MAC 700 Wash Debuts on Radiohead 2006 Tour

Radiohead has gained a reputation as one of our era’s most creative and eclectic bands. Musically, they keep their fans’ affection with a mosaic of multilayered songs and continuous artistic evolution. On the road, the band maintains that cutting edge feel with a complementary lighting design by long time Radiohead LD Andi Watson.

As fans eagerly await the release date of a new album, Radiohead has begun debuting some of its new material on a European and North American tour. The tour also marks the debut outing for Martin’s eagerly anticipated MAC 700 Wash.

MAC 700 Wash
Andi Watson, who helped beta-test the MAC 2000 Wash on a number of Radiohead’s European shows in 2002, and subsequently used the luminaire on the band’s “Hail to the Thief” tour, has real-world tested the MAC 700 Wash on this latest Radiohead tour. “I am incredibly impressed with the MAC 700 Wash,” he comments. “They are very complementary units to the existing 2K range. For their size the power consumption is quite low, the colors are wonderful and also the reliability of the units is fantastic. They have also been wonderful to program. We were the first to tour with the MAC 2K Wash and to be asked again with the MAC 700 Wash is just great. Our lead technician, Ed Jackson, who does a very thorough job of looking after the fixtures on the tour, has had to do very little to them.”

Andi has the 700 Wash units located on the floor and uses them to uplight cycs and side light the band. “For that the intensity is absolutely perfect,” he says. Lights are positioned at varying heights – in the overhead rig, on drop poles and on the floor – to create different layers of light. Other MAC units in the rig are MAC 2000 Performances, MAC 2000 Washes and MAC 250 Washes along with Atomic strobes.

“There are times when you don’t necessarily need that complete punch of a 2K,” Andi states. “Both the 2K Wash and 700 Wash serve their purpose but I found that the 700 Wash work even better with the Performances because the 2K Washes can sometimes outperform the profiles power wise, especially if you have a gobo with the animation wheel and you’re cutting the light intensity down.”

Lighting concept
The lighting concept for the show was born out of conversations that Andi had with the band and involved to incorporate video and the CCTV system they have developed over the years. “We didn’t want to do it in a conventional side screen kind of way,” Andi says. “We wanted to integrate the video even more than on the last tour so we brought the video onto the stage. The concept was to create a space in which the stage would appear a different shape and look differently from every angle. I wanted to create these perspective screens so we use 10 trapezoidal screens on stage which are angled and perspective twisted. It is almost a cubist way of looking at it.” The screens are actually 3 dimensional set pieces which were fabricated by Specialz of the UK with all softgoods by Blackout of the UK. Inside each screen are arrayed LED lights.

Ten cameras are used live during the show with video fed to the screens through a media server which allows Andi to then play with aspect ratios and distort the images. “Everything is live and nothing has been made in advance,” he says. “We have no pre-recorded content other than textures and graphical shapes. It is very spontaneous and we get some very beautiful effects.” Video equipment supply is by XL Video and Scenographic Ltd.

Andi projects color effects from the MAC 700, MAC 2000 and MAC 250 Washes onto the screens as well. “I point the MAC 250 Washes at the screens, one per screen, and then project a black and white image on the screen so what you end up with is a colorized, dual toned effect. It’s a great look. I also project the 2K Washes onto the screens which is a more shadow and light effect that makes the screens look 3 dimensional by creating back shadows. Again, the MAC 700 Washes get used on those too with others lighting the cyc. All washes point to the screens at some point.

“There is a massive variety of changes we can make in what is really a simple set up,” Andi concludes. “By combining the levels of the video with the LED and the wash effects on the screens we can get wonderful tricks of light and deception - great depth, 3 dimensional looks and silhouettes for example.”

After playing several European dates in May and North America in June, Radiohead is back in Europe to play summer festivals through August. Lighting supply for the U.S. leg of the tour was by Upstaging with Neg Earth handling the European dates.

Andi thanks the “wonderful and tireless crew.” They are:

Production Manager: Richard Young
Crew Chief: Andy Beller
Video Director: Rob Gawler
Technology (Lead Tech): Ed Jackson
Dimmers, controls, etc (US): Tommy Green
Dimmers, controls, etc (Europe): Andy 'Fraggle' Porter
Video Tech (Europe): Gary Bierne
Video Tech (US and Europe): Damion Gamlin
Rigger: John 'Max' Maxwell