Robe Projects

The Darkness and Black Stone Cherry tore through UK arenas this year, delighting fans on a short but memorable co-headliner. This also united two lighting designers who were working together for the first time and 132 x Robe moving lights plus three RoboSpot systems supplied by lighting vendor Zig Zag Lighting. Lighting designers Mark Scrimshaw (Black Stone Cherry) and David Garcia (The Darkness) pooled their specs, ideas and imaginations to create an overhead lighting rig that would work for both LDs and their respective artists, based on what Zig Zag largely had available from stock.

The shared overhead rig was populated with Robe BMFL Spots, Blades and WashBeams, Robe Spiiders and MegaPointes. These were flown on three main trusses measuring 15, 16.5 and 18 metres wide to add depth and perspective to the stage space, plus two auxiliary pre-rigged trusses hung in front of the two upstage trusses to accommodate the BMFL Spots. The numbers added up to 15 BMFL Spots, 34 MegaPointes and 32 Spiiders, all chosen, together with 22 strobe zoom bars, to provide ‘base lighting’ needed to cover the stage. The front truss featured eight BMFL Blades plus six BMFL WashBeams which were paired up on the three RoboSpot BaseStations positioned side stage. A central BMFL Spot enabled The Darkness’ to project their logo onto their backdrop.