ON THE ROAD: Kasabian Below: Energetic performances from the band were accentuated by visuals that were full of impact to really pack a punch.
first instance but everything about it failed miserably - mainly due to brightness, but also the shape of the structure meant the video team were unable to line anything up properly. This resulted in the triumph of LED on this occasion.” Following the successful designs created
for the recent tour, Gray was involved with Kasabian’s live YouTube Re-Wired performance, which required some visual elements of the Velociraptor! tour to be adapted and was streamed direct from London’s O2 Arena on New Year’s Eve 2011.
A CATHEDRAL OF LIGHT Controlling the lighting on a show designed by Gray was a pleasure for Lighting Operator, Paul ‘PK’ Kell, who has been part of the crew for Bob Dylan, David Gilmore and Paul McCartney’s tours. PK has worked with Kasabian for the past three years, after being brought in by Renegade Design. “The band generally leave Nick to come up
with a spectacular lighting show and one that they would like to go and see,” said PK. “One of the nice things about working on the tour is that the band, especially for the past few years, have really been into their lights. They like a massive old style light show and they don’t want anyone to leave the concert without knowing Kasabian has performed.” And Velociraptor! was no exception
- lighting had a strong presence in conjunction with prominent video. In the initial stages, when concepts revolved around a projection design, the lights had to be peeled back significantly,
but now that LED was incorporated into the show, the lights were almost back up to full force. “The arch and the 29 Alpha Beam 300
lights on it are fantastic. They’re a real joy to programme and to look at. It’s a trick that’s been done in the past with bands like Pink Floyd, but the way it works is fantastic and everything you do with it looks great. We have 40 Martin Atomic strobes scattered between the wings and the arch, the floor and inside the dome on the rig,” said PK. “The beautiful thing about using all the
beam lights, which is a range of Sharpys, Alpha 300’s and Alpha 1500’s, is you have a lot of different places you can go with your beams - it’s like a massive ACL show. People can’t help but notice the looks because they are so bright.” The floor package, like all lighting
equipment, was supplied by Neg Earth and made being on the road easier for the crew. With the fixtures traveling on five sections of pre-rig truss, the summer festivals the band played at last year and the mammoth tour they embarked on were more straightforward. Working with new technology was exciting
for the crew, but presented a few challenges too. The Martin MAC Auras were so new that in the initial stages of the tour preparation, the crew didn’t have WYSIWYG personalities for them. These had to be written whilst Gray and PK were programming. PK also singled out the 10 lighting bars built into the video wall as another unusual element
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