Lighting
News
Features
Product
Guide
Links
This page is made by
Roger Malmer.
Product Stories
Lighting
|
Bandit Lights Queen & Paul Rodgers
Lighting
Product Stories Published: 10 January
2009 The rig features over 100 moving lights from Coemar, Martin, Clay Paky, Syncrolite and Vari*Lite, a 49-way Kinesys automation system and some specially fabricated custom trussing commissioned by Bandit. Baz Halpin and lighting director, Trent O’Connor used Bandit’s MSD pre-programming suite for 1 week prior to rehearsals. There were 2 weeks of production rehearsals at Elstree Studios prior to the first show. The principal creative goal was to create “massive dynamic rock show looks”, and Halpin has risen to the occasion in great style with a myriad of full-on, rock-tastic mega-looks, filled with bold colours, fluid movement and rock moments. Seven variable length raked ‘finger’ trusses run upstage/downstage forming an elegant architectural ‘roof’ over the main performance area. All of the truss moves on Kinesys motors and the centre three have hinge-down sections at the front. Bandit purchased the Lo Pro trussing & custom hinges from Total Solutions with some modifications made by Bandit Lites’ Dizzy Gosnell.
“This is a band that has always pushed the technical boundaries,” Gosnell commented. “Baz's design called for lots of strong truss pre-hung with all the moving lights. The lamps needed protection up and down ramps, no time to fiddle with handrails and such, it had to stack/un-stack easily and securely and it had to be instinctive for stagehands all over the world to work with. The V-shaped castor frames we designed keep the heads safe and the truss flying quickly." There are a total of 77 Coemar Infinity Washes dotted all over the rig, including nine per finger truss, arranged in groups of three. These were newly purchased by Bandit for the tour. On the downstage edge of each finger is a Syncrolite - a 10K in the centre and 5Ks on the rest. There are also Martin Atomic Strobes on the fingers, along with a total of five Vari*Lite 3000s, used for band key lighting. Behind the fingers is a ‘Syncrolite truss’ - also on Kinesys motors - containing seven 5K Syncrolite units and 8 Martin Atomic 3000s along with 10 Martin Professional MAC 2000 Washes used for punchy back beam looks. In all, Bandit supplied a 24-way vari-speed Kinesys hoist system for video and a 25-way for lighting. Four Lycian M2 follow spots are top mounted on another truss just in front of the screen at the back of the stage. Six Space Flowers are positioned on the floor in two clusters of three on either side of the stage, and used for big aerial effects. A four foot diameter large facet mirror-ball is flown directly above the B Stage at the end of the thrust. On the floor along the back wall of the most upstage riser are six Martin MAC 2000 Performances. The fascia of the riser is constructed from perforated aluminium, and inside is a grey wool drape. In the cavity between the drape and the fascia is a row of PixelLine LED battens which back-light the fascia and skim the drape, contrasting with the Performances lighting the front. On top of this ‘bunker’ is a row of Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300s used for mid level forward-shooting beams, which Bandit purchased specifically for this tour. Bandit has also supplied 4 Lycian Xenon FOH follow spots. The downstage 1.5 metres of the stage, its front, thrust and B-stage are all covered with frosted Perspex and highlighted from underneath with PixelLines. Two Martin Maxxyz control desks were programmed by Halpin and lighting director Trent O’Connor, who is operating the tour. Both Martin Maxxyz consoles were upgraded to Maxxyz+ for this tour. The spectacular screen at the rear of stage was designed by Mark Fisher of Stufish. It’s made up of asymmetrically populated sections of Barco O-lite, with a block of fully populated O-Lite in the middle, and 304 ACL bulbs strewn randomly across it, but symmetrically patched at the dimmers. The screen opens and closes horizontally. Bandit UK Chief Executive, Lester Cobrin comments, “A special thanks goes to the talented Production Director, Robbie Williams, Production Manager, Albert Lawrence and the entire production team. This tour wouldn’t have been possible without their expertise and hard work.” Bandit’s crew is chiefed by Nick Barton with Gareth Morgan on dimmers and Kinesys operator Barry Branford. Technicians Tom Crosbie, Ben Hammett, Joe Simpson, Mark Pritchard and Chris Davis complete the line-up with Bandit’s Lester Cobrin project managing the tour. Halpin says, “It’s great to be working with Bandit again. As always, they pulled out all the stops to ensure we had everything we needed, and chose a brilliant crew.”
|
|