KNOXVILLE, TN — In the midst of their own separate tours, ZZ Top and Brooks & Dunn came together for a 17-date run across the U.S. and into Canada. The result: a merger for ZZ Top’s “In Your Face” tour (shown here) and Brooks & Dunn’s ongoing “Cowboy Town” tour, which continues on its own through the end of the year. The challenge for the two LDs was to keep the looks for each band as distinctive as their respective musical styles.
Read More »LAS VEGAS — The 2008 Parnelli Awards may have all been presented. The winners have flown home and they’re already working on gigs that may be considered for next year’s awards program. The lighting gear for the 2008 show has long been packed up and taken away. But the event lives on, available on PLSN-TV (www.plsn.com/tv), with highlights from the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dennis Sheehan, the inaugural Visionary Award to Michael Tait and this year’s emcee, Alice Cooper.
Read More »While the entertainment world was busy romancing the new generation of LED sources, physicists and electronic techs were busy marrying two technologies that would soon… Read More »A Bulb the Size of a Tic Tac
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TORONTO — Tina Turner’s current tour is getting more than a little extra spark with attention-getting visuals engineered by Pyrotek Special Effects. Vice President Lorenzo Cornacchia collaborated with LD Baz Halpin to add everything from Dragons to Gold Flitter Mines, Red Mines with Glitter, Aqua Mines, Blue Mines and an all-fire cue of 20-by-20 Gerbs firing upstage at the conclusion of Turner’s song, “Hero.”
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NASHVILLE — The 42nd annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, a three-hour telecast on the ABC Television Network with 19 performances, including songs performed by co-hosts Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and the Eagles, shown here, was lit by LD Bob Dickinson, who added A&O Technology’s xenon Falcon luminaires to this year’s show.
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CHICAGO — U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama gave his election night speech before a hometown crowd of more than 100,000 and a TV audience of millions. C3 Presents, meanwhile, gave its vote to stage lighting rental and production company Christie Lites, which elected to use Martin MAC 2000 Wash XBs to light the historic moments for both the crowd and for TV.
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BLACKPOOL, U.K. — A remembrance show involving video, photos and graphics projected onto the Cenotaph War Memorial has proven popular enough to be extended by three weeks. The tribute to war victims was conceived by Carl Carrington, a member of the Blackpool City Council, and carried out by Blackpool Illuminations using three Robe DigitalSpot 3000DTs.
Read More »Jan. 15-18, 2009Anaheim Convention CenterAnaheim, CAwww.namm.org
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NEW YORK — The ETCP Council has come up with 24-inch-by-36-inch posters that define the eligibility requirements and target audience for each of the ETCP exams. The posters also include full content outlines for the Rigger/Theatre, Rigger/Arena and Entertainment Electrician exams.
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BOSTON — Scharff Weisberg helped LD Marc Brickman and assistant LD David Marcucci light two performances held at Symphony Hall Boston by Columbia Records’ jazz artist Chris Botti, performing with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops in shows that also featured Sting and Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. The design needed to work for DVD, Blu-ray and a subsequent PBS broadcast as well as for the live audience — with no time to spare.
Read More »Lighting designer Kevin Adams always wanted to put a Hitchcock film on stage, particularly Psycho with its infamous shower sequence. So when he was told that The 39 Steps, which began life in London a few years ago, was being brought to the Great White Way nearly scene for scene, he was ecstatic. Of course, the catch was that this was not a straight-on rendition of that famous thriller from the master of suspense, but rather a low-budget parody of the film. Or more specifically, it’s a parody whose premise was that a tiny theatre company with a cast of four was attempting to play out the whole film onstage without the proper resources.
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By the time the Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, they had sold close to 40 million albums worldwide, which had produced six number one singles among the 15 songs that made the Billboard top 10. To Alastair Bramall-Watson, the band was iconic, particularly in the U.K., where he grew up. When the band reunited in 2008 for a tour and to record a new album, Bramall-Watson got the gig as the tour lighting and video designer.
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