Banks has cultivated a reputation for being a little bit mysterious (photo: Lindsay Cave @loosplat)
Europe - Singer/songwriter Banks has cultivated a reputation for being a little bit mysterious which has worked in terms of building a fan-base with a strongly melodic sound that’s been described as “dark R‘n’B”.
With second studio album The Altar released mid-2016, the touring schedule and the production values moved up a level, and with that, lighting designer Ali Pike was asked to add her creativity. Robe Spiiders were the lights of choice for the first leg of European and UK dates.
Ali chose Spiiders for a number of artistic and practical reasons – tech’ing as well as operating on her own, she needed a lightweight fixture that was extremely versatile and basically a good tourable hybrid floor package.
She received a few pointers from Banks’ management and creative team, including a preference for certain colours like red. They also gave Ali some video references to look at for general stage presentational vibe and ambience.
These, plus the physical considerations of the tour like stage and truck space, all informed Ali’s choice of fixtures.
Ali was curious about the Spiider, researched extensively and talked with some of the Robe UK sales team, after which she was confident that the Spiider ticked all the boxes and would be a good size for the venues which ranged from 750 capacity up to London’s Roundhouse.
As it is a new fixture, she also showed the promo video to Banks’ management team who were impressed by the versatility and also agreed that Spiiders would be ideal for their tour.
When it came to loading the trailer with lights, there was exactly room for 13 Spiiders and a spare … so that’s what she took.
The Spiiders were positioned all around the band risers where they could highlight the musicians with a more atmospheric and ephemeral treatment, rather than having a big lightshow onstage. The upstage ones proved perfect for silhouetting and the stage clothes lent themselves well to back-lighting.
The Spiiders were supplied via rental company Neg Earth Lights, where Matt Suttle was the account handler. Ali’s ChamSys console was supplied by Graham ‘Grum’ Leesmith of LeSmurf Lighting.
Ali comments: “Playing smaller shows with fewer lights is really challenging, and makes you think more creatively and ‘out-of-the-box’ as you still have to deliver a full show.”
(Jim Evans)

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