Geoff Buckley has invested in a new Avolites Pearl Expert console, which had its first outing
on the recent James UK tour.

This saw the original band, headed by charismatic front man Tim Booth, perform live for the first time in nearly 6 years – to great critical and popular acclaim.

Geoff – also known as “Tea-and-Toast” on tour - has worked for the band for the last 18 years. They hit the road again after a substantial break, with a new energy and vitality, plus a new album due out later in the year. These initial gigs were to test the water and interest in their loyal fan-base, which has very much proved to be still bubbling for them even after this substantial break.

He received no specific creative brief for the James show, other than the fact that – as with
all artists on the road today - they expected a bigger and better production than that of
the last tour at the end of 1990s!

While news of the reunion reverberated with great enthusiasm among James fans around the country, tuning into this vibe, Buckley reverted to his first three golden rules for successful medium-sized stage lighting design, “Does it fit in the gig, in the truck and in the budget!”.

As has always been the case with James, the set list changed dramatically each night, so the best way to run the shows was to busk them – again absolutely ideal circumstances for
the Pearl Expert.

“I think the split roller is pure genius” says Geoff “it’s great for ‘mixing and matching’.” He maximises the facility by running all his moving lights on one side of the roller and all
the generics on the other.

There were 14 Atomic strobes, used strategically on a couple of numbers, plus PARs, plus
20 Source Four profiles and 20 Source Four Parnels with the new ChromaQ Plus scrollers
offering 20 different colours.

Then there were 8 “Fag-Pods”, consisting of 9-lite DWEs with an atomic strobe in the middle and a large scroller covering the whole fixture.