NASHVILLE, TN – Deep Purple, the English rock band credited with pioneering modern hard rock and heavy metal, is out on The Long Goodbye Tour with a lighting system supplied by Bandit Lites. The five-member group is promoting its 2017 album InFinite in addition to performing classics from their 51-year catalog of hits such as “Smoke on the Water,” “Highway Star” and “Speed King.”
More details from Bandit (www.BanditLites.com):
“I first met Lothar Strunk and Louis Ball when they co-headlined with Alice Cooper in 2017,” said Bandit Lites Vice President Mike Golden. “Both Louis and Lothar visited our programming facility to kick off that tour. Lothar contacted me in early spring of this year to begin talk of the Deep Purple tour and to book our programming facility for Louis. We hung the system and Lothar brought in video so Louis could have the week to prepare the system and Lothar could work out production logistics.”
Venues for the tour vary from arenas to theatres, requiring Deep Purple’s longtime lighting designer Ball to devise a design that would be suitable no matter the circumstance. With the performance spaces differing from show to show, Ball was unable to have a singular wall of LED video panels, and instead opted for three individual screens. Seventy feet of festoon lights adorn the truss to give the appearance of an outdoor festival.
Bandit Lites provided over one hundred feet of its GoGo truss as well as Martin MAC Viper Profiles, Martin MAC Auras, Chroma Q Color Force 48 and 2 Lite Fixture Inlines with a Whole Hog IV for control.
“I use the Vipers to do most of the big looks with the Auras laying the color behind,” said Ball, “and because we use video both for live shots and custom content, I have to be aware of that.”
“It has been a true and sincere honor to work with Lothar, Louis and all at Deep Purple and we are proud to be a part of this legendary act’s journey,” said Golden.
“All the Bandit people have been a pleasure to work with,” Ball finished saying, “from Mike Golden down; my two people out here, Steve “Moose” Strickland and Terese Fensler have been fantastic.”
