Mark Knopfler “Shangri La” Tour 2005

The summer touring season is heating up with big name tours certain to make 2005 a stellar concert year. One of those big names is Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler who is out on an extensive 100+ show world tour that includes five nights at Royal Albert Hall.

Bandit Lites is supplying full lighting production to the “Shangri La” tour that includes a MAC 2000 lighting package. Lighting designer is Simon Tutchener who has worked with Knopfler in the past. (Simon was also slated to work the 2003 tour until Knopfler broke his collarbone, shoulder and seven ribs in a motorcycle crash.)

Simon, who has a background in theatre, knows Knopfler well and explains the artist’s aversion to lots of movement or big gobo looks. “To tell you the truth Mark is not a moving light fan, so the show really has little movement. He doesn’t want any rotating gobos for example, yet when the lights do move, it’s powerful and makes a big impact.”

Anything that would distract from the music was out so Simon re-visited his theatrical roots for part of the design’s inspiration, using the moving lights sparingly. “I understand what Mark wants and that’s why the show works,” he says.

“It’s a theatre show really, with four sections, each with different looks. We have 50 MAC 2000 fixtures, 28 profile spots and 22 wash. We’ll be increasing that to 82 fixtures for the five Albert Hall shows where the backdrop will change. We wanted reliability and I know Martin is reliable. It’s a hard tour schedule and we wanted something that was going to work right out of the box.”

The main lighting trusses are four 32-foot-long upstage/downstage fingers constructed from pre-rigged truss, and angled gently outwards from center stage. The fingers idea came from the sun ray graphics on the “Shangri-La album cover, and the backdrop color was specified by Knopfler himself. Lights are distributed across all trusses – including a 56-foot rear truss – with MACs on the floor doing big scenic looks.

Across the rear of the stage, 16 MAC 2000s – eight wash and eight profile fixtures – sit on top of boxes to form a linear row just in front of the backdrop. These units are used to illuminate the backdrop and for eye-catching beam effects. The moving fixtures on the four fingers vary slightly truss-to-truss - the total count is 14 MAC 2000 Profiles and eight MAC 2000 Wash. The MAC 2000 count is completed with six Profiles and six Wash along the back truss.

Despite Knopfler’s resistance to moving lights, Simon hasn’t shied away from using pattern projections. “There is a bit of gobo projection,” he says. “I use them a lot actually – but with no rotation, no waving around the audience or stage. When they do move, it makes a big impact. I like the MAC 2000s - the fixtures have been absolutely fine - but I must admit I don’t like the gobos in them so I went to the MAC 500 and chose four gobos that I like and made them the MAC 2000 size. I’ve been using the MAC 500 and 600 forever.”

In addition to the MAC moving lights, Bandit has also supplied more than 100 PARS, ACLs and 8-lite blinders, plus Source Fours for key lighting. The truss toners are ChromaQ Color Block DB4 LED blocks.

Bandit crew
Crew Chief: Mike Humeniuk
Technicians: Mick Freer, Ewan Cameron
Rigger: Johnny “Hotpants” Ashton