Canadian crooner Michael Bublé took his cool mix of pop, jazz, and swing on tour in June and July, when he played a selective series of outdoor summer concert dates in the UK and Ireland. Lighting design is was by Jamie Davis, senior director of Lightswitch Studio Orange, who shares his thoughts about the design, the gear, and the tourability of the rig with Live Design.
Live Design: Have you designed for Michael Bublé before?
Jamie Davis: I have been part of Michael Bublé’s camp since July 2018. I was originally brought in as the lighting programmer by Ian Gordon at Christie Lites and Kurt Wagner, who was Michael’s creative director at the time. I continued in that role until 2022, when I took over for Kurt as creative director.
Moving from programmer to creative director gave me a valuable perspective on Michael’s shows. I had already spent years learning the musical details, watching how Michael uses the stage, and understanding the visual moments to which he naturally responds. Michael has strong creative instincts, but many of his ideas emerge once he is physically in the room and can experience the production. Having that history with him helps me anticipate what he will want while ensuring the design remains flexible enough to evolve around him.
The full scenic and lighting production design for this summer run was designed by Lightswitch and led by me in my role as Senior Director of Lightswitch Studio Orange. Anthony Forchielli served as our lead draftsman.
LD: What was the design brief?
JD: Our guiding phrase was “modern Art Deco with an edgy pop twist.”
Michael’s music naturally points toward the elegance of the Art Deco era and the big-band and swing traditions of the 1930s and 1940s. We drew from that vocabulary through the geometry, architectural trim, custom band risers, music-stand fronts, decorative PATT fixtures, and suspended Sceptron chandeliers. At the same time, we never wanted the stage to feel like a historical reproduction or a period-themed set. It needed the scale, energy, and visual excitement of a contemporary pop show.
The 27-piece band was central to the design. They are a major part of Michael’s musical identity, so we wanted to make them part of the stage architecture rather than treat them as background accompaniment. The arrangement needed to present the musicians beautifully while still giving Michael plenty of space to move – because he uses every inch of the stage.
Michael loves a strong entrance, so our original design included a tracking scenic flat that would split at center and reveal him between the band risers. When that element did not survive the budgeting process, we created an atmospheric channel using low fog and haze. Michael entered through the fog in silhouette at the beginning of “Feeling Good.” We returned to that visual language later in the show, particularly for “Cry Me a River.”
Ultimately, the brief was to honor the classic world of Michael’s music while giving it enough edge, scale, and spectacle to feel completely current. The first creative direction Michael ever gave me was simply, “Make it look cool.” That remains a surprisingly effective brief.
LD: What influenced your choice of fixtures and the design of the rig?
JD: The fixture choices were driven by four things: the visual composition, daylight output, weather resistance, and the need to integrate our package into a different venue or festival rig every day.
Many of the performances took place outdoors in the UK and Ireland, where sunset could occur halfway through the set. We needed fixtures with enough output to make a meaningful contribution before it was fully dark. IP ratings also played a significant role. Anything that could not be completely protected by the stage roof needed to be weather-rated.
We toured what was essentially an enhanced floor package with selected flown additions, all supplied by Christie Lites. The ACME Lyras served two key purposes. We used them as sidelight for Michael and the band, both from the floor and from the side trusses that carried the chandeliers. Additional Lyras were positioned on the outer wings of the festival stages, beneath the side IMAG screens. From there, they could send beams into the sky and add punch over the audience during the more pop-oriented songs.
The Martin MAC Aura Raven XIPs were the primary lighting fixtures for the B-stage sequence, when Michael brought members of the band forward for three songs. They illuminated that performance area while providing additional effects and visual sizzle.
The ACME Ultra Blinders supplemented the festival packages and were mounted on the front-of-house tower. Michael likes being able to call for the audience lights to come up all the way to the back of the venue. He genuinely wants to see the people at the furthest edges of the crowd, so those fixtures had an important connection between the stage and the audience.
