BIG LIGHTING NAMES COMBINE TO MAKE TEENAGE SOUL STAR'S FIRST HEADLINE TOUR A HUGE SUCCESS

Teenage soul sensation Joss Stone is currently touring the UK and Europe in support of her second album, Mind Body & Soul. The lighting for the show is a co-design between Siyan's Bryan Leitch and James Thompson, a lighting design/technical graduate of the Central School of Speech & Drama.

Leitch initially specified an Avolites Sapphire 2000 console for the tour because they wanted a powerful console that was good for 'live' operation, although Thompson didn't need much persuading - he has used Avo desks since the start of his professional career.

While much of the show is planned cues, the organic and jazzy nature of Stone's set also means certain elements of the performance lend themselves to the lighting being improvised, in tune with the mood of the show and audience, and the nature of the room. "It's great," Thompson said of the desk. "It does everything I need, it's rock solid and reliable."

The kit being controlled by the Sapphire - all supplied by Siyan - includes eight of the new SGM Giotto Spot 400 CMYs (for gobo projections, break up and colour work), 16 Martin MAC 600s (eight on the front truss and eight on the rear), and 11 Source Four profiles, all with 19¡ lenses, used for key-lighting the band and three backing vocalists. There are also eight James Thomas Pixelline 1044 battens up-lighting the backdrop made from white silk in Austrian curtain style. This makes for some interesting special effects, specially with two-colour wash combinations with light sources mixed from the rear truss MACs and from the floor-based Pixellines.

For the London showcase at Brixton Academy, extra lighting was supplied in the form of six of the new Robe 1200 ColorWash AT fixtures - making their UK debut. The personalities for these were downloaded into the Sapphire so Thompson could programme with effortlessly into his show as soon as the rig was up-and-running.

Thompson reported that the ColorWashes were practical and manageable fixtures with which to work. He also found plenty of scope for the zoom features, and thought the colour changing facilities were excellent, along with their ability to create "beautiful" colours and split-colours using the ColorWash's two-wheel colour mixing system.

The tour is also using a rugged Avolites ART dimming rack, complete with hot power modules for the moving lights and LEDs, all packaged in an elegant, single mainframe power and distribution solution.

Thompson is working alongside crew mate Rob Gardiner, and sound for this leg is being supplied by Britannia Row.