Radiohead's round stage hangs its lights on 60 moving winches

Radiohead's in-the-round arena show has no lowering trusses. In their place, 60 winches each carry a single moving light that travels on its own above the band and the audience, the largest touring use of kinetic lighting winches to date, AV Magazine reported on 2 December.

The band play inside a suspended ring of 12 transparent ROE Vanish 8 LED panels, each of which can be raised, lowered and turned through the show, carrying live camera feeds mixed with effects made in Notch. More than 50 tonnes of equipment hang over the middle of each arena.

Wonder Works led the technical design with creative director Sean Evans and lighting designer Pryderi Baskerville, and built it mostly from rental stock. This show was about finding the balance between intimacy and innovation, delivering a design that felt alive and reactive, but never distracted from the performance itself¹, says Jeremy Lloyd, Wonder Works' co-director.