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Bandit Lites UK Gets The Moody Blues
Bandit Lites Inc also services the band’s lengthy annual American tours. Other territories on the current itinerary include Australia and New Zealand in early 2005.
Lighting designer Mick Thornton has worked with the band for the last 5 years, each tour turning the stage into a completely different and eye-catching visual environment for the performance.
Keeping to a basic front and back truss format for his primary building blocks, this year Thornton added three overhead triangular trusses which move, and four vertical upstage towers.
The stage has a clean white look, devised by Thornton to allow the painting of large, vibrant pictures across it with projected lighting, and to produce classic ‘moody blue’ scenes. The upstage cyc is white – with a 4-channel starcloth behind it - and the centres of the triangles have white scrim stretched across them. The towers are clad in the same material as the triangles, and there’s a white carpet across the stage.
The white materials takes the light beautifully, resulting in a strong and dynamic array of colour, looks and mood changes, from the very subtle to pure rock ‘n’ roll. Those watching from a balcony or above the stage can also enjoy the full effect of the gobo work on the floor as well as on the cyc.
On the front truss are 6 bars of 6 PARs and four 2K Source Four Profiles, plus four Martin MAC 2K Performances, six Source Fours and four 2-lites. The upstage truss features another six bars of six PARs, four 2-lites, six MAC 2K Profiles, and the vertical towers have a MAC 2K on the top and a 2-lite per tower rigged slightly lower. The three triangles all feature 3 MAC 250s each – one at each corner. The picture is completed with four 4-cell ground rows for infill on the cyc.
Bandit is also supplying three Lycian 1.2K HMI follow spots, two DF50 smoke machines and all 22 points of rigging, motors and control. Thornton is using an Avolites Diamond 4 to run the show..
With impeccable timing, he utilises the PARs to produce a solid base of colour with additional, complementary and secondary colours mixed in from various different angles via the MACs. The result of separating the fixtures out across the rig adds a massive depth and dimension to the stage, even in the more intimate venues.
Bandit’s UK project manager is Lester Cobrin and in the US, it’s Richard Willis. “Bandit has been great as always,” says Thornton. “It’s really good to have complete continuity and the same level of service across continents”. His UK crew are Nigel Julian and Johnny Ashton.
18th October 2004
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