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| LD Chris Bushell specified an Avolites Diamond
4 Elite to control lighting on Amy Winehouse’s most recent UK and Irish tour,
which was his first full production tour with the Brit Award winning artist He’s been working with her since October 2006 and was given complete creative freedom when it came to the design. He immediately knew what would look good and work, which also coincided with management’s ideas – making for a cracking start.. Stylistically, he opted for a burlesque look, with lots of swagged dark red drapes and carpeting, and a large satin looking Austrian style festoon curtain at the rear which, “Suited her beautifully”. The lighting design was largely based around the drape which Bushell wanted to maximize, “When there’s only room for a front and back truss, something like that adds depth and helps get way from resembling yet another rock show”. He also used red truss borders to conceal all the metalwork and lighting fixtures, so only the actual light beams and effects were visible. |
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He chose a Diamond 4
Elite console because he wanted an Avo desk, and had only had a handful of
chances to use a Diamond before. “I was looking forward to using it and all its
features on a design that was totally mine” he explains. |
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| Siyan supplied all the equipment – Bushell was
keen to try the SGM Palco Mobile on the drape, and so had 16 of these on the
floor and in the air. Also on the front and back trusses were 11 SGM Giotto 400 CMY spots, “I love the wide beam aperture, and they really stood out in front of the brightly lit drape” he comments. He used Martin Mac 600's as the front wash and ETC Source 4's for front key lighting. On the back truss and floor were a selection of 8-lite and 2-lite Molefeys to get some “Good old tungsten looks going”. Lastly, intermingled with the band onstage were 6 brass standard lamps with some very pricey red and gold frilly lampshades! |
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| These were fitted with standard 100w
light-bulbs with mirrored caps and “Dimmed beautifully” with Avolites ART
dimmers, without the aid of a dummy load. We were also using the distro tray
modules on the ART rack to take care of all the required dimming and hot power.
“It was great to have it all built into one” he states, adding that this set up
also made tech Jake Sullivan's life infinitely easier. Amy is quite impulsive with her set onstage and will often change the set list on the fly if she fancies singing a particular song. The D4 again came into its own, “Having a few key cues handy on the main set of faders while you're searching through the pages of playbacks for the right song is a life saver”. They had to use a duplicate rig in order to get from Dublin to Sheffield in one night, which meant they didn’t arrive until 2 pm, so all the flown kit in Sheffield was duplicated by Liverpool-based Adlib Lighting, and they had to use Mac 2000's instead of Giotto's. Here, the D4’s Fixture Exchange function was invaluable. It “Quickly and easily swapped them round and updated my palettes and playbacks just fine”. says Bushell He has now been using Avo desks for about 6 years – and a Pearl was the first moving light desk he learned to use. He thinks the Avolites service and support is excellent, “it’s always there either online or on the phone – and that’s really hard to beat!” |
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Web Links and Contact Information.
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Avolites Ltd |
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Date of issue : 1st March 2007. For more press info and photos on Avolites, please call Louise Stickland on +44 (0)1865 202679 or +44 (0)7831 329888 or Email ‘louise@loosplat.com’. Contact Avo direct on +44 (0)20 8965 8522. |
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