Bandit Lites UK supplied full lighting production for the recent Tony Denton Promotions Here & Now tour, which celebrated some of the most memorable music of the 1980s, including Cutting Crew, Johnny Hates Jazz, Curiosity Killed The Cat, ABC, Bananarama, Paul Young, and Rick Astley. Bandit and the Tony Denton organization have worked closely on several previous projects, and so they were an obvious choice of lighting supplier.
Bandit Lites UK’s chief executive, Lester Cobrin brought on Bandit colleague, Dizzy Gosnell to conceive and realize the lighting design and also called upon LD Matt Jensen to create the different looks for the 7 artists while out on the road.
The rig consisted of 3 gently curved portrait format A-type box trusses, each measuring 14 feet by 28 feet with each box hung from 4 motors. Screen material was stretched between the inside cords of each of the box trusses to make a projection/lighting surface. These provided a basic architectural look and feel for the stage. The screens were each projected onto by 3 Martin Professional MAC 2K Performance luminaires rigged on the front truss, including a special show logo. The front truss also contained 6 Martin MAC 600s, four 8-lite Moles, four 6-lamp bars of PARs and 6 Source Four profiles.
On each of the screen pods were 6 Martin MAC 600s, rigged on the top and bottom rails and a bar of ACLs, also on top and bottom rails, plus 4 6-lamp bars per pod. Thirty 2-cell Moles were ensconced inside the trussing pods, which were used for chases. On the floor, which was tight for space with the band center stage, were 2 MAC 500s used for aerial effects.
Jensen says, "The lights hung on the screen pods were versatile and offered plenty of options." Jensen worked hard to give each artist a fresh look for their set (all were backed by the same band). Four Robert Juliat 2.5K follow spots were also included in the lighting package.
Run from a WholeHog II console, the show was set up with one page of basic palettes and then Jensen ran the show live and largely improvised night-to-night as many of the artists sets and songs changed frequently.
Jensen adds, "As you would expect, the service from Bandit was impeccable. All the gear is in great condition and the whole thing ran very smoothly.”
Bandit crew included Peter “Fats” Parchment, Merrick “Mez” Storrod, and Ricky Hopkins. The entire production was managed by Brian Coles.
