The building - formerly The Waterfront when it was operated by Luminar Leisure - has been completely refurbished at the hands of Bowden - one of the industry's most experienced professionals, and also a long-term acquaintance of Graham Barron. Bowden was previously operations director for Luminar before moving to the Far East as project director for Ministry of Sound, Bangkok, Taipei and then Singapore. He has divided his new venue into four distinct areas (including an R&B Room and VIP/Over 25's areas), with Difusion's lighting dominating the principal club area.
Boylan, who has judiciously worked the budget (and reused some of the existing fixtures) to achieve maximum bang for the buck, said: "Graham has remained at the forefront of the lighting industry over the years and there has always been a huge trust element. Peter had no hesitation in contacting him for the design."
And what Difuzion's man has delivered is a static, skeletal steel frame rig offering a frenzy of Futurelight scanning effects. These consist of six PHS-250 (250W moving heads); 12 PCC-250 (250W colour changers), six PSC 575 (575W scanners) and six CY250 (rotating barrel effects). "There has been a minimalistic approach to lighting in recent years," believes Mike, "but on big ceilings it simply doesn't work. Graham has always advocated that the dancefloor should be the absolute focal point. Here he has been given full rein to deliver a simple, but clever rig - highlighted by LED tubes with six inverted pyramids. At the peak he has used a moving yoke and a central cluster, which creates its own centrepiece. It's both aesthetic and at the same time punchy."
Mike observes that customers today are demanding ever-increasing value for money products. "Venues are less worried about colour indexing than having a scanner which is bright, fast, inexpensive and offers 12 colours. Futurelight meets all the modern criteria."Neill Morten from GMP was responsible for the design, having worked with Bowden on the Ministry of Sound projects as well designing the original Waterfront building.
(Lee Baldock)
