Popular indie rockers The Vaccines are on the road again continuing their “English
Graffiti’ album campaign, with lighting designed by Dan Williams and supplied by
west London based Colour Sound Experiment.
Dan has gone for multiple options for producing a wide array of strong moody looks
with lots of variety and low side lighting that introduces intimacy and the idea of
proximity and sharing the whole performance / audience experience.
The overhead rig is based on three trusses – front, mid and rear – bolstered with 8
vertical towers on the floor.
The main workhorse lights are 17 Robe BMFL Spots which are all on the overhead
rig including five on the front truss used for key lighting.
On the back truss are 7 x Clay Paky a.leda K20 washes fitted with B-Eye lenses
used for general stage washes and intricate eye candy looks involving the individual
pixels and rings. There are also 8 x Robe LEDWash 600s on the trusses, run in
“wide’ mode for full ring control, which are used in conjunction with the B-eyes,
creating some great quirky looks.
Six Robe Pointes on the front truss frequently reach out into the audience with
zappy effects and beams to draw them into the action. There are also 11 Atomics in
the air, 11 x 2-Lites and six 8-Lites.
The eight towers are all 3.5 metres tall and are rigged with similar lights – they add
a distinctive dynamic to the stage space and also make the rig look very large.
Four of these towers have a Pointe and the other four a LEDWash 600 on top.
Clamped to the front of all 8 towers are 8 x PATT 2013s – adding another scenic
dimension. Also on the front of each tower are two Chauvet Q-Wash 260s and a 2-
lite Mole.
There are another 6 Pointes on the floor … which interact with the ones on the front
truss and blast out into the audience, and flanking each side of the stage, are two
24K Dinos.
Downstage are another eight LEDWash 600s to provide side key lighting on the band
and to enhance the lower level light-sources, and great for augmenting the heavily
saturated colour looks, especially in dark blues and reds.
Atmospherics are provided – in plentiful quantities – by two DF50s and two ZR44s,
and there are also eight half mirror balls on the rig, four in the air and four on the
floor.
All lighting is run by Dan using his own ChamSys Maxi Wing, and joining him on the
lighting crew are Colour Sound’s Jon Ricketts and James Hind.
For the arena shows and Brixton, four wing trusses are added, two a side dead hung
underneath one other to extend the stage space, rigged with 5 x Pointes and 5
LEDWash 600s a side.
Summing up, Dan comments, “It’s been great working with Colour Sound, as
always, they have provided great kit and crew with a friendly attitude … and
nothing is ever too much of a problem.’