UK-based lighting designer Ed Warren, created a disco atmosphere during the Metronomy’s one-off gig at London’s iconic Alexandra Palace. Warren’s concept was strobe-heavy and vibrantly glittered, built around the fantastic and exciting Clay Paky Stormy CC.
Warren rigged the 13 Stormy CC strobes in a ring high above centre stage, and out over the crowd, where he used them to deliver beat-perfect strobe stabs and a range of intensely colourful audience blinding effects. The lighting was supplied by GLS Lighting.
The Stormy CC uses the latest LED technology, with the light source a strip of powerful RGBW LEDs that are able to flash in any colour. This mitigates the need for gels or unreliable scrollers, which are known to dramatically reduce the amount of light a strobe produces. “The great thing about the Stormy is that, unlike similar fixtures, they do not look or feel like LED strobes but have that conventional strobe look,’ continues Warren. This is attributed to the Stormy’s built-in parabolic reflector, a feature of classic strobes, which means it does not project the light directly forward like other LED strobes do. However, unlike a strobe with a Xenon lamp, the Stormy’s frequency, duration and intensity of the pulse are fully digitally controlled and these parameters are independently adjustable.
Thanks to its highly sophisticated electronics, the light turns on and off instantly, creating the jerky movement illusion.
Warren’s design filled the venue with light, thanks to the beautiful reflective disco balls hanging from the palace’s roof, which worked alongside the Stormy CCs to evoke a club vibe.
“I had also placed three Stormy CCs on stage behind the band’s backline and set pieces, using them to silhouette the band in deep washes of colour, as well as employing their strobe function,’ says Warren. “I also programmed a number of chases between the strobes in the rig which created a disorientating array of shadows and light.’
