Mumford & Sons have circled the globe with a tour before the tour series of shows. These are a series of ‘underplays’ by the band in ‘small’ venues in a few major cities to help them warm up and to promote their new album Rushmere, which is out next week.
The band and crew started in Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, London, Sydney, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, and finally Brooklyn. Fortunately, the band flew the crew business class, put them up in excellent hotels and gave them some downtime between shows!
“The new album is a hark back to their classic sound, and as with all the other shows, the brief was to go back to a ‘classic Mumford’ look based on what we used to do 15 years ago when we were starting,” commented their long-time lighting designer Ed Warren. “Warm looks, festoon lighting over the crowd etc.”
The complete design wouldn’t fit into all the venues (especially the smaller rooms in Europe), and Ed designed the setup with this in mind. Finding creative ways to hang the festoons in each room was a challenge, especially as some venues can be a bit wary about hanging things over the audience. However, they soon won them over.
Ed’s rig included 37 x ACME Tornados, four 5k fresnels, four 2k fresnels, seven strings of festoons with LED tungsten lightbulbs, and six Robe BMFL followspots with three base stations. Alligator Dynamic Drapes supply the red drapes.
The ACME Tornado has five individual light heads featuring pan and tilt movement, each with independent control. A ring of 120 x 0.5W RGB LEDs encircles the fixture. Fourteen Tornados are placed in a straight line upstage behind the risers, nine on the downstage edge of the drum, brass and banjo risers, and fourteen Tornados on the downstage edge.
“I use these to create big washes on the stage from the front and behind,” explained Ed. “I use them to frame the stage in thin beams/pillars of light. My favourite trick is using downstage Tornados to project the band’s silhouettes onto the back curtain to give a cinematic feel.”
For the Sydney show at the Sydney Opera House, the ACME Tornados were substituted with GLP X4 Bars, another favourite fixture of Eds.
“The 5k fresnels are all upstage and are cinematic audience blinders,” continued Ed. “The 2k fresnels I use as side light. The followspots are for the three principal band members (two spots per person), and festoons are for the audience!”
Ed uses his own Chamsys MQ500M on all worldwide dates, programming everything at home in his previs studio. He would download live versions of each song, create cue stacks within the Cuepoints app, upload these into the desk, as well as the audio, and play back and program each song entirely from the desk.
“I use Depence 3 and Capture as visualisers,” he added. “I know the songs so well that it doesn’t take me too long as I know what works. Obviously, I’m constantly updating and enhancing the show as the tour goes on, but to go into rehearsals with a reliable base showfile is always the dream.”
There’s a reason why Ed’s worked for sixteen years with Mumford & Sons. Simply put, they’re great guys, trust him, and have a fantastic crew.
“The shows on this run have been some of the best they’ve ever done, in no part down to the incredible venues,” said Ed. “Sydney Opera House was a dream come true for me, such a special theatre and show. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the full design for this summer!”
Chameleon Touring Systems supplied the rig in Australia, Neg Earth in the UK, and Solotech in the US.
