Following the release of for KING + COUNTRY’s 2024 biopic, Unsung Hero, the duo embarked on a tour across the US with an ambitious stage design created by their brother, Daniel Smallbone of Lumina Design. Speaking to TPi, the designer ruminates on his special relationship with the band and their live offering.
“I’ve designed shows for my brothers since day one,” Smallbone recalled. “We grew up in a music family; our father was a concert promoter, and when we were younger, we all had our roles – be it background singing, stage setup or lighting.”
Amid the first tour meetings, the camp discussed making the show 360° to allow more fans to get close to the action. The five-month design process began in February 2024.
“I put together three different concepts and took them to Joel and Luke; each of them had an end-to-end stage, simplified lighting and a variation of an automation feature,” Smallbone explained. “The finalised idea was to incorporate nine individual pods that could also double as lighting diamonds as well as being staging for a band member to be on top.”
On prior tours, the design featured five risers, but Unsung Hero intended to be more progressive with the stage design – the idea was to make the band as ‘mobile’ as the singers. “I pitched the idea that everyone was mobile, not just the duo – that we could have instruments pop up in places, and disappear,” Smallbone noted. “In conversations with band leader, Garrett, it was determined that we needed three setups that would be semi-permanent so that we could house drum setups on them. The semi-permanent pods would still move vertically but would not move around like the others.”
Initially sketching the design by hand, the designer used Vectorworks for previsualisation, with Smallbone revealing that the Unsung Hero Tour was the most in-depth tour preproduction process the camp had embarked on. “We would meet at Joel’s house weekly with band leads, tour management, as well as Joel and Luke to discuss every detail of the show,” he said. “Not only did we have to think through transitions between songs, but we had to figure out how we were going to get instruments in the correct positions – there were a lot of intricacies associated with every point of the show.”
The designer praised Christie Lites, which the camp has a longstanding relationship with, and automation provider, Five Points. “Shannon Scott from Christie Lites and Seb from Five Points have been a huge help – it has been great working with them,” Smallbone enthused.
The crew also utilised ShowCockpit to effectively light the band members on top of the automated pods, with the software taking positional data from automation and then adjusting the pods accordingly, as well as providing additional zoom and focus data.
“ShowCockpit made the whole process tremendously simpler,” Smallbone explained. “This allowed me to turn on the lighting and adjust the intensity to whatever I wanted when someone was on a pod – it streamlined the lighting process.”
Reflecting on the show, Smallbone highlighted the show’s beginning as a special moment. He elaborated: “It feels like the antithesis of what a ‘normal show’ is – we wanted to open the show with a kabuki drop that unveils a clean stage, with no risers, just a blank stage lit by the LED wall. The pods come in further into the show and provide us with these visually spectacular moments that are simple but so effective.”
In closing, Smallbone reflected the logistics of making sure the show was constructed effectively from city to city. “This was the most in-depth design I’ve ever done,” Smallbone noted, praising the entire production team. “It took a huge group effort to make this show happen and I am grateful to have been a small part of the entire process.”
Words: Alicia Pollitt
Photos: Michael Woolheater
