MAC TW1™ Warmth for Crowded House World Tour

Crowded House, featuring New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn, has reunited for a world tour in support of the band's new CD, “Time on Earth,” their first new studio effort in 14 years.

Paul Normandale, who handled the lighting/set design in conjunction with the band, as well as lighting programming, has chosen to use the visual warmth of Martin’s MAC TW1 tungsten wash fixture (80v version) in lieu of conventional fixtures. The TW1's incandescent source is ideal for highlighting skin tones and textiles in set pieces.

Paul wanted a tungsten, warm fixture for front key light to cover an array of changing instrument positions and set pieces for a set list that encompasses an amazing back catalogue of 80 plus possible songs.

The MAC TW1s are located on a front truss with MAC 700 Profiles and MAC700 Washes on the mid and rear truss for definition and gobo/animation set wash. Paul particularly likes the warmth of color and the balance against the rear MAC 700s.

Lighting direction for the tour is handled by Glen Johnson. “The TW1s have been fault free for the tour,” he says, “and they are so quiet. They’re an exceptional tungsten fixture which everybody, especially the lighting crew, loves because they don’t have to climb anymore.

“The TW1s have already saved us thousands of dollars where a union crew was due to stay on till we focused the rig, but because we have the TW1s, we don't need to climb and focus, so production was rather happy.”

Crowded House has just wrapped up a North American tour and is now playing European dates. The band then heads to their homelands of New Zealand and Australia before wrapping up the year with a UK leg. Lighting supply for the North American leg was provided by Upstaging (console from Lite Alternative) with Lite Alternative handling the UK leg. Lighting supply in New Zealand will be handled by Spotlight with Bytecraft supplying lighting in Australia.

Lighting Designer: Paul Normandale
Lighting Director: Glen Johnson
Production Manager: Daniel Choi

Equipment:
6 x Martin TW1 80v
20 x Martin MAC 700 Profile
13 x Martin MAC 700 Wash
2 x Martin AF1 Fan