LOS ANGELES — For Paul McCartney’s latest tour, LD Roy Bennett updated the rig with new gear including an array of Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures controlled by a grandMA console.
Bennett has been working with McCartney on a series of one-off concerts for the last four years, including the former Beatle’s opening of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, CA in 2009.
“We had a rig that we traveled with, that we continually used for shows,” he said. “After all that time, I wanted a new rig, and we had a couple of weeks of production time so I redesigned the rig to be really clean and efficient – something that was easy for production to deal with but that also had a lot of power.”
Bennett, who had seen Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures at LDI, chose the compact fixtures as a way to ensure that the new rig would be versatile enough to fit well with McCartney’s changeable song lists. McCartney is known for providing a set list only a few days out from the concert, and sometimes changes his mind shortly before performing.
Bennett designed the rig with 64 Sharpy fixtures arrayed in two curved trusses of 32. An additional 25 Sharpys are mounted on a rear wall in five rows of five.
The main rig also features 59 Vari*Lite VL35000 washes and 57 VL3000 spots. He also chose 62 upstaging LED cube headlights, 31 audience lighters, 16 IW Color Blast beauty lights and 240 Martin MAC 101s. McCartney’s video wall features Nocturn V lights.
“Although the lamp count is quite high, the Sharpys are small and quite efficient,” Bennett said. “One of the reasons I thought about using them was that Paul wanted to use a cage lighting effect around the band members, and I thought the Sharpys would be perfect for that. They have turned out to be a great success. Paul absolutely loves the look of the lights, and so does everyone else. Production people especially like their small, lightweight footprint.”
Lighting director and programmer Wally Lees noted that the intensity of the Sharpys “was the one thing we were missing before. We just didn’t have enough power. The Sharpys are working great.”
John Huddleston at Upstaging, Inc., which supplied the rig, agreed. “The Sharpys have been performing beautifully. Everyone raves about them.”
The grandMA is also playing a key role on the tour. “We have over 70 songs in the console, and no effect is used more than once,” said Lees. “The size of the show and the content is huge. Every time you see a song, it has a unique look, thanks to Roy.”
“I’ve been using the grandMA for a long time,” Bennett said. “It’s a very stable and efficient console and has been a great asset for Paul’s shows.”
A.C.T Lighting represents both product lines in North America.
For more information, please visit www.actlighting.com.
