Leona Lewis's new arena tour takes the concept of David Bowie's 1986 movie Labyrinth, bringing with it many set rotations (and four costume changes) during the heavily scenic show.
The production was conceived by a top team of creatives, with Alan MacDonald designing the set, Stufish's Nicoline Refsing the props — and the currently much in-demand Baz Halpin originating the lighting scheme (which was later carried forward by Nick Whitehouse).
All the lighting production (including 20 x GLP impression 120RZ RGB LED Zooms) were supplied by Bandit Lites — and it was left to experienced LD Graham Feast to animate the set.
Having originally intended to use the impression heads to function on elliptical arms — similar to his design for the Alicia Keys 2010 Freedom Tour — a late concept change saw the lighting designer redeploy the GLP heads as floor effects. He immediately praised the versatility of the Zooms in enabling the switch to be made fairly seamlessly, with minimal impact to the overall look of the show.
“Although I had intended using them as a beam effect, fortunately because of their size and flexibility, I was able to change them from a backlight position to a side shin lighting position,” he said.
In addition to providing a side light for the show's dancers, they also functioned as a fill light for the various props and set pieces which move on and off stage during the show.
With ten 120RZ's positioned downstage and ten either side of centre, Graham Feast used the heads creatively to key off the stage movement.
The lighting operator has worked extensively with Halpin over the years, and when approached in February to manage the lighting on this tour, he jumped at the opportunity (having just finished an 11 month stint with Depeche Mode).
Although it is Graham Feast's first outing with the 120RZ's he was acutely aware of their growing presence on the touring market.
“They are excellent as key lights for the show and fit well as a floor light, andas they are compact they have little impact on the physical environment.
“They are as good an LED fixture as I have seen and I really like using them — particularly the zoom facility. They more than hold their own [against conventional moving lights on the rig] and are great for providing saturated colours.”
He said that working initially with Baz Halpin and later with Nick Whitehouse, once he had taken on the design mantle, proved an attractive proposition. “It's always good to work with different people,” he said.
The UK tour finishes on July 6th.
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