HSL supplied full lighting production and crew to the recent War Child concerts at Manchester Apollo and Brixton Academy, hosted and curated by Keane, who were joined by special guests.

The lighting rig was designed by Keane’s LD Rob Sinclair, with whom HSL have worked on many past projects, and the event was co-ordinated for HSL by Mike Oates.

Keane wanted a completely different looking lightshow from their touring one, and the rig had to be diverse enough to deal with a variety of artists including The Pet Shop Boys, Lily Allen, The Magic Numbers, The Guillemots and more. It also had to be expediently budgeted as the whole idea was to raise money and awareness for War Child – which is dedicated to helping children living in war torn countries.

This gig marked the launch of War Child’s Iraq Appeal, a new initiative to raise £1.5 million to give immediate help to children and their families in Iraq.

In addition to all these criteria, Sinclair also had to light the Brixton show and venue for TV, as it was recorded and broadcast 3 days later on Channel Four, directed by Matthew Amos.

“Mike and Simon at HSL did us an amazing deal and gave us many, many more lights than our wallet should have allowed” says Sinclair “I was even honoured to have Mike Oates come out of the office and crew chief the show. He and the rest of the team worked so hard over an extremely long day and met all of my many outlandish requests with a smile.”

Mike Oates adds, “We are completely behind organisations like War Child, and were very happy to be involved in the event, and do all we could to ensure Keane, War Child, Rob and all the other artists had the best show possible”.

The rig was based around 5 flown trusses – four over the stage and one in the house, which was used primarily for audience lighting and for set washes onto Brixton Academy’s famous “village” above its pros arch.

On the advanced truss were 8 Vari*Lite 1000s and four 4-lite blinders. For lighting the audience from the back of the auditorium, 4 bars of ACLs were rigged on the top of the Academy’s (alcohol serving) bar structures.

The stage was divided into two performance spaces – upstage and downstage - separated by a red velour curtain. Red drapes were also part of the on stage design, chosen because they matched the maroon of the War Child Logo.

Moving lights were 58 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs. These were distributed across all the over-stage trusses, with 6 ColorWash fixtures upstage on the floor along with 6 Atomic strobes.

Sixteen 4-lite Moles were distributed across all the trusses, and Sinclair also used 6 Lowell Omni floods - a personal favourite - along the front edge of the stage. Other lighting included 9 Source Four profiles for key lighting and gobo projections, and 9 bars of 6 PARs.

Sinclair used a Jands Vista console to light Keane and to run all the TV lighting, while Tim Oliver operated stage lighting for all the other bands and artists using a WholeHog 3.

“War Child is a wonderful charity very close to the hearts of all of us in the Keane camp and I’m extremely grateful to all our regular and valued suppliers for doing us so many favours.” says Sinclair.

HSL’s crew for the event were Tim Oliver, Andy Hilton, Gabriel Crosse, Dan Tiley, Rupert Reynolds and Mike Oates.

HSL also supplied 3 Robert Juliat Cyrano followspots.

Other companies contributing to make the shows happen included Lite Alternative who supplied a Jands Vista, XL Video, who supplied FOH projectors, Scenographic, who supplied the Catalyst digital media server storing and playing back all the video clips and inserts and Skan, who dealt with all things audio.

Hangman manufactured the War Child backdrop and custom flooring, co-ordinated by Sam Booker and Steve Connolly at Rosco created a fantastic set of War Child gobos which will also be used for future events.

About War Child’s Iraq Appeal

War Child is the last remaining international child protection agency in southern Iraq and is determined to continue its work helping children and their families. The humanitarian crisis in Iraq is escalating, and surviving amidst conflict and upheaval is taking its toll, hitting children the hardest.

1 child dies every 5 minutes because of the war.

4 million Iraqis have been displaced, many are denied access to basic health, education, shelter, water and sanitation.

8.2 million are dependent on unsustainable food rations.

About 50% of children are not going to school.

£1.5 million – the cost of 2 or 3 average Cruise missiles - will secure War Child’s programme for three years, enabling them to protect hundreds of thousands of children.