LD Sam Tozer creates industrial look with impression FR10 Bar

Essex-based rock band Nothing But Thieves recently completed a UK headline tour, with experienced LD Sam Tozer (of Vision Factory) masterminding their stage look, having been brought in to create a new style. He was working alongside lighting director Ryan Dennett and production manager Andrew Sweeney.

“We wanted to create a show that matched the new art direction of the latest album,” he explains. “We used elements of the set to create a clean look and add dynamics to the performance, with the lighting being revealed progressively throughout the set.” For this he turned to 30 of GLP’s super-bright impression FR10 Bar battens, explaining, “We wanted to create an industrial look onstage, and these units, which are bigger [than the X4 Bar 20 he used previously] did just that.”

The FR10 Bar contains 10 sources, each with a high-output 60 W RGBW LED that colour matches with the entire GLP X4 and FR series of fixtures. Each individual source features smooth, full-range colour mixing with strong, punchy output from a homogenised Fresnel lens. Along with individual colour control, the FR10 Bar contains a series of built-in colour macros and a large reference of industry standard colour filters.

Tozer had first been exposed to the FR10 at the Glitterbox live stream from the Royal Albert Hall. After using GLP’s award-winning impression X4 Bar 20 on previous productions, he said: “I could definitely see a set role for these.”

Aside from their sheer output, Sam Tozer has other reasons for favouring the FR10. “The narrowness of the beam allows me to create pixel-shaped beams across the stage, without worrying about them being blown out,” he explains.

Also in the rig are a large quantity of JDC1, GLP’s hybrid strobe, which are used to surround the set and band, with Christie Lites the lighting vendors.

Piloting and programming the show was the band’s long-term collaborator, Ryan Dennett, who had also co-designed the opening show at Birmingham Academy.

Sam Tozer now moves onto a succession of what he describes as other major projects. “There is some big stuff happening soon, and it will feature a lot of GLP products,” he promises.