The Robe Songbook So Far with Calum Scott
Popular UK singer and former Britain’s venue size. There are always 8 x Got Talent contestant Calum Scott is back on the road in 2024 with a new campaign, “The Songbook So Far” a world tour. A new lighting rig for the tour was created and specified by LD Elliot Baines of Spiralstagelighting.
Elliot has been working with the artist since summer 2022, initially as the lighting operator, and was then asked to design lighting for this new tour, for which he specified 30 x Robe ESPRITE and 54 x Spikies which are being supplied for the UK full production shows by Hampshire-based Liteup.
Five upstage set pods are the main architectural feature, positioned at the back of the main riser platforms behind the band. Initially inspired by the “Biblical” music video, each of the five pods – for the larger shows – are rigged with a 3 x 3 matrix of Spikies, so these fixtures are very prominent in the aesthetics. The riser fronts are backlit with strobes / floods adding an extra layer of depth.
The ESPRITES are positioned all in the overhead rig and on the floor, with the numbers variable depending on the ESPRITES on the front truss for key lighting and specials, with the others dotted around the over stage trusses covering Calum and the band for back lighting and effects. Elliot likes their brightness, refined output, and feature range. For those European venues when they are using house ‘top’ rigs and bringing in their specials, a quantity of the ESPRITES that are part of their touring rig will be deployed on the floor.
For the recent shows at Hammersmith Apollo in London, Elliot had the full rig and added a RoboSpot system on which he ran two of the ESPRITES which were following Calum.
The Spikies are used for multiple effects, allowing Elliot to drill down into the more intricate effects he likes to create. “At 20% brightness, you can create a very delicate fading twinkle which looks beautiful,” he says describing the look used during the chorus of “Biblical”.
Elliot likes working with Robe products for many reasons, “Intensity, features, colours including a great range of whites, the reliability and just the overall quality of the luminaires and the light output” are high on the list. “I have never had a Robe fixture fail on a show and it’s one of the brands I most enjoy working with!”
His programmer for the current tour Olly Walker is also a big Robe advocate.
Photo © Luke Dyson
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