Hawthorn plugs in for Status Quo tour
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Following the death of Rick Parfitt in December last year, the band kicked off this year’s tour with Aquostic performances in Europe before returning to the UK for the electric shows.
Now the band have headed back overseas for the next leg of the tour. Having never taken the Aquostic show to Europe, the decision was made to keep these performances in the original format. The tour will close in Nürnberg, Germany on 21 December 2017.
Working closely with Ewan Cameron, Status Quo’s long-standing lighting designer, the Concert Touring division at Hawthorn drew upon its vast range of hire stock to supply lighting to specification. This includes Martin MAC Viper Profiles, Aleda BEYE K10 and K20s, Mac Aura XBs and Hawthorn’s new-to-stock Ayrton MagicBlade FX fixtures.
Talking about the challenges of lighting two different shows, Cameron said, “This year we’ve had the added complication that part of the tour is the electric show and the other part is the unplugged acoustic show. This meant that I needed to design a system that could be easily reconfigured to accommodate their very different requirements. For this I needed a range of units that could provide the punch required for a classic high energy rock and roll show but could then be re-tasked to fit in with the subtlety and gentler pace of the acoustic show.”
Mick Freer, head of concert touring at Hawthorn, said: “It’s always an honour to be asked to support Status Quo. They’re such an iconic British group and with the news of the UK tour going all-electric, there’s been a huge buzz around the performances. We’ve worked with the band’s LD Ewan [Cameron] many times before and it’s always great to see our kit supporting his designs and helping him to effectively deliver his creative vision.”
Hawthorn continues to bolster its position within the concert touring sector and has just returned from supplying a touring lighting rig and crew for OMD’s The Punishment of Luxury Tour. The performances kicked off at Liverpool Empire on 29 October and ran until the 8 December, closing at the Les Docks, Lausanne, Switzerland.
(Jim Evans)
