Mark Knopfler has hit the road again after a 10-year hiatus. Playing songs from his solo albums Golden Heart and the current Sailing to Philadelphia, Knopfler also delighted the audience with older Dire Straits favorites such as “Money for Nothing.”
LD David Cox, fresh from working with designer Pete Barnes on Mel C's tour, is on the road with Knopfler on his theatre/arena tour of the US and Europe. “Pete had the idea of the cloud drop in the back as opposed to a black or white backdrop, to break it up a bit, and that works. We have a fiber-optic star drop that's used on “Brothers in Arms.” The background is always lit up, mostly with gobos or with a top and bottom cyc light, and sometimes the Studio Colors® or the Coemars, so it gets its share of things pointing at it.
“I'm using the Wholehog® II console. I'd only used it briefly before this tour, so there was a quick learning curve. But by the end of two weeks I knew it fairly well — it's very logical. The last tour on my own I had an Avolites Diamond III — it's nice to have a wheel per parameter — but I've been happy with the Wholehog.
“This is a basic three-truss system but a complementary one. I think there are 28 cues in “Telegraph Road” alone so you have to stay awake — it's a good long show that I'm having fun with. Mark and the guys are great to work with. But we're all getting up there — I think the youngest guy on the crew is 35, so he's the baby.”
MARK KNOPFLER LIGHTING DESIGNERDavid Cox
EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERLight & Sound Design/Fourth Phase
LIGHTING EQUIPMENT| 23 | Martin Professional MAC 500s |
| 17 | High End Systems Studio Colors |
| 10 | Coemar CF7s |
| 1 | Flying Pig Systems Wholehog II console |