Utopium Illuminate Jake Bugg Tour

Utopium built and supplied a custom floor package and flown fixtures to illuminate Jake Bugg’s UK and European Tour.

Following the release of his third album, On My One, Jake Bugg embarked on a promotional tour which saw him visit a host of different venues throughout the UK and Europe, including Manchester’s O2 Apollo, London’s O2 Academy Brixton and The Great Hall at Cardiff University Student’s Union.

Utopium was entrusted to build and supply a custom floor package which included Martin Mac Quantum Profiles, new Martin Mac Aura XB washes to offer additional brightness and tighter beams, Martin Atomic 3K strobes, Thomas 4 Lite Molefays, SGM P-5 LED Floods, Antari HZ500 hazers, Antari AF-3 Fans, 8ft Black Truss Towers and a Road Hog 4 Control Desk. The team also supplied a flown package which incorporated Martin Mac Aura XB washes, 40ft Trusses, 0.5T Prolyft Double Braked Hoists, Martin Mac Quantum Profiles, Martin Mac Aura XB Washs, Martin Atomic 3K Strobe and Thomas 2 Lite Molefays.

The back of the stage was lined with five gauze panels which were painted with UV paint and lit up throughout the show using SGM P-5's. For the European shows, the team lost the flown lighting package and utilised the floor package and in-house rigs of local venues. 

Jon Newman, Utopium’s project manager commented: “We’ve been waiting for the right moment to invest in these lights and the Jake Bugg tour seemed exactly this, enabling us to match the creative requirements of the production team. These new compact LED washes not only bring improved sustainability, which we’re finding many of our clients asking about, but because they are small it means they can be easily transported, whilst offering less weight loading, making them perfect for tours. The new kit looks great and we’re really happy with it, and it’s fantastic to be showcasing it on Jake Bugg’s latest tour.”

Lighting designer, Stu Farrell, comments: “For the first four songs of Jake’s set it’s just him and an acoustic guitar, so we only use two lights on him; one rear spotlight and some side-light to illuminate him. We sometimes add in some blinders when the crowd cheer, but the first section of the show is really stripped back. The band then joins him on stage and that’s when we really light it all up, which creates a great atmosphere. The show lighting design looks really nice and the new kit that Utopium has supplied us has been brilliant, it’s a really good mixture of functionality and it all works really well together.”