Clay Paky Sharpy Fixtures Join Jay-Z and Kanye West on Watch the Throne Tour

	Jay-Z and Kanye West teamed up in the Watch The Throne North American tour.

Hip hop kings Jay-Z and Kanye West teamed up in the autumn for the eight-week-long Watch The Throne North American tour, on which Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures played a key role. The tour, which ended in Vancouver just before Christmas, supported the rappers' joint LP released in August and features solo cuts from their own catalogs.

Solotech, which provided all the tour's lighting, rigging, and specialty lighting fixtures, supplied 130 Clay Paky Sharpys from its inventory to lighting designer Nick Whitehouse. "The design of the tour is very minimal, modern, and eclectic," says Richard Lachance, of Solotech, which is headquartered in Montreal. "The lighting, lasers and staging are very different -- there's a center module that's a B stage which is very prominent, and the show is laden with LED products."

Karl Gaudreau, also of Solotech, recalls that "the first time Nick used Sharpys was for Beyoncé, when they blew away all the other lights on the rig. Now Nick is using mostly Sharpys for the main rig for Jay-Z and Kanye. He's positioned 24 on the floor and 48 on the main truss. Three other trusses combine Sharpys with strobes, and Sharpys are integrated with other lights on the back wall as well."

According to Lachance, Solotech's Sharpy fixtures are in high demand. "We never see them in the shop -- they're always out. Sharpy is a very robust special effects unit, and we've loved them since we bought them."

Solotech has been a fan of Clay Paky products for many years, Lachance says, and he's been pleased with the company's support. "We like that Clay Paky keeps coming up with new lights that are winners. We're impressed with the direction the company is taking -- that's going to direct us in our future purchases."

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky area manager for North and Latin America, adds, "We're very proud to be a part of such a high profile tour and glad our products work so well on it. Solotech has been a great supporter of Clay Paky for many years and we look forward to continued collaboration with them."

A.C.T Lighting is the North American distributor for Clay Paky.