KOSICE, POLAND — Designer Baz Halpin has created lighting and visuals for rock/blues legend Joe Cocker's lengthy European tour, for which Bandit Lites UK is supplying full lighting production and digital lighting equipment plus crew.
Bandit UK’s Chief Executive Lester Cobrin comments, “For a project as prestigious as this, I am thankful to be able to work with such a talented and experienced lighting designer. The show is extremely busy with over 1,000 programmed cues & 300–400 flash buttons. One song has 223 cues alone. This is my first time working with Production Manager Mark ‘Wolfie’ Wooliscroft and it has been an absolute pleasure and breath of fresh air. He is a true gent and I am very humble.”
With the intention of giving the stage a "dignified" and elegant look and feel, Halpin has designed three architectural trussing arches upstage, with screen material stretched across them. Halpin also designed nine custom chandeliers built by Specialz. Each chandelier contains multiple 150W and 300W light bulbs. The combination of these two elements fills out the stage, adding form and depth to the space without being distracting.
The lighting rig is hung across four trusses. The moving lights include 28 Martin Professional MAC 2K Profiles, eight MAC 2K washes and 22 MAC 600s — arranged across all trusses. Six MAC 300s are positioned at the base of each arch, fulfilling the dual function of illuminating the screens and also toning the surrounding trussing frames. Rigged inside the arches themselves (manufactured by Total Solutions) are 18 Pulsar Par36 ChromaCan LED fixtures, each containing 80 LEDs and the size of a standard P36 can, which fits neatly inside the 12-inch dimensions of the truss.
For the projections onto each arch, Bandit purchased three Catalyst DL2 moving projector fixtures, operated through the lighting console. On top of the moving and digital lightsources, there's also a sizable generic rig. It starts with eight 8-lite Moles on the back truss, complete with ColorRam scrollers, which are lighting the rear scrim. Eleven 4-lite Moles on a sub-hung truss (that fly in and out towards the end of the set) bring a rockier look as the set builds to an energetic crescendo.
Nine bars of ACLs are spread over the rig, adding some very cool looking 'beam technology.’ There are also twenty-four 2-lite moles positioned on the front and mid trusses for audience highlighting.
The visuals are completed with a mid-stage center opening tabtrack system. This carries an 80-feet-wide red velvet drape. At the end of the show, the tabs close and the tour credits are projected onto the drape. On the upstage truss there are two 60-feet-wide sharkstooth gauzes (black and white). Bandit is also supplying the entire rigging package as well as four FOH Lycian 2K follow spots.
The show is being run on tour by Lighting Director Hunter Frith using a WholeHog II console, which he and Halpin programmed together during the two-week rehearsal period in Nice. Frith comments, “There are 19 songs, 13 with video content and the screens are removed from the truss arches for the last three songs in order to give the stage a completely new look. This works really well. The footage is from Joe’s past, stills also and archived material from past tours.” The Hog is also triggering two Catalyst media servers that stores and plays back all the video content commissioned by Halpin and produced by Anthony Willis.
Bandit’s crew includes Roy Hunt, Martin Garnish and James "Jam" Such — all of whom are enjoying the relaxed and happy touring vibes under the direction of Production Manager Wolfie. Additional key contributors include Manager Roger Davies and Tour Manager Clay Shell.
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