Musician, music producer and DJ Bonobo finished his marathon ‘North Borders’ world tour with a sublime and superlative mix of classical and electro beats – complete with 18 piece orchestra - at London’s Alexandra Palace, complete with an equally fabulous lightshow designed by Will Thomas.
This utilized over 100 Robe moving lights … all supplied by Southampton UK based GLS.
The design process for the end-of-tour extravaganza began whilst Will was out in the US lighting Bonobo’s DJ set, and he became struck with the difference that good lighting out in the room could make to the whole vibe of the show by involving the audience. So to make this show particularly memorable, he evolved a plan to pull the audience into the show as much as everyone onstage.
Adding the audience trusses, effectively made the cavernous, stark venue feel more like an intimate and atmospheric club. The space became intimate and personal, and a far more interesting environment for the cameras doing the DVD record to explore.
Central to this process were 48 x Robe Pointes, 34 x ROBIN 600E Spots, 18 x LEDWash 300s and 16 x LEDWash 600s.
The LEDWash 300s were used exclusively for side lighting and were rigged vertically in threes on three Manfrotto stands either side of stage. They were primarily key light for the cameras, but as they were rigged on the stands that blended into the background, they became one unified colour-changing multi-source beam effect … capturing the energy fabulously for the dancier numbers.
The LEDWash 600s were rigged on the audience trusses. “Thanks to the incredible zoom, they provided dynamic blocks of light and a huge backlight wash on the audience, which again looked great on camera,” Will explained.
The 600E Spots and Pointes were positioned more traditionally on the back, mid and front audience trusses. On the stage floor, they were used to front and back light the transparent LED screen upstage of the DJ booth that has been part of the whole tour.
The zoom on the 600E Spot made them perfect for blasts of colour through the screen to remind fans that it was effectively just a piece of temporary stage scenery, rather than a giant TV that they should be staring at all night!
Photos: David Morrell