Colour Sound Experiment supplied lighting and LED screens for the recent tour by UK rockers You Me At Six, which promoted their latest album VI.
The tour also celebrated 10 years since their first album Take Off Your Colours catapulted them to the top of the charts, launching a subsequently highly productive and successful career with some great music. Haydn Cruickshank and the team at Colour Sound were delighted to be working with Jamie Thompson from MIRRAD who co-designed set, lighting and video together with Dave Cohen, with Cohen directing lighting and visuals on the road.
Thompson explained that the design brief was to create: “something big, epic, memorable and cost-effective”. Additionally, the band wanted to play two completely different sets – one comprising music from the first album, and the second featuring songs from the latest one and the other four in between. So, the idea was that the show would alternate between these, each with its own totally unique look and style. So they had to design for 38 tracks.
Taking the Roman ‘VI’ from the album artwork was a visual starting point, Thompson and Cohen wanted to introduce some V-shapes to the stage architecture and accentuate the perspective and depth of the space. The proposed multi-layered V-shaped risers fronted with LED video panels set the tone with a look that was both striking and practical to tour and build each day. Upstage of the set risers were four tall portrait format video screens, hung on angles making up a V shape and in between these were five soft-ladders to give layered lighting positions. For a transparent look with lightweight equipment, the Colour Sound’s BT-20 LED screen was selected for these main screens, while the riser fronts were clad in Colour Sound BT-12. The Green Hippo Hippotizer Amber media server stored and played back all the video content from MIRRAD.
The venues on the tour varied in size and shape from the extremely intimate dimensions of Rock City in Nottingham to the cavernous environs of Brixton Academy, so there were three diverse design options for the rig to fit the variety of spaces, all maintaining the integrity and ambience of the design.
Three trusses facilitated the overhead lighting rig – front, back and mid for the largest configurations of the design – plus two diagonal runs of trussing used to fly the four portrait video screens. The lighting fixtures included 20 Robe Pointes, ProLights Diamond 7 LED washes, six Robe BMFL Spots, primarily for key lighting and Robe LEDWash 600s for additional and supporting wash duties.
The rig was carefully considered and chosen to produce the maximum effect and occupy minimal truck-space. Colour Sound and MIRRAD continued their great working relationship which has contributed to a variety of shows and tours, large and small.
Cruickshank commented: “We always look forward to collaborating on MIRRAD shows, as you know it’s going to be exciting, a bit different, and look excellent. Jamie and Dave needed to make the kit go as far as possible on this one to ensure the band could get their two distinctive but equally good-looking shows, and we were happy to assist in their great looking end results.”
