David Howard Accents Gary Numan's Musical Vision with CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 5

	Regardless of the stage size, Howard found the PXL Curve 5 fixtures very effective at accentuating his evocative design.

Lighting designer David Howard describes his work as being analogous to sculping marble. "When building the show, I find myself starting with a look for a particular verse or chorus and editing it down, removing as much light as I can get away with," he says of his design for electronic musician Gary Numan's 2026 tour.

"Darkness is the contrast," Howard explains. "On this tour, I used black flexible neon between the trusses as the set of the show. When this is on, it's our video canvas, and when this is off, it is backlit to appear as the wires of a broken machine engulfing the band. Numan's music is dystopian and dark -- it rarely plays with positive emotion, and the lighting reflects this."

Much of the lighting that Howard wields in his live-operated cue-stacked show comes from his rig's CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 5 motorized battens, which, like the rest of his rig, were supplied by Impact Production Services (IPS,) of Milton Keynes.

The number of PXL Curve 5 units in the rig varies depending on the venue and size of the stage. In larger venues, they sit behind the truss towers and neon wires and are used as strobe blinders, beams, and washes throughout the show.

"Venues on the tour varied dramatically," says Howard. "Some shows sat on stages that were 7m [22.9'] in width; other stages were 28m [91.8']. The design had to tour effectively and cater to these different stages. Our design solution quite literally stretches like a concertina to look correct on stages big and small. The height and width vary while keeping the same number of pillars and triangular shape. The biggest challenge was knowing when to stop playing with the neon tangles between the trusses to achieve a 'tasteful mess' before doors opened!"

Regardless of the stage size, Howard found the PXL Curve 5 fixtures very effective at accentuating his evocative design. From the floor, the units were often positioned with a randomly spread pan to make asymmetric beams through the air that reach out through the band.

"I very much treat the PXLs as individual heads," he says. "I don't see them as 12 battens; I see them -- and control them -- as 60 individual moving heads. The top rig is usually used to scenically frame the show and if anything, contain the visual canvas down. I come in steeper than I do for other shows; the light stays on stage for the most part, only reaching out into the audience for a select few moments of the show.

"Interestingly, I originally planned to make my line out of simple strobe units, but the PXLs just offered so much more in such a convenient-to-deploy package," he adds. "As the tour progressed, I found myself adding them to more cues in ways I hadn't initially planned, which was exciting. The metallic cold and warm white light lends itself so well to Numan's music."

That music often paints "a picture of dystopian ruined lands and references mechanical ideas and machines," says Howard, who notes that this was the inspiration for his lighting design.

Howard's collaborators included tour manager Dave Dupuis, light tech James Walton, and operator Rory Lucas. Numan is currently touring the US.