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FEEDER Following the release of the Best Of Feeder / Arrow album, the band announced a UK-wide tour complete with a striking show design and a healthy dose of nostalgia. TPi’s Stew Hume caught up with LD Bryan Leitch for Feeder’s Manchester Academy date to discuss his latest creation.
Once again jumping aboard the Feeder production was long-time LD and MIRRAD’s own Bryan Leitch. Last time he was featured in the magazine, we covered his charitable Cancer Bonus Tour where he visited venues up and down the UK in a classic 1963 Vauxhall Victor, all in the name of fundraising for Blood Wise and Sussex Cancer Fund. Standing at FOH of Manchester Academy - and thankful for some shelter for the rain - Leitch told TPi about this latest Feeder live incarnation. Starting with the band back in the early 2000’s on the Comfort in Sound cycle, the LD told TPi how this current tour paid homage to those glory days. “When I first started with the band it was all about projecting power - both physically and metaphorically,” began Leitch. “For a lot of our shows we used a massive rear projection wall streaming content throughout the night. Back in those days our stage designs were very upstage heavy with very little effect lighting downstage. With this design we have definitely paid homage to those older looks with a large upstage screen.” The screen in question was made up of 72 BT6 Video Panels, courtesy of lighting and video supplier, Colour Sound Experiment. The screen was split into 3 individual sections, driven by 2 Green Hippo V4 Media servers; all of which was launched by Leitch at FOH via an Avolites Sapphire Touch.
“This is the first time I’ve toured with the V4 but I have been very impressed,” stated Leitch. As well as having all his lighting cue lists for Feeder’s extensive back catalogue, for each song Leitch had up to 4 layers of video that he could manually mix throughout the show. “For me it really clicked when I realised you can treat the video as a fixture. I have really enjoyed the effects I’ve been able to produce on it.” Prior to the tour, lead singer Grant Nicholas had explained to Leitch how, as the tour was a 20th anniversary celebration and how he wanted to include serval old images and graphics of the band. “I had a hard drive full of this at my disposal,” explained Leitch as he showed off some of the classic photos. “What I really like about the Green Hippo is that you can load almost any video or image file into it and it will work.” Leitch also produced serval pieces of original content, all courtesy of his iPhone X. “Before the tour I went out and about my hometown of Brighton and filmed various pieces including waves crashing on the beach. Then, with the help of Dave Cohen from MIRRAD, we loaded everything into the Hippo along with the archived footage. It really looks fantastic and I’m sure Tim Cook will be happy his technology is being put to such good use!” “The Hippo’s personality that Avolites have created is flawless,” 24