Robe Gets In with The Police

Photo: Steve Jennings / courtesy of Robe Show Lighting.

Lighting Product Stories Published: 28 July 2007
Thirty-six Robe ColorSpot 2500E AT moving lights have been specified for The Police’s 2007-08 world tour by lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe.

Lighting for the tour has been co-designed, programmed and is being operated by Danny Nolan, and the Robe’s - along with the rest of the lighting equipment - are being supplied by Chicago based Upstaging.

The tour kicked off in the US and Canada and is currently scheduled to run until February 2008, hitting the UK and Europe in September and October. There are two formats for the lighting rig – to fit both arena and stadium sized shows.

Nolan was asked onboard by Woodroffe back in January 2007, so was involved right from the very beginning. Woodroffe came up with the whole show design including the set concept, and he and Nolan shared the lighting design credit. “Patrick’s idea was not to make it too techie” Nolan explains – “He wanted ‘large, simple and spectacular’!”.

The show design is based around two ovals – an ovular truss overhead and an elliptical stage down below. Inside the overhead oval are 3 straight trusses on a vari-lift system – with several different truss move positions. Around the oval stage are 6 ribbon lift towers, each with 3 moving lights on top which perform a “ballet” of preset moves and positions throughout the show. The set was built by Tait Towers.

All 36 of the powerful Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs are positioned around the overhead oval and along the straight trusses. They are used for a series of profile and beam effects and for gobo projections.

Says Nolan, “They are good, bright and very reliable”.

He’s used Robe before quite a lot, specially last year when touring Europe with Simply Red, when they frequently picked up rigs locally. Nolan reckoned that Robe moving lights were the most often encountered of any brand during this tour, adding “They were great”.

Prior to the start of the Police tour, he and Woodroffe had 5 days of programming sessions in Chicago at Upstaging’s facility with the full working rig, allowing them to structure the set-list and establish the show’s basic footprint. Nolan then went to production rehearsals in Vancouver working to a rehearsal schedule that included both arena and stadium lighting packages.

When the tour visits Europe, Upstaging’s rig will be freighted over including the Robe’s – and they will be picking up followspots, a technician and general tour support for Europe from west London-based Neg Earth.

Neg Earth has also recently invested in Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs – 50 of which are out on the Genesis world tour for which they are the lighting contractor. This show is also designed by Woodroffe.

• Robe Show Lighting