MEXICO CITY — Before launching his current world tour with a full band, Elton John performed a series of solo concerts in South America and Mexico with a rig equipped with Martin MAC moving lights. The concerts benefited Buchanan’s Forever, a charity that supports local community enrichment programs. The Buchanan’s Forever concerts, in Caracas, Venezuela, Bogata, Columbia and Mexico City, were lit by Elton John’s LD, Andy Pygott, using MAC 2000 Series gear. It was the second year for Buchanan’s Forever to get support from a celebrity musician. Jon Bon Jovi headlined the first edition of the charity concert series last year.
“For the solo shows we normally design the rigs to suit the venue and varying size of each event,” noted Pygott. ”For this series we used the same main rig for all shows with a number of additions to then suit each venue.”
Tupac Martir, production director and production designer, worked with Elton’s production director, Henry Crallan, to coordinate and arrange the gear used at the three venues.
“As always, we relied on Martin, knowing that the quality of light, colors and overall performance of the kit was as reliable as it can be,” Martir said. “For the Mexico City show, because it was filmed, we added 20 extra lights to the rig to provide more depth to the entire venue.”
Because sourcing of equipment locally when overseas can be an issue, Pygott said the crew often needs to work with fixtures they can get ahold of or easily adapt a show file to work with alternative instruments.
“As such, the designs for the solo shows are based on MAC 2000 Profiles and Washes,” he said, “which give us the ability to compromise downward in power to MAC 700s, which would still be a suitable fixture for the events. The basis for starting with MAC 2000s is also about good CMY color mixing. This makes all changes smoother, and the ability to reach a semi-decent red in the color mixing is much appreciated.
“Also, the ratio of fixture size to light output works well, as with the solo shows it can look unsightly to have beasts of equipment on the floor and looming overhead. The reliability is also very good and the fixtures stay pretty consistently working once the rig is in the air.”
As Elton John stays behind the piano for most of the show, Pygott says he is fairly easy to light, using generic fixtures to get that job done. Then, depending on the scale of the show, he incorporates automated fixtures for effect.
For the Buchanan’s Forever series of shows, Pygott had seven floor-positioned MAC 2000 Profiles, five directly behind the piano and two either side of the stage, with two MAC 2000 Wash fixtures on the floor at the rear.
He then had three straight trusses, one front of house with six MAC 2000 Profiles and four MAC 2000 Washes; an upstage truss with six MAC Profiles and seven MAC 2000 Washes; and a second upstage truss flown a little lower with seven MAC 2000 Profiles. In addition, he placed LED battens on the rear two trusses.
“We try to keep the stage fairly small to keep the intimacy fairly close between Elton and the audience for this style of shows,” he said. “This arrangement allows for various pretty states using impressive inward and outward fan arrangements from the rear trusses and array on the floor behind the piano to then build into the audience through the use of the front truss.” He then extends this feel into the house lighting for each venue.
Due to the slightly larger audience size for solo shows that the Buchanan’s series required, Pygott used an LED backdrop similar to what is used on the larger touring show. “The equipment for this changed at each location, but the first show used the Martin LC Series™ LED panels, which proved the most reliable of the ones available.”
For the last show, Pygott also lit James Blunt, who had previously been supporting the touring show. All lighting equipment for the Buchanan’s Forever shows was supplied locally by VLPS (Venezuela), Moving Lights (Colombia), and Total Pro (Mexico).
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