UK - The Last Dinner Party is a British indie rock band formed in 2021 and fronted by lead singer Abigail Morris. Promoting their new album, Prelude to Ecstasy, the band has just completed a two-month UK and EU tour with a theatrical set, and lighting design by award-winning LD, Ed Warren.
Key to Warren’s design were Ayrton Rivale Profiles and Kyalami laser-sourced spots, compact units which fit well into the touring rig. Warren used seven Rivale Profile and 12 Kyalami on the stage floor behind the band and 27 Rivale Profile and 24 Kyalami spread across three overhead trusses.
“For our spots we needed something with a nice wide zoom and smooth colour mixing as the main spots of the show,” says Warren. “The Rivale Profiles met these criteria very well. We used the floor spots to backlight the band and predominantly Abi, the lead singer. We used the truss spots to spot the band members from behind, picking them out for their important solos. There are some wonderful moments where Abi is downstage centre and picked out with nothing but a wide Rivale Profile spot from upstage.
“It was also important to be able to match the colours of the other LED fixtures in the set: the Rivales have a very good CTO/tungsten colour which was able to do this well.”
The Kyalami fixtures were used for the more grandiose effects, creating some majestic moments in the performance and heightening the more celebratory points, as well as crisply picking out the mirrorball from above and below.
“I wanted a fixture with crisp, clear beams and was interested in trying out the Kyalami because of its compactness,” states Warren. “The style of this show was very theatrical with a hand painted backdrop and set pieces, so to have a lot of ‘robots’ sticking their heads up just wouldn’t have worked! The compact nature of the Kyalami fixtures mean they were barely visible when not used. They're discreet and neat and it was good to have a light that doesn't look like a light. I hope eventually all lights become as inconspicuous.”
The Ayrton fixtures were supplied with the tour’s full lighting rig by LCR who leapfrogged a B and C rig for the UK dates, an A rig for the London dates and a D rig for the European shows – all of which contained the Ayrton consignment. “I’ve used LCR for a number of projects this year,” says Ed. “They’re a great bunch of people to work with, super helpful, organised and communicative. They’re not afraid of innovation and efficiency and are always on hand throughout should something need changing or swapping out.”
“It was a pleasure to work on the show with Ed, Nick and James,” replies Rob Watson, senior account manager for LCR. “All four versions of this wonderful design complimented the band and the feel of the show. It was great to see the versatility of what Rivale brings, and how Kyalami produced big sharp beam looks whilst also being compact enough to fit all the diferent-sized venues.”
“I couldn’t have done this without the hard work from the tour’s lighting director, Franki McDade, touring lighting tech, Aidan Cartmell, production manager, James Kazeeze and tour manager, Nick Jenkin,” concludes Warren. “They totally smashed it.”
