Kasabian Rock Reading With Renegade Design

The lighting scheme was based on a substantial ‘specials’ package that has been out with the band all summer. It’s an evolution of the original visuals scheme that Gray conceived for Kasabian when they started their current touring schedule last Autumn.

“Central to the festival tour design was producing a lot of stark, high-impact but very simple looks that bring all the raw emotion and energy of the performance out into the arena and audience,” explains Gray.

One of the classic stage performances that initially inspired elements of this design was Nirvana’s legendary Reading set in 1992 – which started with Kurt Cobain propelled onto the stage in a wheelchair - and is still hailed as one of Reading’s most spellbinding moments.

For Kasabian, Gray created a retina burning back wall from 90 Showtech (Active) Sunstrips, arranged in a horizontal configuration across a series of truss towers upstage, with the bases of the towers raised a metre off the deck.

At the bottom of the towers were 13 x Martin Professional MAC Auras, and further up, the back wall was completed with 16 Clay Paky Sharpies, positioned amidst the Sunstrips.

Two overhead trusses were also part of the rig, complete with 33 x Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s in 11 x groups of three, plus eight CP Alpha Wash 700s.

Back on the floor, four Big Lights were positioned on the left and right  of the right PA wings.

No Nick Gray Kasabian design would be complete without some serious strobe capacity, and so 21 Atomics were dotted around the two trusses and on the back wall.

Lighting wise, the set started off very low key, using just the floor and lower level lighting fixtures. As the pace ramped up, the backdrop - a striking white on black graphic of the album artwork - was revealed, as the set and lighting geared up into a gradual build with the overhead truss lighting introduced.

The back wall in its entirety with all the Sunstrips blazing was only revealed in the final three songs of the set, producing a fantastic WOW factor and taking the whole performance into a huge stratospheric rave mode for the finale - to the delight of a seriously enthusiastic audience!
Regular Renegade tour lighting director and operator Paul Kell was out on the road with the band, running the lighting from a Hog 3 console.

www.renegadedesign.co.uk