LONDON – Deep Purple lighting designer Louis Ball has just given Martin Professional’s new MAC III AirFX lighting fixture a thorough workout on the band’s November/December European arena tour. Ball, who has been with Deep Purple since 1984, put the fixtures through their paces with a trim height of 10 meters (32 ft.) giving ample room to see what the fixtures could do. There were 24 MAC III AirFX paired with MAC III Profiles across an upstage, midstage and downstage truss with one AirFX on each side of the downstage floor used as side light. TDA Rental supplied the fixtures.
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LONDON – Deep Purple lighting designer Louis Ball has just given Martin Professional’s new MAC III AirFX lighting fixture a thorough workout on the definitive rock band‘s November/December arena outing across Europe.
A classic rock ‘n’ roll show it is, complete with guitar and drum solos and row of on-stage amps. Once recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as “the globe’s loudest band,” Deep Purple can still put on a powerful, energy-filled show, and that goes for the lighting rig as well.
Deep Purple’s latest tour may not be as loud as year’s past because of sound exposure limits but there are no limits on how bright or active a lighting rig can be. And Ball takes full advantage.
“They really take a hammering!” he says of the 1500-watt moving head fixtures, supplied for the tour by TDA Rental. “The show is evolving every night and the looks I can get with the AirFX are an important part of the design. I’m quite happy with the lamp and I love the zoom.”
TDA has delivered the full production for Deep Purple for the last 10 years. After receiving a shipment of MAC III AirFX fixtures on Nov. 5, they were able to supply them in time for Deep Purple’s first European show on Nov. 8.
Ball, who has been with Deep Purple since 1984, wasn’t shy about putting the fixtures through their paces with a trim height of 10 meters (32 ft.) giving ample room to see what the fixtures could do. There were 24 MAC III AirFX paired with MAC III Profiles across an upstage, midstage and downstage truss with one AirFX on each side of the downstage floor used as side light.
Ball used the full spectrum of color from the AirFX’s CMY color mixing system and 7-slot color wheel, coupled with the fixture’s 10-47 degree linear zoom, for a variety of wash and beam looks throughout the show while filling the air with aerial effects. He also turned them upstage for gobo projection, including custom Deep Purple gobos, onto a back curtain. As a new element starting with the Nov. 26 Berlin show, Ball also used them to decorate a front kabuki curtain prior to the show’s start.
“It’s nice to have a wash light that has gobos,” he says.“It’s different but I like it. They’ve been no problem at all. Reliability and ease. That’s the reason I use Martin.”
Besides the MAC III AirFX and MAC III Profiles, 18 Martin MAC Aura wash lights illuminated four upstage columns with additional fixtures in an upstage rig and on the floor lighting the back curtain.
Deep Purple plans to release a new album in 2013 followed by a world tour.
