Jvan is not afraid of taking a creative risk or two, and the design involves a provocative synergy of lighting and video delivered with Jvan's trademark thought and intelligence. The set embraces a whole range of styles characterized by The Kooks own distinctive style, and for every number, Jvan's imagineering brings an individual look, theme or ambience.
It's also Jvan's first full tour with Colour Sound as a supplier, on which he comments, "I like working with this company. It's a very well-organized operation with excellent kit, everyone is friendly and highly knowledgeable - and generally they have a great attitude."
He adds that Colour Sound was also able to come up with a cost-efficient package to fit an expedient budget which he has stretched in all possible directions to ensure that the band receive the very best production values. It made things additionally straightforward dealing with one company as a lighting and video supplier.
The Listen album was released in September and this touring campaign started with some warm-ups for which Jvan used vintage 1990 CRT TVs to display visuals. It looked cool but they were completely impractical to be on the road, so when the full tour kicked in, these were replaced with Colour Sound's own proprietary BT LED screen.
A total of 11 individual screens are made up from 6mm and 18mm BT product to create an off-beat fragmented look.
The lighting rig is small but exceptionally versatile. For moving lights he chose 10 x Robe LEDWash 600s, six CycFX 8s and six MMX Spots - all from Robe's Robin series, together with eight SGM X5 Strobes - these are the basic touring package.
Additionally, they are touring a 'house' overhead package for the UK section, to top up the back truss when the venue can't provide what's on their rider, which comprises six MMX Spots, six LEDWash 600s and six strobes.
Jvan provides his own control - a ChamSys MQ100 Pro 2014 for lights and a Catalyst media server for the video playback - and the video playback macros are triggered via the lighting cues.
Regular Colour Sound freelancer, technician and crew chief Jon Rickets joins Jvan and Fergus for the tour which kicked off with a tumultuous homecoming gig at Brighton Dome.
(Jim Evans)
