Martin MAC 700’s “Just Doin’ it” with Status Quo

Status Quo have had more hit albums (33) in the British Albums Chart than any other band apart from The Rolling Stones. 2005 was the band's 40th year and they show their determination that they are not stopping yet, by launching into another UK & European tour in 2006.

They are currently near the end of the UK leg of, “Just Doin’ It” tour, playing to a mixture of theatres and arenas, which will then continue in July 2007. In their 39 year history, it is estimated that QUO have played over 6000 live shows to a total audience in excess of 25 million people. In doing so, the band has travelled some four million miles and spent 23 years away from home.

Pat Marks, who has been Lighting Designer to Status Quo for the last 18 years explains, “I’m usually given ‘carte blanche’ when designing Quo rigs, so I’m never given a brief, as such. However, I fancied going ‘retro’ this tour as I’d been dabbling with some high tech stuff over the last few years. I’d played around with loads of pixel line and pixel pars last year and felt I was losing sight of the archetypal Quo rig i.e. big and brash!”

Pat chose the chrome Pars deliberately to gain the ‘retro’ feel and chose the MAC 700s, “for the incredible amount of light that they chuck out!” He was very impressed with them and thought they were spectacular.

All the lighting was supplied by Nordic, a sound, light and trucking company that operate out of Jutland, Denmark. The Martin fixtures used were MAC 700 Profiles and MAC 700 Washes.

Pat comments on the design of the rig, “I’ve spread 20 x MAC 700 spots around the rig to give me all those stunning effects that only a modern moving head can provide.”

Pat used the MAC 700 Profiles and Washes in Europe over the summer of ’06 for the first time. He comments, “The MAC 700s are the perfect combination of the intensity and beam qualities of the MAC 2000s, but are so much smaller and faster. Their size and weight means I can tuck them away into gaps that a MAC 2000 would never fit, and space and weight is at a premium on this Par can heavy rig.”

Pat has been using MAC 500s for several years. He explains that is it mainly due to them being so readily available anywhere around the world and the fact that they are very reliable. He impresses that he never has a problem securing Martin products locally which is extremely important for tight schedules of a Status Quo tour.