Photo Credit: Simon Lee
Leeds based Lighting and Production designer Luke Tripp, of Eleven Creative UK, recently deployed Martin ERA 800 Performance and Martin ERA 600 Performance fixtures for the band The Slow Readers Club. Specialising in indie and rock live events, Luke has worked with the band for 3 years, with this being the first time the ERAs have been used on the show.
“I’ve only used Martin kit at festivals previously,” Luke explained, “so this was the first time I’d got to play properly with Martin fixtures – and I loved pretty much everything about them!”
All specified as a floor-package, four ERA 800s were positioned at back of stage, with a pair of ERA 600 positioned each stage left and stage right.
The first thing to impress was their brightness. “The useable output of the ERA 600 in particular really surprised me.” he said. The 800W LED engine of the ERA 800 delivers 34,000 lumen output, with the 550W ERA 600 delivering 19,000 lumen output (a real-world output very similar to a MAC Viper).
Photo Credit: Simon Lee
Coupled with the brightness, pretty much every aspect of the fixtures was put to use. In fact, it was the sheer versatility of each of the ERAs that the LD described as “like having two fixtures in one.”
“I loved the mixing and colour palette., he continued, “The fact that the 800 and 600 are perfectly matched with colour and temperature is a real benefit, and the dimming curves were really super smooth. I loved the strobe, the zoom range, the animation wheel, and the gobos!”
The ERA 600s side of stage predominantly provided gobo washes on the band, occasionally shot out into the audience to hit a glitter ball. The ERA 800s were positioned back of stage with Luke describing their use in providing a fast transition from a super-tight beam with Iris into a huge stage-filling gobo as a highlight of the programming.
The Slow Readers Club have a number of summer dates still to come, with the band also playing a series of gigs in venues in their hometown of Manchester in December 2023.
Alongside Eleven Creative, control and logistics for the gig was handled by DSM Productions.
For more information please visit https://www.elevencreative.uk/ and https://www.theslowreadersclub.co.uk/
For more information on Martin ERA please visit https://www.soundtech.co.uk/professional-lighting/martin/era-series/era-performance
