Steven Douglas Designs Amble's First Headline Arena Show With CHAUVET Professional

	"We wanted to move away from the convention of a large upstage rectangular screen for this show and have the focus remain on the musicians and the music," Douglas says.

In December, the fast-rising Irish folk band Amble marked a new milestone, capping off a tour with its first headline arena shows, three at Dublin's 3Arena, and one at Belfast's SSE.

Setting the stage for these pivotal shows was a Steven Douglas lighting design. The show featured a proscenium video screen and a central upstage wall line with a collection of lighting fixtures anchored by the CHAUVET Professional STRIKE 4 and STRIKE 1, which, like the rest of the rig, were supplied by Just Lite Group.

"We wanted to move away from the convention of a large upstage rectangular screen for this show and have the focus remain on the musicians and the music," Douglas says. "However, I was aware that in large arenas for their first time headlining we also needed to fill the space, so the band felt like they belonged there. So, I devised a video proscenium to fill the space that surrounded the band. For the audience at the front, this screen would only be in their peripheral vision, so they'd remain more engaged with the band. Then the further away you got from the stage, the video would come into play as needed."

The imagery on the proscenium video screen changed throughout the show to vary the looks and moods that reflected the music. Sometimes the screen was turned off completely, leaving only the wall of fixtures to illuminate the stage and audience. At other times, various images were shown, including those of the Irish countryside created by Brian Kenny at Lightscape in Ireland.

Douglas positioned 27 STRIKE 4 fixtures on the back wall and had five additional units on each of the three overhead trusses, as well as 16 on the front truss and eight on the floor. Over 20 STRIKE 1s were interspersed on the wall with the STRIKE 4 fixtures.

The warm lighting from the wall fixtures enhanced the welcoming atmosphere of the show. "We started with a basis of an amber-white palette," Douglas says. "This created the inviting tungsten-like look that was called for by the music but moved into more saturated colors as the show progressed."

In addition to the STRIKE 4 and STRIKE 1 fixtures, Douglas had eight Color STRIKE M motorized strobe blinders positioned in front of the band riser to provide him with an effective and aesthetically pleasing tool to use for directing attention on the stage.

"They were great for moments where I needed to isolate the three performers on the downstage for moments during the show," he says of the fixture. "The STRIKE M gave me a nice rear wash of color to cut the stage size down for the more intimate moments when we focused on the trio itself."

The four arena shows just before Christmas came after a ten-city UK tour for Amble, with a rig for the smaller shows supplied by Adlib, but it was the Dublin and Belfast arena shows that set the stage for 2026, which is already seeing the band booked for an extensive Asian and Oceania tour.

For Douglas, the Irish shows were a bit of a whirlwind. "Big thanks to project manager John McGuinness as well as Paul Smith and the entire crew," he says. "I did a couple of days of pre-vis, and then they loaded in on first show day with no pre-production time and got up and working in time for soundcheck on day one."

Amble is currently on tour in Australia and New Zealand.