The legend rocked and rolled again: Led Zeppelin came, saw and conquered London’s O2 Arena with grandMA

courtesy of MA Lighting Technology.

Lighting Product Stories Published: 27 February 2008
The return of their idols with a famous concert at London’s O2 Arena was like a dream coming true not only for the generation who grew up with the songs of Led Zeppelin, but also for their children who discovered for themselves the expressiveness of tunes like “Kashmir”, “Stairway to Heaven”, “Black Dog”, “Immigrant Song” or “Whole Lotta Love”. Just as a side note, the last concert of the legendary four artists took place in Berlin way back in 1980. The death of drummer John Bonham shortly after sealed the end of the quartet. Now back again on the stage with Bonham’s son Jason at the drums, Led Zeppelin once again proved their fame to be more than justified. The event was organized as a tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records, who signed the band’s first record contract. Lighting designer and show director Dave Hill created the event for the 20.000 “chosen” ones, out of 20 million potential tickets buyers, to be part of it by using two grandMA full-size and two MA NSPs.

After the display of a news report about Led Zeppelin’s American tour in 1973 the band was greeted by huge applause from the audience and to the sound of “Good Times, Bad Times” Hill started a lightshow to remember. Although Hill has worked as associate lighting designer and lighting director for the recent Genesis world tour and for some of the biggest artists ever, he was more than a little excited at the task of lighting the rock legends. His positive experiences with the grandMA during the Genesis tour led to Hills decision to use the console for this concert, too. “I needed a desk I could depend on for a show that had created so much interest. There was pressure on the design team to come up with something very special for such a unique night, it was decided there was to be no stage set, just lights and video, therefore the visual effects would play a major role so my control system had to be rock solid. Thankfully the grandMA delivered in style, the programming and operation of the show was seamless. Having being a hog user for many years I am now completely converted and will never go back, the grandMA is your reliable friend on a show like this.”

The controlled rig consisted of, besides others, Vari*Lite VL3500 washes, VL3000 spots, Martin MAC 2000 washes, Atomic 3000 with colour changers, 2-lite Molefays, 10kW Syncrolites, various PARs and some Robert Juliat 3.5kW spotlights.

An important design element was a 28m wide and 10m high Stealth LED-Screen by Element Labs which together with two 6x6 Barco OLite LED I-MAG screens formed the base for the video integration. The video part, which was a mix of sophisticated content and live camera, was realised by video director Dick Carruthers.

Lighting equipment was provided by PRG Europe, Creative Technology supplied the video screen. Production manager was Jim Baggott. Mark England worked as crew chief, Gordon Torrington as grandMA programmer.

Source:

MA Lighting Technology

 

 

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