Bowie World Tour A Reality

Rock legend David Bowie is in the midst of an extensive A Reality Tour, his first full-fledged world outing since 1995´s successful Outside World tour. After highly successful European and American legs, Bowie has brought his must see show to Australia.

Bowie and his band have rehearsed over fifty songs from every era of his career and change set lists from night to night. Bowie and his two-woman, four-man band perform a mixture of new and old. He revisits such classics as Rebel Rebel, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Heroes and several selections from his 1972 hit album, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.

Not surprisingly, Bowie is personally involved in all artistic aspects of the production. A simple set design mirrors the aesthetics of a Japanese garden, with a clean looking, layered lighting rig of MACs and conventionals, along with LED screens, towering above the star. Flexibility was a key as the set needed to fit into a variety of venue sizes.

LD Tom Kenny
Lighting designer Tom Kenny chose an all Martin moving head rig for this prestigious show. Tom hails from Ireland but now lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he often works with Paradigm Lighting who are based close to Martin US. Paradigm, who stock a large amount of Martin fixtures, began working with Kenny and he found himself using them for the large television and award shows he is famous for in the States.

Said Tom, “I’m really a big fan of Martin MACs especially for the big television shows – on one day events you really need dependability and they’ve been fantastic for that.”  He continues, “The next time that I went on the road with The Who I asked LSD if they had Martin MACs, they said they’d get them and it’s been like that ever since!”

MAC rig
The Bowie rig houses 48 MAC 2000 Profiles, “Again, chosen because they work every time you turn them on. I like the beams, gobo fixtures – in fact, it’s an all round perfect lamp for me. It accepts anything I give it although I’m not the type of LD who pounds the lighting rig. I prefer to keep it simple but very effective. I hardly ever have a problem with them no matter which country we’re playing in.”

Added to the MAC 2000 Profiles are 40 MAC 600 washlights that Tom describes as a brilliant workhorse, perfect for huge stage washes. Six MAC 2000 Wash are situated underneath the set to wash certain drapes and Tom describes them as fabulous.

“Another great thing about Martin MACs is that you can pick them up all over the world and, on this tour, they’ve always been great,” said Tom. “We’ve had amazing reviews in every major newspaper and Bowie says that they are the most consistent rave reviews he has ever had for production.”

Initially A Reality Tour was scheduled to play to over one million people in 17 countries over a seven-month period but due to overwhelming demand, the sold-out and critically acclaimed show has been extended in North America with 29 additional dates at theatres, arenas and amphitheatres. Bowie will then revisit Europe and the U.K. - where the worldwide tour was launched last October - for select festival dates, including a headlining appearance at Britain´s Isle of Wight festival June 13.

Although Tom will have to leave the tour to concentrate on other work, he has requested a Martin MAC system everywhere. Mark Cunniffe, who assisted Tom in the design and running of the show, will take over.

In Australia Bytecraft Entertainment supplied the rig through Martin’s Australian distributor Show Technology, with US and European supply by LSD Fourth Phase.