That weekend and the preceding week were exceptionally hectic for PSI, which also – unexpectedly and at very short notice – was asked to provide and install rigging and trussing to facilitate lighting of the state funeral for Irish politician Garret Fitzgerald.
The same weekend as the Jenkins arena shows, PSI supplied lighting design and equipment for the first Clan Wars cage fight to be staged in Belfast’s Ulster Hall, and a few days before that, lit the Northern Ireland Tourism Awards event.
PSI was asked to supply the Katherine Jenkins shows by Neil MacDonald of UK-based production company Clockwork Productions. With MCD being the promoter, PSI also supplied all the necessary rigging services at the Odyssey Arena.
Jenkins’ regular LD, Tim Routledge, specified the arena lighting design, which lit a full orchestra onstage with a selection of dynamic specials and individual looks for Jenkins’ performance.
In Dublin, she was backed by the RTE Concert Orchestra and in Belfast by The Ulster Orchestra.
The lighting rig included three straight trusses – a 60-foot-wide span at the back, which supported Jenkins’ touring Austrian drape backdrop, and two 40-foot spans for the front and mid trusses.
On the front were eight Robe ColorWash 700E AT moving lights. On the mid truss were another 12 Robe ColorWash 700E ATs and 8 x Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots. The back truss featured 18 GLP Impression 120 RZ zooms, together with eight VL3000 Spots, with four of each mounted on two drop bars either end of the truss.
On the floor upstage, skimming up the drape were another 12 GLPs, and downstage, in a V-shaped configuration there were six more GLPs, concentrated around the center vocal area. Behind Jenkins on the floor was a mood-inducing Space Flower.
Routledge and the touring production brought their own grandMA console, so all the lights were hooked in to that, and PSI supplied three crew members to ensure that everything ran smoothly – Joe Byrne, Brian Crowe and Davy McCready.
“We were all very pleased to be involved in these shows which were very high profile and needed a lot of detail even though they were relatively straightforward to rig,” said PSI’s Sean Pagel.
On May 19, Irish statesman and former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald died at age 85, leaving just three days to coordinate the details for a state funeral.
PSI was asked to supply all trussing and rigging needed to install lighting into the Sacred Heart Church in Donnybrook, Dublin, where the service took place.
The whole event was broadcast live on national TV channel RTE1, with Irish President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Enda Kenny leading a throng of politicians and former colleagues, along with tens of thousands of others who turned out to pay their last respects. The LD was John Gallagher.
Additionally on the Katherine Jenkins concert weekend, PSI supplied a full lighting rig – designed by Sean Pagel – to cage fight promoters IFS for a Clan Wars event, which was the first ever to take place in Belfast’s Ulster Hall, inaugurating the Hall as an MMA fight hosting venue.
Pagel has the advantage of also having been on the other side of the cage – as a competitor – and had a pretty good idea of what was needed, in terms of lighting, both to ramp the excitement and adrenaline levels of fans during walk-ins and between rounds, while ensuring that participants were not blinded when competing.
The lighting rig consisted of 14 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, 12 PixelPARs, four Pixeline 1044, 12 strobes, three Robe Robin 300 Beams, two Studio Due CS4s and eight bars of 6 PARs plus followspots. Pagel programmed and ran the show on an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision console.
Just ahead of that same weekend, PSI supplied equipment and lit the Northern Ireland Tourism Awards at the Ramada Plaza Hotel Belfast. The design was by Joe Byrne, who then headed off to Dublin to join the Katherine Jenkins crew.
For more information, please visit www.productionireland.com.
