Darren Hayes World Tour

Darren Hayes of Savage Garden fame has embarked on his solo ‘Too Close For Comfort’ world tour starting in Australia before traveling to the UK. Lighting designer is Bruce Ramus with Sean ‘Motley’ Hackett acting as Crew Chief, a collaboration that continued from the last Savage Garden tour that Willie Williams co-designed with Bruce.

With the tour destined to play a few atypical touring countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, as well as five Asian cities, it was no surprise to see that Martin MACs, widely available around the world, dominate the rig. A total of fifteen MAC 2000s (seven flown and five on the floor) are used with eight flown MAC 600 NTs. Adding flashes of brilliance are seven Martin Atomic 3000 strobes. All Martin fixtures were supplied by Martin´s Austrailian distributor Show Technology.

Bruce Ramus comments
“I needed a moving light that was versatile and could be either a wash light or a hard-edged light,” said Bruce. “The Martin MAC is one of the best moving lights on the market. They are ideal for this application and they’re a real workhorse.
 
“The MAC 600NT has beautiful colors and a good bright bulb. Darren is keen on keeping the colors fairly primary. Over the years I’ve gone quite pastel with all sorts of off-greens and browns so I was happy to go to bright primary colors that really pop out.
 
“I chose the MAC 2000s because I really wanted to keep the numbers of fixtures in the rig to a minimum. I didn’t want to tour a load of gear that had to be jammed into a new venue each day. I just needed a hard working fixture that could do what was needed well without stressing the technician out because it’s always breaking. The MAC 2000 fit the bill.”
 
The rig comprises of three 40ft straight trusses, with a kabuki on the mid-truss, and a couple of ladder beams suspended from each end. The majority of the lighting equipment, which includes a number of other automated and conventional luminaries, is placed on the floor.
 
“Then there are the every day lights like LED’s, message boards, bus indicator lights and a bunch of 2K fresnels,” explained Bruce. “I like to take found objects and turn them into something else.  For instance, everyone has seen the amber arrows of a bus indicator light but I enjoy using them in a totally different context.”
 
The first half of the show is loosely labelled the 3200K half with mainly incandescent, tungsten sources with {conventionals} while the second half is more of a 5600K look with the MACs swinging into action.
 
Chameleon Touring Systems supplied the lighting equipment and Bruce describes them as a great hire company. “The guy they sent, Rob Baker, is a top man and, of course, Motley is a great Crew Chief,” concluded Bruce. “We’re having a lot of fun.”