During the event, the Black Coffee crew were given the day off and Brandon stepped in as the followspot operator ("for old times' sake"), while Llewellyn did the lighting design and operation of The Legends Concert, part of the festival held on the 27th March. "We picked the nice work and we had such a good time," said Llewellyn.
The Legends Concert featured artists like The Flames, Johnny Clegg, Jazzanova (Germany) and a list of other performers who kept the audience entertained from noon till after 8 at night.
According to the Black Coffee team, this was not an easy show to put together. The structures company had, at the last minute, been let down by their supplier, however, the rental companies pulled together and New Beach got its roof structure.
"We couldn't do the plotting the night before because of the rain, so we started programming at 9am," commented Llewellyn. "Due to the time frame we made pallets and ran the show using a combination of cues and sequences. When it got darker you got the full effect of the new gear."
Black Coffee used an Avolites Cube, 8 Robin 600 LEDs, 14 Robe 575 Spots, 48 Par 64s, 4 x Crowd Blinders, dimmers and power distribution, 1 x Strong Radiance Followspot and two Le Maitre hazers. Most of the fixtures were rigged on three Prolyte H30V truss lighting bars, flown from the mother grid (H40 V) above the stage. "This was all controlled by Martin Light Jockey," said Llewellyn. "I didn't want to expose our grandMA2 to the harsh windy wet beach from the night before."
Llewellyn adds that the Robins were brilliant, very responsive and bright. "It would have been nice to run all 12 but the others were on another event," said Llewellyn. "Can we have another 12, they really worked well.".
The AV was supplied by The Hirezone, under the leadership of Richard Guild. All the Audio and backline was supplied by Kingston Sound, who have " been doing it for 'ears" (years), said Llewellyn. "Kingston Sound are known as a good and reputable sound company and it's always a privilege to work alongside them."
(Claire Beeson)
