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Bandit on Michael Bolton
Bandit Lites UK supplied LD Bruce Spillman with full lighting production, rigging and crew for the European leg of Michael Bolton’s popular ‘Til The End of Forever’ tour.
Bandit Inc has serviced Bolton for the last three years, since he resumed active gigging in the US. However this is the first European tour for some time and also Spillman’s first experience working with Bandit UK. The tour was project managed for Bandit by Lester Cobrin.
With no production rehearsals, Spillman and his crew mate Martin Garnish gained some time by setting the rig up in the warehouse at Bandit’s Bedford HQ. This enabled him to programme his colour palettes and groups into his Avolites Pearl console, which gained them valuable time at the first show. From then on in, he programmed as he went, and within a few days had the show fine tuned and looking good.
Spillman, based in Anaheim, California, had to create a big show with an expedient amount of lighting fixtures. There were a few set pieces extracted from previous tours and carried forward to this one, notably three fast fold projection screens, upstage of the risers, used for gobo projections and other lighting effects, and to give the stage a shape and a sense of form.
The rig consisted of 142 PARs spread across three 40ft pre-rig trusses. The front truss featured nine Source Four key lights, and he used PARs for audience treatment as opposed to blinders, reckoning the latter were too harsh for Bolton’s loungey style.
The upstage truss featured five Martin MAC 2k profiles, the mid had another four, and the front had four MAC 2k washes. On the floor were another three MAC 2ks upstage and two MAC 2k washes downstage for front cross stage fill.
None of the conventional lighting is focused on Bolton, so when both hard and soft edged moving light sources cut to his position, the look is extremely clean and clearly defined.
He utilises a lot of heavily saturated colours in this show, plenty of back light and less front light, with Bolton and the soloists also highlighted throughout with four Lycian FOH spots. He likes this traditional heavily key-lighted look, and it’s very appropriate for the pace and style of the show. “The stage should never look flat,” he declares.
Five of the six standard stage wash colours are all Lee classics. “I like the Lee range because it’s so effervescent,” he says - 179 (chrome orange), 126 (mauve), 139 (primary Green), 119 (Dark Blue) and 026 (Bright Red), with Rosco R59 sneaking in as the lavender of choice. He also uses some Lee 181 (Congo Blue) – everyone’s favourite UV tint! “When the stage goes, say, amber, I like it to go proper, real, authentic amber,” he says. “Not some half-hearted or mixed-up attempt!”
Upstage of the rear truss was a DMX controlled fibre optic starcloth, subtly and strategically incorporated into the show.
Spillman ran the show himself on the Pearl and he worked alongside Garnish to get the rig up and running each day. He first worked with Bolton back in the mid 1990s, and returned to the ‘family’ in 2002 when Bolton started touring again, so he knows the artist very well. Bolton leaves him to his own creative devices when it comes to lighting the show.
His first experience of Bandit UK has been excellent. “The gear’s all in excellent condition, and they are really part of the family now,” he says of the busy rental operation. He adds that although there have only been two of them working on the rig, it has gone extremely smoothly, greatly helped by the gear being in tip-top condition.
Michael Bolton’s tour continues in Asia and the Middle East until Christmas. Tour manager is John Dubuque and production manager is Robert Nelson.
17th November 2005
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