Robe Lights Deployed For Guns N' Roses Tour

Experienced lighting designer Phil Ealy has deployed Robe's moving lights for Guns N' Roses' 'Not In This Lifetime' tour.

In order to create classic rock lighting and visual design, Mr Ealy used a range of contemporary technology.

He chose Robe moving lights to play a major role in the lighting scheme with the stadium version of the rig featuring 74 x BMFL WashBeams – five used as truss follow spots, 32 x BMFL Spots, three BMFL Blades and ten Pointes.

The BMFLs are rigged in the various trusses over the stage. The tour's 'universal' lighting rig also includes 9 custom made lighting pods and a floor package.

The BMFL Spots are generally used to light the stage and the audience in a wide variety of gobos and colors, with the WashBeams being the true workhorses of the rig.

They are programmed into a number of distinctive groups, so they are not all doing the same thing at the same time.

The BMFL Blades are used as primary key lighting for the drummer and keyboardists, where the shutters are perfect for fine-focusing the output.

Upstaging is the touring lighting vendor in the US and Neg Earth in Europe.

The Pointes are owned by West Coast Visuals, Mr Ealy's equipment company, and are part of the universal floor package that travels everywhere that the band are playing, including all the festival gigs where they are using a range of different 'top' rigs. The Pointes are used for creating different effects and looks and to accent certain parts of the songs 'You Could Be Mine' and 'November Rain'.

The style of the set design has its roots in the original 'Use Your Illusion' tour, a famous snapshot of rock 'n roll history from 1991 – 93.

The GNR band members all felt comfortable with the basic architecture and overall feel of the original set design, so Mr Ealy took this as his starting point and brought it up-to-date with the most recent lighting and visuals including the BMFLs and adding video to the set fascias.

Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan all have different managements, so Mr Ealy's initial challenge back in 2016 included getting all three to agree on a viable aesthetic for the tour.

The tour's universal lighting rig has been adapted for several legs including the most recent European section, and it has seen a number of permutations in other parts of the world, all in keeping with the same vintage big-rock-show styling.

A grandMA2 platform is used for lighting control, and their consoles are also part of the universal lighting rig that travels worldwide.

Various combinations of crew from both Neg Earth and Upstaging have been working on different parts of the tour to have technicians familiar with the rig onboard.

'Not In This Lifetime' is currently the fourth largest grossing tour ever, based on Billboard's Boxscore archives. Dates are scheduled to continue throughout 2018.

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