The ‘Here at The Mayflower’ album is about an apartment block, and contains strong narrative tales about the different people inhabiting each space. For the tour, he wanted a city feel, without it being too literal, and so Jackson came up with the metallic scaffolding structure at the back. This is also a lighting surface in its own right: in addition to adding an overall scenic interest to the stage, it creates the impression of windows and buildings. They’ve toured two lighting rigs - V1 in the US was geared to the first leg, covering multiple nights at 3 - 4,000 seater theatre venues. It contained smaller and more theatrical fixtures to suit the intimate spaces. In the UK, V2 came into play for the arenas, and this same rig will carry over when they return to the US and step up to amphitheater venues. They basically swapped the MAC 300s and 500s of V1 for 600s and 2000s for V2 and the larger venues. There are 50 Martin fixtures in total. In the air, the lamps are rigged on a broken up box truss, which also supports the scenic city frames. On the floor are eight MAC 600s with wide angle lenses used to light the cyc and some MAC 250s clamped all over the scaffolding, generally used to light it’s underside, and to add definition and contrast between the structure and the cyc.
Jackson thinks the MAC 2000s are excellent fixtures. "They’re exactly what I needed to making the rig work in the larger rooms," he confirms. Jackson designed a primarily moving light rig because it offers all the options in covering the show’s huge dynamic range. He also uses three follow spots - two in the house and one on the rear truss. The set list can also change randomly, so he always has to be on his toes. He finds spontaneity is much easier with less instruments but more options - so intelligence was the way forward. There’s 65 songs programmed into the desk. Manilow performs 28 per night, often with some completely spur of the moment swaps.
In the UK, the daily stage time available is also much reduced due to the need to rehearse a locally-sourced 9-piece horn section at each venue, who join the 6 touring musicians. Jackson runs the show using a WholeHog II, running a Hog PC for backup. He used Bandit for the first time during Manilow’s 1999 US tour and has never looked back! "The way they prep their systems is brilliant - no-one does it better," he says, adding, "Bandit has the right attitude to people and equipment - that’s why it’s so successful."
(Lee Baldock)
