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Hoosiers tour with ADB Lighting Svoboda Battens

Ten ADB Svoboda high intensity battens formed a highly distinctive effect for lighting designer Chris Bushell on the recent UK tour by The Hoosiers, with equipment rental from Neg Earth Lights.

Chris, who was also co-designer of the tour's stage set, specified the 9-lamp Svoboda as part of a three-truss rig that surmounted a stage framed with a combination cabaret/theatre set with 2D cartoon-style set pieces silhouetted against the band's 19th century-style wallpaper backdrop.

He explains: "The band's performance is very visual, an excellent live act. They're always researching magic tricks coming up with new visual gags and buying new costumes. So I wanted to reflect this energy and excitement with quite a powerful light show, but with a design that was versatile enough to be dark and moody where needed.

"The whole look has a dark twist to it thanks to the band's distinct artwork. The two giant trees that frame the stage have claws coming out of them, the bushes upstage have dark faces curved out of them and I put steel cut-outs of evil eyes in the gel frames of 10 of the scattered 2-light Molefay lamps."

He continues: "I used a line of ADB Svoboda 9 Lamp light batten units, arranged with a slight gap between each to create a streaky effect. I hadn't used them before in anger, and I wanted plenty of things to stab and bump with for this tour. I take great pride in hitting every big drum fill, guitar stab, every shout etc, so I used the Svoboda instead of the usual array of ACL bars. They have a great look, very distinctive and powerful, and they proved extremely tourable and reliable."

The Svoboda Batten was designed by the legendary Czech National Theatre scenographer Josef Svoboda, who had long been looking for an unusual way of creating dramatic scenery using light only, and was built in collaboration with ADB. Used as backlighting, cascade or full-on frontal, the Svoboda, with its 40V, 250W lamps, provides unique lighting, soft and yet intense at the same time, creating an atmosphere in a class of its own.

A mixture of Pixel Line iPix Satellite units provided set piece and backdrop lighting as well as backlight for the band, while Martin formed the main moving light element.

The tour played a wide variety of venues from Brixton Academy and Cardiff Arena to Sheffield Academy and Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall, requiring a highly flexible lighting design to fit into the smaller venues yet still be striking in the larger ones.

www.adblighting.com

17th December 2008

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