Lighting designer Steven Douglas specified 36 Sharpys, supplied by NegEarth, after using them extensively on the The Killers' previous tours.
"If you're looking for something that's going to be big and impactful, the first thing that comes to mind is the Clay Paky Sharpy," says Douglas. "They are the obvious choice for me as I've used them consistently in my designs for the last two years. They're great, reliable, compact lights that really pack a punch - everyone knows how good they are."
Douglas rigged the Sharpys to create a huge wall of light behind the band, in place of where the video screen usually sits. The result was a truly stunning backdrop of intense brightness and colour, thanks to the Sharpy's purity of beam and remarkable output.
"We wanted to do something different on the festival tour so we went for a look that was entirely light-focused, and it worked really well," says Douglas.
Douglas also specified eight Clay Paky SuperSharpys, after getting to grips with them earlier in the year as he discusses: "Having heard some fantastic recommendations for the SuperSharpy I did a little shoot out at Neg Earth in April. I was really impressed. The fixture had only just been released so I decided to push to see how many of them we could get for the festival tour," says Douglas. "We originally wanted the entire rig to be SuperSharpys, but Clay Paky's production timetables got tighter, and because the company likes to ensure its fixtures are 100% market ready before they are used we only managed to get a hold of eight."
Douglas therefore ended up using the SuperSharpys as part of the onstage floor package, which was programmed to create beat-perfect and dynamic aerial effects.
"The SuperSharpy's output is incredible, and the throw of the beam is huge, which meant they looked amazing when they came out into the audience," says Douglas.
Douglas added 24 Clay Paky B-EYEs to complete the floor package, which he used to wash the stage, band and audience with vibrant throbbing colours. "I love how you can control and animate the B-EYE's individual pixels, it's a really great tool." Douglas continues.
(Jim Evans)
