Robe BMFL Spot moving lights created a huge impact for the arena section of Simple
Minds’ “Big Music” tour for which lighting designer Stephen Pollard expanded and scaled
up the stage set and lighting rig he used in theatre venues last year.
Leading UK lighting and visuals rental company HSL invested in 50 x new Robe BMFL
Spots just before the tour went out, 24 of which were used by Pollard.
While Simple Minds won worldwide fame, recognition and built a resolute fan base with
their massive rock anthems and maverick stadium performances of the 1980s and early
1990s, the roots of their music is altogether moodier, darker and more sinister. The
underlining vibe of Big Music unites this rawness with some of the more traditional
largeness that might be expected from the band’s 17th studio album … which was also
their first in 5 years.
Much of the show was about beam-work so the BMFL Spots were ideal for creating
beam “structures’ and frameworks as well as for those all-encompassing gobo sweeps,
for which they were fitted with custom gobos tailored to Pollard’s design.
The rig comprised three curved trusses. 20 x BMFLs were positioned on the main truss
which also had 8 video “drops’. This main truss also supported six vertical sub-hung
trusses fitted with various scaffolding and accessories that enabled Pollard to hang the
fixtures at different levels.
Six BMFLs were out rigged from the top of the main truss, another 12 were positioned
on the sub hung trusses between the video drops with four BMFL Spots upstage of the
stage set on the floor.
Positioned like this, they enabled Pollard to create symmetrical layers of light which
could change into random lighting chaos at the press of a button, which fitted the edgy,
visually deconstructed aesthetic that worked well with the video product positioned
between the lighting drops.
A strong curved element ran through the set and lighting design making it suggestively
feminine to celebrate the “two extremely strong women’ – Sarah Brown and Catharine
A.D. – in the band line up, which also gave the latest Simple Minds live sound
something new, fresh and different.
Aside from the creative flair that the intense beams and gobo patterns of the BMFL
Spots brought to the equation, the units were extremely reliable as well as great fun to
use and to programme confirms Pollard, who ran a show from a grandMA full size.
