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Bandit in Cooper Shock!
Veteran shock rocker Alice Cooper is once again having his highly theatrical stage show lit by Bandit Lites. Currently in the UK and Europe, playing arenas and large theatres, lighting director, Chad “Chopper” Lewis is working alongside a combined crew – Ewan Cameron and Paul Holst – from Bandit UK and Bandit Inc in the US.
Cooper’s unique amalgam of heavy metal, horror movies and vaudeville performance has fuelled a successful career spanning four decades. His show is a pleasure to light because of its reliance on visual devices and drama.
This is Lewis’ second tour with Cooper and his first visit to the UK, about which he comments, “The continuity between Mike Golden at Bandit Lites Inc and Lester Cobrin at Bandit Lites UK makes touring Europe exceptionally smooth, and ensures that the high production values and ‘Bandit Standard’ that we expect are maintained. I have been really impressed with the UK operation.”
The original production was designed by artistic director, Norm Schwab and lighting designer, Rob Roth. From there, Roth and Lewis developed and programmed the light show. They wanted to create a classic monochrome “black & white” feel for the lighting – the high contrast, jerky, slightly grainy grey impressions of early television pictures.
Colour wise, this has meant a lot of open white, pastel white tints and pale colours – slightly unorthodox for what is essentially a heavy rock show. The first half of the set sees Cooper rip through some of his classic rock catalogue, while the theatrical pranks (including baby killing, woman beating, hanging, etc.) come in the second half, culminating in Cooper’s hanging … and subsequent resurrection to the stage – all executed in true Cooper pastiche.
The lighting rig is based on five straight trusses, two of which are made from mini-beam and deal primarily with Kabuki-drop drapes, one far upstage, and one mid-stage, the latter holding a cloth used to (not sure about this bit) for a shadow gag at the top of the show.
Unsurprisingly it’s an ‘old skool’ lighting rig, in keeping with the retro theme – with lots of Parcans and ACLs. Some of the bars are angled at 45 degrees to the truss to give the roof space some architectural shaping.
The three lighting trusses are all pre-rigged. They contain 20 bars of 6 PARs in total, six each on the back and mid trusses, and eight on the front. There are 11 bars of ACLs in total, including two on the floor, supplied by Bandit to second-on-the-bill Motorhead. There are also two vertical truss sections right downstage, rigged with PARs and acting as cross stage ‘boom’ lighting.
The moving lights are relatively minimal – 10 Martin Professional MAC 2kW profiles on the back and mid trusses, four MAC 2kW Performances on the front truss and four MAC 2kW washes on the floor.
Strobes feature heavily at various points, and there are 20 Atomics divided between the mid truss, the ‘shadow drape’ truss and the floor, along with four 8-lite Molefey units on the front truss for audience blinding. The shadow effects are achieved using a single 2kW Fresnel upstage.
Lewis operates the show – programmed on a full size GrandMA – using an MA Lite console, which is his desk of choice for its accessibility and ease of use. All dimming is Avolites and distribution is via Bandit’s custom PD units.
Bandit is also supplying two DF50 and three F100 smoke machines and four Lycian 2kW followspots to the tour, plus eleven one-tonne motors, three quarter-tonne motors (to sub-hang supporting group Motorhead’s backdrop and bring it in and out quickly and easily) and all necessary rigging.
Motorhead’s LD, Stefan Sjoland has hired one of Bandit’s Avolites Pearl 2004 consoles, and he also pitches in with Lewis, Cameron and Holst to build the rig each day.
Alice Cooper’s long-time manager, Shep Gordon worked with tour manager, Toby Mamis and production manager, Cesare Sabatini on this tour. The UK audio supplier is SSE.
22nd November 2007
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