LONDON -- The sculpture is already there inside the marble, believed Michelangelo. His job as an artist, as he described it, was “to chisel away the superfluous material.” David Howard can relate to this sentiment. Just as the great sculpture removed stone to achieve his vision, Howard, who designs with light, strives to eliminate it when he can to find meaning in the darkness.
“When building the show, I find myself starting with a look for a particular verse or chorus and editing it down, removing as much light as I can get away with,” Howard said of this design for legendary electronic musician Gary Numan’s 2026 tour.
“Darkness is the contrast,” explained Howard. “On this tour, I used black flexible neon between the trusses as the set of the show. When this is on, it’s our video canvas, and when this is off, it is backlit to appear as the wires of a broken machine engulfing the band. Numan’s music is dystopian and dark -- it rarely plays with positive emotion, and the lighting reflects this. “
Much of the lighting that Howard wields with artistic precision in his live operated cue stacked show comes from his rig’s CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 5 motorized battens, which, like the rest of his rig, were supplied by Impact Production Services (IPS) of Milton Keynes.
The number of PXL Curve 5 units in the rig varies depending on the venue and size of the stage. In larger venues, they sit behind the truss towers and neon wires and are used as strobe blinders, beams, and washes throughout the show.
“Venues on the tour varied dramatically,” said Howard. “Some shows sat on stages that were 7-meters in width, other stages were 28-meters. The design had to tour effectively and cater to these different stages. Our design solution quite literally stretches like a concertina to look correct on stages big and small. The height and width vary while keeping the same amount of pillars and triangular shape. The biggest challenge was knowing when to stop playing with the neon tangles between the trusses to achieve a ‘tasteful mess’ before doors opened!”
Regardless of the stage size, Howard found the PXL Curve 5 fixtures to be very effective at accentuating his evocative design. From the floor, the units were often positioned with a randomly spread pan to make asymmetric beams through the air that reach out through the band.
“I very much treat the PXLs as individual heads,” he said. “I don’t see them as 12 battens, I see them -- and control them, as 60 individual moving heads. The top rig is usually used to scenically frame the show and if anything, contain the visual canvas down. I come in steeper that I do for other shows, the light stays on stage for the most part, only reaching out into the audience for a select few moments of the show.
“Interestingly, I originally planned to make my line out of simple strobe units, but the PXLs just offered so much more in such a convenient-to-deploy package,” said Howard. “As the tour progressed, I found myself adding them to more cues in ways I hadn’t initially planned, which was exciting. The metallic cold and warm white light lends itself so well to Numan’s music.”
That music often paints “a picture of dystopian ruined lands and references mechanical ideas and machines,” said Howard, who notes that this was the inspiration for his lighting design.
Howard’s artful use of his light and darkness, along with the work of his collaborators- tour manager Dave Dupuis, light tech James Walton, and operator Rory Lucas brought his inspired vision to life night after night, helping fans see as well as hear the vision of one of modern music’s most unique pioneering artists.
About CHAUVET Professional
CHAUVET Professional offers innovative professional lighting fixtures for the production and touring market as well as permanent installation in theaters, hospitality venues, cruise ships, clubs, television and architainment applications. For more information, please visit www.chauvetprofessional.com