It was just past 9 pm when UB40 took the stage at OVO’s Wembley arena on November 1. A short time later, perhaps a minute or two after the exuberant crowd settled down, the walls of the sold out arena reverberated with music, not just from the band, but also from the 12,000 or so fans who joined them in singing “Here I Am” And “Homely Girl.”
The audience continued to sing and sway to the rhythmic sounds of this multi-platinum UK reggae band throughout the rest of the 90-minute set. It’s been that way at every stop in the just-concluded 8-city UK leg of UB40’s international Red Red Wine tour. As music critic, after music critic has noted, it is virtually impossible not to sing-along to the wafting, welcoming cadence of this 11-piece band. That’s how it’s been for 45-years now — and it shows no sign of letting up.
Lighting designer, Martin Dudley. has been artfully supporting this magical connection between UB40 and their fans on this UK tour, which ended November 23 at Belfast’s SSE Arena. The owner of Martin’s Lights Ltd, Dudley is bringing the band closer to the audience through some adroit fixture placement, and the inspired use of CHAUVET Professional STRIKE 4 blinders and Rogue R2X Washes.
“The STRIKE 4’s are on the front truss as good old-fashioned crowd blinders, and the Rogue R2X washes are in three sets of four fixtures on the floor, one set behind each band riser,” detailed Dudley. “As everyone knows, there’s a lot of crowd participation in a UB40 show, so the blinders help the audience become part of things, in addition to helping the band see who they are singing to.”
“On this tour, the Rogue washes do a lot of traditional ACL-style looks from the floor,” continued Dudley. “Of course, with the Rogues, we’re able to do the crowd washing in different colors, and beam widths, as well as with movement, which helps us reflect the energy of the show.”
In addition to looking at nuts-and-bolts details, Dudley arranged his rig to ensure that fans have clear sight of the band regardless of where they’re sitting. “On this tour, we have a video screen that is 4.5m (14.8-feet) tall and its lower edge sits just above head height for practical reasons,” he said. “So, the lighting trusses are trimmed just above the top of the screen – around 6.5m (21.3- feet) for the back truss and a little higher for the mid truss. The front truss is as high as we can reasonably get it to be, because we do not want it blocking anybody’s view of the stage, even if they’re in the furthest away and highest seats.”
Also, engendering the sense of intimacy between the band and it fans is the clean look of the stage. There are no scenic pieces and minimal fixtures on the stage deck. Most of the floor lighting, as well as the ChamSys console used to run the show, which were taken from Martin’s Lights’ own inventory, are behind the risers.
“The only lights in front of the risers are six moving spots, all tucked away where they don’t cause any problems,” said Dudley. “There are a lot of band members and several of them are frequently moving between the stage and the risers. So, we don’t want to put any trip hazards in the way!”
Limiting the fixtures on the stage deck, Dudley created much of the visual excitement from his flown rig, which was supplied by Liverpool’s Adlib. “The excellent team of Will Sutcliffe and Tim Eastham from Adlib are doing a fantastic job looking after the lights,” said Dudley. “We are also lucky to have Nick Jackson looking after the video screen, and I have my long-term colleague Chris Davey from Touring Electrics Ltd setting up the floor lights.”
At the end of UB40’s UK tour, this team could look back on an excellent run. Now, they’re off on an 8-city EU run, which began November 26 in Luxembourg and ends in Berlin December 4th. As they tour the continent, they can be sure of at least two things – there’ll be a lot of singalongs, and it will be supported from some fan friendly light from a very talented designer.
