By the time Ed Wannebo took the stage at the end of the evening to accept the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award, it was already an entertaining evening filled with surprises. Then Kenny Chesney walked out on stage. A true man crush ensued. Chesney has had Wannebo working as production manager on his tours for a decade, and a tradition of his shows includes Wannebo running out halfway through to hand him a special hand-crafted margarita. On a Saturday night at the end of October, Chesney returned the favor. A surprised Ed got a big hug, the drink, and then Chesney addressed the Parnelli audience.
“I was backstage watching the movie they made, and I learned things about Ed I didn’t know!” he proclaimed. Chesney went on to say what an important member of his team Wannebo is and congratulated him on receiving the highest honor one can receive in the live event industry. Chesney may have flown into Orlando a few hours earlier for Wannebo, but it meant something to every one of the nearly 600 live event professionals in that room that he came to honor one of our own in person.
The show, by almost all accounts the best ever, would honor those working on some of the biggest tours of the year including U2, Kid Rock, Lady Gaga, Roger Waters, Michael Bublé, Rush, Taylor Swift and Foo Fighters.
Flo & Eddie
The show began with a big surprise, too: While it was no secret that Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, founding members of The Turtles, would be hosting the show, no one expected them to make their entrance onstage to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” in a meat capes and wigs. They quickly shed the costume and started telling stories of their time on the road (they still perform regularly). But it wasn’t all jokes as Kaylan at one point said, “You guys are the true heroes of this business.”
In what would be the first of several references to recreational pharmaceuticals, they assured the crowd that they “hadn’t sold out” and “were still druggies” — it’s just that now “the drugs are Lipitor and Viagra.”
Before handing out transportation awards, they told of when they were breaking into the big time, and they got to get on a bus with Tom Jones and other stars of the mid 1960s. Their excitement was seriously diminished when, as the bus pulled out, they realized that they would be sleeping on the floor.
The duo then handed out awards for Coach Company (Hemphill Bros.), Trucking (Upstaging), and Freight Forwarding (Rocket Cargo).
Up next was Michael Tait of Tait Towers, who won the inaugural Parnelli Visionary Award in 2008. “Following the Turtles on stage is ironic for me, as I got my start in this business just after ‘Happy Together’ was a monster hit!” He then handed out Parnelli awards for Set/Scenic Designer (Baz Halpin/Chris Nyfield), Rigging Company (Atlanta Rigging Systems) and Lighting Company of the Year (PRG).
Set and lighting designers Seth Jackson and Elizabeth O’Keefe, also previous Parnelli Award winners, came up next. O’Keefe, of St. Louis-based TPI, said, “Without the talented people who help bring our visions to life, what we dream up on paper would never make it to the stage.” He then handed out the Parnelli Award for Set Construction Company of the Year to Tait Towers. Jackson and O’Keefe then presented the Parnellis for Staging Company of the Year (SGPS/ShowRig) and Pyro Company of the Year (Strictly FX).
Stefan Graf, principal designer of Illuminart and longtime friend and frequent collaborator of Parnelli Visionary Award winner Jim Fackert came up to set the stage to introduce the man to the crowd. “Jim is blessed with many attributes and, fortunately, they were not limited by negative thought patterns like, ‘You can’t do that,’ ‘Life is hard,’ or ‘It’s a tough world out there,’” Graf said. “Jim has the ability to tap into unlimited universal consciousness with all of its potential.” After the video tribute, Fackert approached the stage and got a standing ovation. The founder of Littlite and Leprecon then recapped his career.
Deserving Shout Outs
“Welcome to the 11th Annual Parnelli Awards,” said Terry Lowe, executive producer of the awards program and publisher of PLSN, FRONT of HOUSE and Stage Directions magazines. “I understand that [Parnelli Visionary Honoree] Jim Fackert’s first ambition was to be a literal rocket scientist. Jim, you didn’t make that, but you ended up in career where you were with people who were very, very high.” Lowe also gave shout outs to lifetime honoree Ed Wannebo and Audio Innovator award winner Kenton Forsythe before thanking all the progressive, industry-leading sponsors (nearly 50) who made the evening possible. “Each and every one of these Parnelli Award sponsors understands the importance of our industry spending one night a year so that outstanding individual and companies can get on this stage for their well-earned honors,” he said.
Flo & Eddie returned to the stage again to hand out some sound awards, including Audio System Tech to which they said, “That job must be pretty cool because we don’t even know what it is!” The Award went to Jo Ravitch for his work with U2.
Hometown Heroes
The spotlight then turned to the Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year. “Talk about heroes among heroes,” said Volman. “These guys who work at these regional and local festivals work really hard. And they don’t even get the chicks!”
That award went to Gemini Light, Sound, Video of Dallas, TX. The Hometown Hero Regional Sound Award went to Production Support Group of Tallahassee, FL.
Audio Engineer Buford Jones and TMB’s Marshall Bissett came up next. Jones asked Bissett, a lighting guy, why he was up there. “Well, the video people have taken all the lighting guy’s jobs, so I’m reduced to this … handing out audio awards,” he said. “Sounds like a promotion to me!” Jones quipped. They handed out this year’s winners in the Sound Company (Solotech), Monitor Engineer (Kevin “Tater” McCarthy), and FOH Mixer (Brad Madix) categories.
