Indie-rockers The Wombats recently embarked on an arena tour to celebrate their first album in three years, with a lighting design from Rosie Haigh, who started working with the band in 2023 at the end of the previous album campaign. “For the band, it’s all about how it feels on stage, as much as it is about how it looks,” Haigh began. “They play a high-energy set, so they like to feel the energy close to them on stage, hence a good-sized floor package, but also, they aren’t afraid of the dark, which really helps me build dynamics for the show.”
Haigh wanted to keep the overall creative for the show surrounded by the album theme, which is a gold furry eye of a stuffed toy, and within the button eye is a desaturated picture of the ocean. “On discussion, there was a request to not lean into the ocean imagery too strongly, and with the album title being Oh! The Ocean, it could’ve easily pulled that way,” Haigh explained. This resulted in taking inspiration from the waves of the original artwork, but fashioning the texture out of fur instead, to keep in line with the album’s creative.
“Everything starts in pencil. While in the original discussion process with Tour Manager Simon, I filled in the hotel paper pad with some initial concepts,” Haigh said. “The first ideas were a collaboration, and I think we would have every inch of the stage covered in fur if we hadn’t reined ourselves in. The result is not far from the original sketch in truth.”
A happy accident of the band having to perform on a different stage than originally planned at last year’s Leeds Festival meant that Haigh was exposed to tech that inspired what was later taken on the road. “The Chevron Stage had Colour Sound Experiment’s low-res video net suspended above the audience so I rustled up some last-minute content and we used it as part of the show. The band loved the way it covered the audience and that they could watch it during the show,” Haigh added. “This made me want to have some form of low-res video content interlaced with the fur on the back of the stage, and that’s where the Hives came into play.”
When it came to presenting the idea to the band, Haigh painted her ideas in watercolour and bought a fur sample. “It was just me, some pictures of lit up fur, my paintings and thrown together images on a Skype call. Thankfully, the band and management team unanimously decided to roll with what this crazy woman with her paints and fur had on offer and we moved ahead with the design,” Haigh enthused.
An arsenal of fixtures were deployed on the design, including the first use of the new Vari-Lite VLHive 151 Digital FX. “This was the perfect coincidence, and a marrying of my two job roles – self-employed Lighting Designer and a Product Specialist and BDM at Vari-Lite,” Haigh said. “After showing the band the fixture, which was a big deal as it was top-secret at the time, they were excited to be involved with such a new technology and agreed to take the risk of using a prototype on the arena tour.
“We had some of the first prototypes ever built; they came to us from the Dallas factory and you can even see the spray paint used on the housing of the fixture from the engineering team – but you never would have guessed they were prototypes because they are so bright, and the colours are so vivid, even when doing pastels,” Haigh said. “It’s an honour to be able to take them on this test run before the product officially launches. The engineering team and Vari-Lite Product Manager, Martin Palmer have been working on this technology for a long time [see p96], so to be trusted with the pre-release was very special.”
Supporting the VLHives, Adlib deployed ACME Lighting PIXEL LINE IP solutions, which formed straight lines on each of the flown trusses, Ayrton Kyalami lined the back of the stage symmetrically, while above them was a wave of Martin Professional VDO Atomic Dot CLD fixtures. Ayrton Cobras were added to the flown rig to work in conjunction with the Kyalami to create laser like effects.
“This was my first time working with Adlib’s lighting rental; however The Wombats have a longer history with them. Being a Liverpool band, they have big love for their community, so working with a company from the area was important to them,” Haigh said. “This was a 360° gig for Adlib and all departments supported each other. I can’t fault Adlib for the team spirit and work ethic that resonates throughout their crew – they are all ambassadors for the company, and you can see that they are proud to work there.”
Adlib’s Adam Taylor, commented: “It’s been brilliant to support The Wombats again on this tour, continuing our long-standing relationship with this band. We always really enjoy and appreciate working with Simon, and we were proud to help bring Rosie’s lighting design to life which looked fantastic.”
Reflecting on the tour, Haigh told TPi her favourite looks from the run, noting that it was ‘fun’ to create a design that wasn’t her own personal style. “It meant I could play with bold saturated colours, surrealist textures, colour clashing and really throw myself into a bolder, more colourful palette,” Haigh said. “It’s lively and fun, and very much an indie party singalong at times, but there are some moments in the set where it gets darker and emotional. Many of the fans connect to the music in different ways, for different reasons, so we wanted to create a show where everyone was having fun and could leave on a high – creating pure escapism,” Haigh concluded. “I enjoyed building this show and what we put together.”
Words: Alicia Pollitt
Photos: Sarah Rushton-Read
