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GLS supplies lighting and automation for final Motörhead tour

Southampton UK based lighting rental company GLS supplied lighting equipment and crew to Motörhead’s final ‘Bad Magic’ tour which ended in Berlin in December 2015 and featured one of the most iconic stage props, the Motörhead bomber.

The ‘Bad Magic’ lighting scheme was designed by Caio Bertti, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, who had worked with the band for around 18 months, and the last in a long line of bomber pilots was Jamie Catt. The tour and production was managed by Eddie Rocha, also based in Brazil.

“The bomber was simply stunning to watch. It was the first and, in my opinion, still the best moving truss piece ever,” GLS MD Ian Turner states. The bomber had been refurbished with new lighting ahead of the tour, including moving lights for the first time, and a new certificate of airworthiness, running on Kinesys automation.

This gave it more manoeuvrability plus the ability to track up and downstage by 7 metres, nosedive, pitch and roll from side to side, etc. The bomber was also the starting point for Bertti’s new lighting design. Weight loading considerations - as the original metalwork is quite substantial - meant on-board lighting had to be chosen very carefully.

Four Robe Pointes rigged on the wings were joined by four Robe LEDWash 600s, eight Showtec Sunstrips (active) outlining the 8 metre wingspan and four bars of 4 ACLs, two 2-cell Moles and four single PAR 64s. Its four propeller lights were vintage custom fixtures dating back almost as far as the 36 year old bomber itself.

When flown into its ‘home’ position, the bomber formed an effective mid truss, with two staggered side trusses surrounding it plus an upstage and a front truss. The front truss was rigged with four Robe LEDWash 600s and four 600E Spots for key lights along with eight 8-lite blinders.

Spread across all the other trusses were 16 x Pointes, 48 x LED PARs, eight Clay Paky Stormy colour changing LED strobes and more standard PARs and ACLs. Positioned on the floor were another 6 x Pointes, 8 x LED PARs, additional generic PARs and ACLs, 8 more Stormy colour changing strobes plus four Robe atmosphere generators - two hazers and two smoke machines.

Caio Bertti ran the show ‘live’ on an Avolites Sapphire Touch console with a Titan Network Processor (TNP). Joining him on the road from GLS were crew chief Karen Brown, lighting technician Chris Randall and Jamie Catt who also co-ordinated all the automation elements.

www.hslgroup.com

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