HSL gets hysterical for Def Leppard
- Details
HSL supplied lighting equipment plus rigging, with over 100 motors including a 25-way Kinesys automation system, to the tour which features a striking lighting design by Kenji Ohashi, who has lit the band for 17 years.
The lighting and rigging - which also included supplying motors for video and PA - was co-ordinated for HSL by Jordan Hanson, who comments that they “were delighted to be back working alongside production manager Chris Adamson and ‘universal’ lighting crew chief Kevin Cassidy again. It was really interesting to see Kenji’s work and the vitality and energy his lighting brought to a great looking and sounding production”.
Kevin Cassidy, together with his two touring technicians, Kinesys operator Christian Alvarado and Calvin Mosier who looked after their touring Follow-Me remote spotting system, went to HSL’s HQ in Blackburn to prep the gear ahead of the three week tour.
They were joined on the road by four technicians from HSL, crew chief Dave Dickinson, FOH and systems tech Tim Dunn, moving light tech Tom Soltan and Andy Whitt who looked after dimmers. Rigger Ian ‘Tuffy’ Bracewell was also working via HSL.
All the trussing was HSL’s pre-rig and populated with six main types of fixtures.
The primary wash fixtures were Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash FXs and the main profiles were Claypaky Scenius Unicos (with the shutters), and these were joined by CP Sharpies for the beams, GLP JDC1 LED strobes, CP A.leda 20s with B-Eye lenses for additional washes and soft key lighting as well as CUEPIX Blinder WW4s from Elation.
Amounting to over 200 fixtures in total, these were densely populated on the trusses, and on the floor were another 12 x Sharpies and 12 x Martin MAC Viper Profiles.
In addition to these, 10 Robe BMFL Spots rigged on their own truss were utilized as followspots, all run via five operators - positioned side stage - using the Follow-Me control system. The operators controlled the pan/tilt parameters of the spot movement - with two BMFLs assigned to each band member, while Kenji had control of iris, colour, dimmer, etc., through his grandMA console which was running multiple protocols including MANet and SACN as well as ArtNet for the Follow Me system.
In addition to the large upstage LED video screen supplied by Stageworks, a front ‘crown’ screen was flown downstage which came in as a mask during the changeover from opening act Cheap Trick.
This UK and Irish leg of the tour was finalised quite rapidly in a short timeframe, and Cassidy said that Hanson and the team at HSL were “super helpful” with the many small as well as all the larger details. “I really appreciate the hard work and efforts by HSL, they are great people to work with, the kit is in good condition and nothing is ever too much trouble.”
(Jim Evans)
