The RAH's Lighting department were appointed as lighting contractors and senior technical manager Ollie Jeffery contacted award winning international lighting designer Tim Routledge to create a design using their own extensive house rig - featuring 130 moving lights - plus a large quantity of 'specials' including 24 x Robe Robin Pointes and 40 x Robe Robin LEDBeam 100s.
These were supplied by Brighton based TSL. Project manager Frankie Du Toit organised WYSIWYG, patch and systems liaising with Routledge directly on behalf of the Hall.
Jeffery comments, "TSL didn't just provide us with a dry-hire service, it was a complete managed package backed up by a first class service."
The brief to Routledge from McFly's management was to craft a stunning looking, memorable show fitting to the occasion which embraced and included the impressive visual attributes of the RAH, including its grand organ.
The venue has recently taken delivery of a quantity of architectural LED lights to illuminate elements like the organ and the roof.
Routledge's design was therefore based on 'high and wide' structural dimensions to show off the hall's spatiality and the Victorian splendour of the stage area in front of the organ.
Six flown vertical trusses made a chevron either side of the organ pipework and four vertical trusses on floor bases, left and right of the organ completed the pictures. The 24 Pointes were all deployed in multiples of four in the six flown trusses and at the bottom of each one was a Patten 2013, a custom vintage dish light designed and developed by Routledge.
The LEDBeam 100s crowned a low level wall of Jarags curving around behind the band's backline.
Routledge programmed and ran lighting for the McFly shows on the house grandMA2 console and before this, WYSIWYG'd it in his own studio in south west London.
He has just won the 'Philips Entertainment Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting', which was presented by the Theatre's Trust at the first ever Technical Theatre Awards (TTAs) during the 2013 PLASA lighting & sound exhibition in London.
(Jim Evans)
