as the option to fade or snap them on and off.
Each of the four side booms are rigged with two MAC Aura LED wash moving lights and one Solar flood, and the floor count is completed with six MAC Auras along the downstage edge of the stage – mostly used for projecting shadows of the band on to the backdrop.
From this well-designed expedient rig Simon can get a huge amount of variety, he explains. “I rely on timing, angle variation and pastel tones to give me options over the length of the set”. “Although there are obviously a few songs – Rat Race, Monkey Man, for example – where aerial work is in order”.
While the subtleties, whites and pastels are plentiful, there are also some big saturated colour looks to break it up – around 20 per cent of the show includes rich colours which make big statements and accents supporting the band at strategic moments.
The console is an MA2 light, Simon’s desk of choice, which is being run in conjunction with a grandMA onPC Command Wing system as backup.
The challenge on this tour is dealing with the diversity of venues, involving shrinking and expanding the floor package to fit the stage each day so Simon can get the variety of angles he needs. The carts help with this task and enable him to squeeze 18 fixtures into 60 cm of depth … without encroaching on anyone else’s stage!
Working alongside Simon on the tour are Adlib crew Jeff Bond and Alex Burrows. Mike Darling is again the charismatic and friendly Production Manager for the tour.
Adlib Director Phil Stoker commented, “It is great to be back working with one of the legendary bands of their time, who are still going strong. We have a great relationship with Mike Darling who trusts us to deliver on all levels for every act that he looks after and as a result we are fortunate enough to have been involved with some stunning live shows.”
