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Tomcat Rocks Ibiza
Ibiza and rock are two words rarely used together. However, that’s all set to change due to the vision of dance giant Manumission. Ibiza is fast becoming the new summer stamping ground for rock and roll in the Med via Manumission’s sister company Ibiza Rocks.
The company have just purchased a purpose-built Tomcat one 290 48 fixed legged ground support which has been subsequently installed in the newly refurbished Live music venue - Bar M, Manumission’s Ibiza bar on the beach.
The initial idea for the ground support came from a sketch from the customer and a photo of the area in which the stage was to be installed. The brief was simple – design a structure that would sit on their newly built stage giving the bands a concert atmosphere in a small venue but also to give cover from the weather, be it rain or shine. “We were supplied with a few site photos and a basic idea of how they would like the structure to function,” said Patrick Lockwood, sales engineer for Tomcat UK. It was only when I did the site visit that we found that due to conditions on site, their ideas were not suitable so we redesigned and drew it on the spot.” He added: “Time was tight, so the order was placed that day and the design work was done on site and emailed back to the office the same day, to enable manufacture to begin before I had even left Ibiza!”
Lockwood designed a system with a pitched roof to create the illusion of a large imposing stage within a limited space. This roof design has the added benefit of directing rain away from the performance area, protecting both the performers and the equipment, which is important because when it rains in Ibiza – It rains! For this reason, a small clamp on roof system was included to protect the sound engineer on the side stage. The original brief also called for a cantilever at the front of the stage to give added protection from the elements and to give better lighting positions, whilst still being capable of carrying two speaker clusters of 350kgs each.
This was not a problem for the lightweight yet load-bearing Tomcat One range of trussing and was easily incorporated into the design. Indeed, the whole design of the system was well suited to the Tomcat One product which has excellent strength to weight ratios to enable the system to be produced very cost effectively.
The manufacture of the system was no mean feat either. Lockwood added: “From the date of order, we had under two weeks to complete. As well as flying to site and producing all the manufacturing drawings, we also produced a full structural report for the customer in order to comply with Health and Safety regulations whilst ensuring that the system was ready for delivery less than two weeks later. Indeed, the inclusion of structural reports into any bespoke system is our policy. This has come about as a direct result of increasingly tighter regulations within the entertainment industry and most importantly to give Tomcat customers peace of mind.”
Mike Darling, production manager for Ibiza Rocks said: “'The structural report serves to reassure that we have developed a high quality venue for this year’s event. I have confidence that the system is safe and has the capacity to do exactly what we need it to do whilst complying to all UK standards, so when it came down to it, the decision to go with the Tomcat system was an easy one. I knew that they would pull out all the stops to have the system produced to a very high standard, to spec and on time. The structure itself is a very universal and easy to understand system that went up very quickly without any problems.”
The system was purchased for Ibiza Rocks’ summer programme which includes bringing famous bands to Ibiza to perform for one night, drawing crowds in from all over the island. The programme was kicked off on July 10th with New York based band ‘We are Scientists’ and special guest Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs putting the stage through its paces to a packed audience. Gigs for July and August include Boy kill Boy with Dirty Pretty things, The Streets, Radio one DJ Zane Lowe and Kasabian & Fratellis.
25th July 2006
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