Dudley's company, Martin's Lights supplied all the lighting equipment for the tour. He has worked with Supergrass on and off for the last eight years and has LD'd the band on a number of occasions over the last two years when their regular designer, Matt Arthur, has been busy elsewhere.
He used this as a high profile opportunity to put the Robin 300E Beams through their paces, with eight units on the show, which were all mounted on flight cases in a line at the back of stage - in ACL style - but utilised for a whole variety of different effects.
"They are unbelievably bright," says Dudley, commenting on the Beams. He also used six of his ColorSpot 700E ATs for the shows - so not a lot of moving lights for the larger venues like Brixton Academy, but just those 14 units gave him plenty of creative scope for the band's epic two-hour set, which included four songs from each of their six studio albums in reverse chronology, plus their two earliest hits, with a short film between each section.
Dudley's technician on the tour was Andy Bain, who liked the light (20 Kg) weight of the Robins, and the fact that the units are so manoeuvrable. Their flight cases are also compact and easy to stack in the truck.
The tour was production managed by Mick Brown, who also has a long history with the band, who performed their final show at La Cigale in Paris on 11 June.
(Jim Evans)
