Reunited: Spandau Ballett tours with grandMA2

posted:

04/11/2015

Formed in London in the late 1970s, Spandau Ballet are an English band, part of the ‘new wave’ of UK pop inspired by the New Romantic movement, who became one of the most successful groups to emerge during this era. Their debut single "To Cut a Long Story Short", which reached No. 5 in the UK in 1980, was the first of ten UK Top 10 hits, including a No. 1 single "True", a No. 2 single "Gold", and two No. 3 singles: "Chant No. 1" and "Only When You Leave". The band split in 1990 and reunited in 2009.

Recently they played their “Soulboys of the Western World” world tour with a lighting and stage design by Patrick Woodroffe.

The lighting was operated by lighting director and programmer Roland Greil using 2 x grandMA2 full-size consoles and 4 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) which were controlling nearly 130 moving lights and, amongst others, 315 LED panels.

Says Roland, “It was our intention to have a straight and elegant design that could provide theatrical as well as Rock’n’Roll looks. Therefore we focused on using only three different types of moving lights, amongst them Clay Paky Mythos and Philips Vari*Lite VL3500 Washes … that offered the flexibility we needed. Furthermore, the grandMA2 system was a great choice and proved once more its advantages and power, especially when adapting the show to various different lighting systems in the given timeframe during the summer shows.”

The associate designer was Terry Cook, the lighting crew chief in the UK and Italy was Olli James, the lighting crew chief in Germany was Stu Lee and the summer shows lighting crew chief was Damo Coad. The lighting technicians on the road with the tour consisted of Dave Prior, Stu Lee, Craig Mc Donald, Dana Read and Foxy. PRG supplied the lighting and PRG-Nocturne the video equipment. Chris Hillson was the video director and Mel von der Decken the video racks engineer. John Martin worked as production director. Phay MacMahon and Danny Spratt were production managers.
Ambersphere Solutions Ltd is the distributor of MA Lighting in the UK.

MA Lighting International, based in Paderborn, Germany, is the dedicated sales, support and service entity for the renowned control systems, digital dimming systems, networking tools and media servers of MA Lighting Technology, based near Wuerzburg, Germany. The product range offers cutting-edge solutions for control and dimming, including the award-winning grandMA2 consoles, the MA onPC command wing and MA onPC fader wing, the extremely intuitive and compact dot2 range and reliable digital dimmer racks and packs. With its innovative MA VPU (Video Processing Unit) MA bridges the lighting and video worlds.

Today, MA Lighting is respected for its technical knowledge and has achieved a unique international reputation for its operational philosophy. The company offers more than 30 years experience and strictly follows a professional user-centric approach, getting as close as possible to the market via its own international offices and support centres in the UK, North America, Latin America, the Middle East/India, Asia Pacific and Scandinavia/Eastern Europe/Russia – supported by a world-wide distribution and service network.