Hayden Borgars has covered a broad spectrum of shows during his career as a lighting designer, including various music genres, corporate, dance and theatre. Most recently he joined forces with American rap artist, Hoodie Allen (real name Steven Markowitz) for a British and European tour, at venues ranging from the 700-capacity Garage Glasgow to 2,000 Shepherds Bush Empire.
Travelling with him throughout was an inventory of GLP X4 Bar 20s and JDC1 hybrid strobes, supplied by the rental company, Siyan. The tour was set up essentially as a pre-album promo tour in advance of Hoodie’s next album release in May. Given the nature of the venues, Hayden simply assembled a powerful and scalable GLP floor package, giving him both versatility and big looks. He admitted he had been eager to use the JDC1s for some time, and his hunger only increased after GLP UK’s David Stewart introduced the 3-facet low profile hybrid out in the real world, at Bring Me The Horizon’s Alexandra Palace show.
“It’s the first time I had seen them used in a show and I was hugely impressed,” he said. “I also sent a video to Hoodie and he reacted the same way. “It’s such an aggressive strobe that it immediately came to mind when I was planning this tour.” He programmed the fixtures in Mode 3 (68 DMX channels) with pixel chasers, blinders and beam effects, and also used them to wash the stage. He set them stage left, stage right, either side of the drum kit and on risers, with the X4 Bar 20s also on the ground at the back of the stage. “Everyone has been really impressed at how cool the JDC1’s look, particularly with the individual pixel control and the tilt,” Hayden enthused. “I love the tilt function as no other strobe has this, and it’s great that this fixture has that functionality. The JDC1 has all the power of a conventional strobe.”
Although Hoodie has toured with the Bar 20s before, using them as front lights, this is the first time he’s done a production tour in Europe. “I like the looks we can create with these Bars, similar to the JDC1s,” Hayden continued. “I can pixel map across and create tilt effects into the audience at the same time using dimmer effects across the cells whilst tilting them to create some interesting looks for chorus moments.” As for Siyan, Hayden Borgars first worked with the rental company on the White Denim tour and more recently on the Gang of Youths season at Islington Assembly Hall.