The lighting designer for the tour was Louisa Smurthwaite. She comments, "My role is to look after the visual aesthetics of the show. I have worked with Rag'n'Bone Man from his initial festival and one off performances. This tour has developed from these and it's been great to finally create a full-length touring show that as many fans as possible can see".
Louisa worked closely with Rag 'n' Bone Man, real name Rory Graham, to create a set-up that was suited for the tour. Louisa comments, "I wanted my design to work with the set and be personal to Rory. Therefore, we designed some skull light boxes, created by Howard Eaton, which were based on the Mexican Dias De Muertos masks that Rory has tattooed on his hands. We also drew on a red velour drape. We wanted a modern take on a classical feel and the juxtaposition of the red drape and the skull lights helped to achieve this."
To light the show, Louisa drew on WL's range of lighting equipment. This included Martin MAC Aura XBs, ETC Source Fours, an LSC e24 Dimmer along with a Unique 2.1 Haze Machine.
Throughout the tour, the show has visited a range of venues all of which vary in size. Louisa adds, "Space has been somewhat of an issue with this tour! The skull light boxes are almost a metre high which meant having to pick and choose what we could actually present on stage at some of the smaller venues. As a result, the rig had to constantly change to fit the venue's requirements. Thankfully the equipment I used from WL was able to adapt to any change in circumstance."
The Rag 'n' Bone Man tour will be back on the road in March when it embarks on a European leg, visiting venues in France, Luxembourg, Italy and Austria.
Louisa states, "So far the tour has been a huge success. WL was great as always - I was actually flying in from another tour when this one started and they delivered a great tourable system before overlaying a larger rig for our bigger shows. I really appreciate everything they've done."
(Jim Evans)
