Siyan Sounds Made Up with Marillion

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UK lighting rental company Siyan continued its long standing working relationship with cult band Marillion, supplying a floor package to Lighting Designer Yenz Nyholm from newIllumination for their latest run of dates in Europe.

These dates constituted the forth leg of their “Sounds That Can’t be Made” tour and follows an extensive touring schedule throughout 2012, with lighting equipment for the UK and European elements also supplied by Siyan.

Marillion has enjoyed a special relationship with High Wycombe based Siyan, where their account is managed by Steve Finch, who was the band’s LD before joining Siyan full time in 2005. While his association with the artist stretches back an impressive 12 years, Yenz started with them from 2004, initially that year as Steve’s tech, before taking over the LD position 12 months later.

The ‘specials’ on this latest leg of the tour comprised Robe LEDWash 600s, PixelLine LED battens, Atomic strobes and an Avolites Tiger Touch console for control. Yenz also utilised the various house lighting rigs at each venue.

The starting point for his design was the circular album cover artwork reproduced on the touring backdrop, so the PixelLines and LEDWashes were arranged in a circle onstage around this.

The band requested an unusual and stark look for the top of the show, which opened with the powerful track, “Gaza”. This was lit with generic working lights giving an edgy, raw, low-level dirty white to emulate the uneasy feel of Gaza living and breathing at night.

The LEDWash 600s highlighted the band members while the PixelLines were used for effects upstage, pixel-mapped via the Tiger Touch to create assorted moods.

For the full production tour last year, Siyan supplied (in addition to the above) 24 more moving lights plus a healthy quantity of conventional fixtures, ACLs, Molefeys etc. The show was moody, intense, theatrical … and very well received.

The band take an extremely active interest in their live show productions, another factor that Yenz has to consider with any design concept, along with their vocal and very loyal fanbase, who are not shy to voice an opinion or two on the gigs!

Yenz has worked with Siyan since 2002 – Reading Festival was his first gig! He comments, “It’s a very personal company with a real family atmosphere. The service is excellent. Siyan will never let you down, and they make you feel equally important whether you are doing a club gig or an arena tour”.

In March Marillion are staging the first of this year’s three Weekend conventions in CenterParcs Port Zélande, The Netherlands. Siyan has been supplying Marillion Weekends since the inaugural event at Butlins’ Minehead in 2002.

Another challenge for Yenz on these events is that the band play three different shows over the three nights. Proving highly popular with fans, in terms of presentation these shows have grown into full touring style productions.