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The Rocket Man Rocks Again with grandMA
Elton John kicked off his flamboyant ‘Red Piano' tour in the UK at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena, with lighting designer Kevin "Stick" Bye operating the show using a grandMA console. Tim Routledge of grandPA - a new programming, training and control supply house dedicated to the MA Lighting platform - was brought in to assist Bye in programming the desk during the very short rehearsal period at LiteStructures' facility in Wakefield.
The ‘Red Piano' tour is carrying two grandMA full-size consoles - one live and one for backup - and four MA NSPs, with the whole control system run on PRG's new fibre optic looms. Stick has used grandMA consoles for some years. On this tour they started with his show files from a one-off of his hugely successful Vegas extravaganza, which was staged last year at London's O2 Arena.
"We only had two days to put the show together, and refine and modify the existing show file along with creating new looks and cues," explains Routledge, "And this is when the pure speed of the grandMA really helped." The two consoles were networked together during rehearsals, allowing "Stick" to continue to modify and refine his existing presets, leaving Routledge free to create and programme the new effects that "Stick" wanted.
PRG's control systems engineer Gordon Torrington is overseeing all the FOH elements of the tour, which visits Europe before returning to the UK in December. All lighting kit is being supplied to the tour by PRG
photo Louise Stickland
12th January 2009
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