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Bandit on INXS
Bandit Lites UK supplied full lighting production, video projection package and touring crew for INXS’ recent UK tour. Working closely with lighting designer Sean ‘Motley’ Hackett, Bandit Lites’ Lester Cobrin was asked on board to support Motley’s design.
Cobrin comments: “It’s the first time I have worked with Motley and production manager, Paul ‘Kenno’ Kennedy. It has been a breath of fresh air to work with two people that are so efficient and good at communicating. It has been a pleasure to work with them on this project.”
Lighting technicians Nigel Julian and Martin Garnish were hired to look after the system while on the road. The pair were so efficient and organized that they achieved the rare accolade of rigging the whole system in 3.5 hours each day – and having it de-rigged before the backline at the end of each night!
With new lead singer, JD Fortune joining in late 2005, INXS has returned to the live scene with a surge of nascent energy. Fortune’s arrival was quickly followed by the release of their first album in eight years - ‘Switch’ in 2006. Rock Star INXS, the US reality TV program that ‘discovered’ Fortune, also re-sparked enormous interest in one of Australia’s best known rock acts – originally formed in 1977.
Hackett is based in Australia and has worked on and off with INXS for the last 14 years, fairly constantly for the last 11. He describes the current tour (ongoing since the start of 2006) as “an evolution” in terms of lighting aesthetics, which started with some initial input from drummer, Jon Farriss. From there, the two of them produced the stage design concept.
The idea was to develop a ‘chromatic’ feel, with some projection upstage centre and to encompass the very best of ‘classic big rock lighting’ looks from the last four decades – utilizing current technology.
“I have taken creative references from every INXS LD since 1983,” says Hackett, adding that it has been a great show to work on – not only does he know it and the band really well, but there’s also been plenty of creative freedom.
The lighting rig for the UK leg of the tour was based around three trusses – front, mid and back, and on an average stage size of 40 to 45 ft wide by 30 ft deep – with variation and flexibility to go in either direction as needed. The Barco 8K video projector was rigged off the front truss, primarily used for ‘wallpaper’ effects for the latter half of the show.
The moving lights were 28 High End PC Beams and 13 Martin Professional MAC 2k profiles, spread across all three trusses and the floor. Four of the PC Beams were downstage at the front to cross-light the band and six upstage to light the backdrop and for a miscellany of air candy looks.
Other effects included a 2ft mirror ball on the mid truss, proving once again that it is one of the most enduring and timeless lighting effects of all time – as well as six 24ft strings of egg strobes hanging off the back truss.
The backdrop is a crinkled synthetic fabric that resembles crushed aluminium foil – ideal for taking both lighting and projection.
Hanging on the offstage edges of the back truss were two pods of pre-rigged truss, each fully loaded with two bars of six PARs – for some additional punch from the back. In keeping with the classic rock theme, there were five bars of ACLs and 11 4-lite DWEs.
All the truss and PAR 64s were supplied in silver and all run in ‘no colour’. Bandit also supplied a single Lycian 1200w HMI followspot, chosen because Hackett didn’t want anything too bright. This was also run in white. A selection of Source 4s, Atomic 3k strobes, Nook lites and of course DF50’s completed the system gear spec.
Hackett operates the show using a grandMA console (purchased by Bandit specifically for this tour) which he likes for many reasons, particularly its ‘cloning’ facilities. The console also drives the Catalyst media server. He created some show visuals from the media server’s onboard library and other video content was custom created elsewhere and then loaded onto the Catalyst.
Hackett said that everything went extremely smoothly and he was very impressed with the equipment, service and commitment from Bandit UK - and particularly with the crew.
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