03.08.2017 | Elation Lighting on Daryl Hall & John Oates / Tears for Fears Tour

Includes debut of new Chorus Line 16 pixel bar. ACL 360 Rollers and Cuepix Blinders also in use.

Two iconic bands, American duo Daryl Hall & John Oates and English pop band Tears for Fears, united for a joint tour that had the trans-Atlantic pairing touring North America through July beneath a rig that included Elation Professional lighting effects. The lighting design team of Matt Geasey and Jesper Luth used Elation’s ACL 360 Roller and Cuepix Blinder series fixtures in the design for the Hall & Oates performance while Tears for Fears lighting designer Alex Reardon is one of the first anywhere to use Elation’s new Chorus Line 16 pixel bar wash luminaire.

Hall & Oates
Lighting vendor for the Daryl Hall & John Oates / Tears for Fears tour is full service production company Morris of Nashville, Tennessee. Morris has worked with Hall & Oates for the past two years, fulfilling the same role on the band’s 2016 outing as they do on the current tour. Prior to this 2017 tour, Morris worked closely with Hall & Oates lighting director Jesper Luth to make the band’s vision become a reality. Luth and the Morris team spent significant time in Morris’s 500 sq. ft. pre-visualization suite, where they were able to simulate the exact lighting design that the audience would see during the live performance. Working in collaboration with Luth, Morris added 12 ACL 360 Rollers and 12 Cuepix Blinder WW2s to the 2017 set to go along with 24 Cuepix Blinder WW4s.

“I was originally looking to fill a space in our lighting carts, something that was a wash type fixture,” Luth explains. “John Dunn [Elation National Sales Manager] recommended a couple different types of fixtures and the ACL 360 Roller was a perfect effect light.” The ACL 360 Rollers are unique 4-bar LED moving battens with full 360° pan and tilt rotation and individual pixel control. They were added to the set for eye candy purposes and are positioned in set carts for easy on and off transporting.

Working stage right and stage left of the upstage wall, Luth says that on songs like ‘Maneater’ the ACL 360 Rollers do a red chase with slow movement while for ‘Sara Smile’ the pan is turned 90 degrees and the fixtures streak the set carts. Then for songs like ‘No Can Do” they use the fixture’s continuous pan and tilt spin ability to go “full disco.”

Tears for Fears
First shown at the InfoComm trade show in Orlando in June, 36 of Elation’s new Chorus Line 16 pixel bar wash luminaires get one of their first work outs on the Tears for Fears half of the show. LD Alex Reardon explains the role that the new pixel bars play in the design. “This was a very linear design and I was looking for a batten fixture that helped me delineate areas and expand on that linear nature. I chose the upstage flown, upstage floor, and downstage edge lines to create a tiered moveable ‘box’ of light that encompassed the two flown LED boxes.”

The Chorus Line 16 pixel bar wash houses 16 powerful 40W RGBW LEDs that allows for use on large stage performances like the Tears for Fears show and includes enough punch to compete with bright LED video screens. It is an ideal stage wash or foot light solution for television or concert applications and features full pixel control for direct eye candy looks. Motorized zoom optics mean it can be used to light set objects and cycs and a 220° tilt motor function lets designers position or move the unit dynamically during a show.

“There are a few companies that provide a comparable product, each of whom match reliability and accuracy of movement,” Reardon states. “However, in terms of brightness and price point - vital with any budget conscious show - the Chorus Line won the day. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed using them and am happy to sing their praises to other designers.”

David Haskell, President of lighting vendor Morris, commented, “The Chorus Line 16 has great performance with a good zoom function and the reliability is fantastic. The brightness of the LED is excellent and when viewed head on it is aesthetically pleasing to look at.”

There is a plethora of other intelligent lights in the Tears for Fears rig, which includes four of Elation’s Cuepix Blinder WW4s. Housing 4 long-life 100W warm white 3,200K COB LEDs, they give a bright, high-density output that mimics the look of an incandescent source but with a fraction of the power requirements.

The Daryl Hall & John Oates / Tears for Fears tour is getting lots of praise and turning out to be one of this summer’s surprise outings. With a long list of singalong hits that have proven a treat for fans at every stop, perhaps it shouldn’t be.

Photos courtesy of Morris

About Morris
Morris’ approach is simple: every application is different, so the most effective lighting and sound solutions need to be customized to be truly impactful. From light and sound experiences for multi-stage festivals, conferences, and sold-out stadiums to integrating equipment and system designs that create dynamic immersive events in churches and corporations, Morris takes the time to consult, strategize and thoroughly design an audio-visual environment tailored to each client's goals. With over 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry outfitting tours for world-renowned artists like Alabama and Kenny Chesney, Morris is a premier audio and lighting provider and installer, working with clients across the globe. For more information, visit experiencemorris.com