Lighting designer Paul ‘Pauly’ Owen has worked with The Hilltop Hoods for many years and for this tour his only brief was to make it bigger than last time.
“We had tossed around themes like circles but this was passed over after a little exploring, mainly because circles are inherently hard to tour and quite limiting to use effectively for an hour-and-a-half show,” commented Pauly. “That being said, we as a creative team have had and held an agreement since when I first started working with the boys. The agreement revolved around a conversation about the Hoods being the Kings of Aussie Hip Hop, and that every time we go out with a new cycle of touring, we set the bar higher each time. To inspire the next generation of Aussie Hip Hoppers. So really, mutual understanding is the underlying brief for this current show.
“On the subject of briefs, sometimes the lads will have a quick brief for a new song, although not always. As a quick example of notes for a song, I’ll address Cosby Sweater. This song is framed around the concept of The Cosby Sweater, a multi-coloured knitted woollen jumper, made famous by Biggie Smalls. The multi-coloured jumper got a nickname because a generation earlier Bill Cosby wore the same sort of multi-coloured woollen jumpers too. So the spec given to me for that song from the band was go nuts with colours, a multi-coloured approach.”
Pauly says that it is interesting that often their brief for a new song is the same as his initial visual ideas. These moments, experienced regularly, really help cement why this live show team is successful. They are all on the same page.
Pauly adds that with an arena show, he always wants to reach the very back row in the nosebleeds because if you can reach them with your show, everyone forward to them will be entertained too. With this in mind, his flavour of design for the arenas is to create a rig that is already interesting to look at, even before you deliver a show with it.
“It creates an anticipation if you will,” he said. “Once this design is conceptualised, I then start applying the bits and light arrangements I need to suit the Hoods show. I’ve been tinkering and perfecting the look of these songs for a long time and there are some key elements I need in any rig to help deliver the best Hoods show.”
Pauly wanted to utilize the branding/logo as a show feature; firstly as a design principle but secondly knowing that so many photos end up on social media, and so many of those photos are recognisable as an HTH show. Consequently, he had a 6m HTH sign made and also the DJ surround set piece was a 3D HTH logo set piece. The logos featured LED Pixels as a way to reach the folks up the back. Along with a double band of pixel LED on the two sets pieces, there were LED strips around the feature lines of the stage. The range and usage of LED elements helped put on a show for the whole arena to enjoy.
There were two thrusts for the boys to get closer to more of the crowd and to give that feeling of being in the room with the crowd.
“I also wanted great access for the boys to get up to the DJ so I include two L-shaped ramps up the back and high up to DJ Debris in the centre, upstage,” explained Pauly. “This gave the two MCs a chance to run up to their DJ and gave them some dynamic to utilise because they always run around the whole stage.”
These L-shaped ramps help frame the band, which was nestled in front of the DJ riser and set piece. The guest vocalist would feature in the centre of the band riser, in front of the LED set piece, which would backlight her in an interesting and photogenic way.
As with most tours, the budget was a challenge with all the goalposts changing as they moved through the design process. With inflation going up, logistics cost changing and also labour cost and availability all now needing more attention and chunks of the budget, these were the changing goalposts.
“Also, looking back on it, I was probably a bit out of touch, after Covid times, with big shows and making them fit all conditions,” admitted Pauly. “So I had bigger pipe dreams, of course, but a little less aware of how to get the dream into our current reality. In saying all this. I love these challenges and conditions. This is what helps shape our show into its final and true shape.”
The rig was supplied by MPH Australia and Pauly says he even had the honour and pleasure of having Mick Parsons come to do the tour.
“I’ve been long-time friends with both Matt Hanson and Mick Parsons so it was a delight to be working with them on this tour,” remarked Pauly. “And they delivered on it, for me.”
The rig consisted of:
90-odd channels of Molefay Blinders, old-school dimmer ones that are essential for a Pauly/Hoods show.
23 x Robe Robin BMFLs
28 x Robe Robin 600 LED Wash
13 x High End SHAPESHIFTERS C1
20 x ShowPRO Neptune Hybrid (Spot/Beam)
31 x ShowPRO Collider LED Strobes
10 x Ayrton Eurus Spots
10 x Ayrton Bora Wash lights
20 x Sunstrips (LED)
15 x GLP X4 Bar 20s
12 x Ayrton Magic Blades
10 x Robe Robin 100s
4 x Follow Spots (House Spots)
2 x BMFL Robo Spot/ Follow Spot systems
There were also the Pixel LED strips installed into the two set pieces in the shape of the Hoods logo; 972 pixels (RGB) on the top/flown HTH sign and 1021 pixels (RGB) on the DJ surround set piece.
Pauly was running the show on an Avolites Sapphire with an Avolites Tiger Touch II running the LED set triggered off the Sapphire.
“My role is to reflect and to enhance the music/songs, music is made by humans and so I want my light shows to feel human too,” said Pauly. “So I deliver the show through the faders on a console. I love hitting those moments in the song. It feels like I am painting with light live. It’s art in progress, not just the lights, but the whole gig experience. The band, the crowd, the tech, and the crew. Every human there is helping create the moment(s) and memories – that is live music. I love my part in all that and by using the faders to hit my cues on point, it makes the show feel human.”
Pauly did the programming a month before kick-off at home in a makeshift Visualizer studio (his sculpture studio) running Capture and an Avolites Tiger Touch II.
“I am clear on my own internal visualised ideas and want to make sure I get them out properly, hence why I spend so much time programming my shows,” he said. “As I said earlier, I ran a second console to run the LED set which would prove too hard to do live while operating. We set up the Tiger Touch to be triggered from the Sapphire. The Sapphire was the main console I operated from and the Tiger Touch ran the LED set. Never having done triggers before I sought help from Sean McKernan (Showtools International) and Chris McCann (LD for The Presets) who helped no end, and I’m grateful for their guidance.”
The video was kept fairly simple this time with the main LED screen for content and left and right IMAG screens. Whilst the IMAG screens showed live feeds, the main screen displayed straightforward content and live feeds of stage cameras to highlight the live elements of the band and DJ in action. Brad Hurle set up many stage cameras and ran a live edit to the main stage screen, off the live cams on stage.
When asked about his favourite lighting moment in the show, Pauly says that what comes to mind first, is a cue he calls Crazy Bit in the second last song of the set.
“It’s a huge look that comes up a couple of times during the set and it’s just a big, fun cue and moment that rocks the whole arena!” he replied. “I have the whole rig flashing red and white while a crazy pan effect scans the room, all while the song hits a rocking bit.
“Another favourite moment, but not necessarily a lighting moment, is the first drop of the first song. It is such an exciting moment in the show, mainly because we launch a huge shot of streams into the room. It’s an absolute “gosh” moment, which captures the audience. Lastly, the whole Cosby Sweater song is just so much fun, from my end, and all round. It’s fun to do the lights because it’s such crazy random coloured lighting, especially in the chorus. It goes against everything you learn to do as a live band LD, but it works so well for the song. The song closes the show so it leaves everyone feeling like an absolute party, and helps finish on a highlight. I also run a random coloured pixel map through the LED set, which I nicknamed Cosby Spew. Again it’s a rule breaker, lighting-wise, but it works. It’s a fun look to a fun song.”