The Robe PATT 2017s were visual eye candy. They filled the spaces where the chandeliers did not and gave us additional points of interest at lower levels, including on the floor at either side of the center entrance.
The JDC1s illuminated the low fog used for Michael’s opening entrance, helping us turn a practical atmospheric effect into a strong graphic reveal.
Sourcing the package was challenging, but Ian Gordon reserved a substantial amount of equipment for us early in the process. That allowed the final touring package to remain very close to our ideal fixture request.
LD: What were the workhorse fixtures, and why?
JD: The Martin Sceptron XBs were the primary workhorses because they performed several jobs simultaneously. They were lighting fixtures, scenic elements, architectural details, and sources of motion and texture.
We toured close to 200 Sceptron XBs in various lengths and with different lensing. Of those, 120 were assembled into chandeliers and suspended immediately offstage of the band. They filled areas that can easily become negative space, especially in wide camera shots, while giving us another layer of depth around the musicians.
The chandeliers could sit in an elegant static color, create subtle sparkle, or run large-scale effects across the full array. That range allowed them to support the classic big-band material and then transform for Michael’s contemporary pop songs. They were not simply decorative objects; they were active participants in the lighting vocabulary of the show.
The remaining Sceptron XBs were integrated into the scenic environment, including uplighting the custom music-stand fronts carrying the MB logo. The increased output of the XB compared with the original Sceptron was extremely noticeable and particularly important while competing with daylight.
The ACME Tornadoes also did a significant amount of work behind the band. They introduced color and aerial beams into that space, making the band environment feel deeper and more immersive.
The ACME Pixel Line 1000s have become part of nearly every Michael Bublé production we design, whether public or private. Michael loves a good sparkle during the pop songs, and the Pixel Lines provide that energy while adding a strong visual edge along the downstage line.
LD: Who was your programmer, and how do you collaborate?
JD: This production has a rather personal programming story.
Aaron Carney was the technical director at my high school and one of the people who truly secured my passion for this business. He gave me opportunities to work with the lighting system, encouraged my interest, and helped build the foundation that eventually led me to study lighting design at DePaul University and pursue it professionally.
Years later, I was excited to bring Aaron onto the road with me. There was a wonderful “teacher becomes the student” element to the collaboration, although in reality we were able to draw from each other’s experience. Aaron spent a week with me in Depence R4 before we traveled, building the show file and getting the programming into a strong place.
Unfortunately, Aaron was seriously injured in a cycling accident the day before we were scheduled to fly to Ireland. Our immediate concern was, of course, his health and recovery, but it also left the production needing to solve a major programming challenge with almost no notice.
We called Gregg Bellon, with whom we had previously worked on Eddie Izzard’s shows. Gregg was available and stepped into the role seamlessly with approximately 24 hours’ notice. Because Aaron had established such a strong foundation during previs, Gregg was able to pick up the file and move forward despite the extraordinarily compressed handoff.
I led much of the programming direction, but both Aaron and Gregg were instrumental in catching details, refining ideas, and resolving the loose ends that inevitably arise as a design moves from previs into real venues. On the road, Gregg adapted the file to each festival rig and took the lead in overseeing the video content. The content ran through an ArKaos server and was programmed and triggered through the grandMA3 system.
We used two full-size MA Lighting grandMA3 consoles running software version 2.3.2.0. That gave us the redundancy and flexibility required for a production combining the touring lighting package, changing festival systems, and video playback.
For me, the best programmer collaborations are conversational. I bring the visual intent, musical structure, and overall storytelling direction, but I want the programmers to contribute ideas and find details I may not have considered. The strongest results come when everyone understands the story we are trying to tell and feels ownership of how we get there.
LD: How did you approach color and movement?
JD: The scenic design relied heavily on deep blues and golds, which helped establish the elegance and richness of the Art Deco world. Within the lighting design, almost no individual color was off limits, but I generally work with a guiding principle of no more than two colors per song—and white counts as one of those colors.
