Bandit Lites got its start when founder and chairman Michael Strickland was just 12 years old. In the early years, Strickland would have to “borrow” the lights from a local high school theatre to light the Monkees, the Beach Boys and other bands of the 1960s — hence the name. Today, Strickland’s company has emerged as a global leader in the entertainment lighting industry, with offices in Knoxville, Nashville, San Francisco, the U.K., Hong Kong and Taiwan, and while the company is still called Bandit Lites, Strickland no longer scours local high schools for gear. This year, as Peter Heffernan assumes the role of president of the privately held firm, Bandit Lites has produced a six-part history of the changes and challenges it faced, providing an in-depth look at how the entertainment business as changed over four decades.
In its first few years, the company’s biggest challenge was to co-exist with Strickland’s other pursuits, including a driver’s license, a spot on the football and basketball team, a high school and college diploma and a law degree.
“We’d do a show one night for the Beach Boys, and they’d ask us to go the next night to another city,” Strickland recalls. “The first time they asked, I had to say no. I was 12 years old, I couldn’t drive.” The next such opportunity, however, the youthful Strickland was ready. “I hired a friend with a car and a U-Haul trailer.”
In those days, Strickland says, “we worked most of the major rock concerts within 300 miles of Kingsport. We did it mainly to see free concerts and meet girls. Making money was never really part of the equation at that point. Most of the shows took place on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays so we were able to travel to them.”
From 1968 to 1971, the young company’s client roster included, along with Beach Boys and The Monkees, The Grassroots, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Dennis Yost and the Classics Four, BJ Thomas, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Kris Kristofferson and others.
In the 1970s, Strickland ran Bandit Lites from his dorm room at the University of Tennessee while earning a degree in business and then law. Bandit Lites’ client roster expanded to include a blend of well-known acts in country and rock ‘n’ roll: Black Oak Arkansas, The James Gang, Blue Oyster Cult, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Goose Creek Symphony, Dr. Hook, Parliament Funkadelic, NRPS and others. Few knew that the company was headed by a college student.
“While going to undergraduate and law school the company experienced phenomenal growth,” Strickland recalls. “All of the funding came from operations, and we never used outside financing. I am not sure anyone would have loaned us money even if we had asked,” he adds. “I was on the road more than in class during that time. During law school I was lighting director and production manager for Kenny Rogers and this was during his breakout period,” Strickland notes, of the performer’s 1977-1978 Gambler tour.
It was shortly after this taste of big-time touring success, however, that the still-young Bandit Lites faced what was perhaps its gravest threat. In 1979, the the company, which was uninsured at the time, lost a big chunk of its net worth in a warehouse fire. Determined to “hold ‘em,” and not fold, Strickland and his crew were able to parlay their early success into a significant expansion in the 1980s, 1990s and beyond.
Bandit supplied gear for the tours of “hair bands” Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot and Ratt in the 1980s. But like Kenny Rogers’ tours, Bandit Lites continued to benefit from the country side of the pop music biz, with acts that were touring with bigger rigs.
In 1982, the company expanded from its Knoxville roots and opened up its facility in Nashville. Bandit Lites handled the growing rigs for country and Southern rock standouts including Alabama, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, the Outlaws, Dolly Parton, Eddie Rabbit, Crystal Gayle, Charlie Rich and Mickey Gilley.
The “Bandit Standard” also emerged in the 1980s. The company became better known for fully pre-building its systems and for its attention to detail, such as its signature silver aluminum flight cases. Bandit also added personalized case labels, P-Touch and Bandit Tour Books as well as extensive training of staff, full-time pay, health insurance and retirement programs.
A significant development was the Bandit Custom Motor Controller. The added safety of having the motor control switches laid out on a graphic of the lighting system made it more difficult to accidentally select the incorrect hoist for movement. This would lay the groundwork for other advances in motor control device in the 1990s.
Most of the metal bands and rock acts Bandit worked with in the 1980s toured Europe, leading to a cross-fertilization of ideas between Bandit Lites and U.K.-based Thomas Engineering and Avolites. Those alliances helped introduce pre-rigged truss and temporary roofing structures, and also helped popularize PARs, Avo dimming and control and Socapex cable in the U.S.
The 1990s was another decade marked by growth for the company, along with the career of Garth Brooks, who shot from obscurity early in the decade to a live performance before a record-setting crowd in New York’s Central Park in 1997.
If the Big Apple seemed like an unlikely setting for a major country music concert, Brooks’ tours also defied conventional wisdom with the size of the lighting rig. His tours set up lighting systems that rivalled the most metallic of the heavy metal acts of the day.
Bandit Lites worked with gear makers like High End Systems early in the decade, helping to put the Intellabeam, Studio Color, Studio Spot, F-100, Dataflash and other High End products into mainstream touring.
At that same time, Bandit delved heavily into film and television work. Bandit worked on over 200 feature films in the 1990s, including What About Bob, Delta Force 2, Sleeping With The Enemy, Hellraiser 3, Wayne’s World 2, Hoffa, Pet Semitary and Earnest Scared Stupid. On the TV front, Bandit worked with regularity on HBO Boxing, HBO Comedy, MTV Spring Break, The Dove Awards, Fox on Ice, CBS Ice Wars, Larry King Live, Clinton’s Economic Summit, CNN, Hot Ice, Garth Brooks Live, Paul Simon in Central Park and other shows. One of the biggest events Bandit was involved with was the Half Time Show for Super Bowl XXIX in 1995, which took place in Miami.
Other 1990s achievements for Bandit Lites included the Moto Data computerized motor control system developed for Garth Brooks and Aerosmith, where chain hoists can be controlled from a touchscreen, and an expansion of Bandit’s philanthropic efforts, such as its support for Farm Aid since 1991.
The 1990s was also a time of advancement for Bandit’s training and safety programs. The company coined the term, Humanomics, to capsulize the idea of business planning based on concern for people along with profits. And it expanded its international reach with offices in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Bandit also bought out its U.K. partner and opened its own office in London and established its office in San Francisco as well.
The development of real estate ownership became a part of the Bandit business plan in the 1990s, along with partnerships with lighting companies, including High End Systems, Martin and Vari-Lite. Today Bandit continues those relationships as media control and LED products are racing to the forefront of the industry.
Looking back, Strickland’s company has grown far beyond his teenage ambitions of finding a cool way to attend rock concerts for free. The company has supplied lighting for Super Bowl halftime shows, Woodstock, Bonnaroo, WWE, CMA Music Festival, Presidential Inaugural Balls, Blenheim Palace Festivals and hundreds of other such shows. Van Halen, Queen, Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, R.E.M., Radiohead and many others have become clients. The company has also delved into film, TV and corporate events.
Going forward, Bandit is investing in new media servers, control consoles and new digital lighting products and LED products as clients request them. The company is also expanding in London, with the addition of new gear, staff and a new 50,000 square foot facility. The company is also expanding its Nashville base, with improvements to the facility it calls “Venue One” that include upgraded programming suites and a second hang room.
As it embarks on its fifth decade, the company is prepared to adapt to change while holding firm to principles articulated by its founder. “If one were to sum up the last 40 years of Bandit Lites’ success it would be simply put: humility, humanomics and the Bandit standard,” said Strickland. “As long as Bandit delivers these three things with grace and passion, the sky will be the limit.”
