LONDON – Lighting designer Martin Dudley used Robe's ROBIN 300E Beams and ColorSpot 700E ATs to light UK indie rockers Supergrass as they played a series of farewell gigs. The band is ending a 17-year career. Dudley's company, Martin's Lights, supplied all the lighting equipment for the tour. He has worked with Supergrass on and off for the last eight years and has LD'd the band on a number of occasions over the last two years, when their regular designer, Matt Arthur, has been busy elsewhere.
He used this as an opportunity to put the ROBIN 300E Beams through their paces, with eight units on the show all mounted on flight cases in a line at the back of stage – in ACL style – but used for a variety of different effects.
"They are unbelievably bright," said Dudley, who also used six of his ColorSpot 700E ATs for the shows. That added up to a minimal number of moving lights for the larger venues like Brixton Academy, but just those 14 units gave him the creative scope he was seeking for the band's two-hour set, which included four songs from each of their six studio albums in reverse chronology, plus their two earliest hits, with a short film between each section.
The other things that particularly impressed him about the ROBIN 300 Beams were the split colors, the 'dirty' colors and the soft edging effect on the beams using the frost filter. He also noted that the gobos matched those of the ColorSpot 700s really well … plus the fact that all 8 ROBINs could be run off just 16 Amps of power.
His brief for Supergrass's lighting design was left completely open, but it all had to fit into one truck with the PA, backline and merchandising so immediately lent itself to being minimal, whilst needing to be very versatile to cover the shifts in musical style. In addition to the moving lights, he used a selection of generics – PARs, blinders and strobes.
The idea was to reveal different elements of the lighting in layers as the show progressed, so the ROBIN 300 Beams were only introduced during the second section covering the fifth album, Road to Rouen, and then it was very subtly, in a frosted out Congo blue. The first song, "Tales Of Endurance" was a quiet "builder," so a good point for bringing in floor lighting.
Dudley's technician on the tour was Andy Bain, who credited the ROBINs for their light weight (20 Kg) and the fact that the units are so maneuverable. Their flight cases also proved to be compact and easy to stack in the truck.
Martin's Lights purchased its first Robes about five years ago – ColorSpot 575 ATs – which have worked constantly ever since, including on a few Supergrass shows. All Dudley's Robe gear has been supplied through Robe UK.
"Robe is a great brand – the units are bright, reliable and well engineered," he said. "I have looked at many comparable brands, and Robe still keeps coming out on top for me."
The tour was production-managed by Mick Brown, who also has a long history with the band. The last show was staged at La Cigale in Paris on June 11.
For more information, please visit www.robe.cz.
