Adlib adds elegance to Overtones tour
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Adlib has been an equipment supplier for the band since their career took off in 2010, and it’s been a great journey for all involved to see the band’s success. Neil, now a busy freelance designer working internationally for a diverse range of clients, was working full time for Adlib back in 2010, and that’s also where his association with The Overtones started.
Understated elegance and a gentle symmetry defined the set which comprised of a central staircase flanked by two risers each side for the band, plus four signature big band art deco set pieces.
There was no video on the tour, but an Overtones LED sign at the back - custom built by Light Initiative - set the scene, positioned just in front of a silver lamé Austrian curtain from Adlib’s drapes inventory.
Every lighting fixture on the rig had to be multi-purpose and work hard in several different contexts to earn its place on the tour.
The core moving light fixtures - Robe Spikies for the beams and Martin MAC Auras for the LED washes - were selected for their small size, power, and functionality.
Twenty-four Spikies were distributed on the back and mid trusses, 12 on each, while six of the 10 Auras were on the floor, three per side, for low level cross stage washes, with the other four on Manfrotto stands for cross lighting the band standing on the upstage risers.
They were joined by 12 x GLP X4 Bar 20 LED battens. Four Oxo Pixyline 150s, another RGBW LED batten fixture, were used to graze up the fronts of the four deco ‘bandstand’ set pieces.
Upstage on the deck, sitting on bespoke plinths made for the tour, was a row of seven Ayrton Bora S wash / FX moving heads which Neil used to create high-impact gobo effects.
He also utilised 80 x 1m Ledblades, a new mappable 16mm pitch LED strip product developed by a Budapest-based AV and rental company that is steadily becoming popular. These were used to outline the set risers and central steps, together with thirteen 3-metre sections on the mid-truss that produced a roof effect.
Eight Portman P2 Hexaline bars were rigged vertically across the stage standing on tank-trap bases, bringing some cosy flourishes of tungsten to an otherwise all-LED lighting rig.
For front lighting, they hooked into the house profiles at each venue, typically between 12 and 20 x classic ETC Source Fours. Neil ran all the lighting from a grandMA2 light console.
(Jim Evans)
