Bandit Chief Executive, Lester Cobrin says, "It's always exciting and challenging to be involved in a completely new project, and naturally it was great to be working with Iain Whitehead and the Production North team again."
Bandit charged Dave Lee with ensuring that the three headline acts - Status Quo (LD Patrick Marks), Girls Aloud (LD Andy Hurst) and The Human League (LD & Visuals Rob Sinclair) - had their lighting requirements satisfied.
"The rig was based around Girls Aloud's arena tour spec," explains Lee, "which offered extremely good general stage coverage plus a selection of well chosen specials, with which the other LDs were happy to work."
The Human League brought their own 'specials' in the form of PixelLine LED battens driven by a Catalyst media server and Atomic strobes with colour-changers, while Status Quo rocked the house with sheer energy also using their specially modified 'scenic' blinder amplifier cabinets. Girls Aloud brought in their eponymous illuminated sign that had been such a hit on their recent tour.
The overall rig was designed around four 56ft wide straight trusses and featured Martin MAC 2K moving lights. It was fitted into a 60ft x 40ft covered Prism stage erected in the car park area, in the shadow of Fantasy Island's famous 3000ft long, 167 ft high Jubilee Odyssey rollercoaster.
The front truss featured five MAC 2K Washes, 5 8-lite Moles and four bars of six PARs plus five Source Fours with 90 degree lenses for specials.The second truss featured six 4-lites, three Source Four 90 degree profiles and more MAC 2K Spots, and the third truss was rigged with 7 MAC 2K Spots and five Wash fixtures, plus four bars of ACLs.
Upstage, the rear truss was loaded with six MAC 2K Spots, five MAC 2K washes, six bars of six and another four bars of ACLs. Three MAC 2K Spots were available for deployment on the floor.
Dimming, presided over by Rick "Avo" Butler, and consisted of Avolites ART 2000 throughout. It also included a 72 way rack for the main rig and a 48-way to deal with the assorted specials. Bandit's Joe Simpson was the third member of their Fantasy crew.
Out front, Bandit supplied two WholeHog II consoles - one for the main act and one for the support bands. Patrick Marks brought in his own GrandMA, and Rob Sinclair brought in his Jands Vista. Andy Hurst utilised the Hog II, and Dave Lee also ran lights for various support bands throughout the weekend. Bandit also supplied five 2K Lycian follow-spots.
The Bandit team got in on Thursday morning for the Friday evening kick off. "It all went incredibly smooth," says Lee, "We prepped everything very thoroughly in the warehouse, so once on site, it went like clockwork."
Audio was supplied by Wigwam, with screens/cameras from XL Video. The event was a great success and could become an annual end-of-season fixture, finally putting Skegness on the festival map.
(Jim Evans)
