Their last regular UK gigs were two shows at Brixton Academy - for which Gaskell designed a lightshow that could also be taken in to various festival situations - including a headline slot on Glastonbury's Other Stage - for the band's final UK appearances. These were undertaken prior to a farewell European festival tour that's currently underway.
Gaskell wanted to ensure the band ended their groundbreaking career in a blaze of visual glory. The use of 53 James Thomas Pixelline LED battens was integral to his design. He framed the upstage area with 12 rotating video screens, six on towers, complete with 'radar panels' on top, and six hanging off the rear truss. These were interwoven with 11 drops of three Pixelline battens each positioned in-between the panels and a further 20 Pixellines on the floor, arranged around the six floor-based screen towers.
Gaskell took various video inputs from Orbital's vast array of playback clips (created by video artist Giles Thacker) and applied them across the entire Pixelline 'screen'. This resulted in a liquid collage of moving energy and trippy patterns across the fixtures - creating a series of mesmeric effects.
Bandit also supplied Martin MAC 2000s, High End Studio Beam PCs, Atomic strobes, Molefays, Coemar Supercycs, and eight Par cans for the link scenes, because, as Gaskell succinctly says, "You have to have Par cans in there somewhere!" He ran the show using a Wholehog II and wing, and worked alongside a Bandit crew of four - Steve Rusling, Matthew Jensen, Keith 'Teff' Harrison and Rob Starksfield.
(Lee Baldock)
