One band, two LDs

One of the greatest lighting designer laments is that they rarely have the chance to catch their peers' work or have the opportunity to work with those they admire. Yet LDs John Broderickand Nick Sholem were able to lend their talents to the most recent tour of the art rock band Yes.

Broderick designed the band's two-month US tour last fall, and left it with Ben Richardson and Greg Maltby. The band then decided to reform in February for a European tour. "They had two High End Systems Status Cue(R) consoles, and they wanted to bring it all down into one board and have just one guy operating and calling spots," Sholem says. "They had designed a very complicated, quite beautiful show, with a lot of cues--and a lot of spot cues. To ask one person to do everything was quite a tough task. So it was very nice of John to think of me to take on this challenge."

While Light & Sound Design picked up the tour's lighting support duties for this leg of the tour, Lighting Technologies sent over the Status Cue board, as well as a basic package of High End Cyberlights(R), Studio Colors(R), PAR cans, and color changers.

Richardson stayed on the tour with Sholem for about two weeks before rejoining Broderick to program Metallica's tour. "I left that show completely alone," Sholem says. "Ten days later we went to South America, and the only piece of equipment that made the trip was the Miracle Motor, designed by Tait Towers. It's a plate motor that sits on a case or on the floor, and when you put a mirror ball on top, you can vary its speed one way or the other. It's gorgeous."

Crew chief Jeff Gregos also traveled with Sholem, where they designed a new show using PAR cans and High End Intellabeams(R).

For the next American leg, lead singer Jon Anderson asked Sholem to create a brand-new design. "Time was extremely tight and there was no money to be spent, so we came up with a keep-it-cheerful look," Sholem says. "We decided to hang on to the Studio Colors because there was a lot of strobing on this Yes show--which is a bit peculiar for me. But it was good fun. Everything was multicolor-lit and strobed to death."

Using WYSIWYG, Sholem programmed on a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog II console. The design featured diverse equipment: 26 Studio Colors, 24 Martin MAC 500s, five Cyberlights, 24 Morpheus ColorFaders, six High End Dataflash(R) AF-1000 strobes, two Luma strobes, and six Vari*Lite(R) VLM(TM) moving mirrors. "I brought in my old buddy Nook Schoenfeld, who happened to be in Atlanta at that time. Then his protege, Jason Bullock, took over--he's very young, but very talented."

The rest of the lighting crew included crew chief Rod "Red" Gibson and automated techni-cian George Reeves. Lighting Technologies again supported the tour. "The whole crew, as well as Bob Looney and Ritchie Steffa from Lighting Technologies, were wonderful," Sholem says. "It was a great experience."