Guy Sebastian has just completed his first national arena tour, bringing the edgy and urban vibes from his latest ‘Madness’ album into the scene bigger than before.
Being aware of taking the risk to fill up Australian arenas with the competition as good as Paul Simon & Sting, The Eagles, Foo Fighters or Kylie Minogue touring around the same time, Sebastian didn’t hold back. He has always put amazing amounts of energy and effort into his live shows and with this tour he really brought the house down with the Madness!
Once again Guy Sebastian worked closely on the designs and visuals with Bruce Ramus – one of the leading lighting designers who has directed countless international live shows and events including U2, REM, David Bowie and Bryan Adams. “I wanted to keep the staging very simple and strong. The visuals were meant to convey and reveal light and life, in its myriad forms, connected to the music while at the same time providing our own artistic response,” explains Bruce.
He used four massive screens behind the band for projecting his creative visuals which amplified the messages and feelings transformed into Sebastian’s lyrics. He also incorporated a montage of photos capturing the special moments and early days of Sebastian’s career, displaying them alongside his older songs.
The lighting rig featured 25 Robe BMFL Spots, eleven of them were on the front truss illuminating the stage and another 11 were positioned across the stage behind the platforms, while remaining 3 BMFLs were used as follow Spots for the entire show. Twenty Robin POINTEs were mainly used to create unique arial effects along with 24 Robin 600 LEDWashes enhancing the atmosphere on the stage and in the arena.
Simon Junior Johnson was behind the GrandMA 2 lighting console operating the lights. It was the first time he used BMFL Spots. “They are awesome fixtures”, comments Simon. “We were using them only at about 50% of their power and they were extremely bright”.
All the Robe fixtures were supplied by MPH Australia with Mick Parsons managing the crew.
The tour kicked off in Wollongong and traveled across six major Australian cities. Just when the ‘Madness’ tour had finished, Guy Sebastian was announced as the Australian entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, making him the first artist to represent Australia in the competition.
