Stunning world debut as 168 GLP impression X5 IP Maxx join the ACDC tour
Neg Earth supremo Dave Ridgway came to the assistance of creative director and lighting designer Terry Cook when he was seeking the kind of raw power from a new generation washlight that audiences at an AC/DC show might expect. “It needed to be bright, versatile, bold and strong,” says the designer, one of three partners at Woodroffe Bassett Design (WBD). And so Ridgway recommended GLP’s impression X5 IP Maxx, promptly arranging a shoot-out. Terry Cook’s conclusion: “It brought meanness, real character and was unapologetically angry. It was definitely an AC/DC light,” he exclaims unequivocally. “We have history of embracing new technology on AC/DC tours and the Power Up tour was no different.” At the same time he noted a further advantage: the fixture’s IP rating. In fact, its waterproof qualities would prove vital during the tour, even though every fixture would be located under the roof.
Neg Earth had been contracted as tour vendors by the band’s production director, Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth. As soon as the designer had greenlighted GLP’s powerful washlight, it wasted no time in ordering 172 of the fixtures – the first rental company in the world to do so.
The lighting designers worked closely with Stufish, which was responsible for the stage design and size of video screens. Three identical overhead pods – four units wide, eight units high – were offset by two further pods, stage left and right, aligned on the vertical plane. Each contained a matrix of impression X5 IP Maxx – which made up the bulk of the 168 units that toured.
The remainder were set on the upstage side of the front truss to illuminate the band’s iconic 8ft high signature wall of Marshall amps, stacked three high.
The next decision was the DMX programming mode for the X5 IP Maxx. Cook recalls: “When I first turned one cell on, at just 3%, I knew immediately it was going to work. We wanted to have cell control so that we could change the shape of these lights and so choosing the correct mode was vital.” Explaining further, he says:, “There’s one moment in ‘Thunderstruck’, an iconic song, when we wanted 168 linear stripes of light, rather than circles, to loosely represent a lightning bolt delivering real sparkle and flare across that big iconic intro.”
After consideration, they opted for the fixture’s Mode 4 Multipix Advanced mode. “This gave us an incredible 141 DMX channels, with two lights per universe. It may have given Neg Earth a heart attack, but we wanted the flexibility to create the pixel effects.”
Terry Cook also knew “from the get-go” that he wanted to integrate the GLP washlight into the Follow-Me follow spot system “and so at a moment we could sweep all 168 lights onto [frontman Angus Young] if we wanted a big guitar moment and pull a vast section of lights down to him.”
And when he needed to perform a fast zoom there is none finer than the impression X5 IP Maxx, with an enormous range from an extremely narrow 3.3° beam out to a wide homogeneous 66° wash.
Terry Cook paid tribute to a number of people for bringing the show to fruition, led by the head of GLP UK, Simon Barrett. “We must have used every fixture in GLP’s catalogue over the years. I can’t tell you how good Simon and GLP’s customer service are. To
have direct access to the manufacturer was really useful.
To the many superlatives already levelled at the X5 IP Maxx, Terry Cook adds “reliability”, explaining: “By the halfway stage of the tour the team hadn’t swapped out a single light – despite them getting extremely wet in atrocious weather, particularly at load- in and load-out. “But they are a great fit for an AC/DC show and the biggest compliment that I can give is I’d spec them on a show in a heartbeat!”
The show itself was naturally piloted by the band’s veteran and ever-present touring lighting director, Cosmo Wilson, while Joe Bay and Michael Hankowsky were brought on through Early Bird to handle the lighting and video programming. The last, and newest, member of the FOH team is WBD’s own Fraser Walker who, like Cosmo, runs the video screens live each show, with no timecode used, “it’s lovely to see Cosmo and Fraser operate this show,” remarks Cook. Terry Cook credits the impact that the crew’s energy and teamwork made to the overall result of the show.
Photos © Ralph Larmann
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