26 July 2013
West London based lighting rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) supplied lighting equipment, LED screen and crew to Lighting Designer Rich Gilson for the recent Die Antwoord (The Answer) show at London’s Brixton Academy.
The South African Zef rap-ravers Ninja and Yolandi Vi$$er have a massive international cult following, a reputation for hugely energetic shows and visceral, raw, insightful – often controversial – videos that embrace numerous South African sub-cultures, all of which are self-directed.
Gilson has worked with them since last year. He designed the lighting for this latest three week UK and European tour based around the Brixton performance, where they brought in a full production.
He was extremely pleased when Colour Sound were also confirmed by promoter SJM to supply equipment for the gig, having worked with them on many previous occasions. “They have excellent people, know their stuff, are friendly and approachable and the gear is really well looked after,” he states.
At Brixton they installed a front and back truss for lighting positions and another one far upstage to fly the BT12 LED screen, which measured 6.5 metres wide by 5 metres high.
Moving lights on the front and back trusses were Robe LEDWash1200s – six per truss, plus ten Robe MMX Spots, six on the back and four on the front, about which Gilson comments, “They are very bright and fast – exactly what I needed for this show!”
The design featured six upright truss sections on floor bases dotted around, four upstage behind the band risers and two on the downstage corners each side, each rigged with a Robe LEDWash 300, two 2-lites and an Atomic strobe.
There were more Atomics and 2-lites on both the front and back trusses, all of which, together with the LED sources, were perfect for the full-throttle flashy, retina-burning ravey aesthetic of the show … not for the faint hearted in any direction!
Another four LEDWash 1200s were on the deck. “They are ridiculously powerful,” says Gilson, “But even so, the MMX Spots still punched through really well”.
He likes the fact that the MMX is a small, light and user-friendly unit – he has used them on numerous festivals already and reckons they are among the best units of their class ‘out there’.
Colour Sound has recently spent around £350,000 on new Robe moving lights including MMX Spots and LEDWash 1200s.
Lip service was paid to conventional lighting in the form of four bars of 6 PARs used as front light, all gelled in 201 daylight colour correction … and there was a lone ETC Source Four in the centre of the back truss for ‘special’ moments!
The band’s provocative video material was also utilised for the show, stored on a laptop running Resolume software and seeing the video was another consideration that Gilson had to take into account when lighting the show.
He used his own Chamsys Maxi Wing to run all the lights for the Brixton show – which he programmed on his Capture Polar visualiser. The Maxi Wing also went on the whole tour, where he was hooking into house rigs and locally supplied floor packages each day … which met his spec to varying degrees!
The Colour Sound crew at Brixton were Toby Lovegrove and Jasper Johns on lights and Tony Makman who tech’d the LED screen.
