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Arlo Parks on tour with Robe Esprites

Lighting designer Tom Campbell from creative collective Mirrad started working with British singer-songwriter and poet Arlo Parks mid-2021. The first gig was at Manchester Central for two sold out - socially distanced and masked - nights during Manchester International Festival, for which Campbell created an adaptable design that could then be re-scaled in either direction for a string of shows that followed.

At the heart of the lighting were Robe Esprite moving lights. For a showcase gig at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Campbell utilised 22 x Robe Esprites at the core of the lighting rig. Eighteen of these were rigged off to the sides - in the boom positions - on four-metre-high modular H-frames deployed as far offstage and out of sight as possible given the limited wing space. The aim was to conceal all the lightsources, which were used for beam effects and for washing the six-piece band among other tasks. The other four Esprites were on the rear truss for back lighting onto the band and artist.

The tour design included A, B and C rig versions to deal with the variety of venues. Up to three Esprites were run on a Robe RoboSpot remote follow spotting system for the tour. One at the rear for the smaller shows was boosted to three for the A rig version, with the addition of two more on drop-down bars either side of the front truss. These were often run at between 10 and 25%.

Tom Campbell operated all lighting, including LED bars and pendant lights on mic stands using a new Avolites Diamond 9 console, with Jaz Hewitt looking after operating on some shows. A custom cyc was made for the tour complete with an aluminium framed gauze circle in the middle that brought extra depth and dimension to the look.

The lighting vendor was Fareham, Hampshire-based Liteup, with project managers Dan Bunn and Marc Callaghan (also the company founder and CEO). Several lighting technicians worked with Campbell over the course of all the shows, including David Peters, James Gardner, Luke Hornbuckle, and Nick Moxley. FOH sound engineer was Chris Parker.

(Photos: Luke Dyson)

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