Europe - Neg Earth supremo Dave Ridgway came to the assistance of creative director and lighting designer Terry Cook when he was seeking the kind of raw power from a new-generation washlight that audiences at an AC/DC show might expect.
“It needed to be bright, versatile, bold and strong,” says the designer, one of three partners at Woodroffe Bassett Design (WBD). And so Ridgway recommended GLP’s impression X5 IP Maxx, promptly arranging a shoot-out. Terry Cook’s conclusion: “It brought meanness, real character and was unapologetically angry. It was definitely an AC/DC light,” he states. “We have history of embracing new technology on AC/DC tours and the Power Up tour was no different.”
At the same time, he noted a further advantage: the fixture’s IP rating. In fact, its waterproof qualities would prove vital during the tour, even though every fixture would be located under the roof.
Neg Earth had been contracted as tour vendors by the band’s production director, Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth. As soon as the designer had greenlighted GLP’s powerful washlight, it wasted no time in ordering 172 of the fixtures – the first rental company in the world to do so. “Dave [Ridgway] knows I take nothing as guaranteed and so we looked at each fixture twice, using light meters to measure it, and to understand what each light could do and how they balanced together,” reports Cook.
Lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe has an association with both AC/DC and Neg Earth stretching back decades. “The band hadn’t toured for a while for various reasons,” notes Terry Cook. “We were contacted about them returning for a one-off show at Power Trip Festival in California – and they would then try something in Europe.”
WBD immediately witnessed the signature rawness and WBD were soon back at the drawing board once the European tour was confirmed. “There were to be no gimmicks, it was very much about connecting the band, the music and the fanbase,” continues Cook.
The lighting designers worked closely with Stufish, which was responsible for the stage design and size of video screens: “I realised I could replicate the shapes of the video with five large lighting pods, filled with one type of light. Stufish suggested putting a video frame around the pods so we could drag the video off the screens and immerse it into the roof and sides of the stage. Suddenly the idea was born and we knew we had a winning combination.”
Three identical overhead pods – four units wide, eight units high – were offset by two further pods, stage left and right, aligned on the vertical plane. Each contained a matrix of impression X5 IP Maxx – which made up the bulk of the 168 units that toured. The remainder were set on the upstage side of the front truss to illuminate the band’s iconic 8ft high signature wall of Marshall amps, stacked three high.
The challenges in bringing this to fruition were many, not least ensuring the vast inventory of X5 IP Maxx could be shipped in time. “We also had to work out how we were going to build these lights within the trusses, even-spaced in a matrix and at the same time get the correct beam angles. The rig was something of a throwback to a parcan rig of yesteryear, when we were specifying the Molefay,” suggests Cook. As for the trusses, individual custom bracketing had to be produced for each piece, with a custom [load] spreader built into each hang.
The next decision was the DMX programming mode for the X5 IP Maxx. Cook recalls: “When I first turned one cell on, at just 3%, I knew immediately it was going to work. We wanted to have cell control so that we could change the shape of these lights and so choosing the correct mode was vital.”
Terry Cook paid tribute to a number of people for bringing the show to fruition, led by the head of GLP UK, Simon Barrett. “We must have used every fixture in GLP’s catalogue over the years. I can’t tell you how good Simon and GLP’s customer service are. To have direct access to the manufacturer was really useful.
“We worked very closely with the set designer Ray Winkler [of Stufish] and Jeremy Lloyd at Wonderworks, who did the technical design, working out how to rig it safely, putting the engineering side of the pods together. Finally, there was Sam Patterson’s team at Treatment, who do video creation.”
The show itself was naturally piloted by the band’s veteran and ever-present touring lighting director, Cosmo Wilson, while Joe Bay and Michael Hankowsky were brought on through Early Bird to handle the lighting and video programming. The last, and newest, member of the FOH team is WBD’s own Fraser Walker who, like Cosmo, runs the video screens live each show, with no timecode used. “It’s lovely to see Cosmo and Fraser operate this show,” remarks Cook.
