First Robe MMX WashBeams in Benelux for Selah Sue Shows

	Selah Sue with Robe

The first concert staged in the newly refurbished and re-launched Het Depot in Leuven, just outside Brussels, Belgium, featured four days of performance by hot emerging young Belgian singer / songwriter Selah Sue.

Robe fixtures were an integral part of Selah Sue's show -- her lighting designer Joris Vandamme used 12 Robin 600 LEDWashes on floor stands as a "specials" package, an idea also being tried out for upcoming shows. He also used eight Robe MMX Spots that have just been installed as part of a new lighting rig at Het Depot along with Robe Actor 600 units.

Additionally, the first of Robe's new MMX WashBeams in Belgium were made available for these Het Depot shows by special arrangement with Robe's Benelux distributor, Controllux.

Selah Sue's material embraces an eclectic mix of styles including soul, R&B, reggae, and blues. Her rich, deep, raspy voice is very distinctive and she's carved out a unique niche already, with her successful 2011 debut album.

Sint-Niklaas-based Vandamme has designed Selah Sue's lighting for the last two years, and he's been using Robe products for about the same period. "They are very flexible, robust well-priced moving lights," he comments.

The 12 LEDWash 600 "specials" were rigged on four floor stands positioned asymmetrically around the stage. They were used for an assortment of effects as well as for close-up washes on Selah Sue -- who prefers minimal front lighting -- and her four-piece band. Due to the angles of the stands and the physically low levels of the lightsources as they swept across the stage, the whole space was bathed in intimacy.

The second song of the set on the first night was Amy Winehouse's "Valerie" for which Selah Sue stood directly in front of one of the lighting stands, subtly lit only by individual rings of the LEDWashes in a shimmering, flamey orange which proved to be highly effective.

Vandamme likes the light weight, the high output, the long zoom and "pretty much everything" about the LEDWash 600 and these fixtures will be at the core of the lighting technical rider for Selah Sue's next tour.

He integrated Het Depot's eight MMX Spots into his show. Having used them before at the Ancienne Belgique where they have also recently been added to the house rig, he likes all the same features -- brightness, good gobos, excellent color mixing, and zoom.

The MMX WashBeam encompasses all the new technologies developed for the MMX Spot, the company says offering a huge range of features and effects in one fixture. Utilizing a Philips Platinum 35 light source coupled with Robe's MMX optical system, it produces a light output exceeding most traditional 1,200W products, the company added.

Vandamme underlines the good relationship with Bram De Clerck and his team from Controllux's Belgian office who are very pro-active with service and product support. He had first seen the MMX WashBeams during PLASA and was keen to get them on demo and actually try them out on a show.

He used a new Clarity LX 300 console from LSC to run lighting for the Het Depot shows, and the LEDWash 600s were supplied by local rental company, D-Events.