The new purchase is Jevons' first Avolites console - although he has enthusiastically specified and used Avo products many of his shows and tours. He says "When the Expert came out, with it's increased power and flexibility, I knew that it was the perfect desk for me and the type of shows I design and operate. Apart form that,I thought it was about time I owned an Avolites desk!"
A number of things swung it for him - one of which is the split roller. Jevons has always embraced the integration of lighting and video - right from the off - during his early days with the Super Furry Animals nearly a decade ago.
Now his shows always feature a mix of conventional, moving and digital lighting, so the Pearl Expert's spilt roller allows flexible operation of two different genres of lighting effects on one console.
"It's brilliant," he explains, "I can have all my moving and generic lights on one roller and the digital lighting and LEDs on the other - perfect."
Apart from that, he says he feels "very confident, happy and secure" when behind the Expert, and also safe in the knowledge that it can be sent out with any lighting operator familiar with running a Pearl.
He worked with Jarvis Cocker on the last two Pulp tours, and was asked back to design for this latest live work following the recent release of the acclaimed solo album, Jarvis.
Cocker (a former art student at Central St martins College) has always had a keen eye for visuals and is never short of creative ideas, says Jevons. Between them they came up with some specific visual suggestions that could be explored for the tour, which has kicked off playing a variety of venues across Europe.
They've gone for a Gothic-esque look, with the band backlit and silhouetted, lots of smoke, break-up gobos and dramatic beam angles. Jevons was keen to have several layers of lighting, so designed his upstage 'base' layer from digital sources - consisting of 19 JTE PixelLine LED battens and 16 of the new i-Pix Satellite fixtures. The PixelLines are arranged in twos and threes on six 12 ft vertical sections of truss on the floor upstage, with the Satellites at intervals in between.
These are all controlled from a Maxedia digital media server being run by Jake Jevons. The i-Pix have the DMX signal split and sends it to the Pearl Expert which is being operated by Paul Moss.
All lighting equipment is being supplied by HSL. Other fixtures include six Robe ColorWash 250s and six MAC 250 Entours bought especially for the tour, plus two Unique Solutions hazers. Moss is also utilising a selection of available house lighting at each venue.
Other features he really loves about the Pearl Expert include the 10 playbacks per roller and the double row of Add and Swap buttons. "The capacity and functionality is massively increased from the standard Pearl, giving enormous flexibility at my fingertips - and it can operate much larger shows," he says. Apart from all these practical and operational reasons, he adds, there's also the back up, service and support from Avolites, which he says is "always fantastic".
Moss is also enjoying using the new console, "The Pearl has always been one of my favourite consoles anyway, and the Expert just takes it into a new dimension and league," he confirms.
(Chris Henry)
