JAMRIOQUAI - HEELS OF STEEL - EU TOUR visuals 2025
Egyptian. Cosmic. Paradise. Disco.
Observatory provided creative direction and produced the complete visual content package for Jamiroquai's Heels of Steel 2025 European arena tour — the band's first live dates in six years. Working from Jay Kay's hand-drawn sketch and four-word brief, a team of six 3D animators brought 25 songs to life across a custom multi-screen LED structure featuring transparent pyramids, six LED columns and a 20-metre rear screen. No timecode. No safety net. Pure groove.
THE BRIEF
A FEW words. One hand-drawn sketch. Two months.
Jay Kay's brief arrived as a hand-drawn sketch of the stage, pyramids, palm trees, animals, towers, with four words written above it. Those words became the creative compass for every visual decision across the entire tour.
Following an initial conceptual meeting in September, Observatory had just two months to develop 25 distinct visual themes, each a fully realised animated world, without hearing a single bar of music from the new album. The content was designed to be retimed, layered and matched to songs during three days of production rehearsals, where Observatory worked on-site alongside the artist, lighting designer Vince Foster and show programmer Phil Leech to build the show together.
For Observatory's executive creative director Ben Sheppee and technical director Simon Harris, the project carried personal weight. Having performed in acid-jazz bands during the mid-1990s, heavily influenced by Jamiroquai, the opportunity to design for the artist decades later felt like a creative circle closing.
Visual Worlds
20 themes. From rainforest to the moon.
Each theme was a self-contained visual world, drawing on the overarching aesthetic pillars of Afrofuturism, synthwave and retro futurism. Jay Kay's reference list was ambitious and wide-ranging — from hi-tech reimaginings of the first album's jungle artwork to beach clubs on the moon and Egyptian pyramids in space.
CREATIVE APPROACH
No timecode. No music. Build it to flex.
Jamiroquai are a live band. They actually play. Songs might be four minutes or nine. The set list changes nightly. This meant every piece of content had to be designed as a flexible system — loops, layers and sequences that could be retimed, sped up, slowed down and recombined on the disguise media server to match whatever the band played on any given night.
Music-Blind Design
Multi-Layer Architecture
The entire content library was built without hearing the music. Observatory created visual worlds that embodied the mood and atmosphere of each theme rather than cutting to specific bars or beats. During three days of production rehearsals, Jay Kay connected the visuals to songs — a process that continued evolving throughout the tour as the set list shifted.
Every piece of content was produced in multiple layers, foreground, mid-ground and background — giving show programmer Phil Leech and lighting designer Vince Foster max control and flexibility when prog-ramming. Layers could be mixed, faded and re-composed live, supporting the strictly no-timecode approach that defines Jamiroquai's performance philosophy.
MIXeD TECHNIQUES
Collaboration with LD Foster
The 20 themes required a range of production methods: photorealistic 3D environments for the Egyptian and Babylon worlds, 2D motion graphics for the piano key and disco floor sequences, AI-assisted animation for atmospheric textures, and composited video for the retro and synthwave looks. Six animators worked simultaneously across these pipelines.
Foster, who has shaped Jamiroquai's visual identity for over 20 years, chose to let Observatory lead on colour and visual direction. When the content arrived at rehearsals, he shaped the lighting to serve the video rather than the other way around. The result was a unified visual language where LED and lighting told the same story.
"When I saw what they were developing, I thought: 'This is exactly what Jay wants.' I think he was genuinely moved when he first saw it all come together."
Vince Foster — Lighting & Stage Designer, LSi Magazine
STAGE
Pyramids, columns, and 20 metres of LED
The stage design — created by Vince Foster from Jay Kay's original sketch — was built around multiple planes of LED that could operate in isolation or in concert. A 20-metre by 9-metre rear screen, six vertical LED columns of varying heights, transparent LED pyramids, riser fascia displays, and two IMAG screens created a multi-layered canvas where Observatory's content could be selectively revealed or hidden throughout the show.
The transparent pyramids — Jamiroquai's signature element since the earliest tours — were constructed from Absen transparent LED, looking like solid objects when lit and virtually disappearing when turned off. Observatory's content was designed to exploit this quality, with certain themes using only the pyramids, others only the columns, and full-canvas moments reserved for the show's climactic tracks.
All content was delivered at 50fps and played back on a disguise GX2C media server, with material sped up or slowed down to match each song's energy and tempo during programming.
On the Road
Barcelona to the O2. Evolving every night.
Observatory supported the show from Barcelona's opening night through the 14-date European run, attending the first performance, taking notes, and iterating content through the tour. A remote workflow with Foster and show programmer Phil Leech allowed the creative team to collaborate from London, updating elements as the show structure developed on the road.
The tour closed at London's O2 Arena to strong press reviews, with critics singling out the visual production. Audience reviews consistently highlighted the stage design and content — from underwater worlds to outer space, waterfalls to neon pyramids — as standout elements of the live experience.
"The stage design was amazing, with a very realistic looking backdrop that changed per song, from waterfalls to outer space, we saw it all."
Gig Review — Glasgow OVO Hydro
Technical
Arena-scale content for a no-timecode show
50fps Delivery
Multi-Layer Exports
All content produced at 50fps to match European broadcast standards, then retimed on the disguise media server to fit each song's energy — sped up for high-tempo tracks, slowed down for deeper grooves.
Content delivered as separated foreground, mid-ground and background layers, enabling the show programmer to mix and compose in real-time without being locked to a fixed edit — essential for a band that improvises nightly.
Multiple LED Surfaces
Remote Tour Support
Content mapped across a 20m × 9m rear screen, two 7m × 4m IMAG screens, six LED columns, transparent pyramid structures and riser fascia — each with different resolutions, processed via Brompton SX40s and NovaStar MCTRL4K.
After attending the Barcelona opening night, Observatory established a remote collaboration workflow with the touring team — delivering updated content and tweaks throughout the 14-date run until the O2 finale.
PRESS
What they said
"My personal highlight was when the visuals transformed into an underwater world full of colourful fishies. Such a fun touch!"
"Not a single person was standing still for Jay Kay. The disco fever had hit Glasgow because he had us boogieing."
Loadsofmusic — Zurich Review
Is This Music? — Glasgow OVO Hydro