Production North came onboard to supply the entire technical infrastructure, with the unflappable Steve Levitt at the helm, production and site managing. With some fast back-to-back changes needed, he wanted to ensure that all bands received their own required standards of lighting, and so asked Bandit to supply. It is the latest of many collaborations between the two companies.Lester Cobrin, Bandit's business development manager, says: "Steve contacted me back in January to put together a package and I jumped at the chance to get involved with this production. It's always an excellent experience working with Steve and Production North."
The 60 wide by 40ft stage was surrounded by an eight-legged ground support system (supplied by Bandit) for lighting and PA rigging with a height clearance of 23ft and trimmed to 18ft to allow for all the standard meteorological loading allowances. The overall rig was designed by Dave Lee, who then had to leave the project to fulfil his other commitments with Ronan Keating and Roxy Music, so Arturo Ollandini took over as Bandit's 'LD in Residence' for the rest of the run.
Obviously the rig had to be flexible, and practically changeable enough to cater for the wide selection of music on offer over the period. Lights were spread out over three trusses - front, mid and rear, and the stage was wrapped in a large LED starcloth at the back, overlapping by about 10ft per side which was supplied by Production North.
The rear truss featured Martin Mac 2K profiles, Mac 600s, Par 64 6-lamp-bars and ACLs. The mid and front trusses contained Mac 2K profiles, Par 64 6-lamp-bars, ETC Source Four profiles and Coemar SuperCycs. Floor lighting consisted of more Mac 2000 profiles and ACLs.The desk was a Wholehog II and a wing and Bandit also supplied Lycian 2k followspots and Avolites dimming.
Approximately half the headline artists brought their own LDs, with the others lit in-house by Ollandini, who also had to light up to two support acts per night. For the more intimate acts like Nick Cave, he 'parked' the offstage sections of the rig each night to make the stage smaller and shrink the rig into the performance area. "It's all worked extremely well," he said, adding that he and Bandit crew-mate Nigel Julian didn't have to contact the office once for any additional support once everything was up and running. "That's always a good sign of a smooth operation!"
Many of the headline acts - including Brian McFadden, Al Green and Gipsy Kings also have their touring lighting requirements serviced by Bandit.
(Lee Baldock)
