Folk punk singer-songwriter Frank Turner recently played 4 vibrant and fully sold-out nights at London’s Roundhouse venue, performing 4 completely unique sets and presenting lighting designer Tom Mason-Smith with the task of creating 4 alternative lighting designs.

Mason-Smith company Dragonfly Lighting provided a Robe specials package including 12 MegaPointes, 24 Robe BMFLs, 24 Robe PATT 2013s and 12 Robe CycFX 8s to cover the 4 shows and assist him to make each one a personal and memorable experience for Turner’s eclectic and loyal fanbase. Tom also used elements of the house rig including 18 Robe LEDBeam 100s.

The second night was the 10th anniversary of Turner’s seminal Love, Ire & Song album, for which he and his band played the complete album.

Edging both sides of the backdrop, Mason-Smith positioned Robe PATT 2013s for a touch of retro, referencing the decade back in time, and lit backdrop highly effectively with 8 CycFX 8s which were extremely handy as they could be moved and zoomed extremely quickly to throw different effects onto the backdrop.

The 3rd night, Turner performed solo. Stripped back and raw in appearance, visual features included a smaller backdrop with a circular logo and a black behind it, surrounded by a square grid of PATT 2013s leaving a space in the centre.

Robe CycFX 8s were again concealed behind the backdrop so the colours and textures of the cloth could be varied using the 24 Robe BMFLs positioned on the upstage and mid trusses.

The 4th night was a collection of high energy tracks for which Tom needed a bit of flash-and-trash in the lights! Another backdrop was installed, this one with a bigger circle than for the solo set with additional CycFX 8s positioned to highlight its 40 ft. width. The backdrop was also dropped in lower so the upstage BMFLs could blast through for intense back-lighting effects.

6 Robe MegaPointes were rigged along each edge of the backdrop with a border of LEDs and blinders along the other 2 edges. Robe PATTs were prominent in all the designs at the insistence of production manager Dougie Murphy. With 14, rigged in the 2 strips were in action on night 2 and 24 on night three were arranged in the square grid formation.

Robe BMFL Spots stayed on their respective trusses throughout the 4 nights, while the 12 Robe MegaPointes changed positions but were in use for all shows.

“Having all these Robes to hand meant it was a very easy rig to use – I could use the BMFL Spots and MegaPointes for hard edge spots or warmer, softer more wash style sources … it was an extremely flexible rig, and these were the perfect tools”.

Dragonfly Lighting is an energetic and rapidly expanding young company based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK, which currently has a growing stock of exclusively Robe moving lights. Formed by Mason-Smith 5 years ago and run together with his wife, Stella, Dragonfly’s core vision is to supply lighting equipment and services geared towards the needs and demands of working lighting designers like himself.

Lighting Designer Steve Bewley was asked to light indie blues rock band Palace’s recent showcase gig at the Electric Brixton, London. He chose to use a Robe floor package that was supplied by Dragonfly Lighting.

Bewley chose eight Robe Spikies, eight LEDWash 300’s and eight CycFX 8’s, combined with elements of the Electric Brixton overhead house rig.

His design also included projections from the FOH over the band and onto a backdrop. He worked on this and the video content creation with Chris Jablonski of Tawbox.

Bewley could create big fields of light and combine them with different Spikie beam looks and effects from the back, with the Spikies being a recent purchase by Tom Mason at Dragonfly.

The prism effect was used to slice through the projections, while the Spikies were neatly tucked away around the sides and back of the risers, keeping them hidden from view but highly visible in effect.

The LEDWash 300’s were utilised for side light, contrasted with larger pools of light, and were also used for silhouetting.

CycFX 8’s were at the back of the stage, but by using the zoom, Bewley could bring them in as powerful backlighting or use them to create effects.

Palace are scheduled to be engaging in more live work throughout 2017.

Formed by LD Tom Mason-Smith three years ago and run together with his wife, Stella, Dragonfly’s core vision has been to supply lighting equipment and services geared towards the needs and demands of working lighting designers.

Tom was working for SBTRKT at the time he started Dragonfly, and was becoming increasingly frustrated by not being able to get the exact kit on his spec from assorted rental companies, so he thought he would buy it!

This quickly led to starting the company not just to service his own shows and projects, but to focus on LDs and offer a boutique, personal styled operation sourcing kit for anything from one-offs to complete international tours.

The Spikies grow the ever-increasing rental inventory of Robe which includes LEDWash 300s, Pointes and CycFX 8s.

Initially he’d started out with LED wash and beam fixtures from other brands, but these were soon swapped … first with LEDWash 300s - which is when he “fell in love” with Robe … and shortly afterwards his older beam fixtures were replaced with Robe’s popular multi-purpose Pointe.

The CycFX 8s he purchased off Robe’s PLASA stand in 2015 ... and this year, he followed the same procedure with the Spikies … which have been out constantly since the end of September.

He’s already cross rented them to a number of other LDs including Ollie Suckling (Maximo Park), Miles Weaver of Cue Design (Mura Masa) and Luke Edwards, founder of Cue Design (Gary Numan) among others.

As well as taking care of his expanding client base, Tom designs and operates his own shows and sub hires from Panalux Lighting. He also works with corporate clients as well as doing specialist projection and laser projects.

His clients include singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Theme Park for whom he is LD, and Boiler Room Productions, live division of the global online music broadcasting platform for which he production manages. They are well known for presenting and streaming DJ performances and webcasts from challenging and idiosyncratic locations.

One of the many things he likes about Robe is the good range of dynamic products and the excellent service, backup and support from Robe UK. “It’s rare to have an issue with any Robe kit, but if I ever need them to do anything, it’s dealt with super-quickly and efficiently … with a smile,” he says.

He’d already been using Robe for some time before he made the first investment and as he says, “Wherever you rock up in the word for the show … you know that if you see Robe fixtures there … they are going to work.’

Robe is now the only moving light brand that Dragonfly stocks.

Tom was born in the industry. His step-father owns a PA system and looked after the house  system at London’s famous Electric Ballroom, so he regularly saw shows there, and started lighting bands seriously aged about 15. There were only 18 PAR cans in the venue at that time, but he learned the basic groundwork of how even a small amount of lights can contribute to the ambience and drama of what’s happening onstage, and this fired the enthusiasm to make it his career.