Topping off the audio section portion of the fitting tribute to Kenton Forsythe, founder of EAW and the mind behind many of the most advanced speaker designs since the mid 1970s. His longtime friend and frequent collaborator, David Robb, now senior associate of Acoustic Dimensions, spoke of their meeting and long professional and personal relationship. “Kenton, we go back a long way,” he said, introducing the documentary on Forsythe. “I’ve always been proud to know you as a fellow audiophile, and more importantly, as a friend.”
In Memoriam
“Tonight we celebrate the industry and visit with friends new and old,” declared Parnelli Board Member and video director, Mark Haney. He then introduced the poignant In Memoriam video tribute to all those of the live event production industry who passed away, including audio giants Sidney Harman and Bruce Jackson.
Haney then took a lighter turn by handing out the Production Manager of the Year (Arthur Kemish/Taylor Swift) and Tour Manager of the Year (Andrew Zweck/Roger Waters). As neither could attend, Haney cracked, “I will see that they get them unless I’m successful in selling them at the after show party.”
Flo & Eddie returned to talk video, and played a compilation clip of bits from “videos” they made in the 1960s. These were shot fast and cheap on black and white film, and brought a lot of laughs. Clearly they never pretended to be cool rock stars, and as these short films of their songs proved, did not hesitate in letting their geek flag fly. They then presented Parnelli Awards to Chaos Visual Productions for top video production company and David Davidian Video Director of the Year.
IT Awards
Mark Frink, editor of FRONT of HOUSE magazine, joined PLSN editor Justin Lang at the podium to present the Indispensable Technology (“IT”) Awards for best lighting product (Clay Paky Sharpy), video product (coolux Pandoras Box Widget Designer v3), staging product (Stageline’s SL50 Mobile Stage) and audio product (Martin Audio’s MLA system).
Then came Hank McHugh, production manager for Dave Matthews Band and a longtime golf buddy of Ed Wannebo’s. Speaking of his natural reluctance to be “on this side of the microphone,” a noticeably uneasy McHugh nevertheless noted that, “when they asked me to come here and give my best friend a Lifetime Achievement award, how could I say no? So here I am.”
McHugh spoke of the early days of their friendship, after they first met while working tours for Hall & Oates in 1982. “We immediately started hanging out and playing a lot of golf together, and sometimes even drinking a little, if you can believe that.
“Most people will tell you that when you do a tour with Ed, he is always very together and a lot of fun. He always keeps a very positive attitude even when it’s shitty (oops) … that’s part of what makes Ed so good at what he does. I am damn proud and lucky to call him my friend all these years. Okay, enough out of me. Now let’s watch the movie.”
Standing Ovations
Wannebo, like Forsythe and Fackert, came to the stage amid a standing ovation at the end of their video introductions. After receiving Chesney’s celebratory (and well-earned) margarita, Wannebo gave a funny, touching speech.
Lowe came out again with Flo & Eddie to say goodnight, and when the former Turtles duo launched into a live version of “Happy Together,” he was as surprised as anyone when they invited him to sing along
“These shows can be nerve-racking, but when they turn out as magical as this, the year’s worth of preparation and all the hours put in by the team led by Terry Lowe and Patrick Stansfield make it so worthwhile,” says Parnelli producer Kevin Mitchell. “It’s great that I’m allowed to work on such an important, fun event, and each and every sponsor needs to be thanked by all of us for making it happen.” He add that the production sponsors put together a collective crew that was a “dream team” which made the show go so smoothly.
Next year’s Parnelli Awards ceremony, the 12th annual gala, will take place in Las Vegas. Videos from the 2011 celebration will soon be posted on the Parnelli Awards website, at parnelliawards.com.
The 11th Annual Parnelli Awards
Lifetime Achievement Award: Ed Wannebo
Parnelli Visionary Award: Jim Fackert
Audio Innovator Award: Kenton Forsythe
Lighting Designer: Richard “Nook” Schoenfeld
Set/Scenic Designer: Baz Halpin, Chris Nyfield
Video Director: David Davidian
Production Manager: Arthur Kemish
Tour Manager: Andrew Zweck
FOH Mixer: Brad Madix
Monitor Mixer: Kevin “Tater” McCarthy
Audio System Tech: Jo Ravitch
Lighting Company: PRG
Hometown Hero Lighting Company: Gemini Stage Lighting
Staging Company: SGPS/ShowRig
Rigging Company: Atlanta Rigging Systems
Set Construction Company: Tait Towers
Video Company: Chaos Visual Productions
Pyro Company: Strictly FX
Sound Company: Solotech
Hometown Hero Sound Company: Production Support Group
Coach Company: Hemphill Brothers
Trucking Company: Upstaging Inc.
Freight Forwarding Company: Rock-It Cargo
Indispensable Technology “IT” Awards:
Audio: Martin Audio (MLA)
Lighting: Clay Paky (Sharpy)
Video: Coolux (Pandoras Box Widget Designer v3)
Staging: Stageline (SL50 Mobile Stage)
