“Empress of Soul’, legendary singer / songwriter Gladys Knight recently toured the
UK and Blackburn based HSL was delighted to be supplying lighting equipment and
crew to the production which was co-ordinated on the road for HSL by Lester Cobrin
and designed by UK and Nashville based LD, Neil Scrivener.

Scrivener has been working for the artist for about two years. Knight tours the U.S.
extensively, having previously had a 5-year residency in Las Vegas and usually
visits the UK and Europe each summer. This year, a high profile appearance at
London’s Royal Albert Hall was one of the highlights on the itinerary for the seven
times Grammy and multi award winning artist.

The PAR can rig used by Knight in the U.S. provided a starting point for Scrivener’s
design this year. Taking into account the 13 people who needed to be lit, Scrivener
decided that PAR cans were once again a good base option for the rig as well as
adding a touch of retro. “It’s a bit old-skool, but when you need to light multiple
areas on a fairly large stage … PARs are the “go-to’ fixture!’

For this tour he did however also have the chance to add some Vari*Lite VL3000
Spot and Martin MAC 2K XB moving lights to the rig, which meant he could
dramatically reduce the number of PARs required to efficiently light the 60ft wide
stage and performance space.

He created a classic 5-colour PAR wash then added in several strings of ACLs which
were gelled. While her music isn’t suited to flashing or rock-style operation, the
“timeless classic’ of a meticulously-focussed string of appropriately gelled ACLs
added plenty of extra dynamics.

The moving lights and LED fixtures – which included PixelLine battens on the floor
lighting the backdrop – substituted at the RAH with the organ lighting LED package –
were then layered on top of this base illumination.

The V*Ls were crucial to this tour. Scrivener used them to create big, sumptuous
looks one minute and highly targeted intimate moments the next when they were
all tightly irised in on Knight. Some fixtures were rigged on drop-arms which added
depth and enabled him to create some great looking beam-scenes. The central V*L
also usually acts as her back “spot’ light … so it was the most important light on the
rig!

He operated the show using a Hog4 Full Boar console which he finds very
comfortable for a show like this.

Joining him from HSL on the road were Pete Watts taking care of dimmers and tech
Ewan Colson. “Pete did a brilliant job at blind focussing the ACLs each day – and
Ewan is a fast climber, which was essential when the band wanted to sound check
at 2pm each day,’ says Scrivener. The rig was prepped and co-ordinated at HSL’s
base in Blackburn by Sean McGlone.