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Eastern Haze - Somerleyton Hall 2006

Arrives Friday around 3-ish to baking hot sun and a easy hassle-free get in. A hot looking Harvey Bainbridge came over to say hello as we chose our camping spot.

Instant impressions were that the stage looked much smaller that we thought.  

And where were we supposed to set up??  

OK - stage was probably a little on the small size given what the pics looked like on the website, but was big enough for the Hawks and dancers so was OK.  More worryingly was the low trussing supporting the spots at the front of the stage that was going to block the projections  - arrgghhh,  and the fact that there didn't appear to be the front of house space that we had asked for.  Hmmm - and did we have any power??

After a closer look, we realised that we would be able to set up the lighting scaffold behind the sound desk, but would be much reduced from what we had expected and meant that the lightshow had to be cut down from it's usual size which was a shame as we had brought a large van load of gear with us :-(  

The power was sorted out with the help of Ollie (thanks for everything) so that was no longer a problem.

The white light laser was out of the question.  Although power was available for it, there was nothing to rig it on, no running water and we were far too close to the stage for our liking.  Didn't want to blind the band after all!

In hindsight, had we been able to rig the laser safely, we're confident it would have looked absolutely stupendous and would have blown everyone away but sadly wasn't to be in this instance.

We had to unload the gear on Friday night after Senser (who were brilliant BTW) as we had to wait on people leaving the stage area before being able to unload.  It also meant it was much cooler and saved getting up early Saturday morning to do so.  

Thanks must go to all the guys at the festival.  On the whole it was well organised and didn't have too many teething problems.  In particular, thanks to Ollie (lighting tech) for attempting a crash course in a Fat Frog desk (John had been swotting up all week on a Pearl which was one the the original spec), thanks to Vinny for organising it.  I only spoke to him once all weekend and that was to get the backstage toilets cleaned :-) but he seemed like a nice guy.  Thanks to Wag and Martin for all their help, and thanks to Steve and Lee for helping load the van back up at 1am Sunday morning to save us the task of doing so in the baking heat later on.  

Roadburn, Tilburg, 2006

Just got back and figured that something needed updating on the site.  I may fill in some more gaps over the coming weeks as well.  Roadburn was a great success and all credit to the organiser - Walter - on that.  There was a lovely 10,000 Ansi Lumens video projector already hired in so we could take even more Opti-Projectors than we would normally to a one of gig such as this - 7 in all.   Four 575's, 2 K4's and a K2 as well as the usual Strobeflowers and Strobes that are normally used on stage.  the results were pretty spectacular and you can check out some pics here.

Spirit of the Age 2004

There is a very in-depth tour review/musings here if you wish to read them in full.  To be brief, the tour for Chaos Illumination was a great success.  We had some great feedback (here) from both the band and the fans.  Next time it will be even more spectacular - we promise!.  A few thanks deserve to be mentioned here. 

Firstly, a big huge thanks to the band for letting us carry on with the lightshow.  Hawkwind leave us to get on with stuff and hopefully, we get it right - well most of the time anyway.

Secondly - a thanks to all crew and venue crew on the road.  You know who you all are.

Thirdly - a big thanks to everyone out there we know in both lightshow and merchandise capacity.  It's always a pleasure doing Hawk gigs as, not only to we get to play around with some very expensive toys, we also get to meet lots of friends and acquaintances as well.

Last - but definitely not least, a huge thanks goes to John Moules for continuing in his role as apprentice lampie...we really do drop him in at the deep end sometimes.  

Chaos Illumination was formed over drinks one night in summer 2001 at a pub in Buxton between Mr Dibs (of Spacehead), Marie Jenkinson and Neil Ward. We were idly discussing getting together a few projectors to use for the bands Spacehead and Bedouin and came up with the name 'Chaos Illumination'.  Martin Needham from Dr Hasbeen, and also guitarist for Spacehead, had four projectors (two Solar 250s, a Solar 100 and a Meteor 100) plus effects which he didn't use very often, so a mutually beneficial deal was struck, on the condition that Martin could use them when he needed them (or should that be needham!).

A large strobe light, smoke machine, some UV strips and cannon were soon added to give a reasonable kit for small gigs.  A few parties and Spacehead gigs were the first use of these, followed by the addition of some more Solar 250s with effects and prisms also being added. A Rank Aldis Tutor 2 in a poor state was also swapped for the repair of a video recorder, and then powder coated for more swaps.

We had attended many Bedouin gigs previously, and now we started taking the lighting along when space and time permitted, which added greatly to the atmosphere.  

With a November 2001 Hawkwind tour approaching we were asked if we wanted to provide the lightshow, but declined on the grounds that the equipment we had was fine for a small venue like a pub, but would be pretty poor in the larger venues that Hawkwind were likely to play.  However, events overtook us and we did end up using some of our gear alongside Jim Lascko from Solar Fire lights, which was quite an experience!  It was at this time that a large Sanyo video projector was found, saved for and purchased, followed by a hurried compilation of images using Powerpoint on a borrowed laptop PC.  The idea was to also use video clips from the PC along with images and patterns to add to the lightshow.  Although, seeing as the only manuals provided with the video projector were in every language but English, this proved to be a bit of a struggle at first.

Another helper was recruited at this time in the shape of Keith Barton, who provided welcome support, particularly at a gig in Brighton where we ended up carrying the video projector around the streets at 2am!  Keith has since got hold of his own Solar 250s, which are sometimes added to the show, particularly as he is now also a member of Spacehead.  

We have now acquired a couple of intermittent new helpers - Wag and John Moules.  John has recently been initiated into the running of the lightshow at Hawkfest 2003 for Hawkwind's lightshow - no pressure there then!!  He assures us that he cannot sing or play an instrument so we should be able to hang onto him ;-)  He has since provided us with some nice video clips to add to the ever growing collection and is the essential third man to help get everything running as it should be.

Check out the pictures from the Hawkwind Hawkfest set here  .

See you all next tour - XXX Chaos Illumination.

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