This is Lewis' second tour with Cooper and his first visit to the UK, about which he comments: "The continuity between Mike Golden at Bandit Lites Inc and Lester Cobrin at Bandit Lites UK makes touring Europe exceptionally smooth, and ensures that the high production values and 'Bandit Standard' that we expect are maintained. I have been really impressed with the UK operation."
The original production was designed by artistic director Norm Schwab and lighting designer Rob Roth. From there, Roth and Lewis developed and programmed the light show. They wanted to create a classic monochrome "black & white" feel for the lighting - the high contrast, jerky, slightly grainy grey impressions of early television pictures.
Colour wise, this has meant a lot of open white, pastel white tints and pale colours - slightly unorthodox for what is essentially a heavy rock show. The first half of the set sees Cooper rip through some of his classic rock catalogue, while the theatrical pranks (including baby killing, woman beating, hanging, etc.) come in the second half, culminating in Cooper's hanging and subsequent resurrection to the stage - all executed in true Cooper pastiche.
The lighting rig is based on five straight trusses, two of which are made from mini-beam and deal primarily with Kabuki-drop drapes, one far upstage, and one mid-stage, the latter holding a cloth used (not sure about this bit) for a shadow gag at the top of the show.
Unsurprisingly it's an 'old skool' lighting rig, in keeping with the retro theme - with lots of PAR cans and ACLs. Some of the bars are angled at 45 degrees to the truss to give the roof space some architectural shaping.
The three lighting trusses are all pre-rigged. They contain 20 bars of six PARs in total, six each on the back and mid trusses, and eight on the front. There are 11 bars of ACLs in total, including two on the floor, supplied by Bandit to second-on-the-bill Motorhead. There are also two vertical truss sections right downstage, rigged with PARs and acting as cross stage 'boom' lighting.
The moving lights are relatively minimal - 10 Martin Professional MAC 2K Profiles on the back and mid trusses, four MAC 2K Performances on the front truss and four MAC 2K Washes on the floor.
Strobes feature heavily at various points, and there are 20 Atomics divided between the mid truss, the 'shadow drape' truss and the floor, along with four 8-lite Molefey units on the front truss for audience blinding. The shadow effects are achieved using a single 2K Fresnel upstage.
Lewis operates the show - programmed on a full size GrandMA - using an MA Lite console. All dimming is Avolites and distro is via Bandit's custom PD units Alice Cooper's long-time manager, Shep Gordon worked with tour manager, Toby Mamis and production manager, Cesare Sabatini on this tour. The UK audio supplier is SSE.
(Jim Evans)
