The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), featuring Phil Bates, brought four decades of their unique blend of orchestral rock to South Africa recently, playing concerts in Johannesburg and Cape Town – with Robe moving lights featuring on both shows.
The Johannesburg gig was staged in the 2,800 capacity Centre Court venue at Emperor’s Palace Casino, Kempton Park, with Kevin Stannett from Crosslight asked to light the show by promoters AfroAsia Events.
Although Kevin – also the regular LD at Emperor’s Palace – had last year specified 12 Robe ROBIN DLX LED Spots for their main venue, for concerts in the arena there is a bare stage, so all technical production has to be outsourced. For this show, lighting kit was supplied by Pan Tilt Lighting run by Kurt Du Preez.
Four 15 metre wide trusses were installed overhead and four upright trussing sections were positioned onstage behind the band together with four more – two per side – left and right for side lighting positions.
Twelve Robe ROBIN LEDWash 600s were rigged on the two most upstage trusses, with another ten on the mid truss and two on the front truss to provide a nice tungsten front wash. These joined other spot moving lights on the back two trusses.
Across the four upstage towers were 12 x ROBIN LEDBeam 100s with another three on each of the four side-stage towers, plus 12 tucked in between the band in banks of three – giving 36 in total, all arranged in this retro ACL style! There were also some other beam lights on the rig plus profiles for key lighting.
Three Robe CitySkape Xtremes on the floor behind the main band members were used for highly effective silhouetting which was a bit different. “I love these fixtures and they worked perfectly for these applications,” exclaimed Kevin.
He toned all the trusses with Robe LEDForce 18 PARs.
“The speed of the LEDBeam is incredible,” he comments adding that their small size and light weight also make them infinitely usable just about anywhere. “The LEDWash 600 is also phenomenal”.
For control he used the house’s ETC Congo console.
He created a bit of a retro aesthetic to light the concert which was extremely well received as the band belted out hit after hit embracing a myriad of genres from classical electro rock to full on 1980’s disco to huge anthemic ballads and everything in between to a delighted audience. “It was a very enjoyable show to light with plenty of creative range,” he concludes.
Kevin has been using Robe products in his design work since 2003 and in that time has seen the company grow steadily and bring out an increasing range of “Impeccable” products. He says that the amazing service and support from Robe’s South African distributor DWR is another reason his has remained so keen on the brand.
He’s also recently specified 12 ROBIN Pointes for a church installation in Kempton Park – following up their initial purchase last year of 12 LEDBeam 100s.
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