Robe and The Pigeon Detectives

Monday, November 19, 2007 || Robe Show Lighting

Lighting designer Paddy Sollitt has specified 18 Robe 575 AT Series fixtures – 6 ColorWash 575E AT Zooms and 12 ColorSpot 575E ATs – for the Pigeon Detectives’ current sold-out UK tour.

The Leeds-based band are one of the most hotly tipped for greatness in 2008 and are riding high on the success of their top 10 “Wait For Me” debut album, which is highly acclaimed and has helped fuel their meteoric rise throughout 2007.

Sollitt was given a free hand in the lighting design and needed a lighting rig with plenty of creative options to match the band’s intensely energetic live performance. Robe is his moving light of choice, so Robe fixtures form the core of the show.

The 12 ColorSpot 575E ATs are all rigged on the back truss. Four of the ColorWash 575E AT Zooms are attached to the top of 4 vertical trussing sections stood behind the band on the deck, with the other two on the floor. The rig is a precursor to the one that Sollitt is designing for them next year, which steps up to much larger venues.

Sollitt has used Robe products for the last 4 years and is a big fan of the brand. He reckons, “The ColorSpot 575E AT is still the best unit of its class on the market – it is so very bright, and you can get so much out of the fixtures in terms of effects and looks.”

On the Wash Zooms, he comments, “I really use these lights a lot and I also work them very hard on all of my shows – the light output is very, very pokey”.

The Pigeon Detectives lightshow – as you would expect – is a high energy amalgam of beams, colours, flashing and fast movement. Having a Robe based rig, he never runs out of options to keep the show fresh throughout the set, with plenty of visual surprises always up his sleeve for the next number!

The 36-date Pigeon Detectives tour is carrying a large lighting ‘specials’ package supplied by Zig Zag Lighting which includes the four vertical trussing sections, with the Robe’s provided locally at each venue by a variety of companies. In the south, GLS are supplying Robes to some gigs, while further north, HSL and Zig Zag Lighting are doing the Robe honours at most shows. All these companies have large Robe inventories in their hire stock.

In addition to the Robes, Sollitt’s design also incorporates 8 and 4-cell Moles, strobes, ACLs, PARs and Source Fours, all of which are controlled via his Avolites Pearl console which is on tour with them.

The tour kicked off at the newly revamped Manchester Academy, complete with added headroom over-stage and continues throughout November.