That limitation helps keep the stage visually unified. With a large band, scenic lighting, chandeliers, video content, and a full festival system all contributing to the picture, it would be very easy for the result to become overly complicated. Restricting the palette gives every department a clear visual destination and allows a color change to carry real emotional weight.
Movement follows the same principle. Michael loves the excitement and scale of a pop show, so movement is an important part of the production, but it always needs to be connected to the music. The Sceptron chandeliers could move from static color and gentle sparkle into large effects, while the Tornadoes, Lyras, Pixel Lines, and festival fixtures expanded that movement through the band and out over the audience.
We also used silhouette very deliberately. Those moments remove much of the visual information and reduce Michael to a strong, recognizable graphic form. That restraint makes the larger movement and effects feel more significant when they return.
“Feeling Good,” which always opened the show, was one of my favorite sequences because it established the entire visual language immediately: silhouette, atmosphere, content, staging, and then the expansion into the full production.
“Cry Me a River” was another highlight and always great fun to see visually. At the opposite end of the show, “Always on My Mind” was always the final song and brought the production to a more emotionally focused conclusion. In each case, the color palette tied into the video content, while the movement and texture were drawn directly from the character of the song.
LD: What makes this design successful for you?
JD: A design is successful for me when color, movement, texture, scenery, lighting, and video all feel like parts of one visual language. Nothing should appear to have been created in isolation.
Lighting and video need to be equal partners within the stage picture, but neither can overshadow the main character, who is Michael. The goal is not to demonstrate how much technology is available. It is to create an environment that supports him, strengthens the music, celebrates the band, and focuses the audience’s attention exactly where it needs to be.
I am particularly pleased with the way this design moves between scales. It can make a 27-piece band and a large festival stage feel enormous, but it can also reduce everything to Michael in silhouette or place him alone within a very small pool of light. The larger moments are more effective because they are balanced by that restraint.
The design also held together across very different stages and festival systems. Even when the dimensions, rig, or number of chandeliers changed, the production retained its identity. Michael’s reaction was that the stage looked big and unique, which told me we had achieved what we set out to do.
LD: What considerations were taken into account for the tourability of the design?
JD: Tourability was part of the design conversation from the beginning. We chose vendors, manufacturers, and products with proven touring reliability. TAIT fabricated the scenic package; while that level of fabrication carries a cost, their consistency and engineering give us confidence that the scenery will arrive, assemble, and perform as intended every day. Christie Lites provided the touring lighting package and the support needed to integrate it into the various festival systems.
We toured the band risers, scenic elements, and lighting floor package. Craig “Fin” Finley, Michael’s production manager, gave us an early directive that the complete package could not exceed four trucks. Everything technically fit into three, but we spread it across four to make the daily load-ins and load-outs faster and more efficient.
Conrad Dew and Sean Hardcastle engineered a system that allowed the Sceptron chandeliers to remain fully assembled while traveling in lighting lamp carts. At each venue, the crew could remove them from the carts and clip their cables directly into the truss rather than rebuilding them every morning.
The side trusses were also pre-rigged, with the Lyras already installed and the chandelier positions clearly marked. Those decisions substantially reduced daily assembly time. From the initial mark-out to the point when the touring crew could walk away, the package generally took about five hours to install.
Despite that preparation, adaptation remained part of every morning. When we arrived at each site, we evaluated the available stage dimensions, roof structure, festival rig, and audience layout. We regularly adjusted the angle of the band, the length of the thrust, the number of chandeliers we could hang, and the placement of the PATT 2017s. Those decisions were often made immediately after walking onto the stage.
The goal was therefore not to create a design that remained identical at every venue. It was to create a modular visual system with a recognizable hierarchy—band, chandeliers, scenic architecture, sidelight, and audience connection—that could be reconfigured without losing its identity. That flexibility is what made it practical as a touring festival design.